From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Eight
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved
"KING OF THE WEST 2018"

    This file is attached to http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterEight/BeastThatCameOutOfTheSea.htm from “Beast That Came Out Of The Sea” - Chapter Eight by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved.

KING OF THE WEST
2018

1/24/2018 Trump imposes tariffs on washers and solar panels - Some Republicans object to ‘taxes on families’ by Gregory Korte and David Jackson, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump signed a pair of trade actions imposing steep tariffs on washing machines and solar panels on Tuesday, saying the taxes on imports “demonstrate to the world that the United States won’t be taken advantage of anymore.”
    The tariffs result from investigations into unfair trade practices by foreign manufacturers accused of dumping products in the U.S. market.    Two Korean manufacturers, LG and Samsung, have flooded the U.S. market in recent years, evading duties by moving production to Thailand and Vietnam.    China dominates the solar cell market.
    The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration could add as much as 50% to the cost of imported washing machines and 30% to solar panels.
    But the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group, estimates that the tariffs could end up threatening 23,000 American jobs.    That’s because most jobs are in installing and assembling solar panels, not in manufacturing the solar cells.
    The tariffs — particularly those on solar panels — rankled even Republican members of Congress, many of whom come from Sun Belt states and support free trade policies.
    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the “Moms and dads shopping for a new washing machine will pay for this — not big companies.”    Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. tariffs “nothing more than a tax on consumers.”    Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., said it was “misguided,” and Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. said it was a “mistake.”
    “Here’s something Republicans used to understand: Tariffs are taxes on families,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.    “Moms and dads shopping on a budget for a new washing machine will pay for this — not big companies.    You don’t fix eight years of bad energy policy with bad trade policy.”
    Trump said the tariffs would encourage foreign manufacturers to build plants in the United States.    Samsung and LG have announced plans to build factories in South Carolina and Tennessee, creating 1,600 jobs.
    “That’s exactly what the president wants to see,” said Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser.    “Ultimately we’re getting the outcome we want to get.”
    Cohn said Trump made the decision after a rigorous process that considered the impact of the tariffs on consumer goods prices.    “But he also cares very much about the workforce in the United States and making sure we create a good job environment in the United States,” he said.
    Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai, who met with USA TODAY’s editorial board Tuesday, did not say whether the country would impose its own tariffs against American products or retaliate in any way.
    “I think people in Beijing are still assessing the situation, and we’ll do whatever is needed to defend our own interests,” he said.    “These things are rather complicated, and you could take measures against one of your trading partners, and your partner could also take measures back.    But I think such a trade war would not help anybody.    It would hurt everybody.    A better option is to have consultation and to solve the dispute.”
    Trump also seemed to suggest that the tariffs were a shot across the bow for other trading partners, noting that talks on renegotiating trade agreements with Canada, Mexico and South Korea are underway.
    “NAFTA is moving along pretty well,” he said of the North American Free Trade Agreement talks underway in Montreal.    “I happen to be of the opinion that if it doesn’t work out, we’ll terminate it. We’ll see how it works out.”
    The move had some defenders among Republicans in Congress.
    Republican Sen. Rob Portman said his state, Ohio, has more washing machine manufacturing than anywhere else in the U.S.    “If other countries are not following the rules of trade they have to be held accountable,” he said.
    Companies “shouldn’t have to compete with unfair trade,” he continued, arguing that these tariffs are temporary and “necessary right now to keep these good jobs in Ohio.”
    Trump signed the tariff declarations at an Oval Office ceremony Tuesday, even though U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had announced them the previous day.
    While insisting that there “won’t be a trade war,” Trump also said he would take his “America First” trade policy to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland later this week.
    “You’re going to have people getting good jobs again, and they’ll be making more product again,” he said.    “It’s been a long time.”
[My comment: The WTO goal was to make all nations getting a fair chance in economics with trade policies, but somehow the Progressive Socialist got into the program and it became a way to push those philosophies in that all should be even and for the last 8 years we were being stripped of jobs as they left to go to other countries, and we had a drop in our economy and people living off of unemployment, or having to work two jobs to survive, because companies working persons under 30 hours so they did not have to cover their health insurance or retirement packages.    Thank God the Liberal Progressive Socialist AKA Democrats got voted out in 2016 and we got a president that cares.]

1/24/2018 Supreme Court agrees to quick review of immigration dispute
    The Supreme Court is racing Congress to decide the future of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the USA as children.
    The justices agreed Tuesday to decide quickly whether to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a federal district court’s order to restart the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program without waiting for an appeals court ruling.
    By setting up a fast track for both sides to submit court papers, the high court probably will consider the Justice Department’s request Feb. 16.

1/24/2018 India, Canada defend free trade after U.S. approves tariffs
    Hours after President Trump approved new tariffs on imports, the leaders of Canada and India came out Tuesday against a drift toward protectionism in the global economy.
    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said barriers to trade could pose a danger on par with climate change and extremist attacks.    His Canadian peer, Justin Trudeau, revealed that his country and the 10 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have revised their trade deal since the United States withdrew.

2/3/2018 Taking aim at Iran, U.S. hits Hezbollah with new sanctions
    Taking aim at Iran’s global footprint, the Trump administration on Friday hit six people and seven businesses linked to Hezbollah with terror sanctions, calling it “the first wave” in an escalating pressure campaign.
    The sanctions aim to squeeze Hezbollah financier Adham Tabaja, who already is designated by the U.S. as a global terrorist, by freezing out a network of companies in Lebanon, Ghana, Liberia and elsewhere.

3/3/2018 Promising tariffs on metals, Trump says trade wars are ‘easy to win’ - Skeptics warn that higher prices could harm U.S. by David Jackson, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump declared Friday that “trade wars” with other countries would be “good, and easy to win,” a day after his pledge to put tariffs on steel and aluminum drew threats of retaliation from other countries and tanked the American stock market.
    “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” Trump tweeted.    “Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big.    It’s easy!”
    Trump ventured into a discussion about trade taxes, claiming in another tweet that some countries tax American products at up to 50%, while the United States charges nothing.
    “Not fair or smart,” Trump tweeted.    “We will soon be starting RECIPROCAL TAXES so that we will charge the same thing as they charge us.    $800 Billion Trade Deficit-have no choice!”
    He did not explain what he meant by “reciprocal taxes.”
    China, Canada and the European Union have criticized Trump’s proposed tariffs and suggested retaliation against U.S. products that could range from Kentucky bourbon to Florida orange juice, raising prices for those and other products.
    Trump’s tweets came a day after he announced he would place tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports.
    Trump did not disclose details, such as which countries might be affected or whether there would be any exemptions, but he said paperwork would be signed next week.
    The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 400 points in the wake of Trump’s comments.
    Chinese officials were in Washington on Thursday as Trump made his tariff comments.    The White House said various administration officials met with the Chinese about the announcement.    The group included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Gary Cohn, who tried to persuade Trump to hold off on the tariffs.
    In a follow-up tweet, Trump said, “We must protect our country and our workers.    Our steel industry is in bad shape.    IF YOU DON’T HAVE STEEL, YOU DON’T HAVE A COUNTRY!”
    Financial analysts questioned the wisdom of declaring a trade war that could lead to price hikes for goods and services.
    They said Trump’s rhetoric alienates allies needed for economic growth, as well as national security.
    “Trade Wars = Good ... Something I never thought I’d hear a US president say,” tweeted Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm.    Countries sounded alarms about Trump trade policies.
    “The foundations of our trade policy system are under threat,” said Mark Rutte, prime minister of The Netherlands.    “We must protect, but not fall into the trap of protectionism.    A possible short-term gain for a few means a long-term loss for the many.”
    Skeptics, including some Republican lawmakers, said trading partners and rivals would slap counter-tariffs on U.S. products and increase costs worldwide.    “Trade wars are never won,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Friday.    “Trade wars are lost by both sides.    Kooky 18th-century protectionism will jack up prices on American families — and will prompt retaliation from other countries.    Make no mistake: If the president goes through with this, it will kill American jobs — that’s what every trade war ultimately does.    So much losing.”
    White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump is sticking up for the American worker, and no one should be surprised by the tariff announcement.
    “This is something the president has wanted to do for quite some time,” Sanders said.
    “Trade Wars = Good ... Something I never thought I’d hear a US president say.”    Tweet from Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group.

3/23/2018 Trump orders list of tariffs against Chinese by David Jackson, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump ordered trade officials Thursday to draw up a list of tariffs on Chinese products, despite warnings from American business groups that the move would lead to higher prices.
    Trump said the yet-to-be-specified tariffs are designed to address unfair Chinese trade practices — “China’s economic aggression,” a White House statement said.    The Chinese vowed retaliatory taxes on American imports.
    “We’re doing things for this country that should’ve been done for many, many years,” Trump said.
    The administration announced the filing of formal complaints with the World Trade Organization, though Trump said the WTO has been “a disaster” for U.S. trade and often acted unfairly to Americans.
    Under a memorandum signed at the White House, Trump ordered the U.S. trade representative to develop a list of specific tariffs within 15 days; they would be subject to a period of public comment before they took effect.
    Trump announced the results of a trade representative’s investigation on Chinese practices, including claims of cybertheft of American trade secrets.
    The United States aims for tariffs on $50 billion to $60 billion of Chinese imports, seeking to match the amount it says U.S. companies lost because of Chinese trade practices.
    U.S. businesses are likely to comment against tariffs; they have asked Trump not to take such a step.
    Some business leaders said they agree Chinese trade practices need to be reined in, but tariffs would invite Chinese countermeasures.    “The only way we’ll truly make lasting progress is through a strategic approach that uses both carrots and sticks to accelerate changes to Chinese policies,” said Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.    That includes “efforts to forge a fair, binding and enforceable trade agreement with China that requires them to end these practices once and for all.”
    Last week, a coalition of retail groups sent a letter to Trump warning that tariffs against China would invite retaliation affecting their sales.
    Noting that the USA already levies import taxes on items such as clothes and shoes, the group said new tariffs “would worsen this inequity and punish American working families with higher prices on household basics.”
    The Chinese vowed to hit U.S. goods with tariffs if Trump followed through on his plan. “China will certainly take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its legitimate rights and interests,” said the Ministry of Commerce.
    Last month, Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.    The administration is considering exemptions for some allies that export steel, but China is not likely to be granted such status.
    Trump’s China tariffs plan drew support from some lawmakers, including Democrats.    Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y, said he agreed with findings that China obtained trade advantages by basically stealing U.S. intellectual property.    “Let’s make sure that China starts playing by the rules,” Schumer said.
    Trump is right to take a “hard line,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.    But the administration should look at “how to punish China without harming our families, businesses and farmers.
    “The only way we’ll truly make lasting progress is through a strategic approach that uses both carrots and sticks to accelerate changes to Chinese policies.”    Jay Timmons, National Association of Manufacturers.

4/3/2018 Kremlin: Trump invites Putin to White House by David Jackson, USA TODAY     WASHINGTON – President Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the White House, but much planning remains amid renewed strains in the U.S.-Russian relationship, the Kremlin said Monday.
    While “Trump proposed holding a meeting at the White House in Washington,” Putin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that some issues need to be resolved.
    Trump signed off on a U.S. plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence operatives and to close a Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation for a poison attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter.
    “Against the backdrop of these events, it’s difficult to discuss the possibility of holding a summit,” Ushakov said, though he added he hopes that “one day, at one time or another, we can arrive at the start of a serious and constructive dialogue.”    The White House said Trump and Putin discussed a meeting during a recent phone call, with the White House being one of several options for a site.
    “As the President himself confirmed on March 20, hours after his last call with President Putin, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’ at a number of potential venues, including the White House,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.    “We have nothing further to add at this time.”
    The United States and its allies have formally condemned Russia over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter; Russia has denied the allegations and is planning to kick U.S. officials out of its country.
    There’s also an ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and into any links with Trump’s campaign.
    Trump has said he wants to meet with Putin to discuss pressing issues, including the campaign to pressure North Korea into giving up nuclear weapons programs.
    During their March 20 phone conversation, Trump congratulated Putin on his re-election, despite claims of rigged balloting.
    Trump and Putin also spoke last year at summits in Germany and Vietnam.
President Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang in November.    POOL PHOTO BY MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV

5/4/2018 Trump gives religious groups more freedom on social services
    President Trump signed an executive order Thursday restoring a Bush era initiative to get religious groups more involved in providing federally funded social services.
    The order repeals Obama-era rules limiting the ability of groups getting federal funds to preach to those they serve.    Under the Trump order, faith-based groups will no longer have to refer beneficiaries to other programs if they object to the religious teachings.
    “As president, I will always protect religious liberty,” Trump said.
[Thank you Trump for standing up for religious teaching to the antichrists.]

5/25/2018 House passes $717B military bill including 2.6% pay increase
    The House on Thursday passed a $717 billion defense policy bill that would give the military a 2.6% pay raise, the largest in nine years.
    The bipartisan 351-66 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where a key panel completed a companion measure Wednesday.

5/29/2018 EU foreign ministers seek to keep Iran nuclear deal alive
    The European Union is seeking to shield the bloc’s strategic and economic interests in Iran after the U.S. withdrawal from the international nuclear deal, as the EU foreign policy chief insisted Monday that the unity of the member states was unquestioned.
    Federica Mogherini said member states were intensely coordinating their efforts “to protect the economic investments of European businesses that have legitimately invested and engaged in Iran.”

6/1/2018 Canada, EU, Mexico balk as Trump imposes tariffs on steel, aluminum by John Fritze, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump followed through on a threat to impose steep metal tariffs on U.S. allies Thursday, a long-awaited decision that analysts said moved the country closer to a trade war.
    Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Canada, Mexico and the European Union would be subject to a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum beginning at midnight on Thursday.    Brazil, Argentina and Australia agreed to limit steel exports to the U.S. to avoid tariffs, he said.
    “The president’s overwhelming objective is to reduce our trade deficit,” Ross said.
    The decision was the latest by the Trump administration to project a more protectionist stance amid ongoing trade negotiations with China and other countries.    But it drew a sharp rebuke and promises of retaliation from longstanding allies.
    “These tariffs are totally unacceptable,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.    “These tariffs are an affront to the long-standing security partnership between Canada and the United States.”
    European trade officials have previously threatened to respond to Trump’s move with duties on U.S. made motorcycles, orange juice and bourbon, among other things.    Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, reiterated that position Thursday, saying Europe would impose duties on “a number of imports from the U.S.”     “This is protectionism, pure and simple,” he said.
    The Mexican economic ministry said it would move to place tariffs on U.S.-made pork, flat steel, apples, cheese and other products.
    Trump announced the steel and aluminum tariffs in early March but offered temporary exemptions to the European Union, Canada, Mexico and a number of other allies.    He extended those exemptions in late April, noting at the time it would be the “final” delay unless the countries agreed to other concessions.
    The move prompted criticism from a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially those with large agricultural industries.
    “This is dumb,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “Europe, Canada and Mexico are not China, and you don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents.”
    The decision comes days after the Trump administration announced $50 billion of new tariffs on Chinese imports, after officials had earlier said it was “putting the trade war on hold” with Beijing.    Ross is set to travel to China this weekend to continue trade talks.
    The Trump administration has relied on a 1962 law that allows countries to impose trade restrictions for national security purposes.    The president has also justified the tariffs by pointing out “shuttered plants and mills” and the decades-long slide of manufacturing.
    Several analysts said they are concerned the approach will have the opposite effect.
    “He doesn’t have a strategy that’s going to lead to making American manufacturing great again,” said Robert Scott, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute.    “There will continue to be a series of tit-for-tat battles.”

6/9/2018 Trump wants to bring Russia back into G-7 - President’s idea draws bipartisan criticism by John Fritze, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump said Friday that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the Group of 7 forum of leading economies, breaking with other leaders of that group who are meeting this weekend in Quebec.
    As he left the White House on his way to the G-7 meeting, Trump lamented that Russia was expelled from the global political group in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.    The United States, along with its allies, supported Russia’s ejection at the time.
    “Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn.    “Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?”
    Trump, who arrived in Canada hours later, described himself as “Russia’s worst nightmare” but said that “we have a world to run.”    Trump has frequently discussed his desire to build a better relationship with Russia, but the approach has been scrutinized because of questions about Trump’s relationship with the country prior to the 2016 election.    Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is investigating Russia’s involvement in the election, including links to Trump’s campaign.
    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to a Russian state news outlet, did not say whether his country would rejoin the group if invited.    He said that Russia is “focused on other formats, apart from the G7.”
        The idea drew bipartisan criticism from Capitol Hill.
    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Russian President Vladimir Putin “chose to make Russia unworthy of membership in the G-8 by invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea."
    “Nothing he has done since then has changed that most obvious fact,” McCain said.
    Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a frequent critic of Trump, called the move “weak.    Putin is not our friend and he is not the President’s buddy,” Sasse said in a statement.    “He is a thug using Soviet style aggression to wage a shadow war against America, and our leaders should act like it.”
    Democratic Senate Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Trump of “turning our foreign policy into an international joke.”    Trump’s remarks were the latest show of disunity between the U.S. and the other six nations meeting at a resort on the Saint Lawrence River this weekend.    Trump was already expected to face tense meetings following his decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum from those countries.
    The meeting is getting under way a day after the president engaged in a Twitter spat with summit participants and announced he would leave the gathering before it is over.    The U.S. is meeting with Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom at the summit.
    The White House said late Thursday that the president would leave the summit on Saturday morning.
    By doing so, Trump will skip meetings on climate change, energy policy and oceans.    He’ll leave Canada to head to Singapore, where he’s scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic summit.
    Trump returned to his concerns about global trade as he left the White House on Friday, saying the U.S. would terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement if it is unable to negotiate a better deal.
    “If we’re unable to make a deal, we’re better off,” Trump said.    “I think we’ll probably very easily make a deal.    All of these countries have taken advantage of the United States on trade.”
    “Russia should be in this meeting.    Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?” President Trump.
[I added this since it is prophesied in Revelation.
Rev. 17:10 Seven Kingdoms: Five are in the past, One is at present, The other is yet to come.
Rev. 17:11 The Eighth Head: The Seventh Head (revived Roman Empire) will grow an Eighth Head in verse 11 (Some claim this to be "The scarlet animal that is to be destroyed).
    Rev. 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth (‘Ogdoos’ eighth is connected to ‘Okta’ eight; here the vision shows that the seventh head will briefly sprout another as an eighth head or an outgrowth which will be destroyed; “the eighth” king, his “wound being healed,” Rev. 13:3, Antichrist manifested in the fullest and most intense opposition to God.    He is “the little horn” with eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, before whom three of the ten horns were plucked up by the roots, and to whom the whole ten “give their power and strength,” in Rev. 12:13, 17.), and is of the seven (originally came from the seven heads; The eighth is not one of the seven restored, but a new power or person proceeding out of the seven, and at the same time embodying all the God opposed features of the previous seven.    For this reason there are not eight heads, but only seven, for the eighth is the embodiment of all the seven.),
and goeth into perdition (‘Apoleia’ indicating loss of well-being, not of being, is used of the Beast, the final head of the revived Roman Empire; In the birth-pangs which prepare the “regeneration” there are wars, earthquakes, and disturbances, at which Antichrist takes his rise, from the sea, Rev. 13:1; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:9-11.).
(Paraphrased: “The scarlet animal that died is the eighth king, having reigned before as one of the seven; after his second reign, he too, will go to his doom.”).
    No one can really narrow down who or what this new entity came from, but the above is food for thought.    In the next article "Russia joined the G-7 in the late 1990s almost a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, making the group the G-8."    The seventh head will briefly sprout another as an eighth head, which was Russia, the eighth as one of the seven.    So in his second reign, which is when, will go to his doom.]

6/9/2018 Yarmuth: Russia gave presidency to Trump by Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
    U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth said Friday that President Donald Trump is calling for Russia to be let back into an alliance of industrialized nations because it elevated him to the White House.
    The Group of 7 — which is made up of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — are scheduled to meet in Quebec this weekend to discuss several issues such as climate change and a growing trade war.     Russia was kicked out of the alliance in 2014 following its annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine.     Trump said Friday that the Russian government should be readmitted, however.    He said his administration has been “Russia’s worst nightmare” but that the foreign power should be in the meeting.
    “They threw Russia out,” Trump said.    “They should let Russia come back in, should have Russia at the negotiating table.”    “Say what you will about Trump, he sure is loyal to the country that elected him,” Yarmuth, a Democrat who represents Kentucky’s third congressional district, tweeted on Friday.
    Asked if the congressman is saying the Russians elected Trump, Chris Schuler, a Yarmuth spokesman, said: “Ha ha.    That’s the point!”
    But Louisville Republicans rebuffed Yarmuth’s tweet as one pandering to his liberal base.
    “Congressman Yarmuth is demonstrating yet again why he has failed so miserably at getting anything done for this district, as he consistently chooses to use his platform for far-left pandering instead of advocating for Kentucky,” said Jim Stansbury, chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party.    “If he spent even half as much time serving his constituents as he does parroting the latest anti-Trump talking point handed down by his liberal party leaders, perhaps Louisville wouldn’t be falling behind its peer cities.”
    Trump and his supporters have bristled at suggestions that the he or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the presidency.
    Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, has indicted 19 people since last year, including five whom have pleaded guilty, in the course of that investigation.
    Trump has called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt” and “hoax” on numerous occasions.    Russia joined the G-7 in the late 1990s almost a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, making the group the G-8.    Trump did not specify why he believed Russia, which retains control of Crimea, should be readmitted.
    The president did take to social media on Friday ahead of the G-7 summit to rail against Canada for tariffs it is imposing on U.S. dairy products.
    Trump’s trade policies have ignited a battle with several U.S. allies, including the European Union, which has resulted in many of those countries announcing they will impose tariffs on domestic products including Kentucky bourbon.

6/10/2018 Trump threatens to end trading if barriers not cut - At G-7 with allies, he says U.S. ‘like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing’ by John Fritze, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Trump told global leaders gathered at the Group of Seven summit in Quebec on Saturday that they must reduce trade barriers and floated the idea of lowering tariffs completely if other countries agree to a more pure form of open trade.
    Trump threatened to stop trading with other nations if they decline to lower barriers he has repeatedly described as unfair, and he warned allies against taking retaliatory measures against steep metal tariffs that he imposed last month.
    “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing,” Trump said.    “And that ends.”
    Ending trade with other nations under the current system, Trump said, would be “a very profitable answer if I have to do it.”
    The remarks, following a two-day meeting in Canada with the world’s largest industrialized economies, were among the most strident Trump has used to describe what he sees as an outof- whack global trade system that harms U.S. industries.     Trump tried to downplay any notion that the meeting in Canada was contentious.    He repeatedly described his relationship with the other leaders at the summit as “a 10” and said he did not blame the other countries for their positions on trade.
    Trump drew international criticism last month for leveling a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% duty on aluminum, measures the president says are necessary for national security.    The president has also said he is considering a tariff on imported cars.
    The president said the ideal situation would be a completely free trade system with the other G-7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.    Under such an arrangement, he said, the U.S. would agree to remove all tariffs and barriers if the other countries did as well.
    Trump did not indicate he had received any concessions in his negotiations on trade at the summit.    Several other leaders have threatened retaliatory tariffs.
    “If they retaliate,” Trump said, “they’re making a mistake.”
    The other leaders at the summit didn’t address Trump’s remarks directly, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron both posted photos that showed an alternate perspective.
    “Day two of the G7 summit in Canada: spontaneous meeting between two working sessions.    #G7Charlevoix,” Merkel posted on Instagram with a photograph of her and Macron staring down Trump, who sat with his arms crossed as others looked on.
    Macron posted a photo of leaders and aides surrounding Trump, who is one of two people sitting, as Macron gestures at him.
    Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican who has been critical of the president, said if Trump “is actually serious about leading the expansion of a G-7 no-tariff, free-trade agreement, that’s tremendous, tremendous news. ... I would happily carry his bag to every single meeting of those negotiations.”
    But “the path to more trade begins with less whining on the global stage....The constant victim-talk doesn’t help anyone,” Sasse said.

6/12/2018 Trump, Kim begin Singapore summit - Singapore beams at center of summit spotlight: USA TODAY
    Worldwide anticipation of the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s third-generation autocrat Kim Jong Un was close to feverish before the leaders’ historic event Tuesday in Singapore.    It’s been called the biggest, and most mind-boggling, summit of its kind this century.
    No one knows how it ultimately will play out.    Anything is possible, from a grandiose declaration that the Korean War will be formally ended in the near future, with the far more complex linchpin of denuclearization on the back burner, to a rapid collapse of talks with someone abruptly walking away.
    Because of the time difference (Singapore is 12 hours ahead of Louisville), a report on the summit was unavailable for print.    However, all of the latest developments can be found at courierjournal.com.
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands ahead of their meeting at Capella Hotel in Singapore on Tuesday.
IMAGE MADE FROM VIDEO PROVIDED BY HOST BROADCASTER MEDIACORP PTE LTD VIA AP

6/12/2018 EU, IMF back multilateral trade, warn of US protectionism
    Leaders of the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and other agencies warned Monday that American protectionism could cause global economic damage, while the European Union backed a Group of Seven declaration that President Donald Trump abruptly refused to join.
    At a meeting in Berlin hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German leader and top officials from a half-dozen international organizations said in a joint statement that the “increasing protectionist tendencies provide us with a clear incentive and opportunity to express our strong support for the multilateral trading system.”

6/15/2018 IMF says tax cuts boosting US now but will hurt growth later
    The International Monetary Fund believes the U.S. economy will post solid growth this year and next, helped by tax cuts.    But then it says growth will slide as huge budget deficits drag on growth.     In its annual assessment of the U.S. economy, the IMF says growth will hit 2.9 percent this year and 2.7 percent next year.    Both are significant increases from last year’s 2.3 percent expansion.    However, after an initial boost from the $1.5 trillion tax cut package, the IMF forecasts growth will slow, dropping to 1.4 percent in 2023.

6/19/2018 Pompeo says China is engaging in ‘predatory economics 101’
    China is engaging in “predatory economics 101” and an “unprecedented level of larceny” of intellectual property, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a business audience Monday.
    Pompeo made the remarks at the Detroit Economic Club as global markets reacted to trade tensions between the U.S. and China.    Both nations started putting trade tariffs in motion that are set to take effect July 6.

6/23/2018 EU places tariffs on US jeans, other items by Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY
    The European Union announced a 25 percent tariff Friday on U.S. products ranging from motorcycles, to steel, bourbon and jeans in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports of EU steel and aluminum.
    The EU, a bloc of 28 nations, said the tariffs on $3.4 billion in U.S. products would go into effect immediately.     In turn, Trump quickly responded to the European salvo, dashing off a tweeted warning Friday morning that if the EU tariffs and barriers “are not soon broken down and removed” the U.S. will place a 20 percent tariff on all European-built cars coming into the U.S.    “Build them here!” he tweeted.
    The EU’s retaliatory tariffs, which also included typical U.S. products such as orange juice, cigarettes, chewing tobacco and peanut butter, seemed aimed at putting pressure on politically sensitive groups such as farmers.
    Harley-Davidson is from Wisconsin, the home state of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, while bourbon is a big product of Kentucky, home state of Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
    The list also included playing cards, which will get a 10 percent tariff.    Other items are rice, sweet corn, orange juice, chewing tobacco and snuff, eye make-up, rowing boats and canoes.
    The EU charges that Trump broke world trade rules June 1 by slapping 25 percent tariffs on EU steel and 10 percent on aluminum.
    European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday that the U.S. decision to impose tariffs “goes against all logic and history.”     EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that the EU was “left with no other choice” but to impose tariffs of its own after the “unilateral and unjustified decision of the U.S.”

6/27/2018 US pushes nations to cut Iran oil imports to zero by November
    The United States is pushing foreign countries to cut their oil imports from Iran to zero by November, a senior State Department official said Tuesday, as the Trump administration escalates its bid to pressure Iran after pulling out of the nuclear deal.
    The price of U.S. crude jumped to more than $70 a barrel for the first time since May on the news that countries were expected to eliminate their imports, rather than making a “significant” reduction.    The Trump administration does not intend to give out waivers allowing countries to keep importing, the official said.

7/10/2018 Trump blasts NATO allies for low spending on defense
    President Donald Trump on Monday rebuked European allies on the eve of a NATO summit, complaining that the United States spends more on collective defense than its 28 North Atlantic partners.
    “The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country.    This is not fair, nor is it acceptable,” Trump tweeted.    “While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more.”

7/12/2018 Trump blasts Germany as ‘captive to Russia’ - NATO summit begins on tense note by Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
    BRUSSELS – President Donald Trump unleashed his harshest broadside yet against a European ally on Wednesday, accusing Germany of being “totally controlled by Russia” and of not meeting its obligations to the NATO alliance.
    “Germany, as far I’m concerned, is captive to Russia,” Trump said.
    Trump’s extraordinary rhetoric signaled that he would continue his aggressive, America-first attitude toward the United States’ closest allies – even as he himself prepares to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in an effort to improve U.S. Russian relations.
    Speaking to reporters after Trump’s remarks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel shot back that she would not be lectured about Russian control of Germany, having grown up in the Soviet dominated East Germany.
    “I have experienced myself how a part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union,” she said, without mentioning Trump by name.    Trump’s verbal attack on Germany came in his first official event in Brussels Wednesday, setting a combative tone for the two-day summit of the alliance in Brussels.    He leaves Brussels for two days in London Thursday, followed by a weekend in Scotland and his summit with Putin in Helsinki next Monday.
    The harsh rhetoric suggested that Trump had no intention of patching up relationships bruised by a contentious Group of Seven summit in Canada last month, when he refused to sign on to a routine joint declaration calling for a reduction in tariffs.
    Trump has criticized European allies for not spending what they agreed to on defense.    Under a 2014 agreement, NATO set that amount at 2 percent of each country’s economic output.
    But Trump upped the ante in a closed-door meeting with allies Wednesday, demanding they double that amount to 4 percent of gross domestic product.    At a current spending level of 3.5 percent, even the United States does not meet that mark.
    Germany spends just 1.24 percent on defense.    But Trump also lambasted Germany’s support for a pipeline that would bring Russian natural gas through the Baltic Sea to central Europe.
    “So we’re supposed to protect Germany, but they’re getting their energy from Russia.    Explain that.    And it can’t be explained,” he said.
    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a commercial venture, but the German government has given its approval.
    After a face-to-face meeting with Merkel later, Trump said the gas pipeline came up but seemed to shift his tone.    “We have a very, very good relationship with the chancellor, we have a tremendous relationship with Germany,” he said.
    A stoic Merkel responded, “I am pleased to have this opportunity to be here for this exchange of views.”
    Merkel emphasized the German role in fighting alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and its commitment to the collective defense.    Trump’s comments prompted both the House and Senate to introduce nonbinding resolutions affirming U.S. support for the alliance.    The Senate resolution passed 97-2.
    “I subscribe to the view that we should not be criticizing our president while he is overseas,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.    “NATO is indisnational pensable.    It’s as important today as it ever has been.”    Democrats called Trump’s insults of Germany an “embarrassment.”
    “His behavior this morning is another profoundly disturbing signal that the president is more loyal to President Putin than to our NATO allies,” said a statement from Democratic leaders, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
    Trump has linked defense and trade issues throughout his presidency, using security powers to impose tariffs against close allies like Canada and trade deficits as an argument for cutting U.S. defense aid to Europe.
    At NATO, Trump pressed his recurring complaint that European allies aren’t paying enough toward the common defense of the alliance.    A new NATO analysis released Tuesday shows only five of the 29 allies – the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Latvia – currently meet the benchmark of 2 percent of economic output spent non-defense.
    “Just look at the chart,” Trump said at the breakfast.    “Many countries are not paying what they should.    And, frankly, many countries owe us a tremendous amount of money for many years back, where they’re delinquent, as far as I’m concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them.”
    That complaint is a misrepresentation of the 2014 agreement reached at a summit in Wales.    While each country agreed to strive for the 2 percent mark within 10 years, that spending is supposed to be on their own defense and is not paid to the United States or NATO.
Deirdre Shesgreen contributed from Washington.
President Donald Trump attends a meeting ahead of the NATO summit.
“So we’re supposed to protect Germany, but they’re getting their energy from Russia. Explain that.” President Donald Trump

NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg, Germany’s Angela Merkel and President Donald Trump gather for the allies’ “family photo.” GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

7/15/2018 Trump blames Obama for Russian hackings by Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
    LONDON – President Donald Trump blamed his predecessor Saturday for not doing more to prevent and punish Russia’s cyberattack on Democratic email servers in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.
    “The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” Trump tweeted, his first response to the indictments of Russian intelligence officers in the hacking scheme.
    That indictment, unsealed Friday, accuses the Russian operatives of a far-ranging plot to disrupt the democratic process by stealing tens of thousands of emails from Democratic Party officials and Clinton campaign operatives, and then leaking them via a website called DCLeaks.
    Those leaked emails became the source for countless news stories portraying Clinton in unflattering terms.    But Trump said the Obama administration could have stopped the leaks.    “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”
    Obama ordered an investigation into the hackings and confronted Putin about the cyberattacks in September 2016.     But the White House was hesitant to go public because of worries Obama would be seen as trying to influence the election himself.
    Trump also advanced a vague and unsourced conspiracy theory: “Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t the FBI take possession of it?    Deep State?”
    The response was almost identical to Trump’s reaction in February to the indictment of 16 Russians accused of carrying out a social media propaganda campaign to influence the election.
    But this time, the indictments have thrown a new variable into the already uncertain agenda when Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki.
    A group of top Senate Democrats on Saturday wrote to Trump, urging him not to meet Putin one-on-one without other Americans in the room, and to cancel the meeting if the Russian cyberattack on the U.S. election won’t be the meeting’s top issue.
    The senators called on Trump to “advance a well-coordinated U.S. message,” supported by senior administration leaders, to hold Russia accountable and urged him not to “wing it.”
Donald Trump, good job, get em Trump.

7/17/2018
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin take questions Monday in Helsinki. ANATOLY MALTSEV, EPA-EFE

Allies get assailed, Russia gets respect -President accepts Putin’s denials of interference by Gregory Korte and John Fritze, USA TODAY
    HELSINKI – President Donald Trump accepted denials by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow interfered with the 2016 U.S. election Monday, bringing swift condemnation from members of Congress from both parties.
    After meeting privately with Putin for two hours in Helsinki, Trump said he held both the United States and Russia responsible for the deterioration in relations between the two countries.    “I think that the United States has been foolish.    I think we’ve all been foolish,” he said.
    Trump also declined to challenge Putin’s insistence that his country did not meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even though U.S. intelligence agencies under two administrations and the Republican controlled Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Moscow sought to skew the election toward Trump.
    “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump told a joint news conference with the Russian president.
    “I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said.    “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
    Trump’s embrace of Putin came on the last day of a weeklong European trip in which he berated NATO allies over their defense spending and undercut British Prime Minister Theresa May in the tabloids.    His handling of the Putin meeting drew scathing reactions.
    Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Trump had made the United States look like “a pushover” and said the president’s remarks “saddened” him.    Corker added that he thought Putin was likely celebrating the outcome of the meeting.    “I would guess he’s having caviar right now,” said Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the meeting in Helsinki as a “tragic mistake.”
    “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,” said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.    “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin.”
    On Friday, the Justice Department laid out details of what it said was a hacking scheme in an indictment of 12 Russian agents whom it accused of trying to undermine the U.S. election.
    Putin told reporters through a translator that he was glad that Trump had defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election but said Moscow would “never interfere in internal American affairs.”
    Trump’s refusal to challenge Putin’s denials of election meddling prompted an unusual response from the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, who reasserted his belief that Moscow tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.    “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling,” Coats said.    Lawmakers had urged Trump to press for the extradition of the 12 Russian intelligence agents named in the indictment but Putin did not commit to doing so.    Putin also suggested that the two countries form a joint working group on cybersecurity that would look into the election issue.
    Putin proposed the same plan after they met at a Group of Seven summit last year.    Trump initially supported it, but then reversed himself.    Monday, he reversed himself again, calling it an “interesting idea.”
    Contributing: Eliza Collins, Jessica Estepa, Nicole Gaudiano and Kevin Johnson in Washington.
    “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands in Helsinki. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

7/21/2018 Trump threatens tariffs on $500B in China goods by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
    President Donald Trump said he’s prepared to impose tariffs on all $505 billion in goods China imports into the U.S. if the trade war he ignited escalates.
    “I’m ready to go 500,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernan in an interview that aired Friday on the network’s “Squawk Box” program.
    Trump has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods and threatened another $416 billion.
    Citing the $375 billion trade deficit the U.S. runs with China, as well as large gaps with other countries, Trump said, “They are taking advantage of us … We have been ripped off by China for a long time.”    The president said Chinese officials told him that “nobody (in past U.S. administrations) would ever complain until you came along – me.    They said, ‘Now you’re more than complaining.    We don’t like what you’re doing.’”    Trump also complained about the tit-for-tat counter-tariffs China has imposed on U.S. shipments to that country.    “I raised 50 (billion dollars in tariffs), and (China) matched it.    You don’t match it because otherwise we’ll always be behind.”
    Trump also addressed the criticism and market fallout his take-no-prisoners approach on trade has generated.
    “I would have a much easier life if I were to do it incorrectly,” Trump said.    Noting stock markets are up about 40 percent since he was elected, he said that “it could be up 80 percent” if he hadn’t started the trade skirmishes.    “I’m not doing this for politics.    I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country.”
    The escalating trade fights with China as well as Canada, the European Union and Mexico would reduce economic growth by more than a half percentage point and employment by hundreds of thousands of jobs if all the duties and retaliatory measures are imposed, economists have said.
    Trump touted his administration’s new workers council that’s set to train workers and help create 3.7 million jobs.
    “We have tremendous numbers of people who really are phenomenal in every way, but they’re not trained and are not qualified,” Trump said.     “We need people who are skilled.    We need people who are trained.    It’s much different than it was 30 years ago and 40 years ago.”
    Trump signed an executive order Thursday creating the National Council for the American Worker to improve worker training and education.    General Motors, Home Depot, Microsoft and Walmart were among the companies and groups signing a pledge to create jobs over the next five years.    Trump said that the training is necessary because “companies are pouring back into our country.”
    About 200 American companies last year announced they’ll move at least some production to the U.S. from overseas, generating nearly 80,000 jobs, up from about 50,000 such jobs in 2016 and the largest number on record, according to the Reshoring Initiative, which tracks the announcements.
    Of the economy broadly, Trump said, “I think it might be as good as it’s ever been – ever.”
    The economy is expected to grow close to 3 percent this year.    That could be the best performance since the recession.    Growth is expected to slow next year, and many economists are forecasting a recession in 2020.

7/27/2018 US markets faring better than China in trade spat - But more twists and turns likely to come in standoff by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
    Economists say there are no winners in a trade war, and American farmers, appliance companies and automakers are proof that tariffs can inflict financial harm.
    But if you’re using the stock market as a measure of who’s winning the trade dispute, the U.S. has a clear lead over China and its other trading partners.
    While stock prices are one way of gauging who’s feeling more of the ill effects of tariffs, there’s no disputing shares of U.S. companies are performing better than China-based stocks and other foreign markets, says Alec Young, the New York-based managing director of global markets research for FTSE Russell.
    “There’s a lot of ways to judge this, and I expect a lot of twists and turns, but if we just look through the lens of the market, we’ve seen a much stronger U.S. stock performance,” Young says.
    The Standard & Poor’s 500, a stock index filled with America’s biggest companies that get more than 43 percent of their revenues from overseas sales, is up 6.1 percent this year.    China’s Shanghai composite is down nearly 13 percent over the same period.    The major stock index in Japan is down a little less than 1 percent and European shares are up just 0.3 percent.
    The better performance of the closely watched U.S. stock index is good news for individual investors, as there is $3.4 trillion invested in index funds that track the S& P 500 in all sorts of accounts, ranging from 401(k)s and IRAs to mutual funds and exchange traded funds, according to S& P Dow Jones Indices.    A 401(k) investor with a $100,000 investment in the large-company stock index at the start of 2018 was sitting on a gain of $6,100 through July 25, compared with a loss of roughly $13,000 for a Chinese investor who began the year with a similar-sized investment in the Shanghai composite.
    So why are shares of U.S. companies holding up better, even though Kate Warne, investment strategist at St. Louis- based brokerage Edward Jones, says all markets have been “hampered” by tariffs and worries about the possibility of additional levies and more trade disruptions?    Reasons include:
[Trump is a business man not a politician, and you can see why he is getting things done and not selling the soul of this country away like Obama did for 8 years.    Ronald Reagan was an actor, and he did a better job also.    So this should be a major decision of who you vote for in the future.]

7/30/2018 Trump’s $12 billion farm aid will bring some relief to state - But expert says fix for farmers only short-term by Kate Talerico, Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
    Kentucky farmers suffering from the president’s trade war could soon get some relief.
    After meeting Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, President Donald Trump said that the EU had agreed to start buying more U.S. soybeans “almost immediately,” the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
    The announcement comes one day after his administration said it would shore up $12 billion for an emergency aid package to help farmers affected by retaliatory tariffs.
    Some farmers criticized that plan.    They prefer a long-term solution to retaliatory tariffs, which have resulted in significant price drops for soybeans, Kentucky’s top agricultural export.
    Trump said the U.S. and EU would “work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto-industrial goods.”
    That’s relief for one market, but the largest importer of soybeans is China, which last year purchased $14 billion of the crop from the U.S.
    “The damage has probably already been done,” Debbie Ellis, executive director of the Kentucky Soybean Board, said in an interview on Tuesday.    With soybean prices about $2 lower than last year, farmers stand to lose $200 million if nothing changes.
    It’s unclear how much help Kentucky farmers will actually get from the relief plan, which is set to kick in near Labor Day.    It would attempt to support the agriculture industry in three ways, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
    While the aid package will help in the short term, Kentucky farmer Davie Stephens said the soybean industry is “pushing for a long-term solution.”
    “The administration has truly disrupted our marketplace,” said Stephens, who is the vice president of the American Soybean Association.
    Kentucky produced 102.8 million bushels of soybeans last year, worth a total of $992.2 million, Ellis said.
    Indiana is also a major producer of soybeans.    Its $3 billion industry ranks fourth in the nation for production, ahead of Kentucky, which ranked 13th as of 2017.
    In announcing the aid package Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said it sends a message “that other nations cannot bully our agriculture producers to force the United States to cave in.”
    But Stephens and the American Soybean Association are urging the Trump administration to complete NAFTA and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations by the end of the year so they can have a clearer idea of the markets for next year’s crop.
    In addition, the soybean association said Tuesday that it wants to work with the Trump administration to build new markets for soybeans, such as in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
    Soybeans have been at the forefront of the trade rift between the United States and China, the top buyer of American soybeans.
    But many Chinese companies began to cancel or resell their soybean shipments after Trump said he would enact a 25 percent tariff on certain Chinese products valued at $34 billion.    Trade policy experts say China is targeting the rural states that supported Trump in the 2016 election, The Guardian reported.
    Soybeans lead American agricultural exports, but since Trump imposed his tariffs, their prices have dropped to a 10-year low.    They closed at $8.61 a bushel on Wednesday.
    Soybean farmers worry that they may never be able to regain the markets they have lost in the trade war.
    “We have been building up the China market for decades,” said Wendy Brannen, communications director of the American Soybean Association.    “It’s not something that’s easy to gain back.”    Even as China turns to Brazil and Argentina for soybeans, the South American countries may lack the infrastructure China has previously demanded of the United States, Stephens said.
    “We have a high-quality soybean compared to our South American neighbors,” he added.
    The tariffs are just one of many recent blows to farmers, who this year saw their incomes hit a 12-year low, down 50 percent from just five years ago, according to forecasts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released in February.
    “We know we’re in tough times,” Stephens said.    “Will this $12 billion help?    Will it solve it?    No.”

8/7/2018 Trump reimposes sanctions to levy economic pressure on Iran
    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday reimposing many sanctions on Iran, three months after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying the U.S. policy is to levy “maximum economic pressure” on the country.
    In a statement, Trump said the 2015 international accord to freeze Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions was a “horrible, one-sided deal” that left the Iranian government flush with cash to use to fuel conflict in the Middle East.
    Trump warned that those who don’t wind down their economic ties to Iran “risk severe consequences” under the reimposed sanctions.

8/11/2018 Trump smacks Turkey with heavier tariffs - Status of US pastor remains thorny issue by David Jackson and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – Wielding tariffs as a foreign policy weapon, President Donald Trump said Friday that he would increase duties on steel and aluminum from Turkey as the two nations argue about an imprisoned American.
    “I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump tweeted.    “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%.”
    He also wrote: “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”
    The tweeted tariff threat came little more than a week after the Trump administration placed sanctions on Turkish officials over the imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson, calling his detention “unjust” and “unacceptable.”    Those sanctions targeted Turkey’s minister of justice, Abdulhamit Gul, and minister of interior, Suleyman Soylu.
    Although narrowly tailored, those penalties have contributed to a slide in the value of Turkey’s currency, the lira, amid fears of a broad economic crisis.
    Bulent Aliriza, an expert on Turkey with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said Trump’s latest decision to ratchet up tariffs will push Turkey’s economy “into more difficult waters.”
    White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump “has authorized the preparation of documents” to raise steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, citing a section of the U.S. trade law that allows penalties “on imports from particular countries whose exports threaten to impair national security.”
    Turkey is a NATO ally.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded defiantly to Trump’s announcement Friday.
    “We will not lose the economic war,” Erdogan said during a tour of Black Sea provinces, according to the Hurriyet Daily News, an English language outlet.    “This is a national struggle.”
    Aliriza said Trump’s move will strengthen Erdogan in the short run because it allows him to fan existing anti-American sentiment in Turkey.
    The proposed tariff hikes come just days after Turkey’s deputy foreign minister was in Washington to meet with U.S. officials on a range of contentious issues, including Brunson’s detention.
    State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert declined to detail those conversations Thursday during a briefing with reporters, and she declined to say whether the two sides made any progress on the release of Brunson.    “We would define progress as Pastor Brunson being brought home,” she said.
    Previously, Trump has used tariffs against countries he claims are engaging in unfair trade practices against the United States.    The action against Turkey appears to flow from political differences between the two countries, particularly the Brunson case.
    Turkey accuses Brunson, arrested in 2016, of being a spy and says he was involved in an attempted coup.
    The U.S. says he has been falsely charged.
President Donald Trump and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchange pleasantries at last month’s NATO conference in Brussels. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

8/11/2018 Russia warns US of strong response to ‘economic war’ by Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY
    Russia’s prime minister on Friday warned the United States against imposing new sanctions on Russia and said the Kremlin would view any ban on banking or the use of the dollar by Moscow as a “declaration of economic war” that would provoke a strong retaliation.
    The comments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin and the permanent members of the National Security Council discussed new possible U.S. sanctions against Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the government-owned Tass news agency.
    Peskov said the council discussed the “new unfriendly steps on the part of Washington, which may take the form of trade restrictions.”    The meeting’s participants “emphasized the complete illegitimacy of such actions from the standpoint of international law,” Peskov said.
    The State Department said Wednesday that new sanctions would be imposed later this month following Washington’s determination that Moscow had used the Novichok nerve agent to poison ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury.    Russia has strongly denied involvement in the poisoning.
    According to the State Department, those sanctions will include the presumed denial of export licenses for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications.
    Some additional sanctions proposed in Congress include legislation targeting Russia’s state-controlled banks and freezing their operations in dollars.
    Such ramped-up economic measures, if adopted, would have a major impact on the Russian economy, as reflected by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s sharp reaction.
    “I would like not to comment on the talks about future sanctions, but there is one thing I can say: If measures like a ban on banking activities or the use of this or that currency follows, this can clearly be described as a declaration of an economic war,” the prime minister said Friday.    “And this war will have to be responded – by economic, political and, if necessary, other means.    And our American partners should realize this.”
    Medvedev said that while the U.S. said the sanctions are intended to punish Russia’s “bad” behavior, their goal is to sideline a rival.    “It’s intended to remove Russia as a strong competitor on the international arena,” he said.
    The announcement of new U.S. sanctions has rattled Russian currency and stock markets, sending the ruble plummeting to its lowest level since August 2016.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks Friday. SPUTNIK, POOL VIA AP

8/28/2017 German FM: Europe must step up at UN, WTO as US pulls out
    Germany’s foreign minister said Monday that Europe should fill the gaps left by the withdrawal of American funds and diplomacy in international organizations and key regions of the world.
    Heiko Maas told a gathering of German diplomats in Berlin that Europe should increase its political and financial weight at the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
[Trump is hitting them where it hurts, Russia, Turkey, China, Iran and the EU nations and will be continuing as you continue to read.]

8/29/2018 WHAT TO WATCH - Is U.S.-Mexico deal a sign of trade war thaw? By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
    Could a tentative trade deal reached by the U.S. and Mexico be a signal that negotiations with other trading partners have a better chance of success?
    Indeed, investors who want to know how financial markets could react to any big thaw in the trade war need look no further than the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which soared nearly 260 points, or 1 percent, Monday, and rose another 15 points Tuesday.    And broader U.S. stock market gauges, including the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index and Nasdaq composite, both closed at record highs again Tuesday.
    “It’s obviously a plus and demonstrates that while (President Donald) Trump’s rhetoric has been harsh toward Mexico, he has been able to fashion a deal he can sign,” says Tom Block, a Washington policy analyst at New York based financial research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors.
    But Block and other Wall Street pros also stress that the successful talks with Mexico offer no assurances the same outcome will occur in trade disputes with China, Europe or Canada, nor does it ensure that Congress will vote in favor of the Mexico deal.
    While Wall Street would like to view the deal as a template for how trade talks with other countries will play out, they’re skeptical that other fights can be resolved as easily, even though it will put more pressure on Canada and China to get deals done with President Trump.
    “It’s worth remembering that every trade deal is different,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at currency trading firm OANDA, told USA TODAY. “I think this is a step forward, albeit a small one.”

8/30/2018 Report: Sanctions on oil industry will ‘cripple’ Iran’s economy
    U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry will “cripple” the country’s economy after they take effect in early November, according to a report released Wednesday.
    Analysts with Oxford Economics said they expect the sanctions to send Iran’s economy into recession.

9/9/2018 US redirecting $25 million in aid for East Jerusalem hospitals
    The Trump administration says it is “reprogramming” $25 million in aid for East Jerusalem hospitals in favor of “high-priority projects elsewhere.”
    The move announced Saturday is part of a review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza that was ordered by President Donald Trump.
    Palestinians called the decision “an act of political blackmail.”

9/11/2018 Trump tariffs could boost Apple prices up to 20% by Zlati Meyer and Adam Shell, USA TODAY
    That Apple Watch you had your eye on?    It could become more expensive, depending on how President Donald Trump’s trade war with China turns out.
    Last week, Apple wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that a proposal to impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of products imported into the U.S. from China - including a range of the company’s products - could lead to higher prices for customers.
    Trump has already slapped tariffs on about $50 billion worth of goods from China, and he’s threatened tariffs on billions more, including levies of up to 25 percent on the $200 billion worth of goods that include products from Apple.    A tariff is basically a tax on goods entering the U.S. from around the world.
    The Cupertino, California-based company didn’t provide specific price details or confirm that it would raise them as a result of the possible tariffs.    But Avi Greengart, research director for consumer platforms and devices at market research firm GlobalData, theorized that a price increase could be as high as 10 percent.
    How would that affect a device such as the Apple Watch?    A low-end model from the Series 3 line is $329, according to Apple’s website. With a 10 percent price jump, you’d be looking at an extra $32.90 if Apple decided to pass the higher costs along to consumers.    For AirPods, the current $159 price tag would rise another $15.90.
    “Apple would not want to pass along a 25 percent price increase on an Apple Watch,” Greengart said.    “That may impact demand too much, and they would try to almost split the difference and see how much of the loss they can take and how much the consumer’s willing to bear.”
    The hit to consumers wallets, however, could be far more substantial, counters Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA, a Wall Street research firm.    Zino estimates the average selling price of products Apple says will be impacted by tariffs would rise “at least 10 to 20 percent.”
    At least one Wall Street pro believes Apple, which last month became the first U.S. publicly traded company to achieve a market value of $1 trillion, will eat the costs.    Gene Munster, analyst and investor with Loup Ventures, thinks Apple would likely absorb any extra costs and not raise prices.
    Still, a price increase could fall somewhere between nothing and 20 percent.    Tom Forte, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, thinks the potential price increase for the devices Apple said are at risk from tariffs could start as low as 5 percent and go as high as 9 percent.
    Apple shares, which are up 30 percent this year, fell 1.3 percent Monday.
    Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

9/13/2018 US says Saudi Arabia, UAE protecting civilians in Yemen war
    Despite mounting civilian casualties, the Trump administration has determined that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are doing enough to protect civilians in their military campaign in Yemen.
    The move announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo allows the administration to continue to support the Saudi-led coalition in operations against Iranian-backed rebels that have been denounced by human rights groups as possible war crimes.

9/18/2018 Mattis calls out Russia on NATO by Lolita C. Baldor ASSOCIATED PRESS
    SKOPJE, Macedonia – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday condemned Russia’s efforts to use its money and influence to build opposition to an upcoming vote that could pave the way for Macedonia to join NATO, a move Moscow opposes.
    Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Skopje that there is “no doubt” that Moscow has been funding pro-Russian groups to defeat the referendum on a name change later this month.
    “They have transferred money, and they’re also conducting broader influence campaigns,” Mattis said.    “We ought to leave the Macedonian people to make up their own minds.”
    Macedonians will vote Sept. 30 on whether to approve the name North Macedonia in an effort to placate Greece, which has for years blocked Macedonia’s path to NATO and the European Union.    But any progress toward NATO membership by the Balkan nation is strongly opposed by Russia, which doesn’t want the alliance to expand to areas formerly under Moscow’s influence.
    Mattis, speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, made no mention of Russia but announced that the U.S. plans to expand its cybersecurity cooperation with Macedonia “to thwart malicious cyber activity that threatens our democracies.”
    Zaev predicted that Macedonians will vote in favor of the name change and thus the move into NATO.
    “There is no other alternative for the Republic of Macedonia than the integration into NATO and the EU,” he said.
    Speaking later Monday at another event, Zaev said he had “no evidence for Russia’s influence” in Macedonia.    He said Russia has no objections for Macedonia’s integration into the EU, but it’s “openly against our integration in NATO.”
    Macedonia’s main conservative opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, repeated its position that “the agreement with Greece is the worst deal signed in the Macedonia’s history.”
    A pro-Russian small oppositional party, Unique Macedonia, strongly criticized Mattis’ remarks on Moscow’s efforts to use money to influence the opposition to defeat the referendum.
    Mattis is the latest in a string of international leaders visiting Macedonia to voice support for the referendum, and he’s the most senior U.S. official to visit.    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz have visited and made public endorsements of the name change, saying it’s critical in order for the country to join NATO after years of waiting.     Mattis said he and other NATO allies “say right up front in open press what we think.”
    “We’re not passing money to people behind the scenes,” he said.    “We’re not putting together parties that we control or try to control.”
    Russia has already been called out for trying to influence the vote.    In July, Greece expelled two Russian diplomats accused of supplying funds to protest groups opposing the name change deal.    Russia denounced the expulsions as unjustified.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, left, with Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, condemned Russian efforts on Macedonia.    AP

9/18/2018 Mattis condemns Russian influence-peddling in Macedonia
    Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday condemned Russia’s efforts to use its money and influence to build opposition to a vote that could pave the way for Macedonia to join NATO, a move Moscow opposes.    Mattis said there is “no doubt” that Moscow has been funding pro-Russian groups.

9/18/2018 Trump administration adds $200B in tariffs on China
    The U.S. slapped tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports on Monday, ratcheting up ongoing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economic powers.
    In a statement, President Donald Trump announced he has directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to impose the new tariffs in response to what he said are unfair trade practices by China.
    “As president, it is my duty to protect the interests of working men and women, farmers, ranchers, businesses, and our country itself,” Trump said.

9/19/2018 Senate approves bill to fund military and avert shutdown
    The Senate approved a wide-ranging, $854 billion bill Tuesday that funds the military and a host of civilian agencies for the next year and is a short-term fix to keep the government open through early December.
    The measure includes $675 billion for the Defense Department and boosts military pay by 2.6 percent, the largest pay raise in nine years.
    Senators approved the bill 93-7. House approval is expected next week.

9/22/2018 British leader May hits back at EU over ‘impasse’ on Brexit plan
    British Prime Minister Theresa May accused the European Union on Friday of creating an “impasse” in divorce negotiations by bluntly rejecting her blueprint for Brexit, sending the value of the pound falling as worries about a chaotic United Kingdom exit from the EU soared.
    In a televised address, May insisted she was prepared to take Britain out of the bloc without a deal if it did not treat the country with more respect.

The above is the F-35 fighter jet that the US will use if necessary

    The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, since 1954, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
    Section 501(c)(3) organizations are the most common type of nonprofit organization in the United States, ranging from charitable foundations to universities and churches.    The amendment is named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, who introduced it in a preliminary draft of the law in July 1954.
    In the early 21st century, many politicians, including President Donald Trump, have sought to repeal the provision, arguing that it restricts the free speech rights of churches and other religious groups.    These efforts have been criticized because churches have fewer reporting requirements than other non-profit organizations, and because it would effectively make political contributions tax-deductible.
    On May 4, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order "to defend the freedom of religion and speech" for the purpose of easing the Johnson Amendment's restrictions.
    Efforts to repeal the Johnson Amendment have been criticized for a number of reasons.    One concern is that political campaign contributions funneled through 501(c)(3) organizations would be tax-deductible for donors, and that such contributions would not be disclosed, since churches are exempt from reporting requirements required of other 501(c)(3) organizations.    Under this critique, repeal would have the potential of creating a mechanism where political contributions could be made without regard to other campaign financing laws.
    Good job Trump get some religious input from Christians to do something about the lawless antichrists doing whatever with the laws for the last 63 years.

9/23/2018 Palestinians fear US cut off future - UN refugee program loses American money by Deirdre Shesgreen and Michele Chabin, USA TODAYbr>     BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Gazing through the window of his family’s modest falafel shop, Samer Sa’ad is deeply worried about his children’s future in the overcrowded Dheisheh refugee camp.
    Sa’ad is one of 15,000 Palestinians trying to eke out a living in this 0.2square-mile patch of land.    The Trump administration decided to zero out funding for one of their only lifelines: a United Nations program that operates schools, health clinics and other basic assistance programs for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
    “Education, especially here in the camp, is the key to a better future.    The schools need funding,” said Sa’ad, the father of three young children.
    Nearby, dozens of children dodged traffic on the camp’s narrow main road as they made their way home from an elementary school funded by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
    Sa’ad said he worries the Trump administration will try to dramatically slash the number of Palestinians classified as refugees.    Like many Palestinians, Sa’ad hopes to return to the home his family left behind in what is now Israel.    The prospect for repatriation – or the “right of return” – is limited to UNRWA-certified refugees.
    “I dream of freedom, of an end to the Israeli occupation, but I’m afraid I will never be able to reclaim our home and our land,” Sa’ad told USA TODAY.
    In announcing the State Department’s decision to nix funding, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States could no longer “shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs.”
    Nauert criticized UNRWA’s mandate to grant refugee status to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of refugees displaced during the Arab-Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967.    Nauert said the practice creates an “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries.”
    UNRWA was established in 1949 after 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes the year before.    The agency was supposed to be temporary – operating only until a peace agreement settled those refugees’ status.
    Nearly 70 years later, prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal appear bleaker than ever.
    UNRWA’s leaders said its mandate dictates how, and how many, people are eligible for the refugee designation.    It’s morally right, they argued, that “family unity” is taken into account in trying to help those displaced by conflict.
    UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the growing Palestinian refugee population was not created by the U.N. agency.
    “The reason why the numbers go up is because the people who are responsible for the peace process – broadly speaking the international community – have failed to bring about the resolution of refugee status of these people,” he said.
    Gunness said the Trump administration’s decision has rippled through the refugee camps.
    “The sense of shock and foreboding is palpable,” he said.    UNRWA has enough money to keep schools running only through the end of September, he said.    Several other countries, from Germany to Jordan, scrambled to see whether they could fill the funding gap.
    If they can’t, “the consequences for the refugees we serve are catastrophic,” Gunness said.    “We will have to stop educating 526,000 children” and cut health care and other services.    Chris Gunness, spokesman, U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
A Palestinian man carries a sack of flour he received inside a U.N. compound at a refugee camp in Gaza. The United States decided to cut off funding for a U.N. refugee aid program.    SAID KHATIB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says UNRWA creates an endless “community of entitled beneficiaries.”    MANDEL NGAN/AFP
    “The reason why the numbers go up is because the people who are responsible for the peace process ... have failed to bring about the resolution of refugee status of these people.” Chris Gunness, spokesman, U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
Palestinian men collect food at a United Nations compound in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sept. 1. SAID KHATIB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    $350 million of UNRWA’s $1 billion-plus annual budget is donated by the United States, the agency’s largest donor.    5.4 million Palestinians have been granted refugee status since 1948.    This includes not only those directly affected by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war but also their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
[The article forgot to tell why we stopped the aid.    Trump did that so Hezbollah in Lebanon can furnish this care to those Palestinians so they can pay for that instead of buying weapons and making these Palestinians not use their homes we provide them and schools they are attending that they are paying for to use to attack Israel.].

9/20/2018 U.K.’s Brexit Plans ‘Will Not Work,’ a Top E.U. Official Says by Steven Erlanger
    BRUSSELS — European leaders on Thursday toughened their stance against a British proposal on how to structure their future relationship, with the European Council president saying Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial “Chequers” plan “will not work.”
    Mrs. May has cast that plan for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union as the only workable one on the table.
    But at an informal summit meeting in Salzburg, Austria, on Thursday, the council president, Donald Tusk, and fellow European leaders made clear that in their eyes, that proposal was dead.
    If Mrs. May had hoped that the two-day Salzburg meeting would make her political life a little easier — her Conservative Party holds a conference at the end of September — it now appears it will have the reverse effect, and prompt more domestic criticism of her leadership.
    “Something happened in the room in Salzburg,” said Mujtaba Rahman, chief European analyst for the Eurasia Group.    “The French won the argument that the E.U. has to come out more firmly against Chequers, and we see that in the Tusk statement that Chequers ‘will not work.’    I didn’t expect that and I don’t think the prime minister’s office did, either.”
    The so-called Chequers plan, which Mrs. May hammered out with her government in July at the cost of two Brexit-supporting cabinet ministers, calls for free trade in goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland and a complicated technical fix to the customs issue, including the collection of European Union duties by British officials.
    Rather than coming out of Salzburg more divided, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary suggested was happening, “Europe collectively has come stronger, and even tougher today than a day or so ago,” Mr. Rahman said.
    Charles Grant, the director of the Center for European Reform, a research institution, said: “I don’t see any E.U. split right now, I really don’t.    I’ve been looking for a pro-British lobby in the Council for six months now, and I can’t find one.”
    Mr. Orban, who has been sharply criticized over Hungary’s violations of European standards of rule of law and democracy, created some attention for himself when he said on Wednesday that he and a group of other leaders were “getting a majority” for a deal with Britain.
    “The other camp would like to deliver evidence that to make that kind of decision is to be punished and that the British must suffer,” he said.    “I don’t like that approach at all.”
    The contention was dismissed by analysts as self-serving and likely only to weaken the British position, because Mr. Orban is considered so controversial and distasteful by most of his colleagues.
    It has been true for some time that France and Germany are the strongest voices for a firm stance toward Britain.    They worry about any diminution in a Brexit deal of the “four freedoms” that are the basis for the European Union — including the single market for seamless trade and freedom of movement and labor.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in Salzburg on Thursday.    Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, at the conclusion of the meeting in Salzburg on Thursday.    He said the so-called Chequers plan “will not work” Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images
    But even countries that are basically sympathetic to Britain, like the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, have been firm supporters of the guidelines given to European Union’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.
    Those guidelines include the need for a “backstop” in a British withdrawal deal to ensure customs and regulatory compliance between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, where no one wants to restore a physical border.
    European Union leaders said that the Chequers plan offered a good basis for negotiations, but that the customs arrangements were unacceptable.    Mrs. May has stuck by it, but on Thursday it was clear she had made little headway in persuading her peers.
    President Emmanuel Macron of France was scathing.
    “Brexit is the choice of the British people, pushed by those who predicted easy solutions,” he said.
    “Those who explain that we can easily live without Europe, that everything is going to be all right, and that it’s going to bring a lot of money home, are liars,” Mr. Macron said of the British politicians who campaigned for withdrawal.    “It’s even more true since they left the day after so as not to have to deal with it.”
    Mr. Macron called the Chequers plan “unacceptable, especially on the economic side, because it does not respect the integrity of the single market.”
    Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said the group was “united that, in the matter of the single market, there can be no compromises.”    She said, “No one can belong to the single market if they are not part of the single market.”
    The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, one of the European leaders more sympathetic to Britain, described the Chequers proposal as “helpful but not sufficient.”    He said he was seeking a deal with Britain that protects the interests of “the other 425 million people” who remain in the European Union.
    “So, we do not want to take decisions for the 65 million that will damage the 425 million,” Mr. Rutte said.
    Asked about Mr. Orban’s comments, Mr. Rutte said: “There is no division; the unity of the 27 is holding and I’m confident we will maintain it.”
    He added: “I’ve not seen these two camps at the table.    I saw 27 countries all wanting to make the best of something we hate, which is Brexit.    We all want the best for both sides, but it’s difficult with all the red lines that are part of the British debate.”
    Mr. Rahman said that while the British wanted to rely on technology to avoid having a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, the Europeans are very skeptical that technology was enough.    “At some point,” he said, “there will have to be checks to ensure that the entire island stays in the E.U. customs territory and the E.U. regulations apply.”
    “Even if you ‘dedramatize’ the checks,” he said, “they still have to happen.”
    Mrs. May insists that no prime minister can accept a different customs regime, a kind of border, within the United Kingdom, even as a backstop.
    As the pace of negotiations picks up, all sides are hoping to see most of the withdrawal agreement done by a European Union summit meeting scheduled for mid-October.    But leaders were also told to block out a weekend in mid-November for an emergency meeting, if required.

9/25/2018 Iran: US desire to halt rival’s crude exports won’t come true
    Iran’s oil minister said the United States will not succeed in its plans to halt Iranian crude exports even as he acknowledged that South Korea has stopped buying oil from Tehran, Iranian media reported Monday.
    The website of Iran’s oil ministry, Shana.ir, quotes the minister, Bijan Zanganeh, as saying the “U.S. dream of getting Iran’s oil exports (effectively) to zero won’t come true.”

9/25/2018 President Trump takes aim at globalism, defends America’s sovereignty at UN by OAN Newsroom
    President Trump announced his administration is scaling back on U.S. involvement in global organizations after accusing countries of disrespecting America’s generosity and values.
    During his United Nations address Tuesday, the president defended his decision to pull the U.S. out of the UN Human Rights Council.    He said the organization repeatedly condemned the U.S.and its allies, while shielding human rights abusers.    The U.S. will not return to the council until real reform is made.
    The president went on to say the U.S. does not recognize or support the international criminal court, then calling it an unelected global bureaucracy that violates all principles of justice.
President Donald Trump addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
    He also took aim at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for protecting bad actors and ripping off the rest of the world.
    “We defend many of these nations for nothing and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices – not good,” stated President Trump.    “We want them to stop raising prices, we want them to start lowering prices, and they must contribute substantially to military protection from now on.”
    The president added, the U.S. will also not be participating in the global compact for migration.    He argued migration should not be governed by an international body unaccountable to American citizens.
    President Trump said the only real solution to the migration crisis is to help people build more hopeful futures in their home countries.

9/26/2018 Trump hammers Iran in United Nations address - President also attacks China and Venezuela by John Fritze and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
    NEW YORK – President Donald Trump blamed Iranian leaders for sowing “chaos, death and destruction” in a steely speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that heavily emphasized the president’s support of national sovereignty over globalism.
    Touting his meeting this year with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and blasting Iran for spreading mayhem in the Middle East, Trump offered an impassioned defense of a foreign policy doctrine he said would allow countries to reject “global governance.”
    “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” Trump said.    “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy.”
    Lobbing criticism at a bevy of international institutions, Trump called the U.N. human rights council “a grave embarrassment to this institution” and said the International Criminal Court “has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority.”    He touted some of his most divisive foreign policy decisions, including his crackdown on immigration and his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
    The “America first” remarks drew on a similar speech he delivered at the United Nations last year but included more detailed examples of how that vision informs his policies on trade, immigration and the world’s hot spots.
    Though Trump reserved his harshest language for Iran, he did not shy away from condemning other countries by name.    He jabbed China for what he said were unfair trade policies.    And he announced sanctions against Venezuelan leaders and blasted the government of its president, Nicolas Maduro, saying his socialist policies have “bankrupted the oil-rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty.”
    Trump suggested he would sharply curtail U.S. foreign aid, saying he ordered a review by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of whether countries that receive American assistance are allies with shared values.
    “We are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends,” Trump said.
    “And we expect other countries to pay their fair share for the cost of their defense.”
    In an awkward moment, minutes into his speech, the delegates in the chamber laughed at a regular talking point from the president.    Trump said his administration had accomplished more than any other in U.S. history, prompting the reaction.
    “So true,” Trump said.    “I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s OK.”
    Trump’s boast drew ridicule from his critics on Twitter.    “Preposterous,” tweeted Nicholas Burns, a longtime diplomat who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations.
    Trump’s remarks were buffeted by warnings from other world leaders that America’s pullback from the international institutions was ill-conceived and even dangerous.
    French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a passionate defense of multilateralism, saying it was the only way to stave off instability and conflict across the globe.    He rebuked Trump’s message, suggesting that “brandishing sovereignty” was a way of attacking others.
    In the absence of a strong American commitment to preserving the international order, Macron suggested, France and other European countries could step into the void, leading the charge against urgent global threats, such as climate change, poverty and inequality.
    “Do not accept the erosion of multilateralism. Don’t accept our history unraveling,” Macron said.
    Macron focused on climate change as an issue that demanded “global mobilization” from other developed countries after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which aims to curb global warming by gradually reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases.
    “The Paris agreement has stayed intact, and that is because we have decided to stay unified in spite of the U.S. decision to withdraw.    This is power,” Macron said.    “Let’s stop signing trade agreements with those who don’t comply with the Paris agreement,” he added, outlining a strategy that would isolate the United States.
    Speaking before Trump arrived at the podium, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented the rise of populism and a fraying of international cooperation – trends the U.S. president has fueled.
    “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.” President Donald Trump
“We are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday in New York. JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

9/26/208 General: Stopping US-S. Korea exercises diminished readiness
    The decision to cancel major military exercises on the Korean Peninsula this year caused a slight degradation in the ability of American and Korean forces to work together and remain ready to fight, the U.S. general nominated to command troops in South Korea told senators Tuesday.
    Gen. Robert Abrams said that commanders are planning a number of smaller staff exercises to rebuild the ability of U.S. and allied forces to operate together.    And he was non-committal when asked whether the major exercises currently being planned for next year will be held.

9/26/2018 US orders sanctions on first lady of Venezuela, other officials
    The Trump administration on Tuesday slapped financial sanctions on four members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle, including his wife and the nation’s vice president, on allegations of corruption.
    The U.S. barred Americans from doing business with and will seize any financial assets in the U.S. belonging to first lady Cilia Flores, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.

9/26/2018 Judging Kavanaugh: How Democrat Smear Tactics are Obstructing Justice by OAN Newsroom
    Democrats are fighting hard to knock Judge Brett Kavanaugh out of the running for Supreme Court justice and they are not shy about using smear tactics to win.
    One America’s Pearson Sharp investigates how the latest campaign against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is setting a dangerous precedent for American justice.

9/26/2018 President Trump’s tough stance on trade forces Mexico and Canada to make choices by OAN Newsroom
    President Trump’s tough stance on fair trade practices has helped secure an agreement with Mexico, and now it’s forcing Canada to come to the negotiation table.
    Mexico and Canada have historically been united in opposition against any changes in trade policy with the U.S., but Mexico’s leadership has been reluctant to stall any further progress.
    Mexico and the U.S. sealed a new trade deal after the threat of tariffs forced both sides into an agreement. Canada, however, is still holding out.
President Donald Trump smiles during a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin previously said the president does want to secure a new trade deal with Canada regardless of when or how it happens.
    “The president’s objective is to have deals with Mexico and have a deal with Canada," stated Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.    “And if we could do it in one deal, we’ll do it as one deal — if we do it in two deals, we’ll do it in two deals.”
    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has indicated he may be willing to jump on a deal with the U.S. and Mexico, but time is running out.
    Congress has until the end of the month to approve any trade deals, which means Canada may have to wait until lawmakers reconvene.

9/27/2018 Trump will sign spending bill to avert government shutdown
    President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will sign a spending bill to avert a looming government shutdown set to begin next week.
    Trump’s remarks came as the House was set to vote on a bill that funds the military and many civilian agencies for the next year and provides a short-term fix to keep the government open through Dec. 7.    The bill does not pay for Trump’s long-promised wall along the Mexican border.

9/27/2018 Army reservist accused of spying for Chinese government     Ji Chaoquan, a 27-year-old Chinese national, is accused of conducting background checks on eight workers – some of whom were U.S. defense contractors – for possible recruitment by China’s spy agency, according to a federal criminal complaint.
    Ji’s alleged involvement with the Chinese government occurred between Aug.28, 2013, and Sept.21, 2018.    Ji came to the U.S. on a student visa to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

9/28/2018 Japan agrees to trade talks with U.S. by OAN Newsroom
President Donald Trump listens as he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said a new economic relationship with the U.S. should be a “win-win” for both countries.    He made those remarks during a briefing at the UN General Assembly this week.
    Abe had previously resisted trade talks for nearly two-years, instead, insisting on a multi-national trade pact.
    After his meeting with President Trump in New York, the Japanese leader agreed to enter into bilateral trade negotiations with the Trump administration.
    “Between our two countries, we have a very long history — it is the accumulation of trustful relationships” stated Abe.    “Upon that, we were able to begin negotiations and it will undoubtedly lead into the expanded trade and investment between our two countries.”
    Japan’s agreement to negotiate a new trade deal comes after the president said he would enact tariffs on Japanese cars.
    Those tariffs, however, will not be put in place since Japan has agreed to participate in trade talks.

9/28/2018 150 immigrants arrested by US agents in Southern California
    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has arrested 150 immigrants across Southern California this week in an operation targeting public safety threats.
    The agency says about 90 percent of those apprehended Sunday through Tuesday have criminal convictions, and about 40 percent were previously released by local law enforcement agencies despite federal detainers.
    Detainers ask arresting agencies to notify immigration officers before releasing people, but California laws put some limits on cooperation.
[The Liberals who run California and want sanctionary cities, will get what they deserve in time when it all goes to hell one day.]

9/28/2018 Dutch police arrest 7 suspected of plotting big extremist attack
    Seven men were arrested Thursday in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting a large-scale extremist attack that Dutch prosecutors said they think was foiled.
    The suspects, arrested in the towns of Arnhem and Weert, allegedly wanted to use bomb vests and assault rifles to do harm at an event and planned to detonate a car bomb at another location, prosecutors said.

9/28/2018 Ambassador Nikkie Haley supports Venezuelan protesters gathered outside UN building OAN Newsroom
    United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley rallied a crowd of Venezuelan protesters with words of support.
    “I am going to be loud and Maduro will hear us — we won’t stop talking until we see Maduro go,” she stated.
    Haley used a microphone Thursday to be heard over the hundreds of people gathered outside the United Nations building in New York.
Surrounded by security, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks briefly to people at a protest
against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro outside United Nations headquarters in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
    Some of the banners carried by protesters read “S.O.S. Venezuela,” while others chanted for freedom.
Outrage was sparked when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made a surprise visit to the world body’s headquarters Wednesday.
    Maduro is widely blamed for the country’s severe hyperinflation and widespread shortages of basic necessities, which has forced millions to flee their homes.
    “It is a country of ghosts.    It is a country of shadows.    It is a country of farewells.” — Rosa Bramble-Caballero, Venezuelan social worker.
    Maduro went over his allotted time to speak at the UN, attacking the U.S. and neighboring Latin American nations as reasons why his country is suffering a major economic crisis.    However, his plea appeared to fall on deaf ears as several nations accused the embattled leader of human rights abuses and called on International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate.    President Trump also hinted at taking “possible military action.”
    While Venezuela has access to one of the world’s largest oil reserves, failed socialist policies put in place more than two-decades ago have run the country into the ground.
    As Maduro sought to “defend his country” on the world stage his protesters outside worked to defend their country from him.    They praised Haley for speaking up and thanked the Trump administration for putting tough sanctions on the country’s dictatorship.
    “We appreciate the gesture of the United States ambassador to the United Nations to come to greet those of us who are representing the Venezuelan people,” said , an exiled Caracas mayor and opposition leader.    “It’s clear that we are not alone — the world has its eyes on the Venezuelan tragedy.”
    Many of the protesters gathered said they are relying on President Trump to restore Venezuela.

9/28/2018 Judge rules Calif. sanctuary state law is unconstitutional by OAN Newsroom
Demonstrators hold signs against undocumented migrants. (Photo/Sam Hodgson/Reuters)
    A judge in Southern California has dealt a blow to the state’s sanctuary policies.
    On Thursday, Judge James Crandall ruled the sanctuary law is unconstitutional and is an example of the state government overstepping its authority.
    Crandall also granted the city of Huntington Beach’s request to be freed from enforcing the policies he dismissed as “one size fits all policing.”
    This comes after Senate Bill 54 was signed into law last year, blocking local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE and from asking suspects about their immigration status.
    This case is separate from the Department of Justice’s pending lawsuit against the Golden State.

9/29/2018 McConnell accepts delay for FBI inquiry - Senate was set to vote on Kavanaugh confirmation by Phillip M. Bailey Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has accepted a surprising last-minute offer by a fellow Republican to delay the vote on federal judge Brett Kavanaugh’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination.
    Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona shocked the Beltway on Friday when he called for the FBI to take up to a week to look into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh before a full Senate vote on his nomination.
    “I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope to the current allegations,” Flake said.    “And I will vote to advance the bill to the floor with that understanding.”
    The offer came not long after Flake was stopped in an elevator by a sexual assault survivor who pleaded with him to block the nomination.    Flake was visibly shaken when he left for the hearing room, according to USA TODAY.
    McConnell did not respond directly to questions about Flake’s proposal, but a spokesman for the Kentucky senator pointed the Courier Journal to a statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee that says it will ask the Trump administration to instruct the FBI to conduct an additional background investigation.
    The FBI “would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee,” according to the email.    It does not define credible accusations.    The investigation also must be completed no later than one week from today, according to the statement.
    McConnell controls the Senate’s calendar as majority leader, and had set up a procedural vote for Saturday on the nomination.    He has hung much of his legacy on confirming Kavanaugh, which would solidify a conservative majority on the high court for decades.
    On the Senate floor, McConnell said, “I’m pleased to announce that all 51 republican members of the Senate support the motion to proceed to the nomination.”
    He called Kavanaugh “most qualified and most impressive” and said, “This is a nomination that deserves to move forward.”
    McConnell had reportedly told the White House over the summer how few votes the GOP could spare in replacing retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
    McConnell had urged President Trump to not select Kavanaugh, according to the New York Times, due to his lengthy paper trail as staff secretary under former President George W. Bush and as an assistant for the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton.
    In July, McConnell praised Kentuckian Amul Thapar, a judge on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an interview with the Courier Journal, providing possible insight into one of his preferred choices.
    “He’s very sharp,” McConnell said at the time.    “But the competition at this level is pretty intense.    I think the president will make a very high-quality appointment.”
    McConnell has made cementing a conservative federal judiciary a personal goal since he blocked former President Barack Obama’s effort to fill a Supreme Court seat in 2016.    Last week, McConnell guaranteed at a gathering of religious and social conservatives that Kavanaugh, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, will make it through the process.
    The Judiciary Committee moved forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination Friday on an 11-10 party-line vote, including support from Flake, who is not seeking re-election.    That came a day after intense testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has alleged he attempted to rape her during a high school party in 1982.
    “I am here today not because I want to be,” Ford said during her testimony.    “I am terrified.”
    Ford described Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, trapping her in a bedroom where Kavanaugh pinned her to the bed as he tried to remove her clothes.    She said she thought that Kavanaugh was going to rape her and that he might accidentally kill her because he covered her mouth with his hand to prevent her from screaming.
    Kavanaugh responded with a fiery defense before senators.    He said he didn’t question whether Ford had been sexually assaulted at some point but vehemently denied doing so.
    “I have never done this to her or to anyone,” he said.    “That’s not who I am.    It is not who I was.    I am innocent of this charge.”
    Republicans hold a 51-47 majority over Democrats in the Senate with two independents caucusing with the minority party, leaving the GOP with a tiny margin to confirm a nomination on its own.
    Flake did not say directly during his comments before the committee that he would vote against Kavanaugh on the Senate floor if the FBI investigation does not occur, or if other senators are considering doing so.
    There are only a handful of votes in question that could determine the outcome.
    Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a key Republican swing vote, reportedly has sided with Flake’s request for a one-week delay.    And there are red-state Democrats facing close re-election in states Trump handily won two years ago who could sway the outcome.
    Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana said hours before Flake’s compromise that he was voting against the nomination.    Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement Friday that the country has been pulled apart by this nomination, and that more time is needed to come to a better decision.
    “I applaud Senator Flake’s decision to rise above the partisan circus on display during this entire process,” Manchin said.    “It is what is right and fair for Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and the American people.”
    “I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope to the current allegations.    And I will vote to advance the bill to the floor with that understanding.”
Sen. Jeff Flake - Called for the FBI to take up to a week to look into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh
Sen. Mitch McConnell has made cementing a conservative federal judiciary a personal goal
since he blocked former President Barack Obama’s effort to fill a Supreme Court seat in 2016. DAVID R. LUTMAN/SPECIAL TO CJ
[So the cry babies have gotten there way somewhat, but who can trust them after the week is over and the FBI investigation comes up with nothing to add, will they have a thousand METOO attack the White House?]

9/29/2018 Moving forward - Judiciary committee advances Kavanaugh to full Senate, voting along party lines, with caveat of FBI investigation Trump orders FBI to reopen its probe of nominee to court by Richard Wolf and Eliza Collins, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump ordered the FBI to reopen its background investigation into Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh on Friday after bipartisan requests from the U.S. Senate.
    “I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file,” the president said in a statement.    “As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”
    The order came hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Friday to move Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate but called on Trump to open an FBI investigation into sexual assault accusations against the nominee.
    Kanavaugh said he would comply with the investigation and answer additional questions posed by federal authorities.
    “Throughout this process, I’ve been interviewed by the FBI, I’ve done a number of ‘background’ calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me,” he said in a statement.    “I’ve done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate.”
    The committee’s request for the investigation came after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who had been undecided on Kavanaugh, agreed to advance the nomination and asked that the FBI be given up to one week to investigate the charges against Kavanaugh, as Democrats have demanded.
    “This country’s being ripped apart here,” an emotional Flake said after a flurry of back-room negotiations outside the committee room.    “We can have a short pause and make sure that the FBI can investigate.”
    Earlier in the day, Flake had announced his support for Kavanaugh and was confronted in an elevator by a sexual assault survivor.
    Another undecided Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said she supported Flake’s call for an FBI probe.    The committee later announced that the investigation would be “limited to current credible allegations against the nominee.”
    Only the White House can force the FBI to undertake such a probe.    But with Flake and Murkowski seeking it, Trump had no choice, as the GOP holds a narrow majority in the Senate and can’t afford to lose two votes.
    “Someone’s got to explain this to Trump,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after the committee vote.
    Earlier, the Republican-controlled panel had turned aside Democrats’ effort to subpoena Mark Judge, a potential witness to the alleged assault of Christine Blasey Ford.    She gave wrenching testimony Thursday about allegedly being attacked by Kavanaugh when she was 15.
    The committee’s action came less than a day after it heard from Kavanaugh and Ford, who alleges the nominee pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothes at a party in 1982, when the federal appeals court judge was 17.    Kavanaugh, now 53, vehemently denied the allegations.
    “We should not rush to judgment,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the panel.
    She said it was wrong to listen to “a credible, poised and brave witness and simply ignore what we heard.”
    But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Democrats simply want to “beat Judge Kavanaugh into submission.”
    “We can’t allow more time for new smears to damage Judge Kavanaugh,” he said.    “We’ve reached a point where it’s time to end the circus.”
    The nomination goes to the full Senate, where a final up-or-down vote had been anticipated by Tuesday.    Now that vote could be delayed for up to a week.
    Republicans had left the U.S. Capitol on Thursday evening in a state of uncertainty.    GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Murkowski, both supporters of abortion rights, have remained noncommittal.    Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota also have not declared how they will vote but are more likely to oppose Kavanaugh.    Manchin said Friday that he supports the FBI probe.
    Very few others remained undecided Friday. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., one of three Democrats who supported Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation last year, announced he would oppose Kavanaugh.
    “The allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh are disturbing and credible,” he said.    “In the interest of getting as much information as possible, I believe the allegations should be investigated by the FBI.”
    Democrats were furious that Republicans scheduled the vote so soon after the daylong hearing, at which both Ford and Kavanaugh said they were “100 percent” sure of their diametrically opposed stories.    Senators pointed to people who were allegedly present at the party Ford has described, saying they have not had the chance to be subpoenaed and interviewed.
    “We have done a botch of an investigation,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.    “Over time, I expect the facts to come out.    They have a way of doing that.    Cover-ups never last.    The sand is running through Kavanaugh’s hourglass.”
    The president of the American Bar Association, Robert Carlson, and Heather Gerken, dean of Yale Law School, from which Kavanaugh graduated, added their voices Friday to those seeking an FBI investigation of the sexual assault allegations.
    “We can’t allow more time for new smears to damage Judge Kavanaugh.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
    Protesters block a hallway Friday in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.    Many were arrested. JACK GRUBER/USA TODAY
Sen. Jeff Flake called for the FBI to investigate the nominee, echoed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski. GETTY IMAGES

9/29/2018 ‘Rise up, women!’: Protesters hit Capitol Hill by Caroline Simon and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY
    WASHINGTON – In a full day of demonstrations on Capitol Hill, hundreds of mostly female protesters raised fists and shouted “lock him up/i>” in front of the Supreme Court, unfurled banners inside a Senate office building and even blocked a Senate elevator door to directly confront Sen. Jeff Flake on live TV.
    Angry protesters marched and shouted in, around and through the marbled buildings that dot Capitol Hill even as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were gingerly advancing the controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for a vote next week.
    Arrests were plentiful – some for blocking hallways, others for unfurling banners reading “Withdraw Kava naugh.    No Abusers on the Supreme Court” from the upper floors of the Hart Senate Office Building.
    In the most dramatic confrontation, Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila, two women who said they had been sexually abused, blocked an elevator door that Flake, R-Ariz., was trying to close.
    “i>What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court,” a visibly distraught Archila told Flake.    “This is intolerable.”
    Gallagher, equally upset, told the senator: “You have power, but so many women are powerless.”
    At noon, more than 100 protesters – mostly women – gathered in front of the Supreme Court ahead of a Women’s March to hear speeches from fellow activists, sympathetic lawmakers, even folk singer Joan Baez.    The crowd’s energy rose as they chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Kavanaugh has got to go,” and “The people, united, will never be divided!” amid drumming.
    “We will not be bullied,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., told demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court building where Kavanaugh hopes to sit soon.
    At the Hart Senate Office building, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, her voice choked with tears, gave a fiery speech to protesters, charging that the Republican- dominated committee’s push to confirm Kavanaugh quickly represented a “fundamental disrespect of women.”
    “This is 11 men deciding that women have no right to be treated with respect, and we say, ‘Rise up, women!’” she said.
    In the Senate elevator confrontation, the two women implored Flake while standing in the door, blocking it from closing.    Throughout the ordeal, Flake largely avoided eye contact with the women, saying he had to get to the Senate meeting.    “Don’t look away from me,” Gallagher shouted.    “Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me.”
    The confrontation played out live on CNN as Flake’s staffer gently tried to defuse the situation.
[Sen. Flake even if they prove Kavanaugh innocent of all charges this group is a liberal group who will continue their demonstrations because they know he can turn over the Roe decision, and the Democrats will push them to do that.    Anyone with any common sense knows who “Is causing this country to be ripped apart.”]

9/29/2018 Trump signs $854B spending plan, avoiding federal shutdown
    President Donald Trump signed an $854 billion spending bill Friday to keep the federal government open through Dec. 7, averting a government shutdown before the November midterm elections.
    Trump signed the legislation to fund the military and several civilian agencies without journalists present, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.    The House and Senate approved the spending plan earlier this week.
    Trump has expressed deep frustration that the bill does not pay for his long-promised wall along the U.S.Mexico border.

9/29/2018 Intel committee to release its Russia investigation transcripts
    The House intelligence committee voted Friday to release transcripts of more than 50 interviews it conducted as part of its now-closed investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign.
    Among those to be released are interviews with President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; longtime spokeswoman Hope Hicks; and former bodyguard Keith Schiller.    The committee will also release dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and numerous Trump associates, including Roger Stone.

9/29/2018 ‘We’ll know in 48 hours’: Mexico sees new hope of trilateral NAFTA by David Lawder and Adriana Barrera
    WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico on Friday said the U.S. Trump administration and Canada were making serious efforts to resolve trade policy differences after days of bickering, raising hopes of saving the North American Free Trade Agreement as a trilateral pact.
    While details were scant, the apparent progress was enough to prompt Mexico and Washington to abruptly halt a plan to publish text of their own two-way trade deal, to give Canada more time to join.
    In Mexico, President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that Washington had made a new counter-proposal to Ottawa, adding that he would keep pushing for all three countries be part of NAFTA.
    Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said the delivery of the text to the Mexican and U.S. legislatures was delayed due to a “very serious” attempt by Ottawa and Washington to reach a deal.
    “In the next 48 hours we will know if we are going to get to a trilateral text or if we are going to have to put forward the text of the bilateral agreement,” Guajardo said in televised remarks to the Mexican Senate.
    Guajardo said his U.S. and Canadian counterparts “specifically requested” a delay in publishing the text.
    The Trump administration had threatened to proceed with a Mexico-only trade pact as U.S. talks with Canada foundered in recent weeks amid deep differences over Canada’s support for its dairy market and a mechanism for settling trade disputes.
    The NAFTA text, either bilateral or trilateral, is due by late Sunday night to meet U.S. congressional notification requirements to allow U.S. President Donald Trump and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign the pact before Lopez Obrador takes office on Dec. 1.
    However, multiple deadlines have already been broken during the drawn-out attempt to renegotiate the trilateral deal since Trump demanded it be re-worked on the grounds that the 1994 NAFTA pact caused the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
    Lopez Obrador said there were no final deadlines in the negotiation.
    A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment on the status of the U.S.-Mexico text and the talks with Canada.
    Officials in the offices of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, did not respond to queries about the counterproposal.
MEXICAN GO-BETWEEN
    Lopez Obrador told reporters in Mexico City that Trudeau asked him during a Thursday phone call “to intervene and call on the U.S. government to reach an agreement” with Canada.    “We agreed to that.”
    He said that regardless of the outcome with Canada the language of the agreement between Washington and Mexico City was now final.    “We are not going to re-open the negotiation.    That you can be sure of,” Lopez Obrador said.
    One source close to the talks said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who has close contact with the White House, was also acting as an “instrumental” intermediary between Canada and the United States.
    Canada’s Liberal government says it does not feel bound by the latest NAFTA deadline, and it repeated on Friday that it would not bow to U.S. pressure to sign a quick deal.
    “We are in a very tough negotiation with the United States over NAFTA … there is no deadline on this. As far as we are concerned we want a deal that is good for Canadians and that’s the bottom line,” Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CANADA
    Some U.S. Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday after a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that they could not support a NAFTA deal without Canada.
    “Canada is exceptionally important.    I think it would be malpractice, both for economic and political reasons, not to have a major agreement with Canada,” said Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the tax and trade Senate Finance Committee.
    Trump trumpeted the deal with Mexico as a win for Americans and threatened to close the door on Canada if it did not sign on by Sept. 30.
    Trump also floated slapping auto tariffs on Canada, which could sow disarray in supply chains, take the wind out of the sails of a resurgent Canadian economy and rattle investors already unnerved by an escalating U.S.-China trade war.
    The U.S.-Mexico text will flesh out an agreement in principle that aims to rebalance automotive trade between the two countries and update NAFTA with new chapters on digital trade and stronger labor and environmental standards.
    It is expected to conform to details already released on auto rules requiring an increase in regional value content to 75 percent from 62.5 percent previously, with 40 percent to 45 percent coming from “high wage” areas, effectively the United States.
    Auto industry executives say it is unlikely those targets can be met if Canada is not part of the deal, given supply chains in which parts crisscross NAFTA borders multiple times.
    More light is likely to be shed on the enforcement of new labor standards and trade dispute settlement arrangements.    The United States has said Mexico agreed to eliminate a system of settlement panels to arbitrate disputes over anti-dumping and anti-dumping tariffs.
    The release of the trade deal text will start a months-long process for U.S. congressional approval that will require a lengthy analysis by the independent U.S. international Trade Commission and notification periods before an up-or-down vote.
(Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Diego Ore, Frank Jack Daniel, Daina Beth Solomon, Lizbeth Diaz and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by David Lawder and Paul Simao; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler).
  • 9/30/2018 U.S. warship sails near disputed South China Sea islands: U.S. official by Idrees Ali
    An aerial view of uninhabited island of Spratlys in the disputed South China Sea, April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Sunday, a U.S. official told Reuters, potentially angering Beijing at a time of tense relations between the two countries.
        Beijing and Washington are locked in a trade war that has seen them impose increasingly severe rounds of tariffs on each other’s imports.
        The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the destroyer Decatur traveled within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands.
        The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, where Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies operate.
        China’s claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
        “We conduct routine and regular freedom-of-navigation operations, as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future,” the U.S. official added.
        China’s foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
        The United States has criticized China’s construction of islands and military facilities in the area and is concerned they could be used to restrict free nautical movement.
        The U.S. military has a long-standing position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and are separate from political considerations.
        The latest move comes at a particularly tense time in relations between the United States and China.
        Friction between the world’s two biggest economies is now moving beyond trade, with U.S. President Donald Trump accusing Beijing this week of seeking to interfere in congressional elections, marking a new phase in an escalating campaign by Washington to put pressure on China.
        China recently denied a request for a U.S. warship to visit Hong Kong and this month Beijing postponed joint military talks in protest against a U.S. decision to impose sanctions on a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system.
        In May two U.S. Navy warships sailed near South China Sea islands claimed by China.
    (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by David Goodman)

    9/30/2018 Macedonians vote in referendum on whether to change country’s name by Ivana Sekularac and Kole Casule
    A woman leaves the polling station after casting her ballot for the referendum in Macedonia on changing the country's name
    that would open the way for it to join NATO and the European Union in Skopje, Macedonia September 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
        SKOPJE (Reuters) – The people of Macedonia voted in a referendum on Sunday on whether to change its name to ‘Republic of North Macedonia’, a move that would resolve a decades-old dispute with Greece which had blocked its membership bids for the European Union and NATO.
        Greece, which has a province called Macedonia, maintains that its northern neighbor’s name represents a claim on its territory and has vetoed its entrance into NATO and the EU.
        The two governments struck a deal in June based on the proposed new name, but nationalist opponents argue the change would undermine the ethnic identity of Macedonia’s Slavic majority population.
        President Gjorge Ivanov has said he will not be voting in the referendum and a boycott campaign has cast doubts on whether turnout will meet the minimum 50 percent required for the referendum to be valid.
        The question on the referendum ballot read: “Are you for NATO and EU membership with acceptance of the agreement with Greece.”
        Supporters of the name change, including Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, argue that it is a price worth paying to pursue admission into bodies such as the EU and NATO for Macedonia, one of the countries to emerge from the collapse of Yugoslavia.
        “I came today to vote for the future of the country, for young people in Macedonia so they can be live freely under the umbrella of the European Union because it means safer lives for all of us,” said Olivera Georgijevska, 79, in Skopje.
        Although not legally binding, enough members of parliament have said they will abide by the vote’s outcome to make it decisive.    The name change would requires a two-thirds majority in parliament.
        The state election commission said there had been no reports of irregularities by 1 p.m. (1100 GMT).    However, turnout stood at only 16 percent, compared to 34 percent in last parliamentary election in 2016 when 66 percent of the registered voters cast their ballot.
        “I came out to vote because of my children, our place is in Europe,” said Gjose Tanevski, 62, a voter in the capital, Skopje.
    MUCH NEEDED INVESTMENT
        In front of parliament in Skopje, Vladimir Kavardarkov, 54, was preparing a small stage and pulling up chairs in front of tents set up by those who will boycott the referendum.
        “We are for NATO and EU, but we want to join with our heads up, not through the service door” Kavadarkov said.    “We are a poor country, but we do have dignity.”
        “If they (NATO and EU) don’t want to take us as Macedonia, we can turn to others like China and Russia and become part of Euro-Asia integration.”     Prime Minister Zaev says NATO membership will bring much needed investment to Macedonia, which has an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.
        “I believe the huge majority will be in favor because more than 80 percent of our citizens are in favor of EU and NATO,” Zaev said after casting his ballot.
        He said that a “yes” result would be “confirmation of our future.”
        A poll published last Monday by Macedonia’s Institute for Policy Research (IPIS) said between 30 and 43 percent of voters would take part in the referendum – below the required turnout.
        Another poll, conducted by Macedonia’s Telma TV, found 57 percent of respondents planning to vote on Sunday.    Of those, 70 percent said they would vote yes.
        For the referendum to be successful turnout needs to be 50 percent plus one vote.
        A failure in the referendum would represent the first serious blow to policy of the pro-Western government since it took over in May last year.
    (Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Keith Weir)

    9/30/2018 ‘Let’s come together,’ PM May challenges Brexit critics by Elizabeth Piper, Kylie MacLellan and William James
    A man wears a beret designed to resemble the EU flag during an anti-Brexit demonstration
    on the first day of the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, September 30, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
        BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May called on her party on Sunday to unite behind her plan to leave the European Union, making a direct appeal to critics by saying their desire for a free trade deal was at the heart of her Brexit proposals.
        At the start of what is set to be one of the Conservative Party’s stormiest annual conferences, May’s plans were once again attacked by two former ministers, with former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, calling them “deranged.”
        Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, the debate over how to leave the bloc is still raging in the center-right Conservative Party, and even in government.
        May’s already fragile leadership was put under further pressure this month when the EU rejected parts of the so-called Chequers plan.    But she put a positive spin on those talks, saying she was ready to consider the EU’s concerns.
        “My message to my party is let’s come together and get the best deal for Britain,” May told the BBC in the central English city of Birmingham.
        “At the heart of the Chequers plan is a free trade deal, a free trade area and frictionless trade … Chequers at the moment is the only plan on the table that delivers on the Brexit vote … and also delivers for the people of Northern Ireland.”
        May has shown little sign of shifting away from her Chequers plan, named after her country residence where she hashed out an agreement on Brexit with her ministers in July, despite growing criticism that her proposals offer the worst of all worlds.
        Johnson, who quit May’s cabinet after Chequers was agreed, called her plans “deranged” and attacked the prime minister for not believing in Brexit.
        He, and the former Brexit minister David Davis, are pushing for a Canada-style free trade deal with the EU – a proposal May says will split Northern Ireland from mainland Britain by making the British province adhere to different customs rules.
        Greg Clark, May’s business minister, said such a trade deal would also hurt businesses by clogging up international supply chains that are crucial to companies, such as car manufacturers.
    BELIEVER
        But Johnson was unrepentant, keen to portray himself as the defender of a clean break with the EU.
        “Unlike the prime minister I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016,” Johnson, the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed May, told the Sunday Times newspaper.
        Davis, who like Johnson resigned in protest said her plan was “just wrong”, but he added he thought it was 80-90 percent likely that the government would strike an exit deal with the EU.
        May’s team had hoped the party’s conference would give her a platform to renew her pledge to help those people who are “just about managing”, trying to pull the focus away from Brexit and on to a domestic agenda.
        But her first announcement – for an additional levy on foreign home buyers – did little to reset the conversation, with Sunday dominated again with Brexit, a possible leadership campaign and the prospect of an early election.
        A report by a research group suggested Britain’s decision to leave the EU has cost the government 500 million pounds ($650 million) a week, wiping out for the moment any future savings from stopping payments to the bloc.
        Ian Lavery, chairman of the opposition Labour Party, said the Conservatives were “clearly too busy fighting amongst themselves and have neither the ideas nor the desire to offer real solutions to the problems they have caused.”
        Johnson’s interview in the Sunday Times was seen by many in the party to be the start of a campaign to unseat May – something that angered some Conservatives who are critical of the former foreign minister.
        May refused to be drawn on his comments, and did not refer to him by name in a lengthy interview with the BBC.    But her response was sharp.
        “I do believe in Brexit,” she said.
        “But crucially I believe in delivering Brexit in a way that respects the vote and delivers on the vote of the British people while also protecting our union, protecting jobs and ensuring that we make a success of Brexit for the future.”
    (Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Keith Weir)

    9/30/2018 U.S. ambassador accuses China of ‘bullying’ with ‘propaganda ads’ by Tony Munroe
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad speaks to the media in front of his residence in Beijing, China June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
        BEIJING (Reuters) – A week after an official Chinese newspaper ran a four-page ad in a U.S. daily touting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade, the U.S. ambassador to China accused Beijing of using the American press to spread propaganda.
        U.S. President Donald Trump last Wednesday referred to the China Daily’s paid supplement in the Des Moines Register – the state of Iowa’s biggest selling newspaper – after accusing China of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, a charge China denies.
        Trump’s accusation that Beijing was trying to meddle in U.S. elections marked what U.S. officials told Reuters was a new phase in an escalating campaign by Washington to put pressure on China.
        While it is normal for foreign governments to place advertisements to promote trade, Beijing and Washington are currently locked in an escalating trade war that has seen them level rounds of tariffs on each other’s imports.
        China’s retaliatory tariffs early in the trade war were designed to hit exporters in states such as Iowa that supported Trump’s Republican Party, Chinese and U.S. experts have said.
        Terry Branstad, the U.S. ambassador to China and the former longtime governor of Iowa, a major exporter of agricultural goods to China, said Beijing had hurt American workers, farmers and businesses.
        China, Branstad wrote in an opinion piece in Sunday’s Des Moines Register, “is now doubling down on that bullying by running propaganda ads in our own free press.”
        “In disseminating its propaganda, China’s government is availing itself of America’s cherished tradition of free speech and a free press by placing a paid advertisement in the Des Moines Register,” Branstad wrote.
        “In contrast, at the newsstand down the street here in Beijing, you will find limited dissenting voices and will not see any true reflection of the disparate opinions that the Chinese people may have on China’s troubling economic trajectory, given that media is under the firm thumb of the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote.
        He added that “one of China’s most prominent newspapers dodged the offer to publish” his article, although he did not say which newspaper.
    (Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

    10/1/2018 European shares rise as NAFTA deal lifts sentiment by Julien Ponthus
    The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 27, 2018. REUTERS/Staff
        LONDON (Reuters) – European shares rose on Monday morning as optimism on the trade war front was lifted by a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, which is helping world markets enter the fourth quarter on a positive footing.
        At 0820 GMT, the euro zone benchmark <.STOXX50E> was up 0.4 percent with most European bourses and sectors trading in positive territory.
        “News overnight of a late agreement between the U.S. and Canada to salvage the NAFTA trade agreement should give a boost to global risk appetite at the start of the fourth quarter,” wrote Peel Hunt strategist Ian Williams, adding the deal “may offer encouragement that the other global trade disputes can settled satisfactorily.”
        Ryanair was the worst performer, down 7.5 percent after it cut its forecast for full-year profit and said there could be worse to come if recent coordinated strikes across Europe continue to hit traffic and bookings.
        The low-cost carrier’s fall weighed on the wider sector <.SXTP> which was one of the only ones in the red, down 0.6 percent.
        Peer Easyjet , Air France-KLM and BA owner IAG were down 4.1 percent, 2.6 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
        Germany’s Linde posted the highest rise, climbing 6.3 percent after it received approval for its proposed $83 billion merger with Praxair PX.N from the Chinese antitrust authorities.
        French supermarket group Casino was up 0.3 percent after it said it had agreed to sell some property assets for 565 million euros ($655 million) to reduce debt levels that have worried investors.
        Italian banks <.FTIT8300> were up 0.5 percent after suffering their worst fall in about two years on Friday on fears the populist government’s decision to increase its deficit target could threaten the long-term sustainability of its sovereign debt.
        On Sunday, Italian daily La Repubblica reported that the European Commission was set to reject Italy’s budget plans in November and open a procedure against the country’s public accounts.
        The Milan bourse was up 1 percent, making it the best performer among European trading centers, as it rebounded from a 3.7 percent drop on Friday.
    (Julien Ponthus and Danilo Masoni; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    10/1/2018 Dollar cements gains on growing rate gap bets by Saikat Chatterjee
    FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture
    taken in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – The dollar consolidated recent gains and held below a near one-month high on Monday as higher U.S. Treasury yields boosted appeal for the greenback while the euro struggled to stay above 1.16 levels on the Italian budget concerns.
        “Relative interest rate differential story is back and that is helping the dollar with U.S. ten-year yields comfortably above the 3 percent levels and the Fed likely to raise interest rates again in December,” said Alvin Tan, a currency strategist at Societe Generale in London.
        The dollar index <=USD> was broadly steady at 95.13 and just holding below a Sept. 10 high of 95.38 hit in the previous session.
        While trade concerns have played a major role in the dollar’s 3.2 percent rise so far this year, an increasingly confident U.S. Federal Reserve has also helped the greenback.
        Elsewhere, the Canadian dollar rallied half a percent against the U.S. dollar on Monday as investors rushed to buy riskier assets after the United States and Canada agreed to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.
        Though other major currencies have recovered some ground against the dollar in recent weeks, JP Morgan strategists said the greenback’s gains against many high beta emerging market currencies will continue to support the dollar.
        Latest weekly positioning data showed that dollar long positions rose in the week ending Sept. 28 to a net long position of $24.8 billion, its biggest since Jan. 2017 as strong U.S. data and higher Treasury yields attracted hedge funds.
        That marks a remarkable turnaround for the dollar this year when short positions in the greenback peaked at nearly $29 billion in April.
        “Appetite for risk-taking is a bit firmer today in the backdrop of the trade deal, though the spotlight will be firmly on U.S. jobs data on Friday, which will indicate whether wage growth has picked up,” said Manuel Oliveri, a currency strategist at Credit Agricole in London.
        Apart from U.S. jobs data on Friday, PMI data will also be closely watched.
        However, the euro struggled to gain much traction as concerns about the Italian budget dogged sentiment.    The single currency was broadly flat around the $1.1608 levels.
        Italian daily La Repubblica reported on Monday that the European Commission was set to reject Italy’s plans to lift its budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and open a procedure against its public accounts in February.
        The proposed deficit is three times the previous administration’s target.
        Sterling was broadly flat as a ruling Conservative Party Conference got underway over the weekend and British finance minister Philip Hammond said the European Union was in the mood to do a divorce deal.
    (Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee, editing by Richard Balmforth)

    10/1/2018 Brent oil hits highest since 2014 before U.S. sanctions on Iran bite by Amanda Cooper
    FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate in front of a drilling rig in an oil field in Midland, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Brent crude oil hovered close to its highest since November 2014 on Monday, supported by supply concerns before U.S. sanctions against Iran come into force next month.
        December Brent crude futures were up 23 cents at $82.96 a barrel at 1121 GMT, having touching their highest in almost four years at $83.32. U.S. light crude was up 15 cents at $73.40.
        “Saudi Arabia are signaling that they do not have a lot of prompt spare capacity available, or that they don’t have the will to really use it on a proactive basis,” said Petromatrix strategist Olivier Jakob.
        “There’s nothing right now that gives a strong incentive to be a strong seller of the market.”
        Investors have indicated that they see prices rising, loading up on options that give the holder the right to buy Brent crude at $90 a barrel by the end of October.    Open interest in call options at $90 a barrel has risen by nearly 12,000 lots in the past week to 38,000 lots, or 38 million barrels.
        Higher oil prices and dollar strength, which has battered the currencies of several big crude importers, could hit demand growth next year, analysts said.
        But for now the focus is U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy industry, which come into force on Nov. 4 and are designed to cut crude exports from the third-biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
        Several major buyers in India and China have signaled that they will cut purchases of Iranian oil.    China’s Sinopec <600028.SS> said it had halved loadings of Iranian oil in September.
        “If Chinese refiners do comply with U.S. sanctions more fully than expected, then the market balance is likely to tighten even more aggressively,” Emirates NBD analyst Edward Bell wrote in a note.
        Hedge funds have increased bets on a further price rise.    Exchange data shows the combined net long position in Brent and U.S light crude futures and options at its largest since late July, equivalent to about 850 million barrels of oil.    [CFTC/] [O/ICE]
        U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Saudi King Salman on Saturday on ways to maintain sufficient supply.
        “Even if they (Saudi Arabia) wanted to bend to President Trump’s wishes, how much spare capacity does the kingdom have?” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore.
        With about 1.5 million barrels per day of Iranian oil expected to go offline on Nov. 4, prices could “rocket higher with the flashy $100 per barrel price tag indeed a reasonable-sounding target” if investors doubted the Saudis ability to respond with enough extra output, he said.
    (GRAPHIC: U.S. crude oil output, rig count – https://reut.rs/2IrBi7E)
    (GRAPHIC: Oil prices in different currencies – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OffFwp)
    (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by David Goodman)

    10/1/2018 UK to send 800 troops to Arctic, citing concerns about Russia
        Britain’s defense secretary says the U.K. plans to boost its military presence in the Arctic next year amid concerns about Russian aggression.
        Gavin Williamson told The Sunday Telegraph that the government is preparing a “defense Arctic strategy” that would deploy 800 commandos to Norway in 2019.

    10/1/2018 ‘Don’t bully us’, Britain takes new combative tone to Brexit talks by Elizabeth Piper and William James
    Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab delivers his keynote address
    to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 1, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
        BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Monday, sharpening the government’s criticism of the European Union for taunting Prime Minister Theresa May and souring difficult Brexit talks.
        May’s ministers have come out one by one at their party’s annual conference in the city of Birmingham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show “respect” in the talks to end Britain’s membership.
        Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, May faces growing criticism over her proposals not only in her governing party but also in Brussels.
        Party unity is on ministers’ minds, and they are encouraging the faithful to direct their anger at the EU rather than at their prime minister, who some eurosceptic Conservatives accuse of leading Britain toward a “Brexit in name only”.
        Other ministers, such as finance minister Philip Hammond, have taken a softer tone, pointing out that leaving without a deal could hurt Britain’s economy, the world’s fifth largest.
        But Raab said he had called on the EU to match the “ambition and pragmatism” Britain had put forward with May’s Chequers proposals, named after her country residence where an agreement with her ministers was hashed out in July.
        “Unfortunately, that wasn’t on display in Salzburg,” he said, describing a summit last month in the Austrian city where EU leaders rejected parts of the Chequers plan.
        “Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful.    In return we heard jibes from senior leaders and we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation.”
        “What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country’s interests,” Raab said.
        Instead of the much-hoped-for staging post, the Salzburg summit has become a byword for a sharp deterioration in the atmosphere of the talks, when British government officials felt May was ambushed by the other EU leaders over Brexit.
    “NO CHERRIES”
        A tweet by European Council President Donald Tusk showing him offering May a selection of cakes with the comment: “A piece of cake, perhaps?    Sorry, no cherries” “certainly had an impact”, one official said.
        With no divorce deal and a standoff over the shape of any future relationship, the possibility of a “no deal Brexit” has increased, with some businesses preparing for what they see as a worst case scenario.
        “The world is watching,” said Matthew Fell, UK chief policy director at the Confederation of British Industry.
        “Every signal is hugely important in terms of setting the tone.    So the more that people can coalesce around some areas of agreement such as an industrial strategy, innovation and skills would be hugely helpful,” he told Reuters.
        But one source close to the government said there was now a sense that the EU had realized that the tone set in Salzburg was “perhaps a bit off” and, behind the scenes, conservations between the two sides were more constructive.
        Hammond, for one, was keen to pursue a more positive stance.
        After Brexit, Britain and the EU will still “be neighbors and we are going to have to carry on living with each other,” he told the conference, again backing May’s Chequers plan.
        “Mr Tusk says it won’t work.    But that’s what people said about the light bulb in 1878.    Our job is to prove him wrong.”
        But his softer line won less support at the conference than those adopted by Raab, trade minister Liam Fox and foreign minister Jeremy Hunt, who on Sunday compared the EU with the Soviet Union which could turn into a prison from which not only Britain would want to escape.
        It was Raab, winning a standing ovation for his story about his father’s journey from then Czechoslovakia after the Nazi invasion, who summed up Britain’s new combative stance.
        “The EU’s theological approach allows no room for serious compromise,” he said.    “If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious.”
    (Additional reporting by William James, Kylie MacLellan, Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    The following is a comment by myself Jim A. Cornwell regarding the October 1, 2017 when a gunman, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, with 59 deaths, and non-fatal injuries to 851 (422 by gunfire) for a mass shooting, murder–suicide and the news as seen below are having a one-year anniversary.
    10/1/2018 Somber Tributes, Dimmed Lights on Vegas Shooting Anniversary by Ken Ritter and Regina Garcia Cano
        "Today, we are reminded of the pain that never really goes away," Nevada's governor said     "There is something very comforting about being with other survivors (and) family members," she said.
    "It's a very strange club to be a part of."
        Hours earlier, victims' families, survivors and elected officials marked the anniversary of the tragedy by placing roses on a tribute wall and dedicating a downtown memorial garden.
        The dedication ceremony under a cloud-streaked orange sunset drew at least 200 people, including former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, herself a survivor of a 2011 mass shooting.

        On August 3, 2018 I found in the Courier-Journal by Mark Berman August 3 at 2:28 PM Email the author, who wrote the following:
        Nearly a year after a gunman in Las Vegas carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, police say they have concluded their investigation without being able to determine what motivated the massacre.
        The Las Vegas police announced this on Friday, just two months before the first anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017, attack that killed 58 people and injured hundreds more at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.    Officials said Stephen Paddock fired from his 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for more than 10 minutes before eventually turning one of his guns on himself.
        In a 181-page report released Friday, police said that while searching for a possible motivation they scoured the gunman’s financial history, explored his movements and actions leading up to the shooting and spoke with his girlfriend, ex-wife, other relatives and his doctor.    After all of that, though, they were still unable to answer the pivotal question that has lingered since the carnage.
        “What we have not been able to definitively answer is why Stephen Paddock committed this act,” Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news briefing before the report was made public.
        [‘I’m constantly asking: Why?’ When mass shootings end, the painful wait for answers begins.]
        Even in a country periodically scarred by shootings in schools, movie theaters, churches and offices, the scale of what happened in Las Vegas remains staggering.    Police said that in addition to those killed that night, another 869 people were physically injured, nearly half of them hurt by gunshots or shrapnel.    Scores of other people in the crowd of 22,000 are enduring psychological scars after witnessing such devastation.
        The report includes details about the gunman’s financial status, noting that an FBI analysis found that the amounts in his 14 bank accounts dropped before the shooting.    In September 2015, he had just shy of $2.1 million in his back accounts, a total that declined to $530,000 in September 2017, the report said.
        He had paid considerable amounts to casinos and credit card companies and, while his girlfriend was abroad before and during the massacre, wired $150,000 into her account, investigators found.    One of his last checks — for more than $13,000 — was written to the Internal Revenue Service, where the gunman had worked for a time.
        Lombardo called the gunman “an unremarkable man” who left behind only enough information for people to make educated guesses as to what drove him.    Investigators found that many people described the 64-year-old “as a narcissist [who] only cared about himself,” the report said.    One of the gunman’s brothers said he had mental health issues.    His girlfriend said the gunman claimed he was told by doctors he had a chemical imbalance and also complained doctors couldn’t cure him.    The report quotes the gunman’s doctor as saying he was “odd,” may have had bipolar disorder and accepted prescriptions for anxiety medication but refused anti-depressants.
        His girlfriend, who returned to the United States after the attack, was interviewed by investigators upon her return and said the gunman did not talk about gun control or express any racial bias.    She also said he did not discuss politics besides saying he was unhappy with the Obama administration “and was happy when President Trump was elected,” believing he would “do something to stop illegal immigration,” the report stated.    No other reference to politics is made in the police report.
    [Mandalay Bay hotel owner files lawsuits against Las Vegas massacre victims, saying it has ‘no liability of any kind’]
        While investigators were unable to determine a motive, they did find “certain indicators of intent shown by Paddock,” the report concluded.
        Among those were his reservations for a hotel in Chicago overlooking the Lollapalooza music festival and a reservation during another open-air music festival in downtown Las Vegas.    His girlfriend also noted that during a September 2017 stay in the Mandalay Bay, he was “constantly looking out the windows of the room” overlooking another concert venue.    His Internet search history showed that he had explored open-air concert venues and Las Vegas SWAT tactics.    (Officials also said they found “several hundred images of child pornography” on his computer and that the investigation into the source of those is ongoing.)
        Lombardo described the report as final, though he later referred to it as a “living document” and said new information could arise.    He also reiterated that police believe the gunman acted alone and said that they do not anticipate charging anyone else.
        The FBI, which took the lead in collecting evidence and provided other support to the investigation, also plans to issue its own report discussing the gunman’s psychopathology, Lombardo said.    A spokeswoman for the bureau said that report is set to be released later this year.
        Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo spoke of Stephen Paddock as “an unremarkable man” who left behind only enough information for people to make educated guesses as to what drove him to unleash such horror. (John Locher/AP)
        Police have said before they did not know what motivated the gunman, though at those times the investigation was ongoing.    Authorities have said the gunman spent considerable time preparing for the attack, amassing weapons and ammunition, and sought “to thwart the eventual law enforcement investigation” that would follow.
        While many rampage attackers give some explanations for their violence, the gunman in Las Vegas left behind no manifesto or suicide note, authorities said.    This lack of an answer can gnaw at those who survive such violence, said Megan Greene, who survived the Las Vegas attack.
        “Not knowing is probably the worst part of all of it,” Greene said in an interview earlier this year.
        “The big question is just why, and not having that answer just keeps you in this constant loop of questioning all of the actions of that day.”
    [‘I’m not gonna lay here and just get shot’: Survivors recount the terror and chaos of the Las Vegas massacre]
        Before releasing the report Friday, the Las Vegas police also made public waves of documents, video clips and audio files relating to the shooting in response to a lawsuit filed by media organizations.
        These materials have included body camera footage from officers who entered the gunman’s hotel suite to find him dead, shocked accounts from police responding to the shooting and horrified stories from people who survived.
        Nearly a year later, the shooting continues to reverberate through the lives of those who survived and many others who were affected.    Part of that is playing out in legal proceedings, as MGM Resorts International, which owns the hotel, filed lawsuits against more than 1,000 survivors to argue that it should not face any liability for the attack.
    [The wounds they carry: The aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre]
        As part of the lawsuit, the company is arguing that the shooting should be considered a terrorist attack, which could bolster its case that a federal law passed after the 9/11 attacks should limit its liability.
        The Las Vegas police report issued on Friday said that investigators found “no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization.”    Lombardo, the sheriff, said he recognizes that determining whether the shooting was terrorism depends on what definition a person uses.    He also added that he had come to his own conclusion.
        “I would personally call it a terrorist act,” he said.
        This report, first published at 1:15 p.m., has been updated.
    Further reading: Las Vegas gunman methodically sought to ‘thwart’ investigation of massacre, FBI says
    ‘The club no one wants to join.’ Mass-shooting survivors find solace in one another.

        I responded to the author as seen below:
    To Mark Berman:
        I read your article and appreciate your clarity of it.
        Ever since the event happened and no one seems to look at the whole picture of why Paddock did this.
        For the last decade persons seem to be doing mass killing for unknown reasons and most began when the Obama administration began and they started the undoing of the ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] the battle of the Second Amendment has stopped the onslaught of those rights being taken away from us by the Democrats.
        As the Police mostly influenced by Nevada a state that has been very Democratic for years say they have “concluded their investigation without being able to determine what motivated the massacre.”
        “Lombardo called the gunman “an unremarkable man” who left behind only enough information for people to make educated guesses as to what drove him. Investigators found that many people described the 64-year-old “as a narcissist [who] only cared about himself,” the report said. One of the gunman’s brothers said he had mental health issues. His girlfriend said the gunman claimed he was told by doctors he had a chemical imbalance and also complained doctors couldn’t cure him. The report quotes the gunman’s doctor as saying he was “odd,” may have had bipolar disorder and accepted prescriptions for anxiety medication but refused anti-depressants.”
        His girlfriend, who returned to the United States after the attack, was interviewed by investigators upon her return and said the gunman did not talk about gun control or express any racial bias.    She also said he did not discuss politics besides saying he was unhappy with the Obama administration “and was happy when President Trump was elected,” believing he would “do something to stop illegal immigration,” the report stated.    No other reference to politics is made in the police report.
        While investigators were unable to determine a motive, they did find “certain indicators of intent shown by Paddock,” the report concluded.
        Among those were his reservations for a hotel in Chicago overlooking the Lollapalooza music festival and a reservation during another open-air music festival in downtown Las Vegas.    His girlfriend also noted that during a September 2017 stay in the Mandalay Bay, he was “constantly looking out the windows of the room” overlooking another concert venue.    His Internet search history showed that he had explored open-air concert venues and Las Vegas SWAT tactics.    (Officials also said they found “several hundred images of child pornography” on his computer and that the investigation into the source of those is ongoing.)
        Lombardo described the report as final, though he later referred to it as a “living document” and said new information could arise.    He also reiterated that police believe the gunman acted alone and said that they do not anticipate charging anyone else.
        The FBI, which took the lead in collecting evidence and provided other support to the investigation, also plans to issue its own report discussing the gunman’s psychopathology, Lombardo said.    A spokeswoman for the bureau said that report is set to be released later this year.
        The Las Vegas police report issued on Friday said that investigators found “no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization.”    Lombardo, the sheriff, said he recognizes that determining whether the shooting was terrorism depends on what definition a person uses.    He also added that he had come to his own conclusion.
    “I would personally call it a terrorist act,” he said    .

        I repeated what you wrote because of this investigation no one noticed or commented why he was looking for a specific place to do his massacre and why.    He turned down a music festival probably because the crowd did not fit his purpose in Chicago and as well as other ones, but did not fit his purpose, or a specific group.
        The reason I wrote this is, “What was his purpose in buying so many weapons, many are considered overkill, but it is not hard to see what was going on.    He selected the October festival from 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort because it was a Country Music festival which was packed with country music persons who believed in the Second Amendment the rights to have any kind of weapons, and I believe he had a twisted mind thinking that by killing as many of them he could would affect that right in some twisted way, which was crazy in itself.”
        After all that investigation no one even considered that venue, probably because of their political status.
    Jim A. Cornwell, mazzaroth@msn.com
    [Noted that it has been a year now and the FBI has not released a final report].

    10/1/2018 President Trump touts ‘historic’ USMCA by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is touting his administration’s new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, calling it a new dawn for the American worker.
        During a Rose Garden address Monday, the president said the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is the largest and most historic trade deal ever made.
        He said the deal will terminate NAFTA, which he criticized as one of the worst trade deals ever made.
    President Donald Trump speaks as he announces a revamped North American free trade deal, in the Rose Garden of
    the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018.    The new deal, reached just before a midnight deadline imposed by
    the U.S., will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.    It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement,
    which President Donald Trump had called a job-killing disaster. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        The president argued the USMCA focuses on fairness and reciprocity.    The deal sets new protections for labor, the environment, and intellectual property.
        He added, the deal will close job-killing loopholes, which he says will be a great victory for American farmers, manufacturers and autoworkers.
        Despite the agreement, President Trump confirmed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will remain in place.
        He plans to sign the deal next month before sending it to Congress for approval.
        [I thought I would add this since the above article seems to take on the USMCA title but then I discovered the following http://usmca.org/
        About USMCA The U.S. Motorcycle Coaching Association was created to grow the sport of motorcycling through quality coaching of new and returning riders.    USMCA Certified Coaches have completed the core content, agreed to uphold the USMCA values and Code of Conduct, passed a national-level background check, knowledge in basic AHA or Red Cross First Aid and CPR, and taken a step towards the management of concussions and how to detect signs for heat illness and cardiac arrest.    Certified Coaches are certified by two board members or have completed an in-field evaluation.
        They have the copyright on "USMCA".]

    10/1/2018 National Trade Council adviser: U.S. is no longer the global piggy bank by OAN Newsroom
        White House Trade adviser Peter Navarro is touting the USMCA, saying the trade agreement shows the U.S. will no longer be “the world’s piggy bank.”
        Navarro made the remarks during an interview Monday, claiming the agreement is good for all three countries involved.
        The trade expert went on to say the U.S. seeks free and fair trade, and when nations bargain fairly deals can be reached.
    FILE PHOTO – Robert Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative, and Peter Navarro chat while they wait for
    U.S. President Donald Trump to arrive to make an announcement about new tariffs for steel and aluminum imports
    at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 8, 2018. (REUTERS/Photo/Leah Millis)
        Meanwhile, Navarro also slammed China and accused the country of unfair trade practices.
        “Something’s got to change there because structurally if this global economy is going to go into its faster gear over the next decade, we really have to fundamentally change the way China relates to everybody,” he stated.
        This comes just one day after the U.S. and Canada reached an agreement amid negotiations regarding the USMCA.
        The U.S., Canada and Mexico are expected to sign the trilateral trade deal in November with ratification coming in the following months.

    10/2/2018 Oil was up $2.06 to $75.30, DOW up 193 to 26,651.

    10/2/2018 Nations reach deal to replace NAFTA - But hard work ahead for US, Mexico, Canada by David Jackson and Michael Collins, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and the leaders of Canada and Mexico touted a new trade agreement between the three countries Monday as a historic deal that would benefit workers across North America.
        But the hard work is far from over.
        The agreement, which would replace the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement, must be ratified by all three countries.    The leaders of all three nations are likely to sign the deal by the end of November.
        In the USA, Congress is unlikely to vote on the accord until early next year, when Democrats could hold a slim majority in the House and possibly even control the Senate as a result of the midterm elections in November.
        At a Rose Garden news conference Monday, Trump called the trade agreement “truly historic news” but said he’s “not at all confident” that it will win congressional approval.
        “Anything you submit to Congress is trouble, no matter what,” Trump said, arguing that Democrats “can take the greatest thing ever done and try to make it sound as bad as possible.”
        In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who argued with Trump over trade in recent months, said the deal “will be good for Canadian workers, good for Canadian businesses and good for Canadian families.”
        Dairy farmers in Canada denounced the deal for giving the United States greater access to Canada’s dairy markets.    Trudeau could have a difficult time selling the pact in Quebec, an important dairy-producing province.
        Regardless, free and fair trade in North America “is in a much more stable place than it was yesterday,” he said.    “We now have a path forward.”
        In Mexico, the trade pact faces a much smoother road to passage even as the presidency changes hands in December.
        “We celebrate a trilateral deal.    The door closes on trade fragmentation in the region,” tweeted Jesus Seade, trade negotiator for Mexico’s incoming president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
        The agreement, announced late Sunday night just before a midnight deadline imposed by the United States, is designed to replace NAFTA, a 25-year-old pact that essentially eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the three countries.
        The deal, the result of 13 months of negotiations, includes rules for the movement of products between the three countries and even a new name: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
        In a briefing after Trump’s news conference, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the trade agreement would make improvements in a number of areas, including automobiles, labor provisions, intellectual property, access to agricultural markets and a review mechanism.
        The last-minute deal would provide the United States with greater access to Canada’s dairy market, a concession sought by Trump and U.S. dairy producers.    The agreement contains rules requiring that a higher percentage of autos be made from parts manufactured in North America.
        Under NAFTA, automakers can qualify for zero tariffs if 62.5 percent of their vehicles’ components are manufactured in the USA, Canada or Mexico.    That figure would jump to 75 percent under the new deal.    Starting in 2020, 30 percent of vehicle production would have to be done by workers earning an average production wage of at least $16 per hour.    By 2023, that percentage would rise to 40 percent.
        The agreement would run for 16 years but would be reviewed after six years and could be extended for another 16.
        In Congress, the deal received favorable reviews from Republicans.
        House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., applauded the Trump administration for “bringing Canada into the fold to reach a trilateral agreement” and said he looks forward to reviewing the text.
        House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said any trade agreement “must be judged by whether it improves the wages, working conditions and well-being of America’s workers and farmers.”
        Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said NAFTA needed fixing and Trump deserves praise for taking steps to improve it.    But “any final agreement must be judged on how it benefits and protects middle-class families and the working people in our country,” he said.
        One of the Senate’s top Republicans, Sen. John Cornyn, who represents the border state of Texas, said in a statement he was pleased to see the three countries “modernize NAFTA,” saying it’s “a positive step toward maintaining a strong, unified North American economy, and I look forward to reviewing the details.”
    Contributing: John Fritze
    The U.S., Canada and Mexico have reached a new trade deal that leaders from all three countries say will benefit workers across North America. JUDI BOTTONI/AP

    10/2/2018 New Canada trade deal benefits US dairy farmers, Pact to allow more sales of milk, butter, cheese by Rick Barrett Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
        USA TODAY NETWORK - Dairy farmers in states such as New York and Wisconsin will be able to sell more of their milk, butter and cheese to Canada under a new trade pact that replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement.
        The two countries will now join Mexico in updating that 1994 accord, which will be renamed the United States Mexico Canada Agreement.
        As part of the deal, the U.S. is getting expanded access to Canada’s protected dairy market.
        Canada will ease restrictions on its dairy market and allow American farmers to export about $560 million worth of dairy products to its northern neighbor.    That’s about 3.5 percent of Canada’s total $16 billion dairy industry.
        “This is a very, very big deal for our farmers.    Mexico and Canada will be opened up a lot more than they are now, and I think there will be a better spirit between our three countries, which is important for our farmers,” President Donald Trump said Monday in a speech at the White House.
        Canada will eliminate its so-called Class 7 milk pricing system, which makes it cheaper for the country’s dairy processors to buy certain ingredients domestically.    The system was a big obstacle in the trade talks.
        And market access for the U.S. will exceed Canada’s concessions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
        Canada will also add an export charge on skim milk products and infant formula, allowing U.S. producers to expand their presence overseas.
        In early 2017, dozens of dairy farms in Wisconsin, the nation’s second-largest dairy producer, were nearly forced out of business when they lost their milk buyer following a trade dispute with Canada.
        Grassland Dairy Products said it no longer would buy milk from those farms because it lost millions of dollars in business when the Canadian dairy industry made it harder for U.S. processors to sell ultrafiltered milk – used to make cheese – in Canada.
        Trump promised to settle that fight, and other agricultural skirmishes, in the NAFTA negotiations.
        “The deal includes a substantial increase in our farmers’ opportunities to export American wheat, poultry, eggs and dairy, including milk, butter, cheese, yogurt and ice cream,” the president said Monday.
        “Those products were not really being treated fairly as far as those who worked so hard to produce them, and now they’re going to be treated fairly,” he added.
        Canadian officials said they weren’t to blame.    Instead, they faulted the U.S. for producing too much milk in a global marketplace that was already flooded with the product.
        The new deal also benefits New York, the nation’s third-largest milk producer and the No. 1 producer of yogurt, cottage cheese and sour cream, according to the New York Farm Bureau.
        “We have an overall positive look at both the Canadian and Mexico agreement,” said Lauren Williams, senior associate director of national affairs for the state Farm Bureau.    “It’s going to be a positive for New York agricultural, and with the Canadian provisions, it’s going to be a positive for the New York dairy industry.”
        There was no immediate comment from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets about the impact of the trade deal.
        The agreement will help dairy farmers in New York who had been stung by restrictive trade policies with Mexico and Canada, said Bob Wellington, a dairy economist at Agri-Mark Cooperative, which is based in Andover, Massachusetts.
        “The problem was our trade with Canada really put us in a hole about two years ago.    And it looks like that is going to get straightened out,” Wellington said.    “I think very much so it’s going to be a positive.”
    Contributing: Chad Arnold, Joseph Spector of the (Rochester) Democrat and Chronicle
    In early 2017, dozens of dairy farms were nearly forced out of business when they lost their milk buyer following a trade dispute with Canada. MICHAEL SEARS/USA TODAY NETWORK

    10/2/2018 Alternative Brexit conference shows threat to UK PM May from party rebels by Alex Fraser
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the ICC for the third day of the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
        BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – A day after Prime Minister Theresa May urged her party to use their annual conference to unite behind her Brexit plans, rebel lawmakers were running out of patience with her decision to proceed with proposals many feel do not make a clean enough break from the EU.
        A few streets away from the main conference venue in the English city of Birmingham, eurosceptic lawmakers told Reuters her so-called “Chequers” plans were dead and that parliament would vote them down.
        “We would be failing to deliver the referendum mandate under the Chequers proposal,” said Priti Patel, a former minister in May’s government, referring to the 2016 referendum in which Britons voted 52 to 48 percent to leave the EU.
        “There can be no halfway house,” she told Reuters.    “We promised the British public that we were going to leave the European Union.”
        With less than six months before Britain is due to leave the EU, there is still no full exit agreement and eurosceptic rebels in her party are threatening to vote down a deal even if May clinches one.
        The fate of May’s government and her Brexit plan is in doubt because it is unclear whether she can command the 320 votes she needs in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, to approve a deal.
        During the event, billed as the alternative Brexit Advance Coalition Conference, audience members were asked to vote on who would be best to lead the party.
        Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of a faction of Brexit hardliners in May’s party, came top of the poll with 49 percent of the vote in the room. May only received 1 percent.
        Ninety-six percent of those attending said they opposed her plans for leaving the EU.
        “It never ever represented the instructions that the British people gave in the referendum,” said Bill Cash, a veteran Eurosceptic lawmaker.
        Andrea Jenkyns, who resigned from her role within May’s government as a parliamentary private secretary over the summer, said Brexit was now in danger of being scuttled by the government.
        “Our party members don’t want it, the public doesn’t want it, the opposition aren’t going to vote for it, the EU doesn’t want it, so we must chuck Chequers,” she said.
        But lawmakers and members said they do not want a snap election or a replacement for May as prime minister just yet.
        “We are determined not to have another election,” said Daniel Kawczynski, a lawmaker for a region in western England.    “I think it would be the height of folly and irresponsibility to keep going back to the people with more general elections and more referenda.”
        But Kawczynski said if the prime minister refuses to deviate from her plan then he would consult the opinion of his constituents and party members.
        “If she can’t bring along people who are in this audience and people in my association, then of course her position would ultimately be precarious,” he added.
    (Editing by Andrew MacAskill and Stephen Addison)

    10/2/2018 Beyond the rhetoric, Britain, EU preparing to move forward on Brexit by Gabriela Baczynska and Elizabeth Piper
    Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab delivers his keynote address to the
    Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 1, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
        BRUSSELS/BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – “Unworkable”, “unacceptable”, “impasse” – the words used to describe Brexit talks between Britain and the European Union do little to temper concerns that the two are heading for a chaotic divorce.
        But behind the scenes, both sides are preparing concessions as part of what one British official called “a constructive dialogue” that could yet lead to a deal.
        Officials and sources on both sides say there is clear will to try to overcome the obstacles to winning a withdrawal deal and agreeing a framework for future ties – a Northern Ireland border and EU-UK trade deal.
        Details are scarce, but the EU is planning to start putting in writing its offer for future trade ties, a demand Britain has pressed after officials felt Prime Minister Theresa May was snubbed at talks in Austria last month.
        Britain has also promised to bring a new proposal to unlock a standoff over preventing the return to a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, possibly by compromising about regulatory controls on goods in exchange for Brussels embracing the use of technological fixes for customs checks.
        With only six months to go before Britain leaves the bloc, the lack of clarity over the divorce has spooked markets by increasing the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, which both sides say they are working to avoid.
        On Wednesday, May gives a speech to end a fractious annual conference of her Conservative Party, where Brexit rebels did much to undermine her stance of maintaining close ties with the EU.
        On Thursday, Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will be in Brussels for talks with the EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
        Senior diplomats in Brussels have been summoned to a Brexit meeting on Friday and Barnier is due to present to them an initial draft of the bloc’s trade proposal soon after, which the EU hopes would woo Britain into more compromises.
        While no new dates have been confirmed for the next round of negotiations between Barnier and British Brexit minister Dominic Raab, several EU diplomats said they expected them to take place in Brussels next week.
        “It must be next week or it’s too late to get anything done within our six week schedule,” one person said, referring to a plan of having a preliminary Brexit deal at the next EU leaders’ summit on Oct. 18.
        The remaining 27 EU states are due to host a summit on Nov. 17-18 to sign off on any agreement with Britain.    Otherwise, they would switch to contingency mode and focus on preparing for a no-deal Brexit in which Britain leaves next March with no agreements in place to mitigate the economic shock.
    CUSTOMS VS. REGULATORY CHECKS
        British officials have signaled new ideas will come. A focus will be attempts to come to agreement over customs arrangements on the island of Ireland to prevent a return to a hard border that inflamed sectarian differences in the past.
        Raab welcomed Barnier’s suggestion that technology could be used to help resolve the issue after London said it could not accept the bloc’s proposal for Northern Ireland to effectively stay in the EU’s customs union.
        He also said Britain was looking at how regulatory checks on some goods could be used as part of a solution to move Brexit talks, notably on a “backstop deal” for the Irish border, forward.
        London has indicated that it may consider options on regulations on the island of Ireland, noting there are already some different rules for agriculture and food products between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
        But it was not clear whether the government would tolerate such a difference for manufactured goods.
        “We said we would need to retain a UK-wide customs backstop and on the regulatory side of things, we have been clear that we will, as long as we can carry the communities of Northern Ireland with us, we will be open to looking at some of the options on regulatory checks,” Raab said on the sidelines of May’s Conservative Party annual conference.
        The EU hopes a more developed promise of seeking close ties with Britain after Brexit could help May build a majority behind a divorce deal that the bloc insists must include an emergency fix for the Irish border.
        The bloc has decided to flesh out the declaration on post-Brexit ties with Britain a bit more to make the case for Britons more compelling.
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    10/2/2018 On Vegas anniversary, Trump says bump stocks ‘ruled out’
        President Donald Trump says rapid- fire devices like those used in the Las Vegas massacre a year ago will soon be “ruled out.”
    Speaking in the Rose Garden on the anniversary of the attack that left 58 people dead, Trump said his administration is working through the process.    “We are knocking out bump stocks.    I’ve told the NRA.    Bump stocks are gone,” he said.

    10/2/2018 Obama backs more than 200 Democrats ahead of midterms
        Former President Barack Obama is expanding his influence ahead of November’s midterm elections.    On Monday, he released a second slate of endorsements for Democrats running for offices ranging from local to national, bringing the total to more than 300.
        Among the most prominent candidates to win Obama’s support are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York; Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who is running for governor in Florida; and Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona.

    10/2/2018 Republican convention set for August 2020 in Charlotte, NC
        The Republican National Convention will be held in North Carolina’s largest city in August 2020, and party leaders said Monday that they’ll gather with an eye on nominating President Donald Trump for a second term.
        Party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced that the convention will be held in Charlotte on Aug. 24-27.
        Mayor Vi Lyles said Charlotte has a chance to show it can host both major political parties.    The city hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

    10/3/2008 Defense Secretary Mattis: U.S. diplomats doubled in Syria as ISIS nears defeat by OAN Newsroom
        Defense Secretary James Mattis recently announced the increased presence of American diplomats in Syria as the Islamic State’s presence nears extinction.
        Mattis made the remarks at the French defense ministry Tuesday, clarifying the unspecified number of American envoys has doubled.
        He said diplomat efforts are slowly replacing military operations as the ISIS stronghold continues to collapse.
    FILE – In this Sept. 18, 2018, file photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks to reporters as he waits for the arrival
    of Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana at the Pentagon.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
        Mattis went on to say peace in Syria remains a priority despite Russian backlash at the United Nations.
        “We are still in a tough fight, make no mistake about it as ISIS has collapsed inward, in their own way they have reinforced the center as they’ve been forced to what now less than two-percent of their original territory that they held,” explained the defense secretary.
        Mattis went on to tout the relationship between the U.S. and France, deeming the “depth” and “richness” of the partnership a “considerable asset.”

    10/3/2018 POLL: President Trump’s approval rating spikes higher than former President Obama by OAN Newsroom
        Democrats may be in for a big surprise this November with President Trump doing well in the polls just one month out from midterm elections.
        On Monday, Rasmussen’s daily poll tracker put support for the president at a solid 48-percent, which is a full three-points higher than Barack Obama had during the same period of his first term.
        The economy continues to be a top factor for voters heading into midterms, which are just five weeks out.    A joint study conducted by Harvard University and the Harris Poll found 57-percent of voters approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy.
        The results are especially important for Republicans, because more Democrats were included in the study’s pool of respondents.
    President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Johnson City, Tenn., Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        While the booming economy under President Trump has long been a focal point of his administration, pollsters predict the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico will shoot these number even higher in the weeks to come.
        The replacement NAFTA deal, called the USMCA, is being touted as a win for workers across the U.S.
        “These measures will support many hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” stated the president.    “This is also a historic win for American manufacturers and American autoworkers who have been treated so badly — we’ve lost so many jobs, over the years, under NAFTA.”
        President Trump’s ability to secure an agreement with Canada may also help bring about a so-called red wave this November by highlighting his ability to get things done while in office.
        In fact, the Pew Research Center found more than 80-percent of Republicans believe the president is a strong leader, who keeps his promises and stands up for what he believes.
        This could be a sign Republicans are motivated to get out and vote in the midterms.

    10/3/2018 Challenging her critics, British PM May embraces Brexit ‘opportunity’ by Elizabeth Piper, William James and Kylie MacLellan
    Delegates queue outside the conference hall prior to the British Prime Minister Theresa May delivering her keynote
    address on the final day of at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
        BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will tell her Conservative Party on Wednesday the impending divorce from the European Union is an opportunity that opens up a future of promise, assuring the faithful: “We have everything we need to succeed.”
        On the final day of her party’s conference May will take aim at her critics, who accuse her of failing to embrace Brexit and of giving in to the EU.
        The leader’s fragile position has been put under further pressure over the last month after the bloc rejected parts of her so-called Chequers plan and critics have stepped up calls for her to rethink her strategy for Brexit, the biggest trade and foreign policy shift in Britain for more than 40 years.
        But with just six months before Britain is due to leave the bloc, she has so far weathered the Brexit storm, shrugging off a barnstorming speech by her former foreign minister Boris Johnson, which did little to hide his leadership ambitions.
        “I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise,” she will say, according to excerpts of her speech.
        “Don’t let anyone tell you we don’t have what it takes: we have everything we need to succeed.”
        The words may do little to ease the growing frustration of some Conservatives who openly say their party is directionless, but with Brexit talks entering a critical phase, few of her rivals want the top job just yet.
        Less than an hour before she was due to speak, Conservative lawmaker James Duddridge said he had submitted a letter to the party’s so-called 1922 committee, calling on May to resign.
        Forty-eight lawmakers would need to write such letters to trigger a vote of confidence in the leader.
        “Turns out there is a plan.    That plan is Boris,” Duddridge wrote on Twitter after Boris Johnson’s speech on Tuesday.
        In the speech, Johnson seemed to pull his punches, backing May for now after he made a rallying cry for the party to return to its traditional values and to "Chequers.”
        And her allies were keen to present a united front.
        “I sit in a cabinet that is utterly united in working with the prime minister on the proposals we’ve put forward to the EU,” said David Lidington, her effective deputy.
    ‘SORRY FOR HER’
        John Smeaton, 80, a Conservative member from Somerset in southwestern England, said he was hoping: “She’s going to pull some rabbit out of the hat to make up for the fact that actually she doesn’t appear to be listening to what an awful lot of the members of the party are saying."
        “I feel sorry for her, but I’m not sure feeling sorry for your prime minister is a good place to be,” he said, as he stood near the front of a long queue to get into the main hall where May will speak.
        She will try to address her party’s fears of what some see as a growing threat from the main opposition Labour Party, which staged an upbeat conference last week when its leaders voiced confidence of winning any new election.
        Taking aim at Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, she will say that millions of people are “appalled” by his leftist policies, which include renationalizing rail, mail and utilities and boosting spending on infrastructure and housing.
        “They want to support a party that is decent, moderate and patriotic.    One that puts the national interest first,” she will say.    “i>We must show everyone in this country that we are that party.”
        But it will be her words on Brexit that most will focus on.
        With no agreement with the bloc over the divorce or a future relationship, the last day of the conference marks the beginning of what some officials predict will be a frenzied couple of weeks of diplomacy between London and Brussels as the two sides try to secure a deal to end more than 40 years of partnership.
        May and her team face weeks of difficult conversations with Brussels to win a deal, but she also faces challenges from inside her own party and from her partners in parliament, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.
        DUP leader Arlene Foster has used the conference to loudly set out her red lines for Brexit, repeating that she will not accept a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.    “The red line is blood red,” she told the BBC.
        Describing Britain’s divorce as a “moment of opportunity,” May will promise to always act in the “national interest,” a swipe at Johnson, whose alternative proposals for leaving the EU, she says, would tear the United Kingdom apart.
    (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    10/3/2018 Italy to cut deficit from 2020 after market sell-off by Giuseppe Fonte
    FILE PHOTO: Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
        ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s populist government will cut its budget deficit targets from 2020, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said on Wednesday, after investors sold off Italian assets and European Union ministers criticized its plans to jack up spending next year.
        The ruling coalition last week said it planned to run a deficit of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year, tripling the previous government’s target.    It also said that the deficit would stay at that level through 2021.
        The announcement unnerved markets and prompted criticism from European Commission officials but 5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio was defiant on Tuesday, pledging not to backtrack “by a millimeter.”
        However, government sources told Reuters on Wednesday the aim now was to reduce the deficit and to no higher than 2.2 percent of GDP in 2020 and 2 percent in 2021, and possibly lower.    Next year’s target remains 2.4 percent of GDP, they said.
        The news sent Italian government bond yields down, and overnight the euro gained against the dollar.    Italian bank stocks <.FTIT8300> jumped by as much as 3 percent, but later settled at a 0.8 percent gain.
        Speaking at a meeting of Italy’s largest employers’ lobby, Tria confirmed that the fiscal shortfall would be put on a downward path after next year.
        “The deficit will increase compared with the previous forecast in 2019, but then there will be a gradual reduction in the following years,” he said, without spelling out what the targets would be.
        Earlier, League leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini had indicated the government was changing tack compared with last week’s stance.
        “The goal (next year) is to get Italians working again and paying taxes as they work and therefore reduce the deficit and debt in the following years,” Salvini said in an interview with private TV broadcaster Mediaset.
    DEBT
        The coalition came to power in June promising to slash taxes and boost welfare spending, and says an expansionary budget next year will boost economic growth and thereby curb Italy’s debt – the largest in Europe after Greece at about 131 percent of GDP.
        President Sergio Mattarella hopes there will be as little deficit spending as possible, but is not trying to dictate numbers to the government, a source close to the president said on Wednesday.
        Italian media have reported Mattarella is exerting pressure on the government behind the scenes to keep public finances under control and avoid a head-on collision with the EU.
        “The majority of the member states will clearly ask and demand that these (EU budget) rules are observed,” Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loger, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said on Tuesday.
        Italy had previously pledged to Brussels that next year it would reduce its structural deficit, which is adjusted for the economic cycle and excludes one-off factors.
        During his speech to employers, Tria played down the government’s plans to raise deficit spending next year.
        “Even with a deficit goal that takes us further away from the structural adjustment requested by Europe, it doesn’t seem to me that it can be said this government is carefree on spending or that it’s going to blow apart public accounts to keep promises,” Tria said.
        Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is due to meet with key ministers to discuss the budget targets for 2019-2021 at around 1100 GMT on Wednesday, a separate government source said.
    (Additional reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio, writing by Giselda Vagnoni, editing by Steve Scherer and Jon Boyle)

    10/3/2018 WTO sees tech adding one third to annual trade by 2030
    The World Trade Organization WTO logo is seen at the entrance of the WTO headquarters in Geneva April 9, 2013. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
        GENEVA (Reuters) – Technology and innovation will increase global trade by 1.8-2.0 percentage points annually until 2030, the head of the World Trade Organization wrote in a report published on Wednesday.
        Blockchain, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, 3D printing and other breakthroughs would fundamentally change trade, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said as he launched the report.
        “This is structural, this is here to stay … It is a revolution,” he told a conference at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva.
        “Notwithstanding the current trade tensions, we predict that trade could grow yearly by 1.8 to 2.0 percentage points more until 2030 as a result of the falling trade costs, amounting to a cumulated growth of 31 to 34 percentage points over 15 years,” he wrote in his foreword to the WTO’s World Trade Report 2018.
        That compares with a fall in global trade costs of 15 percent between 1996 and 2014, the report said.
        Global e-commerce transactions were estimated to be worth $27.7 trillion in 2016, of which $23.9 trillion were business-to-business, the report said.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
        But first I would like to remind all that in my file www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterSeven/GATT-WTO.htm, I made all aware that GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) used the following symbol for decades up to the creation of the WTO (World Trade Organization).    I promoted a section on the December 6, 1999, regarding the "Battle in Seattle." in that file.
        As you see below left from the image was the original for GATT with 10 horns or regions and the 7 heads base supporting them.    So when the WTO formed we thought they would keep the same symbol in the second image to the left.    But they came out with a new image as seen in the middle below and notice that the leopard has changed it's spots in that symbol.    Or is that of a fancy colorful tiger hidden in the background?    It actually looks like the tiger has its claws wrapped around the world.    Well either way it looks like someone or something has a hold of the earth.    In the second image to the right why is only six of the original ten horns are presented is unknown.    And last to the right is the image you can see on the article above which changed some of the colors on it.
    The televised symbol for WTO    The televised symbol for WTOsymbol found at the WTO website    The televised symbol for WTO   

    10/3/2018 Justice Dept. submits bump stock ban to Office of Management and Budget     by OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 9:15 AM PT — Tues. Oct. 2, 2018 The Department of Justice moves to ban bump stock devices as the nation marks one-year since the Las Vegas massacre. One America’s Adonis Albright has the details as an announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

    10/3/2018 U.S. cancels 1955 treaty with Iran by OAN Newsroom
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has declared an end to a little known 1955 treaty with Iran amid heightened bilateral tension. Pompeo made the announcement Wednesday, saying the cancellation is “39 years overdue.”
        This comes after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), referred to as the World Court, issued a ruling demanding U.S. sanctions targeting Iran not interfere in humanitarian aid or civil aviation.

        Pompeo went on to slam the decision, citing it as a loss for the Islamic Republic and its “baseless requests.”
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefs reporters at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018.
    Pompeo has announced that the U.S. is canceling a 1955 treaty with Iran establishing economic relations and consular rights between the two nations. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
        “Iran is attempting to interfere with the sovereign rights of the United States to take lawful actions necessary to protect our national security, and Iran is abusing the ICJ for political and propaganda purposes and their case, as you can see from the decision, lacked merit,” he stated.
        Iran claims the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 2015 Nuclear Deal breached the decades-old treaty.
        Though the World Court issued its rulings, it has no power to enforce the decisions.

    10/3/2018 Pompeo says Iran is origin of threat to U.S. missions in Iraq by Lesley Wroughton
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the State Department in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran on Wednesday for threats to American missions in Iraq and said the United States was terminating a treaty of amity with Tehran, which is the target of increasing U.S. sanctions over its missile programs.
        “Iran is the origin of the current threat to Americans in Iraq,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department days after he announced the closing of the U.S. consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra.
        “Our intelligence in this regard is solid.    We can see the hand of the ayatollah and his henchmen supporting these attacks on the United States.”
        The United States announced on Friday it will effectively close the consulate in Basra and relocate diplomatic personnel assigned there following increasing threats from Iran and Iran-backed militia, including rocket fire.
        On Wednesday, the World Court ordered the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran, due to be tightened next month, do not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.
        Judges at the International Court of Justice handed a victory to Tehran, which had argued that sanctions imposed since May by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump violate the terms of a 1955 Treaty of Amity between the two countries.
        Washington responded by pulling out of the treaty, a little- known agreement that was signed long before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that turned the two countries into archenemies.
        Pompeo said the United States should have pulled out of the treaty decades ago.
        “Today marked a useful point, with the decision that was made this morning from the ICJ, this marked a useful point for us to demonstrate the absolute absurdity of the treaty of amity between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
        He added: “We’re disappointed that the court failed to recognize that it has no jurisdiction to issue any order relating to these sanctions measures with the United States, which is doing its work on Iran to protect its own essential security interests,” Pompeo said.
        Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the court’s decisions “proved once again the Islamic Republic is right and the U.S. sanctions against people and citizens of our country are illegal and cruel.”
        Pompeo said the United States would work to ensure it is providing humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people and accused Iran of squandering money it could use on its own people.
    (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)

    10/3/2018 Merkel begins visit to Israel with Iran, Palestinians on agenda
    FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting
    at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
        JERUSALEM (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel began a visit to Israel on Wednesday, with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among issues on the agenda in talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
        Merkel and Netanyahu did not make any statements after her arrival in Jerusalem.    They were due to hold talks after dinner at the prime minister’s official residence but most of the business will take place on Thursday.
        Merkel and ministers accompanying her begin with a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and will hold other meetings during the day before returning to Germany in the evening.
        Germany has remained party to the Iran nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbing its atomic program, after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it in May.
        But speaking in Amman, Jordan in June, Merkel said European countries shared concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile program and called for solutions to its “aggressive tendencies” in the Middle East.
        Netanyahu has repeatedly warned against Iran’s nuclear ambitions and has said he would prevent the Islamic Republic entrenching in Syria and arming Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and supporting Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
        The Palestinians have tried to get Merkel to persuade Israel not to raze a Bedouin encampment in the occupied West Bank.    Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met with a German diplomat on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
        Media reports said Merkel had threatened to cancel the visit if Israel were to raze Khan al-Ahmar, a ramshackle camp housing 180 residents.    Earlier this month, Israel’s Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for eviction after lengthy litigation.
        Children at the encampment held posters of Merkel on Tuesday and appealed to her to help block Israel’s plans.
    (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Ori Lewis)

    10/3/2018 Peru annuls ex-leader Fujimori’s pardon and orders his capture
    FILE PHOTO: Former President of Peru Alberto Fujimori attends a trial as a witness at the navy base
    in Callao, Peru March 15, 2018. Picture taken through a window. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo
        LIMA (Reuters) – A Peruvian judge on Wednesday annulled a presidential pardon granted to former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori late last year and ordered his immediate capture and return to prison.
        Fujimori, 80, had been cleared of convictions for human rights abuses by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Christmas Eve, three days after Kuczynski narrowly survived an impeachment vote with the help of Fujimori’s supporters.
        News cameras waited outside the sprawling house in Lima where Fujimori has been living since becoming a free man, less than halfway into a 25-year sentence for commanding death squads that massacred civilians under his 1990-2000 right-wing government.
        Fujimori’s lawyer and his daughter, opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, said in broadcast comments that Fujimori would appeal the decision.
        Kuczynski had cited Fujimori’s ailing health for the pardon, saying he did not want a former president to die in prison.
        But the pardon has been widely seen as part of a political deal and the family members of the victims of the death squad killings argued it had been granted illegally.
        “This re-establishes the right to justice for the family members of the victims,” said Carlos Rivera, an attorney for family members of the victims.
        Kuczynski, who turned 80 on Wednesday, resigned due to a graft scandal in March and is now under investigation by public prosecutors in connection with Fujimori’s pardon.
        Alejandro Aguinaga, Fujimori’s doctor, said on local broadcaster Canal N that Fujimori was at home but could not move because of a cardiac problem.
    (Reporting by Teresa Cespedes, Writing By Mitra Taj, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Tom Brown)

    10/3/2018 Exclusive: EU considers trade sanctions on Myanmar over Rohingya crisis by Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop
    FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp
    to mark the first anniversary of their exodus in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is considering trade sanctions on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, potentially stripping the country of tariff-free access to the world’s largest trading bloc, three EU officials said.
        The sanctions, under discussion at the European Commission, would include Myanmar’s lucrative textile industry and potentially put at risk thousands of jobs there but would not come into effect immediately, giving the EU leverage to stop what the West says is ethnic cleansing of Muslim Rohingya.
        Even by triggering a six-month review process on whether to impose trade sanctions, which could be reversed if Myanmar met humanitarian and democratic targets, the bloc would mark a significant shift in policy.
        The impetus for the move was a U.N. report in August, which accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out killings of Rohingya with “genocidal intent.”    That, and the rare U.S. step of putting sanctions on two entire military units, have put an onus on the European Union to act, officials said.
        “We are concerned about the impact on the population from our potential measures, but we cannot ignore a U.N. report describing the military campaign as genocide,” said one EU official of the debate within the European Commission, the EU executive responsible for the bloc’s trade policy.
        Until now, the EU has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on several members of the Myanmar military, but has shied away from slapping sanctions on Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who the United Nations said should be prosecuted along with five others for genocide and crimes against humanity.
        Myanmar has rejected the U.N. findings as “one-sided.”    It says military action which followed militant attacks on security forces in August last year was a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.
        Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer telephone calls seeking comment on the possible EU move on Wednesday.    He said last month he would no longer speak to the media over the phone, only at a biweekly conference.
        EU officials believe the formal threat of losing tariff-free access would quickly hit foreign investment in the apparel industry, where European manufacturers take advantage of relatively low labor costs in Myanmar.
        “Removing this duty-free access is a measure of last resort, but we must act if other measures are not delivering,” said one EU official involved in the discussions.
        “In light of the deteriorating situation on the ground, the Commission is currently assessing possible ways of escalating its political and economic response,” a Commission source said.
        European firms sourcing apparel from Myanmar include retailers Adidas, C&A, H&M, Inditex, Next and Primark. Rights groups say the targeted EU sanctions so far have not forced the military or civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to protect civilians, resettle refugees or stop attacks on press freedoms that have included the imprisonment of two Reuters reporters for breaching a law on state secrets.
        The European Parliament last month called for the Commission to review Myanmar’s trade preferences.
    SIXTH-LARGEST TRADE PARTNER
        Within the Commission there are differences, with the EU Trade Chief Cecilia Malmstrom leaning toward starting the process of imposing trade sanctions while the EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini is more cautious because of EU policy to avoid economic sanctions that can hurt ordinary citizens, the officials said.
        Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has yet to take a position, they said.    A Commission spokesman declined to comment.
        Myanmar’s exports to the European Union were worth 1.56 billion euros ($1.81 billion) in 2017, nearly 10 times their value in 2012, after which the bloc gave Myanmar “Everything But Arms” trade status.
        That status means it can sell any goods tariff-free to the bloc, except weapons.    The EU is Myanmar’s sixth-largest trading partner and an important source of foreign direct investment.
        Myanmar’s clothing industry is its top export earner after oil and gas, generating more than $2 billion in exports and 450,000 jobs last year, according to industry association MGMA.
        Trade sanctions would end an economic opening granted to support Myanmar’s transition to democracy after Suu Kyi emerged from 15 years of house arrest under military rule and led her party to take both the parliament and the presidency.
        One more limited option for the EU could be to exempt textiles, an official said, but given the size of the sector, that would significantly reduce the impact of EU sanctions.    Clothing and footwear are worth more than three-quarters of Myanmar’s exports to the bloc.
        Both the United States and the European Union want to spur economic development to underpin democracy and diminish China’s influence.    Crushing the economy with trade sanctions could allow China to dominate Myanmar, officials said.
        Washington imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units in August.    New sanctions are under consideration for half a dozen other individuals and at least two military-run businesses, U.S. officials have said.
        A U.S. State Department report released last week accused Myanmar’s military of waging a “well-planned and coordinated” campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya, but stopped short of calling it genocide or crimes against humanity.
        Senior State Department officials told Reuters, however, that those findings could be used to justify further targeted U.S. sanctions or other punitive measures.
        There appears to be little U.S. appetite, though, for re-imposing broad economic sanctions lifted by former President Barack Obama as the country shifted from decades of direct military rule toward a democratic transition.
        Some European companies have already cut business with Myanmar, with Cartier stopping purchasing gemstones from the country on Dec. 8, 2017, citing abuses against the Rohingyas.
    (Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Antoni Slodkowski in Yangon and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood)

    10/3/2018 Bolton calls U.N. world court ‘politicized,’ U.S. to limit exposure
    U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton answers a question from a reporter about how he refers to Palestine
    during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is taking steps to avoid exposure to binding decisions by the International Court of Justice, the U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday as he accused the U.N. court of being “politicized and ineffective.”
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier on Wednesday said that Washington was terminating a treaty of amity with Tehran, after the International Court ordered the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran, due to be tightened next month, did not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation.
        The ICJ, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the United Nations’ venue for resolving disputes between nations.
        There have been mounting concerns among U.S. allies about the Trump administration’s commitment to multilateralism.
        In the nearly two years since being elected, President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from a nuclear agreement between six powers and Iran, pulled out of a global climate accord, left the U.N. cultural agency, and threatened NATO military allies that the United States would “go its own way” if members did not spend more on defense.
        Wednesday’s ruling by the International Court handed a small victory to Tehran, which had argued that sanctions imposed since May by the Trump administration violated the terms of a 1955 Treaty of Amity between the two countries.
    Bolton, citing what he called “Iran’s abuse of the ICJ,” said that the United States would withdraw from the “optional protocol” under the 1961 Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.
        “We will commence a review of all international agreements that may still expose the United States to purported binding jurisdiction, dispute resolution in the International Court of Justice,” Bolton said on Wednesday.    “The United States will not sit idly by as baseless politicized claims are brought against us.”
        The decision to withdraw from the optional protocol follows a complaint brought by the Palestinians in September, which challenged Washington’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
        The Vienna Convention is an international treaty setting out diplomatic relations between states.    It is often cited as a means to provide diplomatic immunity.
        In 2005, the Bush administration took issue with the ICJ after it ruled that the execution of a Mexican national in Texas breached U.S. obligations under international law.
        The Palestinians argued that the U.S. government’s placement of its embassy in Jerusalem violated an international treaty and that it should be moved.
        “This really has less to do with Iran and the Palestinians than with the continued consistent policy of the United States to reject the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, which we think is politicized and ineffective,” Bolton said.
        He added: “I’d like to stress the United States remains a party to the underlying Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and we expect all other parties to abide by their international obligations under the convention.”
        Palestine was recognized by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 as a non-member observer state, though its statehood is not recognized by either Israel or the United States.
    (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Roberta Rampton; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann; editing by Susan Thomas and Leslie Adler)

    10/4/2018 Oil up $1.18 to $76.41, DOW up 54 to 26,828

    10/4/2018 US ends pact with Iran after UN court ruling - Sanctions can’t affect humanitarian imports by Kim Hjelmgaard and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the United States is canceling a relatively obscure but decades-old economic treaty with Iran after a sanctions- related ruling by the United Nations’ highest court.
        Before the second phase of Washington’s reimposition of sanctions on Iran next month over its nuclear program, the U.N. International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in the Hague, Netherlands, ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to lift any punitive measures that affect Tehran’s imports of humanitarian goods and products and services linked to civil aviation safety. The ruling was provisional.
        Iran challenged the U.S. sanctions in a case filed in July on the grounds that they violate the 1955 Treaty of Amity, an agreement covering economic relations and some reciprocal consular rights.
        “This is a decision that is, frankly, 39 years overdue,” Pompeo said in a news briefing in Washington.    He said Iran tried to interfere with the “sovereign rights of the United States” by going to the ICJ.    “Iran is abusing the ICJ for political and propaganda causes,” he said.    He said Iran’s claims to the court are “absurd.”
        Washington has long insisted that its sanctions do not target humanitarian goods or services, but the sanctions it imposed on Iran after Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal with Tehran and world powers in May restrict Iran’s ability to use the international banking system – that, in turn, has affected its imports of essential medicines and consumer goods.    It has also pressured international companies operating in the Middle Eastern country.    Many have wound down their operations in recent months.
        In its judgment, the court said Washington must “remove, by means of its choosing, any impediments arising from” the reimposition of sanctions that affect exports to Iran of medicine and medical devices; food and agricultural commodities; and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation.
        Iran has an aging civilian aircraft fleet for which it’s unable to acquire spare parts, and it has seen numerous airplane crashes in recent years.
        Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute, said the “U.S. sanctions already have a humanitarian exemption for food, medicine and agriculture commodities – an exemption the mullahs (Iran’s religious leaders) often use to make money on the black market while denying the Iranian people access to humanitarian goods.”
        Goldberg was a senior Senate aide who helped develop the Iran sanctions returning.    He strongly favored pulling out of the nuclear deal.
        “As for civil aviation, perhaps the court should be better educated on how Iran misuses its civil air fleet to ship arms to terrorist organizations,” he said.
        Pompeo said the United States “will continue to make sure we are providing humanitarian assistance” to the Iranian people.
        “Outlaw regime,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter, reacting to the U.S. decision to leave the treaty.
        The next installment of U.S.-sponsored sanctions on Iran is due Nov. 4.    It will target Iran’s lucrative oil industry.    Sanctions reinstated in August clamped down on Iran’s access to U.S. dollars, its car industry and trading in some commodities.
        Neither Wednesday’s ruling nor the termination of the treaty is likely to have significant impact on the Trump administration’s implementation of the sanctions.    The International Court of Justice’s rulings are legally binding, but the court has no power to enforce them.
        Still, Farshad Kashani, an international law expert, wrote in an analysis in 2016 of the now-terminated treaty that it has been “vital to defusing flashpoints between the two otherwise hostile nations. ... It is a great benefit that there is an agreed mechanism in place to help resolve disputes when diplomacy proves futile.”
        Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, called the U.S. decision rash and illconsidered.    “Rather than take the humanitarian concerns of the international community with U.S. sanctions on Iran seriously, the U.S. impetuously withdrew from a treaty aimed at solidifying friendly relations between the American and Iranian peoples,” Abdi said.
        Pompeo escalated his criticism of Iran’s role in
        He said Iran was to blame for a mortar attack near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and a rocket attack on the U.S. Consulate in Basra.    The State Department announced last week it would close the Basra facility.
        “Iran is the origin of the current threat to Americans in Iraq,” Pompeo said Wednesday.    “i>Our intelligence in this regard is solid.”
        Pompeo said the United States would hold Iran “directly responsible for any harm to Americans or our diplomatic facilities, whether perpetrated by Iranian forces or by associated proxies.”
        Iraqi officials urged the United States on Wednesday to reconsider its decision to close the Basra consulate, and they cast doubt on Pompeo’s assertions of Iran’s influence in that region.
        Pompeo argued that the attacks in Iraq were linked to the Trump administration’s reimposition of sanctions and America’s efforts to isolate Iran after the U.S. withdrawal from the multilateral 2015 nuclear agreement.
        “Clearly, they see our comprehensive pressure campaign as serious and succeeding,” he said.
        Hjelmgaard reported from London.
    People line up at a currency exchange in Tehran.    Sanctions have limited access to U.S. dollars.    A U.N. court ruled they can’t interfere with essentials. AP

    10/4/2018 U.S. Defense Secretary says Russian violation of arms control treaty ‘untenable’ by Idrees Ali and Robin Emmott
    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis during a NATO
    defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that Russia’s violation of an arms control treaty was “untenable” and unless it changed course the United States would respond.
        The United States believes Russia is developing a ground-launched system in breach of a Cold War treaty, known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), that could allow Moscow to launch a nuclear strike on Europe at short notice.    Russia has consistently denied any such violation.
        “Russia must return to compliance with the INF treaty or the U.S. will need to respond to its cavalier disregard to the treaty’s specific limits,” Mattis told a news conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
        “The United States is reviewing options in our diplomacy and defense posture to do just that.    Make no mistake: The current situation, with Russia in blatant violation of this treaty, is untenable,” Mattis said.
        He declined to give details on the possible U.S. response.
        The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty bans medium-range missiles capable of hitting Europe or Alaska and ended a Cold War-era crisis, when the Soviet Union installed nearly 400 nuclear warheads pointed at western Europe.
        NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Moscow had developed a missile known as Novator 9M729, which analysts say is similar to Russian short-range, sea-launched missiles but can fly between 500 km to 5,500 km (310-3,420 miles).
        Mattis’ comments are likely to worsen relations between Moscow and the West, already at a post-Cold War low over Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea, its bombing campaign in Syria and accusations of meddling in Western elections.
        While the United States has called for Russia to come back into compliance with the INF treaty for several years, Mattis’ comments come just days after Washington’s envoy to NATO said Russia must halt its covert development of the banned cruise missile system or the United States would seek to destroy it before it becomes operational.
        U.S. ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Tuesday Washington remained committed to a diplomatic solution but was prepared to “take out” any Russian missile if development of the medium-range system continued.
        The Russian foreign ministry reacted by saying Hutchison’s comments were dangerous.    Hutchison clarified that she was not talking about a preemptive strike against Russia.
    U.S. STARTING MISSILE RESEARCH
        The top U.S. general in Europe said the United States needed to make strong statements on Russia’s violation.
        “We also will take the steps necessary to ensure that we don’t have any gaps in a credible defense and deterrence posture,” General Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander, told reporters during the NATO meeting.
        A recent U.S. State Department report found Russia had violated obligations “not to possess, produce, or flight-test” a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km (310-3,420 miles), “or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.”
        Earlier this year, the U.S. military said in a new national defense strategy that countering Russia, along with China, would be a priority.    The move reflects shifting U.S. priorities after more than a decade and a half of focusing on the fight against Islamist militants.
        The Pentagon’s nuclear policy document released in February said that in response to Russia’s violation, the United States would start reviewing its own options for conventional, ground-launched, intermediate-range missile systems.
        Kingston Reif, the director for disarmament research at the Arms Control Association advocacy group, cautioned that if the United States also abandoned the INF treaty, it would allow Russia to potentially station hundreds of missiles near Europe.
        Any new U.S. missile system would also be politically difficult to station in Europe as no NATO ally would want to host it, he said.    “Attempting to force it upon the alliance would be incredibly divisive.    It is thus a weapon to nowhere.”
    (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    10/4/2018 New British proposal for Irish border ‘step in right direction’: EU source by Gabriela Baczynska
    FILE PHOTO: A Brexit sign is seen between Donegal in the Republic of Ireland and Londonderry in Northern Ireland
    at the border village of Muff, Ireland, February 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – New British proposals for avoiding extensive border checks on the island of Ireland after Brexit are “a step in the right direction” and “make finding a compromise possible,” a European Union source close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.
        Brexit talks are entering a frenzied fortnight designed to produce an EU divorce deal with Britain and a blueprint for future ties.
        Avoiding erecting an elaborate border between EU-state Ireland and Britain’s province of Northern Ireland after Brexit is the main potential deal-breaker.
        Britain wants to regulate the border through a broad agreement on post-Brexit trade ties with the EU.
        The bloc says an emergency fix – or “backstop” – is needed in case these broader trade talks fail or take longer after Britain leaves the EU next March and the status-quo transition period runs its course at the end of 2020.
        Both sides are readying concessions on the Irish backstop.
        Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Thursday Dublin was not aware that Britain had tabled its planned formal new “backstop” proposal.
        EU diplomats and officials have also said they have not seen any formal new written text from London.    But the comment suggesting the EU would engage with the new proposal taking shape in London sent the pound rising against the dollar.
    BORDER NUANCES
        EU diplomats and officials described the emerging new proposal under which Britain would agree to an indefinite backstop solution, something missing in London’s previous proposal rejected by the remaining 27 EU states last June.
        But Britain would stick to its line that, in case a backstop is triggered, the whole of the United Kingdom would stay in a customs union together with the EU.    That would mean having the same external tariff on some goods, as the EU currently has with Turkey.
        Under the British proposal described by EU sources, that would remove the need for customs checks on goods and agriculture on the island of Ireland.
        The EU has previously had an issue with that as it fears Britain could use the special access of Northern Ireland to the bloc’s single market to push goods that would not have to conform with high EU norms and could hence be sold cheaper.
        For the other type of checks, the regulatory ones, Britain would agree to simplified, light controls on goods going from the British mainland to Northern Ireland that would be carried out away from the actual border as much as possible, according to EU sources describing the emerging proposal.
        That, in turn, is a difficult one for Britain where Prime Minister Theresa May’s government relies on the support of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, which vehemently opposes differing rules on its soil from the rest of the United Kingdom.
        “This is a step in the right direction, it makes finding a compromise possible,” one EU source close to the negotiations told Reuters.
        Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrives in Brussels to meet European Union officials later on Thursday.
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    10/4/2018 Treasury Dept. Blacklists 12 Firms Over N. Korea, Hezbollah Ties by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Friday, Aug. 25, 2017, file photo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks
    during a news briefing at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
        The Treasury Department blacklists several entities over their alleged business with North Korea and terror group Hezbollah.
        In a statement Thursday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it slapped sanctions on 12 people and companies.
        These include Turkish based weapons dealer SIA falcon a North Korean diplomat and a Lebanese national.
        The national is accused of being a shadow bookkeeper who ran seven companies in Lebanon to launder money for Hezbollah terrorists.
        The Treasury said this latest action is a warning against violations of previous U.S. sanctions.

    10/4/2018 Pres. Trump Signs New Anti-Terrorism Strategy With Focus On Ideology by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump boards Air Force One for a trip to Minnesota to attend a fundraiser,
    and a campaign rally, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        President Trump updates America’s counter-terrorism strategy for the first time since 2011.
        The president signed the new anti-terror strategy Thursday.
        The new strategy focuses on taking action against terror groups’ funding and tracing terrorists back to their strongholds.
        The document says today’s terror threats are more diverse and include both shia groups, as well as nation states like Iran.
        White House officials said President Trump’s new strategy won’t require additional resources and will improve the efficiency of America’s anti-terror policies.

    10/5/2018 Oil down $2.08 to $74.33, DOW down 201 to 26,628

    10/5/2018 Key senators react positively to FBI report - Flake and Collins say the inquiry seems thorough by Deborah Barfield Berry, Eliza Collins and Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Two pivotal Republican senators in the debate over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court made initially positive comments Thursday on an FBI background investigation of the nominee, raising the chances of his confirmation.
        A procedural vote on the Kavanaugh nomination was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EDT.    If it passes, it could pave the way for a final vote as early as Saturday.
        Republican leaders scheduled the vote after senators viewed a highly anticipated FBI report into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh that had been sent to Capitol Hill.
        Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was instrumental in persuading Senate leaders to move forward with the FBI investigation last week, said the report.
    High court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is accused of sexual assault. AP
    showed “no additional corroborating information” to suggest Kavanaugh committed sexual assault.
        Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, indicated that she did not share Democrats’ concerns that the FBI report was incomplete and inconclusive.
        “It appears to be a very thorough investigation, but I’m going back later to personally read the interviews,” Collins said.
        Flake said he agreed with Collins that the report was thorough.    Flake and Collins are swing votes who could make or break Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote.    They didn’t say how they would vote.
        Republicans hold 51 seats in the Senate, and every other GOP senator except Flake, Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has come out in support of President Donald Trump’s nominee.    If there is a 50-50 tie, Vice President Mike Pence would break it in favor of Kavanaugh.
        Murkowski’s spokeswoman, Karina Peterson, said the senator hadn’t finished the report, “so she doesn’t know if it is thorough enough.”
        The FBI’s report could sway swing votes on the other side of the aisle.
        Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., one of two Democratic senators who were on the fence about Kavanaugh, said she would vote against him.    Heitkamp faces intense pressure over her vote because she’s running for re-election this fall in a state Trump won in 2016.
        Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a second key Democrat vote, had not viewed the FBI’s investigation as of Thursday afternoon and was undecided.
        The FBI investigated accusations by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school 36 years ago.    The agency looked into allegations by Deborah Ramirez that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a dorm party while they were students at Yale University. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations.
        Only one copy of the FBI report was sent to Capitol Hill based on a 2009 bipartisan memorandum that Republican leaders said was guiding their handling of it.
        Republican Senate leaders and White House officials said the FBI report revealed no evidence of wrongdoing.
        Democrats said the White House tied the FBI’s hands, so agents could not conduct a thorough investigation.    They were especially upset that the FBI did not interview Kavanaugh or Ford.    According to the FBI, nine witnesses were interviewed for the report, and neither the nominee nor Ford was among them.
        “Candidly, what we reviewed today in a very limited time ... looks to be a product of an incomplete investigation that was limited, perhaps by the White House, I don’t know,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
        Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the FBI’s report found “no hint of misconduct,” and he declared, “It’s time to vote.”
        “There’s nothing in (the report) that we didn’t already know,” Grassley said.    “These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations.”
        Attorneys for Ford wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, saying eight witnesses that the FBI never interviewed are willing to talk to agents about information relevant to Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh.
        Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he disagreed with Grassley’s statement that there was “no hint of misconduct.”    Schumer did not elaborate during a news conference Thursday morning.
        White House officials said they stand behind Kavanaugh’s nomination and are confident he will be confirmed.
        Spokesman Raj Shah said the FBI did comprehensive interviews of nine witnesses.    He did not provide names.    A 10th witness was contacted, but it is unclear whether this person submitted to a full interview.    Shah said, “I can’t outline the details of the background investigation,” but he indicated that nothing in the documents disqualified Kavanaugh.
        He said privacy laws prevent the White House from making the report public.
        Trump tweeted Thursday morning that the “harsh and unfair treatment” of Kavanaugh is mobilizing voters for the midterm congressional elections.
    Contributing: Erin Kelly, Christal Hayes, David Jackson, Maureen Groppe and Ronald B. Hansen, The Arizona Republic
    Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., could make or break Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court bid. SHAWN THEW/EPA-

    [As seen below the LAWLESS ONES respond in an editorial] 348 sign anti-Kavanaugh letter to senators
        To Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul: Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s aggressive behavior and partisan outbursts during the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing revealed a temperament that disqualifies him from being named to the U.S. Supreme Court.     It would be a tragedy for that disgrace to spread to the nation’s highest court.
        The women of Kentucky urge you to reject Brett Kavanaugh as associate justice for our U.S. Supreme Court.
        Honi Marleen Goldman and Bobbi Jo Webber.

    10/5/2018 Senate to hold cloture vote on Kavanaugh by OAN Newsroom
        The Senate has officially begun deliberations on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and are preparing to hold a cloture vote.
        Senate lawmakers convened Friday morning and are set to hold a vote to end debate on the Supreme Court nominee’s nomination.
    The U. S. Supreme Court building stands quietly before dawn in Washington, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018.
    The U.S. Senate will start the process of voting on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a Supreme Court Associate Justice today. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
        This comes after Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans released an executive summary of the FBI’s report late Thursday.    The bureau interviewed 10 people with “firsthand knowledge of the allegations.”
        After reviewing this information, GOP senators maintain there is no corroboration of the claims made by both Dr. Christine Ford and Debra Ramirez.
        “These allegations have not been corroborated, none of the allegations have been corroborated by the seventh FBI investigation, not in the new FBI investigation, not anywhere.” — Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader
        If Republicans get the votes they need Friday, a final vote on Kavanaugh will be held Saturday.
        In the meantime, a plane will be on standby for Republican Senator Steven Daines in case his vote is needed to confirm Kavanaugh.    The Montana senator flew home to attend his daughter’s wedding.

    10/5/2018 A disciple of Brazil’s dictatorship moves closer to the presidency by Brad Brooks
    FILE PHOTO: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, shows a doll of himself
    during a rally in Curitiba, Brazil March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Rodolfo Buhrer/File photo
        SAO PAULO (Reuters) – In 1993, Congressman Jair Bolsonaro strode to a podium in Brazil’s lower house and delivered a speech that shook its young democracy: He declared his love for the country’s not-so-distant military regime and demanded the legislature be disbanded.
        “Yes, I’m in favor of a dictatorship!” Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, thundered at fellow lawmakers, some of whom had joined guerrilla groups to battle the junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.    “We will never resolve grave national problems with this irresponsible democracy!”
        On Sunday, Brazilians will cast ballots in a presidential election that could elevate Bolsonaro to the head of the world’s fifth most populous country.    A political gadfly who has flitted through nine minor parties in a 27-year career, his views have changed little since that day in the capital of Brasilia.
        But his jeremiad message – that Brazil is a dysfunctional basket case that needs an iron-fisted ruler to restore order – is resonating with Brazilians dispirited by the nation’s soaring crime, moribund economy and entrenched political corruption.
        Violent criminals?    Bolsonaro says shoot them all.    Political enemies?    Them too.    Corruption?    A military coup will drain the swamp if the judicial system won’t, he says.    The economy?    Bolsonaro wants to privatize state-run companies to keep politicians away from the till.
    MOMENTUM IN THE POLLS
        The 63-year-old is surging.    He leads a crowded field of 13 candidates heading into the first round of elections on Oct. 7 with 35 percent of likely votes, according to the latest survey by polling firm Datafolha.    If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will go head-to-head on Oct. 28.    Pollsters give Bolsonaro a roughly 30-percent chance of winning the race outright this weekend; some say privately his chances might be even better than that.
        If there is a second round, Bolsonaro’s opponent is likely to be Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers Party. Datafolha shows them tied in a potential runoff.
        Many Brazilians are sounding alarms about Bolsonaro’s autocratic views and those of his vice-presidential running mate, recently retired Army general Hamilton Mourao, who says Brazil’s Constitution can be torn up and rewritten without input from citizens.
        Then there are the federal hate speech charges leveled against Bolsonaro for his racist, homophobic and misogynist rants.    His highlight reel includes a spat with a congresswoman whom Bolsonaro said was not attractive enough for him to rape.
        Bolsonaro’s campaign did not respond to Reuters’ requests for an interview.
        But supporters insist that tens of millions of Brazilians are silently rooting for Bolsonaro, even if some will not admit it to friends or pollsters.
        Brazilians from all walks of life applaud his vow to make life miserable for armed gangs that have made them prisoners in their own homes.    Many welcome his promise to loosen gun laws so average citizens can protect themselves.    Business people like his recent embrace of free-market economics.
        Young people are enthralled by his caustic put-downs of rivals on social media.    Polls show Bolsonaro is performing well with female voters, despite being labeled a misogynist by many.
    Evangelical Christians, who comprise a quarter of the electorate, are particularly enamored of Bolsonaro, a Catholic who has promised to rid schools of sex education, derail gay rights and thwart any attempts to loosen strict abortion laws.    Some see his recent survival of a near-fatal knife attack on the campaign trail as a sign that Bolsonaro, whose middle name Messias means “Messiah,” was sent by God to lead them.
        Others view him as the only option to prevent the return to power of the Workers Party, or PT, whose founder, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.
        Teenager Gilson Barbosa Silva, who hails from a tough district of Sao Paulo, says his disgust with the PT is such that he will begrudgingly vote for Bolsonaro, a member of the Social Liberal Party.
        “The options are depressing … (but) he is the only fresh option,” the heavily tattooed 18-year-old said.
        Carlos Melo, a political scientist with Insper, a leading Sao Paulo business school, said Bolsonaro has deftly capitalized on polarization that has deepened with Lula’s downfall.
        “The roots of his support are in the political radicalization that has flourished in Brazil,” Melo said.    “Jair Bolsonaro is a symbol of this transition.”
    FROM MILITARY TO POLITICS
        Some pundits call Bolsonaro a “Tropical Trump” because of his large social media following, pugnacious demeanor and multiple wives.    Steve Bannon, the U.S. president’s campaign guru, has likewise advised Bolsonaro.
        But longtime political observers of Brazil – where full democracy has been the exception to a succession of authoritarian regimes in the last century – say Bolsonaro is a unique creation raised in the long shadow of the country’s most recent dictatorship.
        Bolsonaro celebrated his ninth birthday just days before the 1964 coup.    The son of an untrained dentist, he opted for the military and in 1977 graduated from the Black Needles Military Academy, Brazil’s equivalent of West Point.
        His Army career was undistinguished.    Bolsonaro landed in the brig for a couple of weeks in 1986 after a Brazilian news magazine published his complaints about paltry military pay.    But his words tapped into widespread discontent among rank-and-file soldiers.    He parlayed that support into a seat on Rio de Janeiro’s city council in 1988, then a spot in Congress two years later.
        Bolsonaro’s legislative achievements are thin: He has authored just two bills that became law.    Still, he has never been tarnished by corruption.
        Now, after nearly three decades in politics, Bolsonaro is riding a tsunami of voter frustration that may carry him to the presidency.
        Brazil is still hobbling from its worst recession in decades; 13 million are unemployed.    Crime has exploded and drug violence has touched every corner of the country.    Last year saw nearly 64,000 murders, the most on record.    The epic bribery investigation that jailed Lula exposed a pay-to-play political culture of staggering proportions.
        Disgust with Brazil’s leaders is palpable.    Only 13 percent of Brazilians are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with democracy overall, according to the most recent annual poll by Latinobarometro, a Chilean think tank.
        That toxic environment has Bolsonaro’s backers, much like U.S. voters who sent Donald Trump to the White House, hoping he will be a walking grenade that explodes the system from within.
        “If he can lessen graft and get rid of the old, corrupt foxes who rule our political system, then four years from now we will have more candidates who put Brazil’s interests above their own,” said Raphael Enohata, a 26-year-old graduate engineering student at the University of Sao Paulo.    “He is just the beginning of the transition we want.”
        Drug gangs are also high on Bolsonaro’s hit list.
        “We cannot treat criminals like normal human beings who need to be respected,” Bolsonaro said in August.    He said law enforcement should pump suspects with “10, 15 or 30” bullets each, then “be given awards” for their efforts.
        A few days later at a rally, Bolsonaro grabbed a cameraman’s tripod and mimicked shooting a rifle.    “We are going to gun down all these Workers Party supporters!” he shouted as the crowd cheered wildly.
        His campaign said it was a joke.    But Bolsonaro is serious about what he sees as his destiny.
        “God called me to this race,” he said upon accepting his party’s nomination.    “My mother gave me the middle name Messiah.    But I alone will not be the savior of the Brazil.    Who will save it is all of us, together.”
    (Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Marla Dickerson)

    10/5/2018 EU negotiators see Brexit divorce deal ‘very close’: sources by Gabriela Baczynska
    FILE PHOTO: Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave EU and Union flags opposite the Houses of Parliament,
    in London, Britain, June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s Brexit negotiators see a divorce deal with Britain as “very close”, diplomatic sources said, a signal that a compromise might be in the making on the most contentious issue of the future Irish border.
        The EU signaled on Thursday it was engaging with new proposals emerging in Britain on avoiding extensive Irish border checks after Brexit, a potential deal-breaker in the unprecedented talks to end Britain’s four decades in the bloc.
        A member of EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier’s team told a briefing with national diplomats in Brussels late on Thursday that a divorce deal with Britain was “very close”, according to two sources at the meeting.
        Their comments sent sterling to a 10-week high versus the euro.
        The two sides are trying to push the divorce deal as well as an agreement on post-Brexit relations above the line in time for two leaders’ summits scheduled for Oct. 17-18 and Nov. 17-18.
        Under the plan in the making, the EU would get assurances that the emergency Irish border fix would be indefinite, while Britain would get its way in having all of the United Kingdom – rather than just Northern Ireland – stay in a customs union with the bloc should the border ‘backstop’ be triggered.
        Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, speaking in Brussels on Thursday, has stressed no new proposals have been made on paper and that they should come well ahead of the EU summit in less than two weeks to leave enough time for analysis.
        Sources in Brussels say the devil is in the detail.
        Such a compromise would leave the EU worrying that Britain could use Northern Ireland’s special access to the bloc’s single market to sell cheaper goods that would not adhere to labor, environment and other standards.
        The bloc worries that London would use whatever special trade fix is agreed for Northern Ireland as a building block for the overall future trade relationship to win an unfair competitive edge.
    CANADA +++
        One senior EU diplomat said the bloc could seek to attach additional conditions to any such agreement but they have not yet been specified.
        For Britain, the problem is agreeing to checks on goods and livestock with Northern Ireland, something the province’s Democratic Unionist Party – on which British Prime Minister Theresa May relies to govern – strongly opposes.
        Britain’s Brexit ministry said on Friday London’s new proposals on the Irish border would preserve the integrity of the United Kingdom.
        While the EU is pushing London on the Irish conundrum, the 27 states remaining in the bloc are also fleshing out their proposal of future ties with Britain.    A member of Barnier’s team was due to present his outline to 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels later on Friday.
        The chairman of EU leaders, Donald Tusk, on Thursday said a “Canada +++” was on offer, meaning an advanced free trade agreement coupled with close security ties and tight cooperation on global affairs, among others.
        Another senior EU diplomat said the EU would propose “zero tariffs and zero quotas” in trade with Britain after Brexit, which would go beyond what the bloc has with Canada.
        Such a proposal goes down well with May’s critics at home who advocate a more uncompromising cut from the EU than she is seeking.    For the bloc, however, the Irish emergency break would still be an essential part of any such offer.
        Any deal between May and fellow EU leaders must be endorsed by both the EU and British parliaments, another hurdle to clear to avoid the most damaging scenario of Britain leaving the bloc with not much in place to mitigate the economic shock.
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Sarah Young in London, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    10/5/2018 ECJ to hear case on whether UK alone can reverse Brexit on Nov. 27: source
    FILE PHOTO: An anti-Brexit demonstrator waves flags outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, Britain, September 10, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
        EDINBURGH (Reuters) – The European Court of Justice has set a Nov. 27 date for a hearing to decide whether Britain’s parliament can unilaterally change its mind on Brexit, a legal source told Reuters.
        “We have our hearing on November 27 at 9am” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.    “This shows the ECJ is moving at breakneck speed on this case.”    No one at the ECJ was available to comment.
    (Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary in Edinburgh and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; editing by Stephen Addison)

    10/5/2018 Russia deployment of S-300 in Syria risks military escalation: France
    FILE PHOTO: People watch S-300 air defense missile systems launching missiles during the Keys to the Sky competition
    at the International Army Games 2017 at the Ashuluk shooting range outside Astrakhan, Russia, August 5, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – Russia’s deployment of the S-300 anti-aircraft defense system in Syria risks fuelling military escalation and hindering prospects for a political solution to the seven-year conflict, France’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
        Moscow said on Tuesday it had delivered the surface-to-air missile system after the downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian forces in September.    Russia accused Israel of being indirectly responsible for that act because the Syrian forces had been firing at attacking Israel jets.
        “France notes with concern the delivery by Russia of sophisticated anti-aircraft capabilities for the benefit of the Syrian regime,” Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von Der Muhll told reporters in an online briefing.
        “Amid regional tensions, the delivery of such equipment by Russia contributes to maintaining the risk of military escalation and removing the prospect of a political settlement of the Syrian crisis,” she said.
    (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Luke Baker)

    10/5/2018 Panama loses WTO claim to trade sanctions on Colombia
    FILE PHOTO: The logo of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its headquarters
    next to a red traffic light in Geneva, Switzerland, October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel on Friday rejected Panama’s claim for $210 million annual sanctions on Colombia for non-compliance with a previous ruling against tariffs on clothing, textile and footwear imposed by Bogota to target alleged “money laundering”
        Panama won a judgment at the WTO in 2016 after complaining about Colombian tariffs on textiles, clothes and shoes.    Colombia, which had imposed the high tariffs because it said the goods were imported at artificially low prices in order to launder money, had until Jan. 22 2017 to comply.
    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Tom Miles)

    10/5/2018 McConnell and Schumer square off before Kavanaugh procedural vote by OAN Newsroom
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the actions of Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have tarnished the dignity of the upper chamber.
        While speaking on the Senate floor Friday, the Kentucky senator called out Democrats for their partisanship and for not giving Kavanaugh the benefit of the doubt in the face of allegations against him.
        He went on to say the judge is stunningly well qualified to be on the court.    McConnell asked senators to put principles before politics and vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
        “We know the Senate is better than this.    We know the nation deserves better than this.    By confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, this brilliant jurist will be charged with upholding the rule of law and honoring American justice.    We must hold ourselves to that very same standard.” — Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader
    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (Photo/Reuters)
        On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Kavanaugh of being skeptical of abortion rights and executive accountability.
        He also asked the president to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination and nominate someone else.
        The senate voted 51-to-49 to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to a floor vote.

    10/6/2018 Oil down $0.01 to $74.34, DOW down 180 to 26,447

    10/6/2018 Nomination advances - Confirmation all but assured for Brett Kavanaugh
        Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was among a handful of publicly undecided senators in the spotlight Friday as the White House and Republican leaders tried to round up enough votes to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In a 40-minute-plus speech, she said the nominee deserves a presumption of innocence against sexual assault allegations. She concluded: “I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.” The Senate voted 51-49 Friday to advance the nomination, and Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed Saturday.

    Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. ALEX BRANDON/AP

    10/6/2018 Kavanaugh headed for confirmation in Senate - Collins, Manchin voice support, making ‘yes’ vote virtually assured by Eliza Collins, David Jackson, Deborah Berry and Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Republicans appeared to have enough votes to narrowly confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after Sen. Susan Collins said Friday that the nominee deserves a presumption of innocence against sexual allegation charges.
        “It is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy,” Collins said on the Senate floor in announcing she will back the nomination.    “I do not believe that these charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the court.”    After speaking for more than 40 minutes, she concluded: “I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.”
        Minutes later, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin – the only Democrat to vote with Republicans to end debate hours earlier – announced he will vote for confirmation in Saturday’s expected vote.
        Manchin and Collins were among a handful of publicly undecided senators in the spotlight Friday as the White House and Republican leaders tried to round up support for Kavanaugh after a rocky few weeks of explosive allegations, dramatic hearings, public protests and impassioned defenses.
        Collins sided with Republicans in the 51-49 vote to end debate.    But she waited for hours to announce whether she would also vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
        As Collins rose to speak, backed by Republican women sitting behind her, protesters started chanting.    “Vote No!    Show up for Maine women!” they shouted before being escorted out.
        Retiring Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, the other senator who had been wavering, said before Collins’ speech that he will vote to confirm Kavanaugh unless something significant changes.
        Manchin, up for re-election in a state President Donald Trump carried by 42 points, announced his final decision in a statement in which he said his heart goes out to any sexual assault victim.
        “I have reservations about this vote given the serious accusations against Judge Kavanaugh and the temperament he displayed in the hearing,” Manchin said.    “However, based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed FBI report, I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist who will follow the Constitution and determine cases based on the legal findings before him.”
        If Manchin had opposed Kavanaugh, the Senate would split 50-50, and Vice President Mike Pence would cast the tie-breaking vote.    The Senate is split with 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats.
        “Very proud of the U.S. Senate for voting ‘YES’ to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh!” Trump tweeted.
        The final vote is not just a chance for Republicans to shift the court to the right for what could be decades but also a test of how public officials respond to the raw emotions unleashed by allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh as part of the #MeToo movement.    A main reason Republicans voted for Trump – to put conservatives on the court – is also at stake, as is control of Congress in the midterm elections.
        Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to vote against advancing the nomination, called it one of the most difficult decisions of her career.    “I believe that Brett Kavanaugh is a good man,” she said after the vote.    “But it just may be that, in my view, he’s not the right man for the court at this time.”
        She was noticeably absent from the floor when Collins spoke.    But behind Collins sat three other female Republicans, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
        “We went to support her,” Ernst said.    “She did a wonderful job.    I’m very proud of the diligence she put into it.”
        Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. – who had lunched with Collins before her speech – and GOP Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, turned their chairs entirely around to watch Collins.    As it became clear she was going to vote in favor of Kavanaugh, Democrats began to slump in their chairs, and a handful of people watching in the press gallery walked out.
        At the conclusion of her remarks, Republicans gave her a standing ovation as Collins mouthed “thank you” repeatedly.    Then Republicans, one by one, shook her hand or hugged her.    No Democrats approached.
        Manchin had headed before the vote to the secure basement room inside the Capitol complex to continue reviewing the 46-page FBI report on Kavanaugh and charges of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.    Reporters pounced, asking Manchin if he’d made up his mind.    He said he hadn’t.
        Collins and Flake had seemed satisfied Thursday with the report.
        Murkowski later told reporters she made up her mind as she walked into the chamber Friday morning.
        “This has truly been the most difficult evaluation of a decision that I’ve ever had to make, and I’ve made some interesting ones in my political career,” she said afterward.
        An opinion piece Kavanaugh wrote Thursday in The Wall Street Journal was meant to reassure senators who’d expressed concern about his temperament after his angry testimony last week, two officials familiar with the process said.    But the American Bar Association said Friday that it’s reopening its evaluation of him because of “new information of a material nature regarding temperament.”    The review will not be done before the final vote.    Republicans – including Collins in her speech Friday – have touted the ABA’s previous “well qualified” rating of Kavanaugh as the “gold standard.”
        Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the vote that Kavanaugh’s nomination “will go down as one of the saddest, most sordid chapters in the long history of the federal judiciary.” Contributing: David Jackson, Richard Wolf
    Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears to have the votes to take a seat on the Supreme Court. ANDREW HARNIK/AP

    10/6/2018 Pompeo goes to North Korea under pressure to show progress
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed off Friday for his fourth trip to North Korea.
        He faces pressure to produce tangible progress on convincing the country to get rid of its nuclear weapons as President Donald Trump seeks a second summit with leader Kim Jong Un.
        Pompeo is on a three-day tour of East Asia that will also take him to Japan, South Korea and China.

    10/6/2018 Unemployment rate falls to a nearly 50-year low by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
        Unemployment fell to a nearly 50 year low in September even as employers added a disappointing 134,000 jobs amid increasing worker shortages and possible effects from Hurricane Florence.
        The unemployment rate fell from 3.9 percent to 3.7 percent, the lowest since December 1969, the Labor Department said Friday.
        Economists had estimated 185,000 new jobs were created last month, according to a Bloomberg survey.
        Goldman Sachs expected the hurricane to reduce employment by 33,000 in the Carolinas.    But Morgan Stanley said the storm likely affected too limited of an area and struck too late during the week of Labor’s survey to have a meaningful impact.    Workers are counted as employed as long as they show up for any part of their pay period.
        Yet employment in leisure and hospitality, which includes hotels and restaurants, fell 17,000 last month, suggesting the storm was a factor.
        “The headline payroll number is a weather story,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a note to clients.
        The number of workers across the country who stayed home because of weather increased by 276,000 last month on a not seasonally adjusted basis, compared with a median 7,000 rise over the past 10 September jobs report, said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist of High Frequency Economics.
        Still another wrinkle is that Labor tends to undercount September employment in its initial estimate and revise it up later, O’Sullivan said.
        On the positive side, payroll increases for July and August were revised up by a total 87,000.    July’s gain was raised from 147,000 to 165,000 and August’s from 201,000 to 270,000.    That largely offsets September’s showing.
        Meanwhile, businesses are having a harder time finding qualified job candidates.    Many analysts expect the crunch to slow hiring in the months ahead despite strong economic growth.
        And a new Trump administration tariff on $200 billion in Chinese imports – along with China’s retaliation against U.S. imports – took effect last month, hitting many consumer goods.    That has dinged business confidence and could curtail hiring.
        So far, job growth has been surprisingly strong this year despite the hurdles, averaging about 200,000 a month, up from 182,000 in 2017.
        Market reaction: There were enough positives in the jobs report, such as the continued decline in the unemployment rate and upward revisions of jobs created in July and August, to push long-term bond yields up again to fresh seven-year highs and pressure stocks.    The 10-year Treasury closed at 3.24 percent, its highest level since May 2011.
        “The sharp rise in bond yields has investors concerned,” said Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management in New York.
        Investors fear that interest rates will keep climbing higher and begin to slow economic growth.
        Stocks sold off for a second consecutive session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 180 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 26,447.    The Dow slid nearly 201 points Thursday when the 10-year government bond yield initially hit a seven-year high.
    Contributing: Adam Shell

    10/6/2018 Brazil’s polarized election enters last day of campaigning by Anthony Boadle
    A supporter of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is seen next to an inflatable doll, also known as
    Pixuleco, depicting former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in front of Bolsonaro's condominium at Barra da Tijuca
    neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 5, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes
        BRASILIA (Reuters) – Candidates began their last day of campaigning on Saturday for Brazil’s most polarized presidential race in decades that could elect a far-right former army captain who promises to crack down on corruption, ease gun laws and defend Christian family values.
        Front-runner Jair Bolsonaro, 55, has surged on widespread anger over rising crime, a drifting economy and the prospect of the leftist Workers Party returning to power.
        His closest rival is Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party, whose leader is in jail for receiving bribes.
        Final opinion polls on Saturday will show whether Bolsonaro has enough support to win the election outright on Sunday.    If no candidate gets a majority, the race will go to a second-round run-off between the two top vote-getters on Oct. 28.
        Bolsonaro, who is recovering from a near-fatal stabbing at a rally one month ago, appealed to Brazilians to vote for him in a live Facebook feed for his home on Friday night.
        He asked them to give him a majority to avoid a second vote, which some polls have shown his leftist challenger winning.
        Haddad’s support relies on the popularity of his mentor, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was barred from running due to a corruption conviction.    Haddad will campaign on Saturday in Bahia state in the northeast of Brazil where Lula is still a hero because his government did much to relieve poverty.
        About 26 percent of voters say they have yet to decide who to vote for, according a Datafolha poll released on Thursday.    It showed outright victory by Bolsonaro was still possible but not likely.
        “We will accept the result whatever it is, there should be no doubt of that,” Bolsonaro said.
        The assurance was aimed at calming fears he would call for a military coup if he lost.    Bolsonaro, who is backed by a group of retired generals, said last week he would only accept victory.
        A Bolsonaro government would speed up the privatization of state companies to reduce Brazil’s budget deficit and relax environmental controls for farming and mining.    It would also block efforts to legalize abortion, drugs and gay marriage.
        In an interview published on Friday by the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo, one of the candidate’s top economic advisers said Bolsonaro would push ahead with privatizing state power firm Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, or Eletrobras.
        However, former army General Oswaldo de Jesus Ferreira pledged to keep state oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, in government hands.
        Hydroelectric dam projects on the Tapajos river in the Amazon basin that were stopped due to environmental concerns would be discussed again, Ferreira said.
        But he said the expansion of soy, corn and sugar cane plantations would not be allowed in the Amazon region, where environmentalists say deforestation is on the rise again.
    (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

    10/6/2018 Merkel calls for end to conservative in-fighting to halt poll slide by Andreas Rinke
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures as she delivers remarks following her meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
        KIEL, Germany (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that the conservatives must end their in-fighting to reverse slides in the polls before two regional elections this month.
        Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party have struggled to maintain a united front on immigration policy and the fate of the scandal-hit domestic intelligence agency.
        Polls indicate the CSU will lose its absolute majority in the Bavarian parliament in an election in the southern state on Oct. 14, bleeding support to the ecologist Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
        Support for Merkel’s CDU is also projected to fall, to around 29 percent, in an election in the state of Hesse two weeks later.    The party won 10 percentage points more in the election five years ago in Hesse, where it governs with the Greens.
        “I know that through our dispute we have contributed to making the polls look as they do,” Merkel told the CDU/CSU youth wing in a speech in the northern city of Kiel.    “Voters don’t appreciate it if we argue and they don’t even understand what we’re arguing about.”
        Merkel’s authority has been waning since an inconclusive election in September last year that produced the worst result for her conservatives since 1949.
        Her first attempt to form a government with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) was unsuccessful, forcing her to turn to the center-left SPD to secure a fourth term.
        She had to make painful concessions to the SPD, including ceding the prized finance ministry, to get the party to reverse its decision to be in opposition and join the government as coalition partners.
        She has since faced calls from her own party to name a successor.
        The CDU/CSU youth wing on Saturday demanded a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms that a chancellor can serve to three.
        Merkel rejected this idea, saying it would breach the constitutional rights of lawmakers to have the freedom to vote for any chancellor candidate they want.
    SEEHOFER TO STAY ON
        Merkel’s coalition has been lurching from one crisis to another.
        In the summer, CSU leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer brought the government to the brink of collapse with a threat to turn back migrants at the border with Austria if they had already applied for asylum elsewhere in the European Union.
        Seehofer’s hardline on immigration has not helped his to CSU reverse a slide in support in Bavaria, the main gateway for migrants coming to Germany.
        Voters in the wealthy state appear to be unimpressed with his anti-immigration rhetoric.
        Those opposed to Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to some one million, mainly Muslim asylum seekers, are turning to the AfD.
        Yet others are leaving the CSU for the Greens, who are projected to become the second-biggest party in Bavaria on Oct. 14.
        Seehofer, the loudest critic of Merkel’s liberal immigration policies, on Saturday ruled out giving up his post as CSU leader after the election, vowing to stay on until the end of his term next year.
        Asked by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper if he would stay, he said: “Of course! I have a big project to complete.”
    (Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

    10/6/2018 EU’s Juncker upbeat on Brexit agreement, no-deal not an option by Kirsti Knolle
    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit
    during the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S., September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegria
        VIENNA (Reuters) – The European Union and Britain will reach a deal on Brexit in November if they do not do so this month, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told Austrian newspapers.
        Juncker, whose optimism was echoed on Saturday by European Council President Donald Tusk, said that the potential for a rapprochement had grown in recent days, confirming what diplomatic sources have told Reuters.
        EU Brexit negotiators believe a deal with Britain on leaving the bloc is “very close”, the sources said, in a sign a compromise on a major sticking point – the future Irish border – might be in the making.
        “We are not there yet.    But our will to reach an understanding with the British government is unbroken,” Juncker was quoted as saying by Der Standard and Kurier and Der Falter.
        EU Brexit negotiators told ambassadors of the 27 states remaining in the bloc on Friday that there was no breakthrough on the Irish issue and much would depend on what the British bring to Brussels next week.
        Britain is due to leave the EU in March, but talks on managing the unprecedented split have been stalled over differences on how to avoid border checks between EU-member Ireland and Britain’s province of Northern Ireland.
        “We have to get away from this no-deal scenario.    It wouldn’t be good for Britain or for the rest of the (European) Union,” Juncker was quoted as saying.
        Britain’s Brexit ministry said on Friday that the country’s integrity would be preserved as part of any deal and that there would be no new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless the province’s executive agree.
        “We will continue to work at pace to conclude these negotiations in the autumn,” a British government spokesperson said on Saturday.
    WITHDRAWAL TREATY
        Britain and the EU are trying to push for the divorce deal, as well as an agreement on post-Brexit relations, in time for two leaders’ summits scheduled for Oct. 17-18 and Nov. 17-18.
        “My assumption is that we will reach an accord which will achieve the conditions of the withdrawal treaty,” Juncker said, adding that it was not possible to predict whether there will be a conclusion to the Brexit negotiations in October.
        “If not, then we will do it in November.”
        Tusk also said it was possible to agree a deal with Britain on leaving the European Union by the end of 2018.
        “I have hope close to certainty that we will manage to reach an agreement both on exit and on best possible future relations … I hope that it will be possible to avoid major losses on both sides,” he said on the sidelines of a conference in Krakow, Poland.
        “We will try for it in October … and I think there is a chance to have an accord by the end of the year,” he added.
        Juncker told the Austrian papers that a political declaration on future relations between Britain and its former European partners was needed to accompany the Brexit deal.
        “You can’t absolutely keep separate the withdrawal treaty and the declaration of the future relationship between the United Kingdom and Europe,” he said.
    (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Additional reporting by Wojciech Zurawski in Krakow and Andy Bruce in London; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alexander Smith)

    10/6/2018 Senate confirms Brett Kavanaugh as new Justice to the Supreme Court by OAN Newsroom
        It’s official, Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, and will become the next Supreme Court Justice to sit on the bench.
    FILE – In this July 26, 2018, file photo, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
        Kavanaugh was confirmed by a vote of 50 to 48, the closest vote for a Supreme Court Justice in several decades. Kavanaugh’s confirmation process has been stalled for weeks by Democrats, who tried to derail his nomination with allegations of sexual misconduct.
        However, Republicans — with the exception of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski — voted in favor of the longtime judge, noting his judicial expertise on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
        He now joins the other Justices on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonia Stomayor, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch.
    Protesters occupy the U.S. Capitol steps before a Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation Saturday. ERIK S. LESSER/EPA-EFE
        And of course the Democrats sent persons into the Gallery to try to disrupt the voting of the Senate, and Vice President Pence had to have the Sergeant at Arms to maintain control in the Gallery at least 10 times.

    10/6/2018 U.S. farmers reportedly hit hard by trade dispute with China by OAN Newsroom
        Dairy farmers express concern, as trade tensions between China and the U.S. begin to effect America’s agriculture sector.
        China rolled out 25 percent tariffs on a number of goods — including dairy products — in July, following the enactment of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum goods.
    In this Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, right,
    visits a farm in Jiansanjiang in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province. Xi was on an inspection tour of the region as China
    has slapped tariffs on U.S. agricultural imports and looked to increase farming self-sufficiency amid a growing trade war with the United States. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)
        U.S. farmers were hit hard by the recent penalties, and have urged the administration to make de-escalating the trade dispute with china a top-priority.
        Wisconsin’s governor spoke out on how the issue effects local farmers, during the World Dairy Expo in the state.    “I’ve, over the years, have said no matter what happens in Washington, as long as governors and state delegations are visiting places from Mexico to Canada to China to the UK, to other places around the world, that shows we’re interested in trade.” – Scott Walker (R) Wisconsin governor.
        Beijing had been the third largest market for U.S. dairy prior to the move.
        The U.S. exported almost $600 millions worth of dairy products to china just last year.

    10/7/2018 Scotland’s Sturgeon says her party likely to vote against Brexit deal
    Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks at the inauguration of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC)
    off Aberdeen, Scotland, Britain Sep 7, 2018. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
        LONDON (Reuters) – Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she could not expect her Scottish National Party (SNP) lawmakers to vote for any likely current format of a Brexit deal when it is put before parliament.
        Sturgeon told the BBC she expected British Prime Minister Theresa May to reach a “cobbled-together” deal to leave the European Union which parliament would be expected to rubber stamp with no details.    Such an outcome would be unacceptable, she said.
    (Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary and William James; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    10/8/2018 Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate works on a coalition by Rodrigo Viga Gaier
    Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL),
    casts his vote in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The main political adviser to Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said he will work Monday to stitch together alliances with individual lawmakers to ensure a runoff victory for the former Army captain.
    Congressman Onyx Lorenzoni said he was making good on Bolsonaro’s campaign pledge to end a system of horse-trading between party leaders in Brazilian politics, blamed for endemic corruption as past leaders wielded vast patronage in exchange for legislative support.
        Lorenzoni said Bolsonaro’s team was targeting individual lawmakers in parties opposed to the Workers Party (PT) and its presidential candidate Fernando Haddad – including those in parties whose leaders do not yet support the right-winger.
        Bolsonaro nearly won the presidency in Sunday’s first-round vote, taking 46 percent of votes against Haddad’s 29 percent.    A runoff is required under Brazilian law if no candidate wins a majority.    The second ballot is on Oct. 28.
        “We’ll speak with anybody who wishes to talk with us now, which is interesting because many of them did not want to have a dialogue with us before the first-round vote,” Lorenzoni said.
        He expressed confidence that Bolsonaro would easily win the presidency later this month, saying that many who voted for other candidates on Sunday want to block the PT, which held the presidency from 2003 to 2016, from returning to power.
        Bolsonaro’s popularity has surged as Brazilians, exasperated with a political system that orchestrated what prosecutors call the world’s largest political graft schemes, see him as the best hope to destroy corruption-riddled traditional politics.
        But Bolsonaro’s fiery anti-democratic rhetoric of the past, his stance that Brazil’s already notoriously violent police should kill as many criminals as possible, and his desire to rollback progressives’ gains in recent years have enraged a large number of voters.
        Should Bolsonaro win, he will have a far easier time than imagined pushing his socially conservative and free-market economic reform policies through Congress.
        Brazil’s next Congress was also elected on Sunday, and in a seismic shift, Bolsonaro’s once-tiny Social Liberal Party (PSL) was poised to become the second-largest force in the body.
        GRAPHIC-Polling, issues and leading candidates in Brazil’s election – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ixe0NI.
    (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Additional reporting and writing by Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

    10/8/2018 No divorce without precise future framework: spokesman for UK’s May
    FILE PHOTO: Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave EU and Union flags opposite the Houses of Parliament,
    in London, Britain, June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain cannot agree a withdrawal deal with the European Union without securing a precise framework for their future relationship, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday.
        “There can be no withdrawal agreement without a precise future framework,” he told reporters.
        Britain and the EU will resume talks this week on the detail of Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc and on its future relationship.    EU leaders will meet next week to try to conclude a deal but any final agreement may have to wait until a special meeting in November.
        After more positive comments from the EU over the Brexit negotiations, the spokesman said there was a difference between optimistic talk about a deal being done and getting an agreement, again calling on the bloc to move its position.
        “It’s worth me pointing out that there’s a difference between people talking optimistically about a deal, and a deal including both the withdrawal agreement and the future framework, actually being agreed,” he said.
        “There remain big issues to work through.”
    (Reporting by William James, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
    [My comment: If Brexit leaves the EU, is it possible that the 27 other nations left some may try to leave it also to form new blocs?    That would be amusing since so many former prophecy predictors assumed that the European Union would be the 10 horns or powers on the beast.].

    10/8/2018 Pres. Trump Hosts Ceremonial Swearing-in For Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump listens to Justice Brett Kavanaugh speaks during the ceremonial swearing-in
    ceremony of Kavanaugh as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the East Room of the White House in Washington,
    Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Kavanaugh is accompanied by his wife Ashley Kavanaugh, third from left, and children Margaret, second from left, and Liza. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        Incoming Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh attends a ceremonial swearing-in alongside President Trump at the White House.
        The president said Kavanaugh overcame intense scrutiny by Democrats who considered him guilty and didn’t want to give him due process.
        This comes after Kavanaugh was sworn in over the weekend by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts, who also attended the ceremony.
        President Trump then directly addressed Kavanaugh’s daughters and reassured them their father will now serve the American people on the nation’s highest court.
        He also thanked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Chuck Grassley for their unwavering support and strong leadership during the confirmation process.

    10/8/2018 President Trump slams Democrats for calling for the impeachment of Justice Kavanaugh by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is slamming Democrats for calling for the impeachment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
    While speaking with reporters Monday, the president referred to the leftist calls as a total insult to the American people and claimed Kavanaugh was the victim of a hoax orchestrated by Democrats.
    President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington,
    Monday, Oct. 8, 2018, as he heads to Marine One for the short trip to Andrews Air Force Base. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        He then predicted a lot of Democrat voters will end up voting for Republicans in the midterms, because the Democratic Party has shifted so far to the left.
        “I think you’re going to see a lot of things happen on November sixth that would not have happened before,” stated President Trump.    “The American public has seen this charade … have seen this dishonesty by the Democrats.”
        The president also addressed concerns about Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who traveled with him on Air Force One Monday.    He said he has gotten to know Rosenstein very well and gets along with him.
        The president is set to speak at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual convention in Florida before traveling back to Washington for a swearing-in ceremony for Brett Kavanaugh.

    10/8/2018 State Dept. rejects Iran’s lawsuit to recover $1.75B in frozen funds by OAN Newsroom
        Trump administration officials have rejected Iran’s plea to release billions of its frozen assets.
        In its filing with the International Court of Justice Monday, the State Department urged judges to toss Iran’s claim to recover $1.75 billion frozen in the U.S.
        U.S. officials said the Iranian money will go to families of the American marines killed or injured in the 1983 bombing of barracks in Beirut.    The State Department cited a 2016 Supreme Court decision to back up its position.
    In this Wednesday Oct. 3, 2018, image Mohammed Zahedin Labbaf, third left, agent for the Islamic Republic of Iran,
    and the U.S. delegation, right, listen to the ruling of the judges on an Iranian request to order Washington to suspend sanctions
    against Tehran, at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
        Iran has sought to recover the money in line with the 1955 “friendship” treaty rescinded by the U.S. last week.
        “This case concerns measures taken by the United States progressively over a period of years to enable victims of terrorism to hold Iran accountable for acts of terrorism directed at or affecting U.S. persons,” stated Richard Visek, legal adviser for the State Department.
        The State Department stressed, America’s legal framework allows victims to hold the Ayatollah regime accountable for its support and financing of international terrorism.

    10/8/2018 Amazon funds radical Islamic ideologists in London, According to a new report by OAN Newsroom
        An investigation by Britain’s top newspaper revealed Jeff Bezos has been funding radical Islamic ideologists.
    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. (REUTERS/Gus Ruelas)
        According to The Times, Amazon has agreed to finance the Muslim Research and Development Foundation.
        The London-based Muslim entity advocates for stoning women to death, child marriage and female genital mutilation.
        The group’s founder is considered one of the most dangerous men in the United Kingdom.
        “Why are you voting for a party that is not going to rule by Islam in Britain, in Norway, in Holland, in Europe — this is insanity.    You are supporting the Kaffir to be on top of you.    No.    the Kaffir is already there.” — Haitham al-Haddad, Muslim Research and Development foundation Amazon is claiming this radical Muslim organization was cleared by the Charity Commission, meaning its financial aid to Islamic extremists does not violate any laws.

    10/8/2018 Italy threatens airport shutdown to prevent Germany from repatriating illegal migrants by OAN Newsroom
        Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is considering a shutdown of the country’s airports to prevent an influx of migrants.
    Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. (AP/Photo)
        The minister took to Twitter Sunday, saying Italy may close its airports like it closed its seaports due to illegal migrants.
        Salvini stressed the migrants would be stranded in airports’ international zones if Germany attempts to fly them to Italy.
        This comes after German officials announced plans to send dozens of migrants to Italy on charter flights.
        Italy’s Labor Minister Luigi Di Maio has also rejected Germany’s plans, saying migrant repatriation requires bilateral agreements.
        “I do not know who authorized this thing with the charter with the migrants arriving in Italy, sincerely, because on the secondary movements, no agreement was signed,” he stated.    “Or are you saying that we can repatriate sub-Saharan Africans in African countries without any agreement?”
        Germany has since backtracked on its plans.

    10/9/2018 Brexit deal possible in weeks, says Northern Irish party that props up May by Amanda Ferguson and Gabriela Baczynska
    FILE PHOTO: Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, waits for a television interview
    at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo
        BELFAST/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Brexit deal is “eminently possible” within weeks but there can be no regulatory barriers within the United Kingdom, the head of the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday.
        Less than six months before the UK’s exit from the European Union, there is little clarity about how the world’s fifth largest economy and its preeminent international financial center will trade with the EU after Brexit.
        Talks are snagged on how to avoid checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland if the sides fail to clinch a post-Brexit free trade deal.
        May and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which supports her minority government, have opposed EU proposals for a backstop that would keep Northern Ireland – but not mainland Britain – de facto inside the EU economic space.
        Ahead of a meeting with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, DUP leader Arlene Foster stuck to her rejection of any new regulatory or customs barriers inside the United Kingdom – but said that, with political will, a deal was possible.
        “I want to see a deal that works for everyone and I think that is eminently possible if the political will is there to make it happen,” Foster told BBC Radio Ulster.    “I very much hope that there is a deal in a number of weeks.”
        The EU’s Brexit negotiators believe a divorce deal with Britain is “very close,” diplomatic sources told Reuters last week, indicating a compromise on the future Irish border was in play.
        A flurry of Brexit activity is expected over coming days.
        Barnier will update the Commission on Wednesday and then EU ambassadors meet on Friday in Luxembourg.    EU leaders’ negotiators meet in Brussels on Monday.
        But even if May clinches a deal, there is uncertainty on whether she could sell it at home, where she will need approval from the British parliament.
        Lawmaker Steve Baker said at least 40 lawmakers in her Conservative Party were willing to vote down her possible Brexit deal if it left the UK ‘half in and half out’ of the EU.
    BLIND BREXIT?
        If lawmakers reject a deal, May could fall and Britain would face leaving the EU without an agreement, a move investors and company chiefs say would weaken the West, panic financial markets and block the arteries of trade.
        The United Kingdom would move from seamless trade with the EU to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organization for external states.
        “Colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit,” said Baker, who served as a junior Brexit minister in May’s government until he resigned in protest at her proposals.
        If 40 of her lawmakers voted against a possible deal, the fate of the government and exit process would depend on the opposition Labour Party, which has indicated it will vote against almost any deal May might secure.
        Brexiteers accept there is likely to be some short-term economic pain but say Britain will thrive in the longer term if cut loose from what they see as a doomed experiment in German-dominated unity and excessive debt-funded welfare spending.
        A ‘hard’ Brexit would result in extra tariffs of more than 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for German companies per year, a German institute said on Tuesday, adding that German exports to Britain could drop by up to 57 percent.
        Under May’s proposals, Britain will seek a free trade area for goods with the EU, largely by accepting a “common rulebook” for goods and British participation in EU agencies that provide authorizations for goods.
        Some Brexiteers say those proposals would ensure the EU kept control over swathes of the British economy and thus run counter to the spirit of her manifesto pledge to leave the EU Customs Union and the Single Market.
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by John Stonestreet)

    10/9/2018 IMF cuts world economic growth forecasts on tariff war, emerging market strains by David Lawder
    Maurice Obstfeld, Economic Counsellor and Director of IMF (L) talks as Wafa Amr, Communication Officer of IMF listens,
    during their press conference at the 2018 International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Bank Group Annual Meeting at Nusa Dua in
    Bali, Indonesia, October 9, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Nyoman Budhiana/ via REUTERS
        NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global economic growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019, saying that the U.S-China trade war was taking a toll and emerging markets were struggling with tighter liquidity and capital outflows.
        The new forecasts, released on the Indonesian resort island of Bali where the IMF and World Bank annual meetings are getting underway, show that a burst of strong growth, fueled partly by U.S. tax cuts and rising demand for imports, was starting to wane.
        The IMF said in an update to its World Economic Outlook it was now predicting 3.7 percent global growth in both 2018 and 2019, down from its July forecast of 3.9 percent growth for both years.
        The downgrade reflects a confluence of factors, including the introduction of import tariffs between the United States and China, weaker performances by eurozone countries, Britain and Japan, and rising interest rates that are pressuring some emerging markets with capital outflows, notably Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia and Mexico.
        “U.S. growth will decline once parts of its fiscal stimulus go into reverse,” IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said in a statement.    “Notwithstanding the present demand momentum, we have downgraded our 2019 U.S. growth forecast owing to the recently enacted tariffs on a wide range of imports from China and China’s retaliation.”
        With much of the U.S.-China tariff war’s impact to be felt next year, the Fund cut its 2019 U.S. growth forecast to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent previously, while it cut China’s 2019 growth forecast to 6.2 percent from 6.4 percent.    It left 2018 growth forecasts for the two countries unchanged at 2.9 percent for the United States and 6.6 percent for China.
        Obstfeld said he was not concerned about the Chinese government’s ability to defend its currency against further weakening but told a news conference that Beijing would face a “balancing act” between actions to shore up growth and ensuring financial stability.
        If China and the United States were to resolve their trade differences, it “would be a significant upside to the forecast.”
        The eurozone’s 2018 growth forecast was cut to 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent previously, with Germany particularly hard hit by a drop in manufacturing orders and trade volumes.
        Obstfeld said the IMF does not see a generalized pullback from emerging markets, nor contagion that will spill over to those emerging economies which have stronger economies and have thus far avoided major outflows, such as some in Asia and some oil and metals exporting countries.
        “But there is no denying that the susceptibility to large global shocks has risen,” Obstfeld said.    “Any sharp reversal for emerging markets would pose a significant threat to advanced economies.”
        Brazil will see a 0.4 percentage-point drop in GDP growth to 1.4 percent for 2018 as a nationwide truckers strike paralyzed much of the economy.    Iran, facing a new round of U.S. sanctions next month, also saw its growth forecast cut, the IMF said.
        Some energy-rich emerging market countries have fared better due to higher oil prices, with Saudi Arabia and Russia receiving upgrades to growth forecasts.
        The IMF said the balance of risks was now tilted to the downside, with a higher likelihood that financial conditions will tighten further as interest rates normalize, hurting emerging markets further at a time when U.S.-led demand growth will start to slow as some tax cuts expire.
        Trade tensions are expected to continue although Fund officials view U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement as a positive sign.
        “Where we are now is we’ve gotten some bad news.    Our probability that we would attach to further bad news has gone up,” Obstfeld said.
    TRADE WAR RISKS
        In a new simulation exercise to show trade war risks to the global economy, the IMF modeled the effect of an all-out U.S.-China trade war, coupled with threatened global U.S. automotive tariffs and retaliation from trading partners.
        The model also includes the effects of a reduction in business confidence that reduces investment and leads to a tightening of financial conditions.
        It found that global GDP output under this scenario would fall by more than 0.8 percent in 2020 and remain roughly 0.4 percent lower in the long-term compared to levels without the effects of a trade war.
        The repercussions for the United States and China would be particularly severe, with 2019 GDP losses of more than 0.9 percent in the United States and 1.6 percent in China in 2019.
        The exercise assumes that U.S. President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on the remaining $267 billion worth of Chinese goods imports not already under punitive tariffs and China retaliates in kind.    It also assumes that Trump imposes a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and auto parts.
        Adjustments would occur as domestic production displaces higher-priced imports, the model shows, but in the long run, the U.S. GDP would still be 1.0 percent below a baseline without these tariffs, while China’s GDP output would be one half percent below the baseline.
    (Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Clive McKeef & Simon Cameron-Moore)

    10/9/2018 German firms would face billions in extra tariffs in hard Brexit: study
    FILE PHOTO: Workers are seen behind e-Golf electric cars during assembly at the new production line of the Transparent Factory of German carmaker Volkswagen in Dresden, Germany March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo
        BERLIN (Reuters) – A hard Brexit would result in extra tariffs of more than 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for German companies per year, a German institute said on Tuesday, and German exports to Britain might drop by up to 57 percent.
        Talks on ending four decades of Britain’s membership in the European Union have entered their final stage more than two years after Britons voted for Brexit.    A hard Brexit would mean Britain leaving the bloc with no trade deal.
        Britain and the EU are eyeing significant progress in negotiations at an Oct. 17-18 summit.
        The BDI industry association – one of Germany’s most influential lobby groups – said a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations was needed at that summit.
        “Otherwise there is the risk that Europe slides into a disorderly Brexit and that would cause a huge crisis,” Managing Director Joachim Lang said.
        A hard Brexit would cause huge difficulties for tens of thousands of companies in Europe and hundreds of thousands of employees in Britain and the European Union, Lang said.
        He noted that many companies were preparing for a hard Brexit and some wanted to suspend production in Britain from April as delivery routes could not be secured.
        The IW institute in Cologne said a hard Brexit would affect the auto sector – which employs some 800,000 people in Germany and is the country’s biggest exporter – particularly hard as it would be hit with about 60 percent of those extra costs.
        About 5 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product depended either directly or indirectly on trade with Britain, IW said, making it the third biggest trading partner for German firms.
        “That could dramatically change in the foreseeable future,” the IW study said.
        Referring to a potential plunge in German exports to Britain if a hard Brexit happens, IW researcher Markos Jung said: “This horrific scenario should force politicians to act constructively.”
        In the long term, a hard Brexit would probably result in price rises and a shift in Germany’s flow of goods, the IW said.
    ($1 = 0.8715 euros)
    (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Louise Ireland)

    10/9/2018 President Trump: China not ready to make deal on trade, faces new round of tariffs by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is mulling even tougher tariffs on China in response to Beijing’s criticism of his administration’s policy course.
        On Tuesday, the president said China does not appear to be ready to conclude a trade deal.    He reiterated the country is now facing 10-to-25-percent tariffs on $267 billion worth of its exports to the U.S.
        This comes after Chinese officials blasted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to Beijing earlier this week, saying U.S. trade and foreign policies are a mistake.
    President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before
    leaving the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        In response, President Trump said he has cancelled several scheduled meetings with Chinese officials.
        “We can’t have a one-way street.    It’s got to be a two-way street.    It’s been a one-way street for 25 years.    We’ve got to make it a two way street.    We’ve got to benefit also.” — President Donald Trump (on trade with China).
        Some economists say a new round of tariffs would add to the existing duties on $200 billion of China trade, meaning all Chinese exports into the U.S. would be taxed at the border.

    10/9/2018 Nikki Haley resigns as UN ambassador by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump has officially accepted United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s resignation.    Haley discussed resigning with the president last week.
        The former South Carolina governor was chosen by President Trump soon after his inauguration and confirmed to serve as UN ambassador just four-days after he took office.
        Haley has handled a number of contentious issues during her time at the UN, including withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Security Council.
    President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
    in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        The president and Haley met in the Oval Office Tuesday morning with open press coverage.
        President Trump said she has done an incredible job and he will hate to lose her.    He then spoke of the foreign policy accomplishments she assisted with, including working towards peace on the Korean peninsula and standing up against Iran as well as China.
        Haley said it is an honor of lifetime to serve the country she loves so much.    She will be leaving her post at the UN at the end of the year.

    10/10/2018 Trump to unveil plan for more ethanol in gas by Donnelle Eller Des Moines Register USA TODAY NETWORK
        After months of false starts, President Donald Trump was to tell Iowans on Tuesday night during a campaign rally in Council Bluffs that he’s opening the door to year-round access to gasoline with higher ethanol blends.
        A senior White House official said Monday that Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to begin rule-making that allows for year-round use of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol or E15.
        The announcement sets off a review that could make E15 available to consumers as soon as next summer.
        In addition, the president will seek reforms to biofuels credit trading the White House says will provide greater transparency and help reduce volatility in the market.
        E15 is banned during the summer months, based on concerns it contributes to smog, a claim ethanol advocates say is unfounded.    Almost all gasoline contains 10 percent ethanol.     The move should help Iowa farmers and U.S. consumers at a time when years of record harvests – and Trump trade wars with Canada, Mexico and China – have helped depress corn and soybean prices.
        U.S. farm income this year is expected to be 50 percent below a 2013 high.
        “It’s wonderful for the American farmer.    It’s great for biofuels producers.    And it’s great for the American consumer, so we’re thrilled,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, a Washington, D.C., ethanol advocacy group.
        Skor said increased adoption of higher ethanol blends could boost corn use by 2 billion bushels.
        That’s big news in Iowa, the nation’s largest corn grower and ethanol and biodiesel producer.    About half of Iowa’s corn crop is used to make ethanol and a high-protein byproduct called distillers grain that’s fed to livestock.
        While farmers backed the president in the 2016 election, many are weary about his approach to trade.    A trade war that could cost Iowa about $2.2 billion has hit some of his farm support hardest.    Farmers have gained some certainty with Trump’s new trade deals with Canada and Mexico announced earlier this month, which would replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
        The U.S. is still involved in an ongoing trade dispute with China, the largest buyer of American soybeans and second-largest purchaser of pork, based on volume.
        Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said Trump deserved credit for getting year-round E15 when other administrations did not.
        “This is something we’ve worked on for seven years – non-stop,” Shaw said, adding he sees few problems with the reforms proposed to trading biofuels credits, called renewable identification numbers or RINS.
        “This is the first president that’s taken action,” Shaw said.    “It was a promise made and a promise kept.”
    The president wants more frequent compliance reporting, public disclosure of biofuels credit holdings and limits on who can buy the credits and how long they can be held.

    10/10/2018 UK PM May’s possible Brexit deal could be backed by 30-40 Labour lawmakers: Times
    British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote address on the final day of at the
    Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Around 30 to 40 lawmakers from the opposition Labour Party would be prepared to back a Brexit deal that British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to strike with the European Union, The Times newspaper reported, citing unidentified lawmakers.
        The EU’s Brexit negotiators believe a divorce deal with Britain is “very close,” diplomatic sources told Reuters last week, though it is unclear whether May could get the deal approved by the British parliament.
        Around 320 votes in the 650-seat parliament are needed to be certain of winning a vote.
        May has 315 lawmakers and governs with a working majority of 13 thanks to a deal with the 10 lawmakers of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), though rebels in her own party say 40 of her lawmakers could vote against her deal.
        The Times said a group of between 30 to 40 Labour lawmakers could defy their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and vote for a deal that May hopes to bring back by the end of the year.
        In one scenario being discussed, Labour lawmakers would initially vote down any deal to prove loyalty to the leadership, but if parliamentary deadlock remained the rebels would back any deal that prevented a chaotic departure, The Times said.
        If lawmakers reject a deal, May could fall and Britain would face leaving the EU without an agreement, a move investors and company chiefs say would weaken the West, panic financial markets and block the arteries of trade.
        Without a deal the United Kingdom would move from seamless trade with the EU to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organization for external states.
    (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Sarah Young)

    10/10/2018 Belfast bakery did not discriminate in gay cake case, UK court rules
    Daniel and Amy McArthur, who own Ashers Bakery in Belfast, speak as they leave the Supreme Court in London, Britain, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        LONDON (Reuters) – A Northern Irish bakery’s refusal to bake a cake iced with a pro-gay slogan on account of its owners’ Christian beliefs was not discriminatory, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.     Ashers Baking in Belfast was found guilty of discrimination in 2015 for refusing to make a cake for a customer bearing the words “Support Gay Marriage” and a picture of characters Bert and Ernie from the television show Sesame Street.
        It failed in an appeal to the local courts in 2016 but the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest judicial body, overturned that decision, saying the bakers’ objection was to the message on the cake, not to any personal characteristics of the messenger, or anyone with whom he was associated.
        The bakery, which initially accepted the order from Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist, but later contacted him to cancel it and refund his money, would have refused to make such a cake for any customer irrespective of their sexual orientation, the court said.
        “This conclusion is not in anyway to diminish the need to protect gay people and people who support gay marriage,” said Brenda Hale, President of the Supreme Court.
        “It is deeply humiliating and an affront to human dignity to deny someone the service because of that person’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief but that is not what happened in this case.”
        Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom where same-sex marriage is not allowed.
        The socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the province’s largest political party that also props up Britain’s minority government, has blocked attempts to legalize gay marriage.    Party leader, Arlene Foster, retweeted news of the judgment as soon as it was handed down.
        Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, which backed Lee’s case, said it was disappointed with the judgment and the implications that the beliefs of business owners may take precedence over a customer’s equality rights.
        “There is a concern that this judgment may raise uncertainty about the application of equality law in the commercial sphere, both about what businesses can do and what customers may expect,” it said in a statement.
    (Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Amanda Ferguson in Belfast; editing by Michael Holden)

    10/10/2018 German far-right party draws backing from small group of Jews by Hakan Ersen
    FILE PHOTO: Participants vote during the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party congress
    in Augsburg, Germany, June 30, 2018. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo
        WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) – Leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been rebuked for belittling the significance of the Nazis and criticizing a Holocaust memorial, but this has not stopped a small group of Jews from throwing their support behind the party.
        On Sunday they formed Jews in the AfD, a political group based in the western city of Wiesbaden that seeks to foster support for the party, which says Islam is not compatible with the German constitution.
        “We are not a religious organization, we are a political organization,” Jews in the AfD leader Wolfgang Fuhl told reporters at the inauguration ceremony, sitting on a podium with fellow Jews including a few wearing the Jewish skullcap.
        He said people wishing to join had to meet two requirements: membership in the AfD and ethnic or religious association with the Jewish faith.    Twenty people signed up at Sunday’s meeting.
        The AfD entered the German parliament for the first time in an election last year, drawing support from a broad array of voters angry with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome almost a million, mainly Muslim asylum seekers.
        Its success drew immediate expressions of concern from Israeli officials and Jewish groups in Europe and the United States.
        German politicians in June rebuked AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland after he said that Hitler and the Nazis “are just bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history.”
        And Bjoern Hoecke, the AfD’s leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, triggered anger last year after he told supporters that Berlin’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust was a “memorial of shame” and that history books should be rewritten to focus more on German victims.
        But Jews for AfD leader Fuhl dismissed those concerns on Sunday, saying the AfD was the most pro-Israel party in Germany, not least because it supports the Jewish state’s right to have all of Jerusalem as its capital.
    ‘PRO-ISRAEL’
        “The AfD is an exceptionally pro-Israel party, supposedly the most pro-Israel party in the Bundestag,” Fuhl said, referring to the lower house of parliament in which the AfD is the third-largest party.
        Palestinians, with broad international backing, seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they want to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
        Israel regards all of the city, including the eastern sector it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, as its “eternal and indivisible capital.”
        Germany, home to an estimated 200,000 Jews, has built a reputation in recent decades as a tolerant, safe place for Jews to live.    The rise of the AfD has alarmed the community.
        Anti-Semitic crimes reported to the police rose 4 percent to 681 in the first eight months of 2017 against the same period last year, with an overwhelming majority of incidents linked to far-right extremism.    The real number is probably much higher.
        Members of Jews in the AfD appear unmoved by those figures.
        When asked by a journalist what he would say to people who might call him a “Nazi Jew,” Bernhard Krauskopf said speaking in English: “I tell them that ‘you are talking to a Jewish-German person whose father lost more than 50 people in Nazi death camps, you should be a little bit more intelligent not to talk such nonsense.'”
        Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he was skeptical.
        “It doesn’t go together for me,” he told Reuters.    “In the end, I have to assume that these are people who simply have not recognized the true ulterior motive, also the goals of this more than right-wing populist party.”
        He added: “I think that there are some who think, ‘The AFD is a party that today predominantly campaigns against or targets refugees, migrants, Muslims’.    However, I consider it completely wrong to put Muslims under general suspicion.    And the formula ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ does not work.'”
    (Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by William Maclean)

    10/10/2018 Global financial stability risks rising with trade tensions, IMF says by Lindsay Dunsmuir
    IMF Financial Counselor and Director for the Monetary and Capital Markets Department Tobias Adrian
    talks to media during Global Financial Stability Report press conference at the 2018 International Monetary Fund (IMF)
    World Bank Group Annual Meeting at Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia, October 10, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/M Agung Rajasa/ via REUTERS
        (Reuters) – Risks to the global financial system have risen over the past six months and could increase sharply if pressures in emerging markets escalate or global trade relations deteriorate further, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
        The IMF, whose autumn meetings with the World Bank get under way on the Indonesian resort island of Bali this week, also noted that while the banking system has been shored up by regulators in the decade since the 2008 global financial crisis, easy financial conditions are contributing to a buildup of vulnerabilities such as high debt levels and “stretched” asset valuations.
        New bank resolution regimes meant to avoid future bailouts are largely untested, the Fund said in its biannual global financial stability update.
        “Near-term risks to global financial stability have increased somewhat,” the IMF said.    “Overall, market participants appear complacent about the risk of a sharp tightening in financial conditions.”
        IMF capital markets director Tobias Adrian said potential shocks to the system could come in many forms, such as higher-than expected inflation that triggers a sharp jump in interest rates or a “disorderly” exit by Britain from the European Union.
        But the severity of the impact from such shocks will be determined by vulnerabilities including growing non-financial debt levels now exceeding 250 percent of GDP, a decline in underwriting standards outside the traditional banking sector and elevated asset prices that could drop sharply.
        “It’s this interaction between the buildup of vulnerabilities and the decline in asset prices that can generate adverse implications for macroeconomic activity,” Tobias told a news conference.
        The rapid build-up in debt in China in recent years also is a concern, although Chinese authorities have taken steps to rein in debt growth, he said.
        In the report, the IMF said economic growth appears to have peaked in some major economies while the gap between advanced countries and emerging markets was widening.    The IMF on Tuesday cut its global growth forecasts due to an escalating U.S.-China trade war and growing financial strains on emerging markets.
        The United States continues to grow strongly and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the seventh time in the last eight quarters at its latest policy meeting in September.    U.S. stock markets are also at record highs.
        That contrasts with a slowing in the euro area and Japan.    China’s economy is also showing signs of moderating and that could be exacerbated by its trade disputes with the United States, which has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports from Beijing and is threatening duties on $267 billion more    .
        The normalization of monetary policy in the United States as well as a stronger dollar and escalation in trade tensions has already begun to affect emerging market economies, the Fund said.
        New IMF research shows emerging market countries excluding China could face debt portfolio outflows of up to $100 billion, a level last seen during the global financial crisis.
        The Fund cited a number of other near-term risks to financial stability including the possibility of a “no-deal” Brexit or renewed fiscal policy concerns in some highly indebted euro area countries.
        It also urged global regulators to keep in place measures taken since the financial crisis and both heighten supervision of market liquidity and raise the amount of capital banks have to set aside to cushion any downturn.
        “The financial regulatory reform agenda should be completed, and a rollback of reforms should be avoided,” the Fund said.    “To adequately address potential systemic risks, financial regulation and supervision should be used more proactively.”
    (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir and David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci & Shri Navaratnam)

    10/10/2018 President Trump signs two bills aimed at increasing drug price transparency by OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 1:46 PM PT — Wed. Oct. 10, 2018     President Trump continues to follow through on his campaign promise to address the high cost of prescription drugs.
        On Wednesday, the president signed two pieces of legislation aimed at increasing transparency in prescription pricing.
        The measures will end gag orders, which prevent pharmacies from telling patients if they can save money by paying the cash price for medications.
    President Donald Trump holds up the ‘Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act’ after signing it and the ‘Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018,’
    during a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        The president explained this is part of his administration’s work with Congress to provide the health care Americans deserve.
        “Today I’m thrilled to sign two bills that will lower the cost of prescription drugs.    It’s the Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018 and the Patient’s Right to Know Lowest Price Act.    Obviously, based on the name you can tell that this gives people knowledge as to prices at different locations, where to buy the drugs.    That will have an immediate impact too.” — President Donald Trump.
        One of the laws deals with patients who have private insurance and is set to take effect right away.    The other applies to Medicare recipients and will go into effect in January of 2020.

    10/10/2018 Top national security officials testify before Senate, reiterate China threat by OAN Newsroom
        Top national security officials have been investigating around 5,000 counter-terrorism cases, and are now saying China represents a major threat.
        FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, where they said Beijing is working to influence American voters in the upcoming midterm elections.    However, Nielsen said there is no evidence to suggest that China has already compromised election infrastructure.
    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left, listens as FBI Director Christopher A. Wray testifies during a hearing
    of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        Wray said while he would not rank the threat level of specific foreign nations, he believes China presents more of a threat than Russia.
        “China in many ways represents the broadest, most complicated, most long-term counterintelligence threat we face,” he explained.    “Russia is in many ways fighting to stay relevant after the fall of the Soviet Union, they’re fighting today’s fight — China is fighting tomorrow’s fight and the day after tomorrow and the day after that.”
        The FBI director also said 1,000 of the bureau’s current terror investigations involve homegrown extremists in all 50 states.

    10/10/2018 Mexican police discover 627 ft. tunnel connecting to Calif. by OAN Newsroom
    This photo, released by U.S. Border Patrol, shows an underground tunnel connecting Mexico to the U.S. Mexican police discover
    the first underground tunnel of the fiscal year beginning less than a football field away from the U.S. border.
        According to reports Tuesday, the unfinished tunnel stretches 627 feet to connect a home in Jacumba, Mexico with Southern California.
        While the tunnel’s exit does not break the surface, it does feature rail tracks, electricity and a pump system to remove water.
        Border Patrol agents assisting Mexico with the investigation said the tunnel was likely being constructed to transport drugs across the border.
        The tunnel will likely be filled in by dirt after the investigation ends.

    10/10/2018 Obamacare website to be taken offline during open enrollment for maintenance by OAN Newsroom
        The Obamacare website will be taken offline during open enrollment.    The planned maintenance will last for 12-hours every Sunday beginning on November first and running through December 15th.
    The Healthcare.gov website is seen on a computer screen Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        While officials explain the maintenance is scheduled to happen during periods of low traffic, Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of “sabotage.”    They are claiming Republicans are trying to cut down enrollment numbers as lawmakers work on repealing and replacing Obamacare.
        However, the administration said the maintenance will stop the website from crashing and from facing other problems, which plagued its initial roll-out back in 2013.
        The Obamacare website is scheduled to be down for a total of 60-hours during the enrollment period, but the actual number could be much lower as last year’s maintenance only lasted 21-hours.
    [Whats new the Democrats and Obama couldn't get it up running in 2013 either without spending millions on it for a no go after spending millions on it to fix it.    So now they want to blame it on Trump?    So this time it is Trump instead of Kavanaugh.]

    On 10/11/2018 Oil down $1.79 to $73.17, DOW down 832 to 25,599, NASDAQ down 316 to 7422.

    10/11/2018 Dow plunges 831 points as interest rate jitters persist by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        The Wall Street bull got bloodied and battered Wednesday as the stock market suffered its biggest sell-off since February.
        Investors bailed out of the market as fears about the economic fallout caused by rising interest rates and the U.S. trade conflict with China spooked them.
        Technology stocks, which had been leading the market higher for most of 2018 and had gotten pricey, were the hardest hit.    The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite fell 4.1 percent.
        “These developments are telling us that the investment environment has become riskier,” says Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research.
        The Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 832 points, 831.83, or 3.2 percent, to 25,599.    The performance marked the blue-chip average’s worst one-day decline since a drop of more than 1,000 points on Feb. 8.    Growing concerns about the impact of higher borrowing costs on corporate earnings and consumer spending prompted investors to dump shares.    “Fear is rising,” says David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors in Sarasota, Florida.    “Investors are getting a wake-up call.”
        Kotok went as far as to predict that a full-fledged market “correction,” or drop of 10 percent, is underway.    After its drop of more than 3 percent Wednesday, the broad U.S. market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500, is now 4.9 percent off its Sept. 20 record high.
        The yield on the 10-year Treasury note – a U.S. government bond that affects the pricing of things ranging from fixed-rate mortgages to stocks – hit a seven-year high of 3.26 percent earlier Wednesday.    Higher interest rates make stocks less attractive relative to other investments, including bonds, which offer higher and more competitive yields and carry lower risk.
        In the recent slide that began late last week, the Dow has given back nearly 1,200 points, or 4.6 percent since its most recent peak.    The major worry weighing on stocks is that economic growth will slow if borrowing costs continue to spike, analysts say.
        While the U.S. economy grew at a 4.2 percent pace in the second quarter, worries about the slowing economic growth around the world are growing.
        The S&P 500 stock index fell 3.3 percent, down for its fifth consecutive session and marking its longest losing streak since November 2016.
        The market decline comes ahead of the third-quarter earnings season, which kicks off Friday.
    One of the major worries for investors is that economic growth will slow if borrowing costs continue to spike. JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE

    10/11/2018 Tony Blair says there is a 50-50 chance of another Brexit referendum
    Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair attends an event at Thomson Reuters in London, Britain, October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        LONDON (Reuters) – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was a 50-50 chance of getting another Brexit referendum as Prime Minister Theresa May will be unlikely to secure a majority for any divorce deal in parliament.
        “Whatever Brexit is on offer today is going to result in significant economic harm,” Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, told Reuters.
        “I still believe it is possible that Brexit is stopped, I think there is no majority in parliament for any proposition that the prime minister brings back,” Blair said, adding that he wanted a second referendum.
        Less than six months before the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, there is little clarity about how the world’s fifth largest economy and its preeminent international financial center will trade with the EU after Brexit.
        May is trying to clinches a deal but there is uncertainty on whether she could sell it at home, where she will need approval from the British parliament.
        Blair said European regulators would not want the center of European finance to be outside their orbit so jobs would be lost in the financial sector.br>     “Why give ourselves this problem in a field of the global economy where we are globally preeminent?” Blair said, adding that the government had cast aside the interests of the service sector.
        Blair said that if Brexit did go ahead and was followed by a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn, then the country would face a “truly damaging and challenging situation.”
        “This is the problem with the policies of both major parties: they seem to think you can do Brexit and then engage is a whole lot of social legislation to make capitalism fairer and more equal and so on,” Blair said.
        “They have got to wake up to the fact that if you do Brexit your number one priority is going to be keeping this place as an attractive place for investors to come.”
    (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew MacAskill)

    10/11/2018 Under pressure from parliamentary partner, UK’s May meets ministers by Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attends a roundtable meeting with business leaders whose companies
    are inaugural signatories of the Race at Work Charter at the Southbank Centre in London, Britain, October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet ministers on Thursday to discuss Brexit, hours after her parliamentary partner threatened to withdraw its support if she accepts what it calls a “draconian solution” on offer from the European Union.
        Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU, the two sides differ on their view of the talks – the bloc says a withdrawal deal is within reach, while British officials say “significant obstacles” still lie in the way of any agreement.
        They do agree on one thing – that time is running out to seal a deal to pave the way for Britain’s divorce, the biggest trade and foreign policy shift for more than 40 years.    As that departure date creeps closer, those wanting to influence May’s approach to Brexit are stepping up their efforts.
        One of the biggest hurdles is an agreement on the so-called Irish backstop to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland if there is no immediate trade deal.
        A seamless border is part of the settlement which largely ended decades of violence in the province.
        Neither side has indicated there has been a deal on the Irish backstop.    But after meetings in Brussels, the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up the Conservative government in parliament, has issued a series of terse warnings to May.
        DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson condemned what he said was the EU’s offer for a backstop that would keep Britain in the customs union for an unspecified time-limited period, would exclude Northern Ireland from any new British trade deals and see checks on goods moving from mainland Britain to the province.
        May’s acceptance of such a proposal “would have implications not just for Brexit legislation – 50 per cent of which would not have passed without DUP support – but also for the budget, welfare reform and other domestic legislation,” he said.
        “She will not have DUP support regardless of whether the government tries to bribe, bully or browbeat us into accepting it,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
        By withdrawing its support, the DUP could make it impossible for May to pass legislation through parliament, including the budget which will be voted on later this month.
    MEETING
        May will gather several of her ministers later on Thursday as part of routine meetings to keep her cabinet team updated on progress in Brexit talks.
        The meeting takes place against growing criticism over her plans to leave the EU with some Conservative euroskeptic lawmakers saying they will vote against any deal based on her so-called “Chequers” proposal, named after her country residence.
        Former prime minister John Major, whose career as leader was crushed partly by euroskeptics, said the behavior of some of those Conservatives was “an intolerable way to treat a prime minister who’s in the middle of negotiations.”
        But the parliamentary arithmetic is difficult for May. With the support of the DUP she commands a majority of only 13 lawmakers and needs to keep either her own party onside or attract votes from the main opposition Labour Party.
        Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said the party will vote against any deal that does not meet its tests – something the Chequers plan does not fulfill.
        And former Labour leader Tony Blair added his voice to calls for the party to vote down May’s Brexit divorce deal.
        “My view is this only happens if there is blockage in parliament.    But if there is blockage in parliament it is a very simple argument.    You say look we have been two and a bit years trying to reach an agreement that works, parliament is blocked.”
    (Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew MacAskill; Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Elisabeth O’Leary and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

    10/11/2018 Tony Blair says UK needs a referendum to stop Brexit
    Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives for an event at Thomson Reuters in London, Britain, October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom should call a referendum to allow voters to choose between a no-deal Brexit and staying in a reformed European Union as British politics is deadlocked over the issue, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday.
        Less than six months before the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, there is little clarity about how the world’s fifth largest economy and its preeminent international financial center will trade with the EU after Brexit.
        If Prime Minister Theresa May can strike a deal with the EU, she has to get it approved by the British parliament, which is deeply divided over Brexit.
        Some members of her ruling Conservative Party are unhappy about the Brexit proposals she has made, and the main opposition Labour Party has indicated it is likely to vote down any deal May brings back.
        Blair, a former Labour prime minister, said he did not expect May to be able to get a deal through parliament so the country should be offered a new vote.
        “It really is difficult … The alternatives are all worse because if you do get to a blockage in parliament that is what opens up the possibility of going back to the people,” Blair, who was premier from 1997 to 2007, told a Reuters newsmaker in London.
        “My view is this only happens if there is blockage in parliament.    But if there is blockage in parliament it is a very simple argument.    You say, look we have been two and a bit years trying to reach an agreement that works, parliament is blocked.”
        Both opponents and supporters of Brexit agree that the divorce is Britain’s most significant geopolitical move since World War Two, though they cast vastly different futures for the $2.9 trillion UK economy and the world’s biggest trading bloc.
        Blair has repeatedly called for reversing Brexit, echoing other critics such as French President Emmanuel Macron and billionaire investor George Soros, who have suggested that Britain could still change its mind.
        Blair said that if Brexit did happen, the economic dislocation would be such that the United Kingdom would have to pitch to investors that it would be the best place in the world to do business.
    (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    10/11/2018 Trump trade war delivers farm boom in Brazil, gloom in Iowa by Jake Spring and Tom Polansek
    Machines work collecting cotton at the Guarani Farm of the Catelan family, in Roda Velha district near Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Bahia state, Brazil September 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
        LUÍS EDUARDO, Brazil/BOONE, Iowa (Reuters) – The Bella Vita luxury condominium tower rises 20 stories over the boomtown of Luís Eduardo Magalhães in northeastern Brazil.    Its private movie theater and helipad are symbols of how far this dusty farming community has come since it was founded just 18 years ago.
        Local soybean producers shell out upwards of a half-million U.S. dollars to live in the complex.    Nearby farm equipment sellers, car dealerships and construction supply stores are bustling too.
        Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 miles to the north in Boone, Iowa, farmers are hunkering down.    At a recent agriculture trade show here, Iowa corn and soybean grower Steve Sheppard reflected the cautious mood.
        “I’m not buying any machinery, I’m not spending any money,” Sheppard said.
        Two countries.    Same business.    Two very different fates.    The reason: China.
        A growing trade war between the United States and China is re-ordering the global grains business.    In response to Trump administration tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing this year imposed levies on U.S. agricultural products.    Among them was a 25 percent tariff on soybeans, the single most valuable U.S. farm export.    U.S. growers sold $12 billion worth to China last year alone.
        The fallout has been quick. China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans, has scaled back purchases of U.S. grain to feed its massive hog herd.
        It is turning instead to Brazil, which has ridden the wave of Chinese demand for two decades to become a global agricultural powerhouse.    Brazilian soybean exports to the Asian country jumped 22 percent by value between January and September, compared to the same period a year ago.
        Brazilian producers are not only selling more grain, their soy is fetching $2.83 more per bushel than beans from the United States, up from a premium of just $0.60 a year ago, thanks to stepped up Chinese purchases.
        Prices for U.S. soybeans, meanwhile, recently sunk to decade lows that farmers say are below the cost of production.    The slump has made the agricultural sector a drag on an otherwise healthy U.S. economy.    The Trump administration said in July it would spend up to $12 billion in taxpayer funds to help U.S. farmers offset trade-related losses, although the aid package could shrink.
        Many American farmers, overwhelmingly conservative voters who helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency, are standing by their man.    They believe he will eventually negotiate a better trade deal with China, whose appetite for soybeans is so vast that it cannot completely wean itself off U.S. grain.
        But for the time being, Trump trade policies are handing precious market share, money and momentum to Brazil, the United States’ most formidable agricultural competitor.    Some fear the lost ground will be hard to reclaim.
        “Bad news on tariffs in the U.S. is good news for them,” Robert Crain, general manager for the Americas for equipment dealer AGCO Corp, said about Brazilian farmers in an interview at the Iowa show.
    (For a graphic on the diverging fortunes of farmers in the United States and Brazil, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2CAOKWr)
    BOON TO BRAZIL
        Like their U.S. counterparts, Brazil’s farmers produce much more grain than is needed at home.    Foreign customers are responsible for the country’s agricultural boom.    Nearly 80 percent of Brazil’s soy exports now head to China.
        The city of Luís Eduardo Magalhães is a testament to the importance of this international trade.    Located in the state of Bahia, with farms stretching in every direction, the formerly unincorporated rural area in less than two decades has swelled to 85,000 people. That is bigger than Sioux City, Iowa’s fourth-largest city.
        Major employers in Luís Eduardo, as most locals call the city, include fertilizer factories, seed producers and processors of soy and cotton.    The area “relies 100 percent on agriculture,” said Carminha Maria Missio, a farmer and president of the local growers union.
        While Brazil’s overall economy is stuck in a ditch, the nation’s farm sector rolled to 13 percent growth last year.    The John Deere dealership in Luís Eduardo saw its sales rise 15 percent in 2017 and is expecting double-digit growth again this year, managing partner Chico Flores Oliveira said.
        The local real estate market is surging too.    Another new luxury condo tower is slated to open next year.    Single-family homes are sprouting throughout the city.    Prices for prime farmland are up 37 percent since 2012, according to consultancy Informa Economics IEG FNP.
        Brazil’s total soy area is expected to expand to a record 36.28 million hectares this season due to robust Chinese demand, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.
        Farmers here also are bullish on this month’s presidential election in Brazil. Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who is leading in the polls, favors rolling back fines for farmers who deforest illegally or break other environmental laws.    Like Trump, Bolsonaro, is wary of China.    But producers here trust him not to blow it on trade.
        “Rural producers support Bolsonaro emphatically,” said Congresswoman Tereza Cristina, head of the powerful agriculture voting bloc in Brazil’s Congress.    “We have access to him…and I am certain that he is smart and sensible.”
        U.S. FARM BELT PINCHED The outlook is much gloomier in Iowa, the long-established heart of U.S. agriculture.
        It is the nation’s top corn-producing state and the No. 2 producer of soybeans.    But its access to some global markets has suffered under Trump.
        The president walked away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would have opened valuable markets such as Japan to more American ag products.    His renegotiation of the NAFTA accord had Mexico, the largest importer of U.S. corn, exploring other suppliers, including Brazil.    Now the Chinese are pulling back.
        Boone lays smack in the state’s center, surrounded by miles of row crops, hogs and poultry.    Farmland values here fell 12 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to Iowa State University.    Worries about the U.S.-China trade war loomed over the recent Farm Progress show, which comes to town every other year.
        Equipment dealer Lee Randall jotted down prices at an auction of used tractors and implements at the show.
        Prices have dropped on trade tensions and low crop prices, he said, shaking his head as a green and yellow Deere & Co combine sold for $118,000 and another fetched $82,000.
        “Five years ago you could have added 30 percent to every one of these pieces,” said Randall, whose business, Randall Brothers, is based in Ohio.
        Nearby, Brett Begemann, chief operating officer for Bayer Crop Science said farmers were likewise scrutinizing purchases of seeds and chemicals.    The trade dispute is making it difficult for Bayer to predict 2019 earnings for its agriculture unit.
        A two-hour drive north of Boone in Algona, Iowa, a town of about 5,500 people, farm doldrums are crimping business at the local Deere and Harley-Davidson Inc dealerships, the operators said.
        “Ultimately this area lives and dies by the farmer,” said Jim Wilcox, an owner of the Harley store.
        Farmers’ woes are showing up on bank balance sheets as well.    The proportion of the region’s agricultural loans reported as having repayment problems was up in the second quarter, reaching mid-year levels not seen since 2002, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
        Rodney Jensen, who farms near Algona, regrets not making deals to sell soybeans from his autumn harvest when prices were higher.    Like many, he is storing his crop, waiting for better times.
        He worries China will not buy as much U.S. soy as it used to, even if the two nations patch things up.
        “It’s been pretty pessimistic around here,” Jensen said.
    (Reporting by Jake Spring in Luis Eduardo Magalhães; and Tom Polansek in Boone, Iowa; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Marla Dickerson)

    10/11/2018 Pres. Trump Addresses Threat Of Human Trafficking by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump, joined by his daughter Ivanka Trump, speaks to the Interagency Task Force
    to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons annual meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building
    on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        President Trump delivers remarks on his administration’s fight to end human trafficking.
        The president thanked the various agencies for their efforts to address the issue, while speaking from the White House Thursday.
        He discussed the progress since he took office, which includes a record number of human smugglers prosecuted last year.
        However, the president added there is still more to be done.
        “This is an urgent humanitarian issue,” said the president.    "My administration is committed to leveraging every resource we have to confront this threat, to support the victims and survivors, and to hold traffickers accountable for their heinous crimes."
        President Trump went on to say his administration is challenging foreign regimes, which tend to support the illicit human trade.

    10/11/2018 Pence outlines dangers of mass migration by OAN Newsroom
        Vice President Mike Pence recently discussed the dangers of mass migration and said the U.S. is committed to border security.
        Speaking at the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America Thursday, the vice president called on Central American governments and leaders to tell their citizens to stop trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
    Vice President Mike Pence accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, right,
    speaks during the second Conference for Prosperity and Security in Central America at State Department on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
        Pence said the U.S. is committed to the rule of law and all nations need to speak with one voice.    He also offered a message to those who may try and break those laws.
        “Do not put your families at risk by taking the dangerous journey north to attempt to enter the U.S. illegally,” he urged. “The truth is, if they cannot come to the U.S. legally, they should not come at all.” Pence went on to say all countries need to do more to combat mass migration and crime rates as well as improve their economies to prevent their citizens from fleeing their homelands.

    10/11/2018 LEAKED: Internal Google docs prove they censor Conservatives by OAN Newsroom
        Top tech companies have come under fire over allegations of anti-conservative bias.    Now a leaked internal memo from Google shows the allegations may actually be true.
        One America’s Jack Posobiec sits down with Breitbart’s tech reporter to learn more.

    10/11/2018 President Trump, Kanye West discuss wide range of issues in Oval Officeby OAN Newsroom
        President Trump welcomed rapper Kanye West to the White House Thursday to discuss prison reform.
        During a briefing ahead of lunch, the president sat down with West and retired football player Jim Brown to discuss ways on how to improve the African American community.
    Rapper Kanye West speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House
    with President Donald Trump, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        The president briefly touched on a series of topics including Chicago’s rising crime rate, gun reform, pardons as wee as the stop and frisk program.
    West quickly took control of the briefing to defend the president against the constant criticism he faces from Democrats and the media. West pointed out he has faced criticism of his own from Hollywood for supporting the administration’s agenda. He said the president has not received the praise he deserves for his accomplishments, including the booming economy.

    10/11/2018 Kellyanne Conway lectures Hillary Clinton on civility by OAN Newsroom
        White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is taking aim at Hillary Clinton for her divisive comments about Republicans.
        Conway took to the airwaves Wednesday to say whenever Clinton opens her mouth, she manages to offend half of the country.
        The White House counselor said not all Americans have the privileges Clinton experienced at her Ivy League school.    She said it’s one thing to call Trump supporters deplorable, but it is another thing to speak out against civility.
    File – Hillary Clinton speaks at the African Methodist Episcopal church national convention in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
        Conway’s comments come in response to those made by Clinton just one-day prior.
        “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” said Clinton.    “That’s why I believe if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate that’s when civility can start again, but until then the only thing the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.”
        Conway went on to call the comments made by Clinton “dangerous.”    The White House official also criticized Clinton for her upcoming six-month speaking tour with her husband.

    10/11/2018 U.S. retirees to get welcome bump in Social Security benefits by Mark Miller
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Social Security card designs over the past several decades are shown
    in this photo illustration taken in Toronto, Canada on January 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang
        CHICAGO (Reuters) – Come January, most U.S. retirees will get some welcome news when they check their bank accounts – the biggest inflation adjustment to Social Security benefits in eight years.
        The federal government on Thursday announced a 2.8 percent Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2019; seniors will see the raise in their January benefit payment.    That is the largest increase since 2012, when the COLA was 3.6 percent.
        Just as encouraging, health insurance will take a smaller bite out of benefits next year.    The standard Medicare Part B premium is forecast to rise just $1.50 to $135.50, according to the program’s trustees.
        Since the premium typically is deducted from Social Security payments, that means most beneficiaries will get to keep most of the COLA.    (The official Part B premium will not be announced until later this year.)
        COLAs are determined by an automatic formula tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).    With inflation running very flat since the recession of 2009-2010, COLAs have been anemic in some recent years – there was no COLA at all in 2015, and it was three-tenths of 1 percent in 2016.    The COLA awarded for 2018 was a more generous 2 percent.
        But for many retirees, that increase was blunted by the impact of the little-understood hold-harmless rule, which prohibits the dollar amount of Part B premium increases from exceeding the dollar amount of the COLA for roughly 70 percent of beneficiaries.    The rule ensures that net Social Security benefits do not fall when the dollar amount of the Part B increase is greater than the dollar amount of the COLA increase.    Last year, however, due to some quirky dynamics of how the COLA and Part B premium interact, the COLA was wiped out for many seniors. (https://reut.rs/2iuZM3J).     This year should be different for most beneficiaries.    For example, assuming the standard Part B premium winds up at $135.50 in 2019, the 2.8 percent COLA will translate to a $40.50 monthly net raise (after the Medicare premium adjustment) for a beneficiary receiving $1,500 this year.
        The math will be less straightforward for beneficiaries who currently pay less than the standard Part B premium – again due to the hold-harmless rule, which kept their premiums down in recent years. That group includes roughly 25 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries, according to research by the Senior Citizens League – in most cases, lower-income seniors.    Most of these retirees will see their premium jump up to the standard 2019 level, consuming a larger portion of the COLA.
        “That’s where we will see the biggest bite taken out of the COLA next year,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for the League.
    THE LONG VIEW ON HEALTH INFLATION<
        Despite the overall good COLA news, rising healthcare costs continue to pose a long-term threat to net Social Security benefits.    For example, the Medicare trustees project that the Part B premium will start rising at a faster pace beginning in 2020, rising anywhere from 5.6 to 10 percent annually through 2026.
        Overall healthcare inflation is projected to rise 4.22 percent over the coming 20 years, according to a report released last week by research firm HealthView Services.    That is down from HealthView’s 2017 projection of 5.47 percent, due mainly to moderation of projected prescription drug costs.    HealthView cited ongoing shifts by consumers from brand names to less expensive generics, and the earlier-than-expected closing of the doughnut-hole gap in plan coverage.
        Still, HealthView calculates that healthcare expenses will consume about half (48 percent) of lifetime Social Security benefits for a healthy 66-year-old couple retiring this year.    And the squeeze will get worse in the years ahead due to healthcare cost inflation.    HealthView calculates that a 55-year-old healthy couple will need 57 percent of their benefits to cover future retirement healthcare costs, and a 45-year-old couple will spend 63 percent.
        “That’s very worrisome, since so many seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income,” said Ron Mastrogiovanni, HealthView’s chief executive officer.
        One way that seniors can control cost is to take advantage of the annual fall Medicare enrollment season, which begins on Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7. (https://reut.rs/2yj24dB)    This is the time of year when you can make changes to your basic coverage and prescription drug insurance.    Prescription drug premiums, in particular, are volatile and can jump dramatically from year to year.
        “People really need to do an annual checkup on their Part D coverage,” said Johnson.    “Unfortunately, most seniors don’t do it.”
        In some cases, seniors can mitigate those costs through improved health management of chronic conditions, the report finds.    Mastrogiovanni also recommends making modest increases in contributions to retirement saving accounts to offset costs.    “The simple idea of improving the management of health conditions and investing the savings underscores a key point – taking retirement healthcare off the table as a concern is an achievable goal.”
    (Reporting and writing by Mark Miller in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

    10/12/2018 Oil down $2.20 to $70.97, DOW down 546 to 25,053

    10/12/2018 Investors say don’t panic over 5% drop by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Stock market downdrafts of 5 percent or more can cause an investor’s blood pressure to spike and anxiety levels to rise.    And Wall Street’s most recent slide – which has resulted in a price haircut of closer to 7 percent – has been a scary ride down.
        But Wall Street has a reassuring message for investors who worry that this is more than a short-term blip: “Pullbacks are normal,” says John Lynch, chief investment strategist at LPL Financial.
        Indeed, history shows that market drops between 5 and 9.99 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index are more frequent than you might think but don’t normally morph into major downturns.
        Since World War II, there have been 56 drops of this size.    The pain has been bearable, however, with an average decline of 7 percent and the downturn lasting a little more than a month, according to data from Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, a Wall Street research firm.    The good news: The market recouped its losses in a month and a half, on average.
        “After declines (like we’ve seen the past few days), investors will find that a review of stock market history will serve as a dose of ‘virtual valium,’” Stovall told USA TODAY.
        Investors wondering how bad things can get if the market goes down even more can also take solace in the performance of the market during the 22 times it has suffered a so-called “correction,” or drop of 10 percent or more.    The average decline was 13.8 percent, according to CFRA, and the market recouped its losses in 264 days, on average.

    10/12/2018 Bill seeks to protect election systems from foreign foes
        Foreign nationals would be prohibited from owning or controlling companies that support U.S. election systems under legislation introduced by two senators from Maryland, where officials learned this summer that a Russian oligarch is heavily invested in a company that maintains key parts of their state’s election infrastructure.
        The measure would require companies that provide elections services to report any foreign national who owns or controls their firm to the secretary of Homeland Security, the Election Assistance Commission and state and local government officials.    It also would require companies to provide notice of any material change in ownership or control.

    10/12/2018 Arkansas Supreme Court upholds revised voter identification law
        Arkansas’ highest court on Thursday upheld a voter ID law that is nearly identical to a restriction struck down by the court four years ago.
        The 5-2 decision from the Arkansas Supreme Court means the law, which requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot, will remain in effect in this year’s election.

    10/12/2018 US Postal Service proposes biggest price hike since 1991 by Ashley May USA TODAY
        The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to increase the price of its first-class mail “forever” stamp in the biggest price hike since 1991.
        The USPS board of governors requested a 5 cent increase to the “forever” stamp, up to 55 cents.    Before recalculating the cost of sending those wedding invitations, USPS said the change would also reduce the additional ounce price of letters.    So, a 2-ounce stamped letter would decrease from 71 cents to 70 cents, according to a statement.
        Priority Mail flat rate prices could also increase by an average of 5.9 percent.    For example, a medium flat rate box that now goes for $13.65 would increase to $14.35.
        The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the changes before they could go into effect.
        The new price plan comes at a time when USPS is struggling with sales, as mail has been replaced with electronic communication.    While the service has been handling more package delivery, the loss in mail delivery has been more dramatic – and mail is the service’s main source of revenue, Postmaster General and CEO Megan Brennan said earlier this year of the financial loss.
    Contributing: The Associated Press
    The U.S. Postal Service wants to increase the price of its first-class mail “forever” stamp by 5 cents. AP

    10/12/2018 As Brexit talks progress, UK PM May struggles to find support at home by Costas Pitas and Guy Faulconbridge
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May was struggling on Friday to find consensus on Brexit proposals that would be acceptable to her ministers, her Conservative Party and the Northern Irish lawmakers who prop up her minority government.
        Brexit negotiations with the European Union have accelerated and become more positive over the past week, though significant hurdles remain, finance minister Philip Hammond said.
        “What has happened over the last week, 10 days, is that there has been a measurable change in pace,” he told the BBC.
        “But that shouldn’t conceal the fact that we still have some big differences left to resolve,” Hammond said.    “So process is a lot more positive this week – substance still very challenging.”
        With less than six months to go until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU, May is seeking to rally support at home on the details of a divorce deal though it is unclear if she can win parliament’s approval for any agreement.
        British and EU negotiators are making headway on the Irish border issue, the biggest hurdle to an overall agreement, and hope for a Brexit deal breakthrough on Monday, diplomats said.
        The Irish border “backstop,” which seeks a way to avoid customs checks on the frontier between the British province of Northern Ireland and Ireland if there is no overall exit deal, has become the biggest sticking point in negotiations.
        As both sides seek to clinch a deal, the United Kingdom will publish on Friday more of its so-called technical notices which lay out the impact of a no-deal Brexit on specific sectors of the economy.
    DEAL OR NO-DEAL?
        May’s Northern Irish supporters vehemently oppose any checks between the province and mainland Britain after Brexit.
        The head of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, said May “could not in good conscience” back an EU proposal for checks on goods being imported to Northern Ireland from Britain after Brexit.
        Under May’s proposals, the whole of the United Kingdom would forge a customs partnership with the EU after a transition period ends in December 2020 in the event of the backstop being triggered.
        Some of May’s ministers have urged her to put a time limit on that plan.
        The Times newspaper said May was warned the issue was so serious that she could face further cabinet resignations unless she found a way to ensure the backstop was not permanent.
        Speaking to Northern Ireland journalists at her Downing Street office, May said on Thursday that talks on the Irish backstop were likely to continue until November.
    (editing by David Stamp)

    10/12/2018 ECB feels vindicated but risks gaining prominence: Draghi
    FILE PHOTO - European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi testifies before the European Parliament's Economic
    and Monetary Affairs Committee in Brussels, Belgium September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – The euro zone’s continuing expansion has vindicated European Central Bank policy but risks to the outlook, from trade protectionism to the threat of a hard Brexit, are on the rise, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday.
        The ECB has been dialing back stimulus for months and expects to end a 2.6 trillion euro asset purchase scheme in December, arguing that it has done enough to sustain growth and the rebound in inflation.
        But Draghi also toned down earlier remarks, which foreshadowed a “relatively vigorous” rise in underlying inflation, merely predicting a “gradual” increase over the medium term.
        “Recent developments vindicate the Governing Council’s earlier assessments of the medium-term inflation outlook,” Draghi said at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting.    “Uncertainty around the inflation outlook is receding.”
        In a potential reference to the rise in Italian yields, Draghi also played down concerns about recent market volatility, suggesting that this has not had a broader impact.
        “With respect to financial stability more broadly, recent episodes of heightened financial market volatility have led to only limited contagion across countries and markets,” Draghi told the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee in Bali.
        Still, he warned of increasingly prominent external risks, which would impact euro zone growth.
        “An orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union poses a limited overall risk to the euro area’s financial stability,” Draghi said.
        “However, the uncertainty triggered by a cliff-edge Brexit could have the potential to pose a more significant downside risk to financial stability,” he added.
    (Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

    10/12/2018 G20 fails to mend trade rift, chair urges protagonists to resolve disputes by Leika Kihara and Yawen Chen
    FILE PHOTO - Argentine Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne speaks at the
    Think 20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina September 18, 2018. Argentine Ministry of Finance/Handout via REUTERS.
        NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Trade tensions within the Group of 20 leading industrialized and emerging economies could only be solved by the countries directly involved, the chairman of a meeting of finance leaders from the G20 said after a gathering in Bali on Friday.
        Taking place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings on the Indonesian island, the G20 meeting provided little more than a forum for member countries to put their viewpoint on an escalating tariff war between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies.
        “We recognize we are now facing trade tensions among members of the G20,” Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne, chairman of this year’s G20 finance leaders’ meeting, told a news briefing, without directly mentioning either the United States or China.
        “The G20 can play a role in providing the platform for discussions.    But the differences that still persist should be resolved by the members that are directly involved in the tensions.”
        The United States and China have slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods over the past few months, jolting financial markets and stoking fears the rising tide of protectionism could dent global growth.
        Dujovne said that while global growth projections remain steady, the expansion has become less even across economies as downside risks materialized.
        “On trade tensions, we agree that international trade is an important engine of growth, and that we need to resolve tensions which can negatively affect market sentiment and increase financial volatility,” he said.
        Dujovne sidestepped a question on how Japan ought to deal with trade frictions when it chairs the G20 meetings next year, saying only that “Japan will be the one deciding on the priorities.”
        Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters on Thursday that Tokyo hopes to discuss ways to fix global imbalances at next year’s G20 gatherings.
        The G20 finance leaders did not produce a joint communique after their two-day meeting ended on Friday.
    (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Yawen Chen; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

    10/12/2018 Venezuela President Maduro claims White House issued the order for his death by OAN Newsroom
        “I just want to see Venezuela straightened out, I want the people to be safe.    We’re gonna take care of Venezuela.” — President Donald Trump.
        Tensions continue to rise between the U.S. and Venezuela after President Nicolas Maduro claimed the Trump administration is out for blood.    Maduro took to the podium Thursday to claim, without evidence, that President Trump and the White House have ordered his death.
        “From the United States, they have decided to kill me — they have given the order from the White House that Maduro be killed,” he proclaimed.    “They will not even touch a single hair of mine, because God and the people of Venezuela protect me.”
    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (Miraflores Presidential Palace via AP)
        The president also claimed the administration is seeking help from officials within the Colombian capital of Bogota.
        “The task has been given to oligarchs in Bogota, to the Bogota government — I denounce this to the world,” said Maduro.
        The dictator’s comments come after Press Secretary Sarah Sandersb> condemned the regime Wednesday, following the death of councilman Fernando Alban who died while under government custody.
        Venezuelan officials have claimed Alban committed suicide after being accused of being involved in the alleged August fourth assassination attempt against Maduro.
        Sanders also called for the release of the country’s political prisoners, and said the administration will continue to increase pressure on the regime.

    10/12/2018 American pastor Andrew Brunson released after being held in Turkey for 2 years by OAN Newsroom
        An American pastor is finally set free after two-years of imprisonment in Turkey.
        On Friday, a Turkish judge ordered the release of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson from house arrest.    The court ruling was issued based on good behavior and time served.
        The 50-year-old was sentenced to more than three-years after being convicted on terrorism charges.
        He was accused of collaborating with terrorist groups and participating in a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, which he repeatedly denied.
    A U.S. embassy official escorts Norine Brunson, the wife of US pastor Andrew Brunson, before his trial in Izmir, Turkey, early Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul)
        President Trump took to Twitter Friday morning, saying his thoughts and prayers are with pastor Brunson and he hopes he has a safe journey home.
        This comes after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Turkey to pressure the country to order his release.

    10/12/2018 Secretary Mnuchin says China trade talks must include currency issues by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this May 21, 2018, file photo, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin talks with reporters about trade
    with China outside of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said any trade talks between the U.S. and China must include discussions about currency issues.
        While speaking to reporters Friday at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Indonesia, the secretary said he had a constructive conversation with the head of China’s central bank.
        Mnuchin said he expressed his concerns over the weakness of Asian nation’s currency and reiterated the U.S. push for market reforms as well as opening up trade between the two countries.
        “A lot of these issues have been the same issues we have been dealing with for a long period of time,” he stated.    “We’ve been very clear on the actions that we’d like them to take and we believe that would be good for our companies, for our workers and for their markets — opening up and reforming their markets will be good for their economy.”
        President Trump has taken a hard line stance against China, vowing to increase tariffs until a fair trade agreement can be reached.
        Meanwhile, China is ramping up exports before the Trump administration’s tariffs take full effect.

    10/12/2018 Trump admin. tallies 289 accomplishments in first 20 months, surpasses Reagan admin. by OAN Newsroom
        Just shy of two years in the White House, President Trump could be making history with a record number of accomplishments.
        “I made that promise to you during the campaign.    I made that promise to you during the primaries, remember?    I made that promise.    Promises made, promises kept.” — President Donald Trump.
    President Donald Trump pumps his fists as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington,
    Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Lebanon, Ohio, for a rally. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        According to the Washington Examiner, the president and his administration have tallied 289 accomplishments since his inauguration.
        The outlet reported the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, the addition of four million jobs, reduction of regulation, and the Republican’s tax cut law all top the list.
        Other accomplishments include an 83-percent increase in the arrest MS-13 gang members.
        The Trump administration has surpassed a previous record of accomplishments set by the Reagan administration.

    10/12/2018 South Korea’s parliament reviewing revised trade deal with the U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        South Korea is holding up its end of the bargain by asking its parliament to ratify the trade deal reached with President Trump last month.    The country’s trade ministry filed the necessary paperwork early Friday.
        President Trump and his South Korean counterpart signed off on the deal in September, updating the current Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.
    Trucks used to transport containers are seen at the Hanjin Shipping container terminal
    at the Busan New Port in Busan, about 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Seoul. (Photo/REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won)
        President Trump praised the deal as a solution to the trade deficit, adding, it will give American manufacturers better access to the Korean market.
        “The new U.S.-Korea agreement includes significant improvements to reduce our trade deficit and to expand opportunities to export American products to South Korea,” said the president.    “These outcomes give the finest American made automobiles, innovative medicines, and agricultural crops access to Korean markets — I think our farmers are going to be extremely happy.”
        After South Korea’s parliament approves the agreement, it will need confirmation from Congress to finally go into effect.

    10/12/2018 Oil turns lower as weaker demand outlook weighs by Jessica Resnick-Ault
    FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate in front of a drilling rig in an oil field in Midland, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices gave back early gains and turned lower on Friday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) deemed supply adequate and the outlook for demand weakening, sinking even as equities rebounded from a slump Thursday.
        The West’s energy watchdog said in its monthly report that the market looked “adequately supplied for now” and trimmed its forecasts for world oil demand growth this year and next.
        “This is due to a weaker economic outlook, trade concerns, higher oil prices and a revision to Chinese data,” said the IEA, which advises industrialised countries on energy policy.
        Brent crude fell 56 cents a barrel to $79.70 by 12:16 p.m. EDT (1616 GMT), after dropping 3.4 percent on Thursday.    U.S. crude futures fell 2 cents to $70.95.
        “The weaker outlook has gotten a raised profile in the market, but there’s potential for a real supply crunch toward the end of this year,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York.    “The demand outlook is hurt right now because of the situation with the U.S. and China in particular.”
        Both benchmarks were headed for their first weekly drop in five weeks, pressured by a big rise in U.S. inventories and fading concerns about shrinking global supplies due to looming U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.
        The IEA report is the latest official forecaster to predict weaker demand ahead and conclude that supply is adequate.    The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made a similar move on Thursday.
        “The bearish alarm bells are ringing for next year’s oil balance as market players brace for the return of a supply surplus,” said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.
        Early in the session, crude rose as global equities were set for their biggest daily gain in nearly a month.
        Declining equities amid wider risk-off investor sentiment had pressured oil on Thursday.
        A drop in U.S. oil production this week supported prices.    In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, companies cut output by 40 percent on Thursday because of Hurricane Michael, even as some began returning crews to offshore platforms.
        Michael made landfall in Florida on Wednesday as the third most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland, though it has since weakened to a tropical storm.
        Oil traders will watch for the weekly U.S. drilling rig count, an indicator of upcoming production, which is due at about 1 p.m. from Baker Hughes.
    (Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick and Alex Lawler; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)

    10/12/2015 Canadian dollar steadies as oil and stock prices rebound by Fergal Smith
    FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie," is pictured
    in this illustration picture taken in Toronto January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo
        TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar was little changed against a broadly stronger greenback on Friday as oil and stock prices rebounded, but the loonie lost ground for the week as investors worried about threats to the global growth outlook.
        At 3:47 p.m. (1947 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading nearly unchanged at 1.3037 to the greenback, or 76.70 U.S. cents.
        The currency, which on Thursday touched its weakest intraday level in nearly two weeks at 1.3077, traded in a range of 1.3003 to 1.3052.
        For the week, the loonie was down 0.7 percent as investors worried that higher bond yields and trade conflicts could hurt global economic growth.
        “You’ve had this fundamental backdrop that markets are paying attention to, including the increased tension between the United States and China which doesn’t bode well if your currency moves with growth dynamics globally,” said Bipan Rai, North America head of FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.
        Canada exports many commodities, including oil, and runs a current account deficit so its economy could suffer if the flow of trade or capital slows.
        The price of oil pared some of this week’s losses despite a report from the International Energy Agency that deemed supply adequate and the outlook for demand weakening.
        U.S. crude oil futures settled 0.5 percent higher at $71.34 a barrel.
        Canadian heavy crude sells for much less than the price of U.S. oil, with the differential reaching the widest level ever this week at more than $50, according to Shorcan Energy Brokers.
        “I do think that the discount of WCS (Western Canada Select) to WTI (West Texas Intermediate) matters and that is part of the reason why CAD hasn’t participated in the crude rally over the last several weeks,” Rai said.
        The U.S. dollar <.DXY> climbed against a basket of currencies as global equity prices rebounded from this week’s rout and robust Chinese export figures soothed worries about the world’s second-biggest economy and its trade war with Washington.
        Canadian home prices were unchanged in September from August as the number of areas across the country posting price gains declined, data showed.
        Canadian government bond prices were higher across a flatter yield curve, with the 10-year rising 18 Canadian cents to yield 2.480 percent.
        The gap between Canada’s 10-year yield and its U.S. counterpart widened by 3.7 basis points to a spread of 66.6 basis points in favor of the U.S. bond.
    (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

    10/13/2018 DUP leader says would prefer no Brexit deal to ‘annexation’ of Northern Ireland
    FILE PHOTO: Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster holds a news conference at the European Parliament
    after a meeting with EUÕs Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
        DUBLIN (Reuters) – The head of the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said on Saturday she would prefer no Brexit deal to a bad deal, saying the current proposal would permanently annex Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
        Writing in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, Arlene Foster also said she wanted a deal that would work for the Republic of Ireland and said she would travel to Dublin for talks on Monday.
    (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    10/13/2018 Oil up $0.37 to $71.34, DOW up 287 to 25,340

    10/13/2018 Dow climbs 287 points after ‘tough week’ of big losses by Janna Herron, USA TODAY
        Stocks pulled off a strong showing Friday, but the rally wasn’t quite enough to recoup the steep losses from an earlier two-day rout.
        The Dow Jones industrial average rose 287.16 points, or 1.15 percent, to close at 25,339.99.    Still, the blue-chip index shed 1,107 points this week, its worst since March.    On Wednesday, the index dropped more than 800 points, the biggest loss since February.
        Other indexes, while making gains Friday, had similar bad weeks.    The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 4.1 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq – hardest hit in Wednesday’s battering – ended the week down 3.74 percent.
        The Russell 2000’s performance was the worst, however.    The small-company stock index fell into official correction territory Thursday and ended the week 11.16 percent off its Aug. 31 peak.
        “Obviously, it was a tough week.    The good news is things have stabilized today, and, while we’re off from the day’s highs, the rebound was broad,” said Chris Cook, founder and president of Beacon Capital Management.
        Anxiety over a jump in interest rates coupled with the uncertain impact of Chinese tariffs on the economy ignited the sell-off Wednesday.    Tech darlings got hammered hard two days ago but rebounded with noise Friday.
        Amazon gained 4.03 percent, Apple increased 3.57 percent, and Netflix jumped 5.75 percent.    The biggest losers were trade-prone stocks such as Caterpillar, Boeing and 3M, which all lost almost 7 percent this week.
        “We are moving away from a market driven by low interest rates to one ... based more on fundamentals, so companies dependent on borrowing for growth – like tech stocks – look less attractive,” said Timothy Chubb, CIO at Univest Wealth Management Division.    “Investors are getting accustomed to that.”
        “Just because the market has been on the rise for such a long time doesn’t mean the race is over,” said Joe Wirbick, president of Sequinox, a financial planning firm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.    “Markets shift.    That’s just life.”

    10/13/2018 Wall St. rebounds with technology stocks leading the way by Sinéad Carew
    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. benchmark S&P 500 stock index snapped a six-day losing streak on Friday as technology stocks recovered after a week of losses, with investors looking for bargains ahead of the third quarter earnings reporting season.
        Even the hard-hit S&P500 energy and financial sectors managed to close the session with slight gains after a late afternoon rally.
        The S&P technology index <.SPLRCT> gained 3.2 percent on the day, showing its strongest one-day gain since March 26, although it still registered its biggest weekly drop since March 23.
        “People are starting to buy in, thinking the higher flying growth stocks were oversold.    They wanted to get in before next week when earnings start coming,” said Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
        But until the U.S. and China reach a trade deal, the rebound in the stockmarket could be vulnerable as investors are anxious about the impact of tariffs on corporate profits.
        “If earnings come out good I think this rally is sustainable if we don’t get negative trade news.    Trade news is the wild card.    That’s the big if,” said Sampson.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 287.16 points, or 1.15 percent, to 25,339.99, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 38.76 points, or 1.42 percent, to 2,767.13 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 167.83 points, or 2.29 percent, to 7,496.89.
        The technology sector’s biggest boosts were Apple , and Microsoft which rose more than 3.0 percent. Visa and Mastercard both climbed almost 5.0 percent, boosted by strong credit card sales included in bank earnings reports, according to Oakbook’s Sampson.
        The S&P500’s financial sector ended the day up 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 banks subsector <.SPXBK> closed down 0.4 percent, well above its session low.    The biggest drag on the subsector was JPMorgan Chase & Co , which closed down 1.0 percent despite reporting a quarterly profit that beat expectations.
        PNC Financial led the percentage losers among bank stocks, with a 5.6 percent drop after the regional bank reported disappointing quarterly loan growth and said it expected only a small improvement in lending this quarter.
        The three gainers among banks included Citigroup , which rose 2.0 percent, and Wells Fargo , which eked out a 1.3 percent gain after upbeat results.
        Netflix and Amazon , some of the names that took a big hits in the week’s selloff, rose 5.7 percent and 4.0 percent respectively.
        The bank results launch a quarterly reporting season that will give the clearest picture yet of the impact on profits from President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.
        Earnings at S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 21.5 percent in the third quarter, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv, a slowdown from the previous two quarters.
        Energy stocks <.SPNY> ended the day up 0.3 percent as oil prices steadied to settle up slightly after a volatile session dropped on a weakening oil demand outlook. [O/R]
        The consumer discretionary <.SPLRCD> and communication services <.SPLRCL> sectors, both rose more than 2.0 percent.
        Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.38-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.51-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
        The S&P 500 index posted no new 52-week highs and 52 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 10 new highs and 234 new lows.
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was 8.91 billion shares, well above the 7.78 billion average for the last 20 trading days but below the soaring volume of Thursday’s and Wednesday’s sessions.
    (This version of the story was refiled to fix typos)
    (Additional reporting by April Joyner in New York, Shreyashi Sanyal, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Rosalba O’Brien)

    10/13/2018 Pres. Trump meets with pastor Brunson after his release from Turkish custody by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump welcomes American pastor Andrew Brunson to the White House, after being released from a Turkish jail he was held in for two years.
        In the Oval Office Saturday, the president greeted the Brunson family, and told the pastor he can celebrate and rest now that he’s back on U.S. soil.
        Brunson thanked the president for his efforts to return him home, and said a prayer for him and the country.
    President Donald Trump prays with American pastor Andrew Brunson in the Oval Office of the White House,
    Saturday October 13, 2018, in Washington. Brunson returned to the U.S. around midday after he was freed Friday,
    from nearly two years of detention in Turkey. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        Brunson then thanked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, and National Security Adviser John Bolton.
        The pastor also showed his appreciation to GOP Senate members, who have been working behind the scenes to bring him back home.
        South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham also weighed in on the return of Brunson.
        In a video he tweeted, the Senator said ‘the good man is now home, and i’m really glad we got to work with Turkey, which will give us a chance to reset our relationship.’

    10/13/2018 Report: ambassador Kelly Knight Craft to replace UN ambassador Nikki Haley by OAN Newsroom
        High-profile women are reportedly being considered as a replacement for outgoing UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
        Reports Saturday, claim U.S. ambassador to Canada, Kelly Knight Craft is under serious consideration.
    President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
    in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco, Jamie McCourt is also being floated.    An administration official was quoted saying, ‘the women are sophisticated, smart, and willing to travel.’
        The new names come after former Security Adviser Dina Powell withdrew her name this week.
        Haley will leave her post at the end of the year, with a replacement expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

    10/13/2018 Nikki Haley criticizes UN for electing human rights abusers to council by OAN Newsroom
        Outgoing UN ambassador Nikki Haley slams the General Assembly, for electing members with poor human rights records to its Human Rights Council.
        Haley criticized the UN on Friday, saying ‘the lack of standards continues to undermine the organization.’
    FILE – In this July 20, 2018 file photo, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to reporters at United Nations headquarters.
    Haley is tendering her resignation, two sources tell The Associated Press, marking the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the midterm election.
    She was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump’s second trip to the United Nations,
    including his first time chairing the U.N. Security Council. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
        This comes in response to the General Assembly selecting six new members, from countries like Somalia and the Philippines, who are considered to be human rights abusers by the UN Watch.
        That election cycle went largely unchallenged, and the new members are set to take their seats at the council in January.
        Haley said this demonstrates why the U.S. was right to withdraw from the council earlier this year.

    10/13/2018 ‘United against racism’, Germans stage mass protest against far right by Michael Nienaber
    Protesters gather to the "#unteilbar", demonstration which aims to "rise up against discrimination, poverty, racism, sexism,
    disenfranchisement, and nationalism" in Berlin, Germany, October 13, 2018. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Protestors from across Germany marched through Berlin on Saturday against racism, xenophobia and the far right in one of the country’s biggest rallies of recent years.
        Organizers put the turnout at 242,000 people for the demonstration, which followed anti-immigration protests in several eastern cities over the summer and a rise in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party before a state election on Sunday.
        A police spokesman declined to estimate the size of the crowd at the march, which was organized by a broad alliance of associations, labor unions, parties and rights groups including Amnesty International.
        Marchers carried placards reading “Build bridges not walls,” “United against racism” and “We are indivisible – for an open and free society.”    Some danced to pop music on a warm autumn day.
        The arrival of more than a million migrants, many from war zones in the Middle East, has boosted support for the AfD.    It is expected to fare well in the election in Bavaria, long a stronghold of the conservative Christian Social Union, a member of the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s federal coalition government.
        In August, far-right groups in the eastern city of Chemnitz clashed with police and chased people they believed to be foreign after the fatal stabbing of a German man blamed on two migrants.    Similar protests took place in Dresden, Koethen and other eastern cities.
        Merkel has accused AfD politicians of using the violent protests to stir up social tensions.
        Nevertheless, the number of violent attacks on refugees and asylum shelters in Germany has fallen sharply in the first half of this year.
        Two companies have also warned their German employees about the dangers of populism before the regional election in Bavaria while the head of the BDI industry association has said the economy could be hurt by a wave of nationalism.
    (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; editing by David Stamp)

    10/13/2018 DUP leader regards no-deal Brexit as ‘likeliest outcome’: Observer
    Anti-brexit protestors wave flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – The head of the Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government regards a no-deal Brexit as the “likeliest outcome,” according to a leaked email seen by The Observer newspaper.
        The newspaper said Arlene Foster told Ashley Fox, leader of Conservative Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), over a dinner last week of her disappointment at a meeting with Michel Barnier, the French official leading the European Union’s negotiating team.
        “She described Barnier as being difficult and hostile in her meeting today,” the leaked email cited by The Observer said.    “AF said the DUP were ready for a no deal scenario, which she now believed was the likeliest one.”
        The Observer said it was one of several emails it had seen that had been “leaked from the highest levels of government.”
    (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

    10/13/2018 Swedish centre-right split scuppers plan for minority government by Johan Sennero and Esha Vaish
    FILE PHOTO: Swedish Liberal Party leader Jan Bjorklund gives a news conference after meeting with
    the Speaker of Parliament in Stockholm, Sweden September 27, 2018. TT News Agency/Jonas Ekstromer via REUTERS
        STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – An attempt by the leader of Sweden’s Moderate party to break the political deadlock after September’s election looked set to fail on Saturday as two parties in his centre-right bloc said they would not support him in forming a minority government.
        Neither the Alliance bloc – headed by Moderates’ leader Ulf Kristersson – nor a grouping of centre-left parties won enough votes in the election on Sept. 9 to form a majority and both have ruled out a deal with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who hold the balance of power.
        Kristersson, tasked to try to form a new government, said on Friday he was prepared to do so without all the parties in the four-party Alliance bloc.
        But Liberal leader Jan Bjorklund – a member of the Alliance – said he would not back a government of only the Moderates and Christian Democrats, while Centre Party leader Annie Loof – also in the Alliance – said all four parties had to be part of a deal.
        “A Moderates and Christian Democrat government would be a weak government that risks ending up in a snap election and giving power to the Sweden Democrats,” Bjorklund told a press conference.
        “We will never be part of a government which needs support from the Sweden Democrats,” he added.
        All the mainstream parties in Sweden have refused to have any dealings with the Sweden Democrat party, which has roots in the white supremacist fringe.
        It has refused to support any government that does not give it a say in policy.
    BACK TO SQUARE ONE
        The failure of Kristersson’s proposal puts the process of forming a government back to square one.
        It could also spell the end of the Alliance, formed in 2004 to challenge the political domination of the Social Democrats.
        “You cannot interpret this in any other way than that the Alliance is now finished,” Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson told daily Expressen.
        Both Bjorklund and Loof want the Social Democrats to support an Alliance government, something they have rejected.
        “We still want an Alliance government but that needs cooperation across the (political divide), otherwise that will give power to the Sweden Democrats,” Loof told reporters on Saturday.
        Kristersson said he would meet the speaker of parliament on Sunday.
        The baton is likely to pass next to Stefan Lofven, the leader of the Social Democrats and current caretaker prime minister.    He lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Sept. 25.
        The speaker has four attempts to find a prime minister acceptable to parliament or there will be fresh elections.
    (Reporting by Johan Sennero, Esha Vaish and Simon Johnson, Editing by Daniel Dickson and Andrew Bolton)

    10/13/2018 Fed official says rate hikes ‘right course’ for U.S. monetary policy by Sumeet Chatterjee
    FILE PHOTO: Randal Quarles, Federal Reserve board member and Vice Chair for Supervision, takes part in a swearing-in ceremony for Chairman Jerome Powell
    at the Federal Reserve in Washington, U.S., Febuary 5, 2018. Picture taken February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo
        NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve does consider the impact of interest rate hikes on emerging markets when setting policy, but the increases are the “right course of domestic policy” for the world’s largest economy, said a top Fed official on Saturday.
        The comments by Fed Vice Chair Randal Quarles came as some emerging markets face increasing pressure this year as higher U.S. interest rates draw foreign capital away, and due to fears of fallout from a tariff war between the U.S. and China.
        The Fed has also been at the receiving end of criticism from President Donald Trump, who on Thursday called its interest rate increases a “ridiculous” policy.    Those surprisingly caustic remarks came a day after the president told reporters, in response to a Wall Street rout, that the “Fed has gone crazy.”
        “If you look around the world, I think the Asian region as a whole is reasonably strong relative to certain areas in the past,” Quarles said, responding to a question on the region’s capacity to withstand interest rate shocks.
        “We do consider” the implication of U.S. monetary policy on emerging markets and the rest of the world, he said at the annual meeting of the Institute of International Finance on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
        Rising U.S. rates, coupled with fears over the impact of U.S.-Sino trade war, have hurt emerging Asia, and currency, bond and share markets in India, Indonesia and the Philippines and elsewhere in the region have all come under pressure.
        The Fed last month raised interest rates for the third time this year, and foresees another hike in December, three more next year, and one increase in 2020.
        “It’s not going to be in the interest of anyone in the world … for us to get behind the curve in the U.S. by moderating what we think is the right course of domestic policy,” Quarles said.
    (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

    10/14/2018 Britain’s Labour will not vote for ‘blind Brexit’
    FILE PHOTO - Emily Thornberry, Labour Party's Shadow Foreign Secretary, speaks at the party's conference in Liverpool, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s main opposition Labour Party will not vote for a Brexit deal that offers little more than a “bridge to nowhere,” its foreign policy spokeswoman said on Sunday, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May.
        “I think they (the government) are going to come along and give us … a ridiculous binary choice,” Emily Thornberry told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
        “Frankly if she (May) comes back with something which is just a fudge that she’s cooked up with Brussels and it doesn’t meet our tests, we are not going to vote for it … We’re not stupid, we’re not voting for something that is essentially a bridge to nowhere.”
    (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Mark Potter)

    10/14/2018 Swedish centre-right Alliance leader abandons attempt to form government for now
    FILE PHOTO: Swedish Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson gives a news conference after a meeting with the
    Speaker of Parliament in Stockholm, Sweden, September 27, 2018. TT News Agency/Pontus Lundahl via REUTERS /File Photo
        STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The leader of Sweden’s Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Sunday he had been unable to get enough support for a centre-right coalition government, putting the task of finding a candidate for prime minister back in the hands of parliament’s speaker.
        Sweden has been in a state of political deadlock since a Sept. 9 election when neither the Alliance bloc – headed by Kristersson – nor a grouping of centre-left parties won enough votes for a majority and both ruled out a deal with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who hold the balance of power.
        Kristersson said on Friday he was prepared to try to form a minority government without all the parties in the four-party Alliance bloc, but the Liberal and Centre parties of his bloc scuppered the plan by refusing to back it.
        “I have done what I can, for now,” Kristersson said on Sunday as he told the speaker he was giving up his attempts to form a government for the moment.
        The speaker has four attempts to find a prime minister acceptable to parliament or there will be another election.    The speaker said on Sunday he would talk to the parties on Monday and hand someone else the task of forming the government.
        The baton is likely to pass next to Stefan Lofven, the leader of the Social Democrats and current caretaker prime minister.    He lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Sept. 25.
        But if other candidates fail Kristersson can be handed a second chance.
        “I’m disappointed that (the Alliance) is now missing an opportunity to form a new government with a new policy… I’m still ready to be prime minister and to lead an Alliance government,” Kristersson said.
    (Reporting by Johan Sennero and Esha Vaish; Editing by Johan Ahlander/Keith Weir)

    10/14/2018 Martyr priest, now Saint Romero, challenged power in El Salvador by Nelson Renteria
    A statue of the late Archbishop of San Salvador, Mons. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who will be declared saint by the
    Catholic Church on October 14, is seen at the Dolores church in Izalco, El Salvador, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
        SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – In 1980, a day after urging El Salvador’s military to halt a string of abuses that would inflame a 12-year civil war in the impoverished country, Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot dead while leading Mass.
        His homilies had blasted the U.S.-backed military dictatorship while voicing solidarity with the poor, making him a Latin American human rights icon.
        On Sunday at the Vatican, he will become a Roman Catholic saint.
        Romero was considered for canonization decades ago, but his nomination stalled on concerns that he was overly political.
        His reputation rebounded in 2015, when Pope Francis, a fellow Latin American committed to defending the poor, declared him a martyr who had been killed for hatred of the faith.
        Romero critiqued the military government and armed leftist groups alike.    That earned him animosity from both sides ahead of a civil war that lasted until 1992, leaving some 75,000 people dead and sending thousands of Salvadorans fleeing to the United States.
        In 1980, at a church altar, he found a bomb meant to take his life.
        “Persecution is necessary in the Church.    Do you know why?    Because the truth is always persecuted,” he said at the time.
        Two weeks later, undeterred by death threats, the man distinguished by his bushy eyebrows and thick glasses spoke directly to soldiers.
        “I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression,” he said.
        The following day, a sniper killed the 62-year-old as he delivered Mass at a hospital chapel in the capital.    The main suspect is a former soldier.
        Romero’s murder was one of the most shocking of the long conflict between a series of U.S.-backed governments and leftist rebels in which right-wing and military death squads killed thousands.
    CARPENTRY TO SAINTHOOD
        Romero was born in 1917 in a small coffee-growing town in Honduras, the second of eight brothers.    As a boy, he apprenticed as a carpenter before entering the seminary and studying theology in Rome.
        In 1943, he returned to El Salvador as a parish priest until becoming Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977.    The military’s killing, kidnapping and arrests of priests who supported workers’ rights turned him into a staunch critic of the regime.
        The Vatican said the miracle cementing his sainthood was the 2015 survival of Cecilia Flores, whose husband prayed to Romero when she was close to death in pregnancy.
        “Doctors told my husband … only a miracle will save your wife,” Flores said.    After her husband began praying, she instantly recovered and gave birth to a healthy son, she added.
        Salvadoran Cardinal Jose Gregorio Rosa said Romero’s sainthood will serve as an example for religious leaders as well as the faithful.
        “It’s the greatest thing a human being can achieve, an incredible joy,” he said.
    (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Richard Chang)

    10/14/2018 Report: U.S. Secret Service Foiled ISIS Assassination Plot Against Pres. Trump by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump smiles as he arrives at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport, Friday, Oct. 12, 2018,
    in Cincinnati, Ohio. The president is en route to campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        A new report reveals the U.S. Secret Service foiled an Islamic State plot to assassinate President Trump.
        ISIS planned to kill the president during a summit of Southeast Asian countries last November, according to Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato Sunday.
        Cyber intelligence suggested Islamic militants planned the attack upon President Trump’s landing in the Philippine capital of Manila.
        The report comes as the radical left group Antifa and Islamic circles have encouraged assassination politics in the U.S.
        Ornato says a suspect behind the plot was caught just 20 minutes before President Trump’s arrival.

    10/15/2018 Mattis pushes closer ties to Vietnam amid tension with China
        Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is making his second trip this year to Vietnam, a sign of how the Trump administration is trying to counter China’s military assertiveness by cozying up to smaller nations in the region.
        The visit begins Tuesday, with Mattis going to Ho Chi Minh City.    Mattis also plans to visit an air base and meet with his Vietnamese counterpart.
        The trip originally was to include a visit to Beijing, but that stop was canceled amid rising tensions.

    10/15/2018 Humiliating losses in Bavarian election shake Merkel’s coalition by Joseph Nasr
    Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives to the
    CDU party headquarters in Berlin, Germany, October 15, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany woke up on Monday to the news that its crisis-prone government could become even more unstable after the parties ruling in a loveless coalition suffered humiliating results in an election in the southern state of Bavaria.
        Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies slumped to their worst election results in almost 70 years and her junior coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), saw support in Bavaria halved.
        “It’s gonna be turbulent,” headlined the Die Welt newspaper.    “The result in Bavaria is a vote against the grand coalition in Berlin.”
        The SPD had hoped that infighting over immigration between Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CDU) allies would give them a boost in Bavaria.
        But instead, the party saw support fall to just under 10 percent, prompting a discussion over the sustainability of its alliance with Merkel’s conservatives at the national level.
        SPD members are still bitter over their leaders’ decision to join a Merkel-led government after vowing before the general election in September 2017 to sit in opposition if they lost to the conservatives.    They are now demanding consequences.
        The party’s General Secretary Lars Klingbeil told Deutschlandfunk radio that members wanted a change in the style of government.
        SPD leaders have promised members opposed to a coalition with the conservatives they will hold a review after two-years in government and decide whether the partnership was still viable.
        Asked if disgruntled SPD members were demanding that the review be brought forward, Klingbeil said:
    “The evaluation is planned for the middle of the legislative period but something must happen now.    There must be different style of government.”
        He said the CSU under Horst Seehofer must stop picking arguments, especially on issues like migrant policy.    “If the style of government doesn’t change, there will be a debate in the SPD and the critical voices will get stronger,” he said.
        Polls indicate that the ruling parties will be chastened again in two weeks in an election in the western state of Hesse, where they are expected to bleed support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the ecologist Greens.
        The state is ruled by Merkel’s CDU in a coalition with the Greens and a slump in support for the conservatives there would almost certainly further weaken her authority.
        “If the CDU loses the government in Hesse, this will probably start a discussion within the CDU about Merkel’s position,” wrote mass-selling Bild.
    (Reporting by Joseph Nasr, Madeline Chambers and Riham Alkoussa; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    10/15/2018 Brexit talks stall before midweek EU summit by Gabriela Baczynska, Alastair Macdonald and Elizabeth Piper
    The car believed to be carrying Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab arrives at the EU Commission
    headquarters in Brussels, prior to a meeting with EU's chief Brexit negotiator MIchel Barnier, Belgium October 14, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – The stubborn problem of Britain’s land border with Ireland thwarted a drive to clinch a Brexit deal before a European Union summit this week, as negotiators admitted defeat after marathon talks and pressed pause for the coming
        EU negotiator Michel Barnier said after meeting British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab that they could still not bridge a gap between his “backstop” demands that Northern Ireland stay in the EU’s economic zone if there is a risk that border checks with EU member Ireland could revive conflict, and London’s rejection of any checks on trade between the province and the British mainland.
        Both sides want to end more than a year of talks by mid-November.    This is to give parliaments in London and Brussels time to approve a deal before Britain otherwise crashes out of the EU next March, plunging businesses and millions of ordinary citizens into a chaotic and costly legal limbo.
        However, British Prime Minister Theresa May faces intense opposition to some of the EU’s demands from members of her Conservative party and allies in Northern Ireland, some of whom threaten to reject any deal they do not like in parliament.
        “Despite intense efforts, some key issues are still open, including the backstop for (Ireland/Northern Ireland) to avoid a hard border,” Barnier tweeted after his meeting in Brussels with Raab ended days of bargaining between Barnier’s deputy Sabine Weyand and May’s Brexit lieutenant Oliver Robbins.
        A British government spokesman said progress had been made in some key areas.    “However there remain a number of unresolved issues relating to the backstop.    The UK is still committed to making progress at the October European Council,” he said.
        But the result, EU officials and diplomats said, is that there are no plans for further talks before leaders of the other 27 EU member states meet over dinner in Brussels on Wednesday to hear Barnier brief them on the state of play.
        Several said there was little chance the leaders would give Barnier new instructions.    They noted this puts the onus on May, who will join the leaders on Thursday morning, to break the deadlock she faces among her own allies and supporters.
        “It seems like May doesn’t have backing in her cabinet for the backstop,” said one senior EU diplomat who was briefed by Barnier.
        Both sides had for a time been talking up progress but many Brussels diplomats and officials have questioned whether May could appear to come to terms quite so quickly.    More days, or weeks, of drama could strengthen her hand as both sides talk up preparations for a possible “no-deal” Brexit.
        Leaders had been due to decide on Wednesday whether enough progress had been made for them to agree to hold another summit, pencilled in for Nov. 17-18, at which both the treaty on an orderly British withdrawal and a vaguer document setting out future trade relations could be inked in.
        It is unclear now whether the leaders will call for the November summit this week.    Many, notably French President Emmanuel Macron, made clear at a summit with May last month that they would agree to meet only if she could show she had come sufficiently close to a deal to make it worthwhile.
        EU sources said Barnier’s team have offered new wording on a text on the backstop, highlighting that it may never be activated or only for a limited time, and also that Britain as a whole could stay under EU rules for longer as it transitions out after March 2019.    But so far that has not met British reservations.
        Both sides want to avoid renewed checks on what will become their only land border to avoid hindering trade on the island of Ireland and reawakening tensions two decades after a peace deal ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
    FUNDAMENTAL DECISIONS
        David Davis, who resigned as Brexit minister in July, accused May’s government earlier on Sunday of accepting “the EU’s language on dealing with the Northern Ireland border.”
        “This is one of the most fundamental decisions that government has taken in modern times.    It is time for cabinet members to exert their collective authority,” Davis, who campaigned for Britain to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, wrote in the Sunday Times.
        Davis also pressed May to abandon her Brexit proposal, which involves staying in a free trade zone with the EU for goods.
        So far, May has shown little appetite to change tack, trying to persuade Conservative lawmakers and those in the opposition Labour Party to vote for any deal based on her plan.
        Even if she reaches a withdrawal agreement, she will struggle to get it through parliament and may find opposition from the small Northern Irish party which props up here minority government to other legislation such as the budget.
        “I fully appreciate the risks of a ‘no deal’ but the dangers of a bad deal are worse,” Arlene Foster, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, wrote in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
        “This backstop arrangement would not be temporary.    It would be the permanent annexation of Northern Ireland away from the rest of the United Kingdom and forever leave us subject to rules made in a place where we have no say.”
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Keith Weir and David Stamp)

    10/15/2018 President Trump says Putin is ‘probably’ involved in assassinations and poisonings by OAN Newsroom
    Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while answering questions at the Russian Energy Week International Forum
    in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)
        President Trump claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin was “probably” involved in the poisoning of a Russian agent.
        In an interview on Sunday, President Trump appeared to agree with reports suggesting Putin ordered the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal.
        He doubled-down on his accusation that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but insisted China also interfered and poses a bigger threat than the Kremlin.
        Meanwhile, the president claimed he has privately cracked-down on Putin in response to the incident.
        “I think I’m very tough with him (Putin) personally, I had a meeting — the two of us — it was a very tough meeting and it was a very good meeting,” said President Trump.
        This comes after the Russian president recently referred to the agent targeted in the attack as a “scumbag.”

    10/15/2018 U.S. cracks down on transnational organized crime including Hezbollah: Sessions
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks to the Office of Justice Programs'
    National Institute of Justice Opioid Research Summit in Washington, U.S., September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Al Drago
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said he had designated five groups, including Hezbollah and MS-13, as transnational criminal organizations to target with tougher investigations and prosecutions.
        Sessions also said he had designated the Sinaloa Cartel, Clan de Golfo and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion for the crack down to be carried out by a special new task force.
        A special team of “experienced international narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and money laundering prosecutors” will investigate individuals and networks providing support to Hezbollah, Sessions said.
        Mostly active in Lebanon, Hezbollah was an outlier on the Attorney General’s list, which was otherwise focused on groups with ties to Latin America.
        “With this new task force in place, our efforts will be more targeted and more effective than ever,” Sessions said, explaining that in 90 days task-force members will give him specific recommendations “i>to prosecute these groups and ultimately take them off of our streets.”
    (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Susan Thomas)

    10/15/2018 Cannabis college: Canadian students learn to grow pot
    Students Michal Marcinkiewicz and Carson Otto measure the light in the marijuana lab at the new Commercial Cannabis
    Production Program at Niagara College in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, Canada, October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
        TORONTO (Reuters) – As Canadians prepare for the legalization of recreational cannabis this week, 24 students are becoming the first in the country to get formal credentials in growing pot.
        Canada will become the first industrialized nation to legalize the recreational use of cannabis on Wednesday, fulfilling a campaign promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals who had argued the move would keep pot out of the hands of underage users and reduce related crime.
        In brightly lighted climate-controlled rooms at Ontario’s Niagara College, protected by fences and layers of locked doors, are 50 cannabis clones that students will learn to irrigate, feed, protect, track with bar codes, test for chemical content, harvest and cure, said program coordinator Bill MacDonald.
        “They’re also learning the business side.    If you’re growing this crop, how much is it going to cost you?    How much labor (will) you need?”
        They’ll learn cannabis has light needs similar to the chrysanthemum’s and feeding similar to a tomato or a pepper.
        “It’s an extremely unique plant, and people have a real emotional attachment to it.”
        As authorities worry Canada’s legal cannabis supply may fall short of demand and fail to choke off the black market, the program is attracting interest, MacDonald said.
        “Licensed producers are already lining up for our graduates.”
        Canada’s burgeoning marijuana industry has caught the attention of major retailers like Walmart Inc’s Canadian unit and other global companies, mainly in the alcohol and beverage industries, who are considering entering the market for cannabis-infused products.
        One thing students at Niagara College will not be able to do is make use of their product: All the plants have to be destroyed at the end of the course.
    (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

    10/15/2018 Fleeing hardship at home, Venezuelan migrants struggle abroad, too by Alexandra Ulmer
    FILE PHOTO: Luis Pena, an undocumented Venezuelan migrant, cries after he received a voice message
    from his mother on the cellphone of a travel companion, while resting next to the road between Pamplona
    and La Laguna, near Mutiscua, Colombia August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
        VILLA DEL ROSARIO, Colombia (Reuters) – Every few minutes, the reeds along the Tachira River rustle.    Smugglers, in ever growing numbers, emerge with a ragtag group of Venezuelan migrants – men struggling under tattered suitcases, women hugging bundles in blankets and schoolchildren carrying backpacks.    They step across rocks, wade into the muddy stream and cross illegally into Colombia.
        This is the new migration from Venezuela.
        For years, as conditions worsened in the Andean nation’s ongoing economic meltdown, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans – those who could afford to – fled by airplane and bus to other countries far and near, remaking their lives as legal immigrants.
        Now, hyperinflation, daily power cuts and worsening food shortages are prompting those with far fewer resources to flee, braving harsh geography, criminal handlers and increasingly restrictive immigration laws to try their luck just about anywhere.
        In recent weeks, Reuters spoke with dozens of Venezuelan migrants traversing their country’s Western border to seek a better life in Colombia and beyond.    Few had more than the equivalent of a handful of dollars with them.
        “It was terrible, but I needed to cross,” said Dario Leal, 30, recounting his journey from the coastal state of Sucre, where he worked in a bakery that paid about $2 per month.
        At the border, he paid smugglers nearly three times that to get across and then prepared, with about $3 left, to walk the 500 km (311 miles) to Bogota, Colombia’s capital.    The smugglers, in turn, paid a fee to Colombian crime gangs who allow them to operate, according to police, locals and smugglers themselves.
        As many as 1.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015, according to the United Nations.    Combined with those who preceded them, a total of 2.6 million are believed to have left the oil-rich country.    Ninety percent of recent departures, the U.N. says, remain in South America.
        The exodus, one of the biggest mass migrations ever on the continent, is weighing on neighbors.    Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which once welcomed Venezuelan migrants, recently tightened entry requirements.    Police now conduct raids to detain the undocumented.
        In early October, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Colombia’s foreign minister, said as many as four million Venezuelans could be in the country by 2021, costing national coffers as much as $9 billion.    “The magnitude of this challenge,” he said, “our country has never seen.”
        In Brazil, which also borders Venezuela, the government deployed troops and financing to manage the crush and treat sick, hungry and pregnant migrants.    In Ecuador and Peru, workers say that Venezuelan labor lowers wages and that criminals are hiding among honest migrants.
        “There are too many of them,” said Antonio Mamani, a clothing vendor in Peru, who recently watched police fill a bus with undocumented Venezuelans near Lima.
    “WE NEED TO GO”
        By migrating illegally, migrants expose themselves to criminal networks who control prostitution, drug trafficking and other rackets.    In August, Colombian investigators discovered 23 undocumented Venezuelans forced into prostitution and living in basements in the colonial city of Cartagena.
        While most migrants are avoiding such straits, no shortage of other hardship awaits – from homelessness, to unemployment, to the cold reception many get as they sleep in public squares, peddle sweets and throng already overburdened hospitals.
        Still, most press on, many on foot.
        Some join compatriots in Brazil and Colombia. Others, having spent what money they had, are walking vast regions, like Colombia’s cold Andean passes and sweltering tropical lowlands, in treks toward distant capitals, like Quito or Lima.
        Johana Narvaez, a 36-year-old mother of four, told Reuters her family left after business stalled at their small car repair shop in the rural state of Trujillo.    Extra income she made selling food on the street withered because cash is scarce in a country where annual inflation, according to the opposition-led Congress, recently reached nearly 500,000 percent.
        “We can’t stay here,” she told her husband, Jairo Sulbaran, in August, after they ran out of food and survived on corn patties provided by friends.    “Even on foot, we must go.”    Sulbaran begged and sold old tires until they could afford bus tickets to the border.
        Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has chided migrants, warning of the hazards of migration and that emigres will end up “cleaning toilets.”    He has even offered free flights back to some in a program called “Return to the Homeland,” which state television covers daily.
        Most migration, however, remains in the other direction.
        Until recently, Venezuelans could enter many South American countries with just their national identity cards.    But some are toughening rules, requiring a passport or additional documentation.
        Even a passport is elusive in Venezuela.
        Paper shortages and a dysfunctional bureaucracy make the document nearly impossible to obtain, many migrants argue.    Several told Reuters they waited two years in vain after applying, while a half-dozen others said they were asked for as much as $2000 in bribes by corrupt clerks to secure one.
        Maduro’s government in July said it would restructure Venezuela’s passport agency to root out “bureaucracy and corruption.”    The Information Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
    “VENEZUELA WILL END UP EMPTY”
        Many of those crossing into Colombia pay “arrastradores,” or “draggers,” to smuggle them along hundreds of trails.    Five of the smugglers, all young men, told Reuters business is booming.
        “Venezuela will end up empty,” said Maikel, a 17-year-old Venezuelan smuggler, scratches across his face from traversing the bushy trails.    Maikel, who declined to give his surname, said he lost count of how many migrants he has helped cross.
        Colombia, too, struggles to count illegal entries.    Before the government tightened restrictions earlier this year, Colombia issued “border cards” that let holders crisscross at will.    Now, Colombia says it detects about 3,000 false border cards at entry points daily.
        Despite tougher patrols along the porous, 2,200-km border, officials say it is impossible to secure outright.    “It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket,” said Mauricio Franco, a municipal official in charge of security in Cucuta, a nearby city.
        And it’s not just a matter of rounding up undocumented travelers.
        Powerful criminal groups, long in control of contraband commerce across the border, are now getting their cut of human traffic.    Javier Barrera, a colonel in charge of police in Cucuta, said the Gulf Clan and Los Rastrojos, notorious syndicates that operate nationwide, are both involved.
        During a recent Reuters visit to several illegal crossings, Venezuelans carried cardboard, limes and car batteries as barter instead of using the bolivar, their near-worthless currency.
        Migrants pay as much as about $16 for the passage. Maikel, the arrastrador, said smugglers then pay gang operatives about $3 per migrant.
        For his crossing, Leal, the baker, carried a torn backpack and small duffel bag.    His 2015 Venezuelan ID shows a healthier and happier man – before Leal began skimping on breakfast and dinner because he couldn’t afford them.
        He rested under a tree, but fretted about Colombian police.    “I’m scared because the “migra” comes around,” he said, using the same term Mexican and Central American migrants use for border police in the United States.    It doesn’t get easier as migrants move on.
        Even if relatives wired money, transfer agencies require a legally stamped passport to collect it.    Bus companies are rejecting undocumented passengers to avoid fines for carrying them.    A few companies risk it, but charge a premium of as much as 20 percent, according to several bus clerks near the border.
        The Sulbaran family walked and hitched some 1200 km to the Andean town of Santiago, where they have relatives.    The father toured garages, but found no work.
        “People said no, others were scared,” said Narvaez, the mother.    “Some Venezuelans come to Colombia to do bad things.    They think we’re all like that.”
    (Additional reporting by Mitra Taj in Lima, Anggy Polanco in Cucuta, Helen Murphy in Bogota and Alexandra Valencia in Quito. Editing by Paulo Prada.)

    10/15/2018 No end in sight for Swedish government talks by Johan Sennero and Simon Johnson
    Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Stefan Lofven meets Swedish Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlen
    at the Parliament in Stockholm, Sweden, October 15, 2018. TT News Agency/Henrik Montgomery via REUTERS
        STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish Social Democrats leader and caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was handed the task on Monday of forming a new government with sufficient support in a parliament left deeply divided following last month’s inconclusive elections.
        But his prospects, like those of his main rival, Alliance bloc leader Ulf Kristersson, look bleak.
        The election on Sept. 9 delivered a hung parliament with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats holding the balance of power, although neither the centre left nor centre-right bloc is willing to do a deal with them.
        “This will demand hard and probably also protracted work,” Lofven told a news conference.
        “I am not going to stoke expectations for a quick solution, rather the opposite.    It is obvious that many roadblocks remain.”
        Moderate Party leader Kristersson, the Alliance’s candidate for prime minister, had a first stab at forming a government but failed and Lofven acknowledged that his own efforts would probably face similar obstacles.
        The Centre and Liberal parties that Lofven will primarily be looking to win over are reluctant to abandon the centre-right Alliance bloc and both said they still hoped to see Kristersson as prime minister with bipartisan support.
        Lofven has ruled out supporting the centre right unless they agree to keep him on as prime minister.
        “The parties have to rethink where they stand if we are going to get further in this process,” Speaker Andreas Norlen said as he announced that Lofven would be given the task of sounding out possibilities to form a government.
        Lofven lost a vote of no-confidence as prime minister on Sept. 25.
        His centre-left bloc of the Social Democrats, Greens and Left party has 144 seats in the 349-member parliament, one more than the centre-right Alliance.    The Sweden Democrats, with roots in the white supremacist fringe, have 62 seats.
        The Centre and Liberal parties scuppered Kristersson’s attempt at forming a government over the weekend, saying his proposals would leave the government needing support from the Sweden Democrats.
        Although united in their determination to keep the Sweden Democrats isolated, the Centre and Liberal parties champion economic policies that put them considerably to the right of Lofven’s Social Democrats, who have ruled over the past four years with the backing of the former Communist Left Party.
    Graphic: Swedish election scenarios: https://tmsnrt.rs/2p45tJh
    (Additional reporting by Daniel Dickson; editing by Niklas Pollard and Ed Osmond)

    10/15/2018 Venezuelans fleeing Maduro regime are struggling abroad by OAN Newsroom
        A new report is revealing the challenges faced by Venezuelan migrants as they flee the Maduro regime.
        According to the United Nations, the total number of Venezuelans living abroad has reached four million people of which more than two million have fled in recent years.    This amounts to the biggest mass-migration in the history of South America.
        Colombian officials said migrants are facing threats of trafficking and crime from local cartels.

    Venezuelan migrants sleep on the ground at a border crossing into Peru. (AP/Photo)
        Meanwhile, the Maduro regime has made it harder for Venezuelans to leave the country by restricting the issuance of passports.
        Migrants also struggle to secure employment and might face homelessness upon their arrival in Colombia and other countries.

    10/16/2018 Yarmuth: Clinton’s comments about Lewinsky ‘outrageous’ by Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
        Kentucky’s lone Democratic congressman didn’t spare former first lady Hillary Clinton from the flood of criticism she faced Monday for saying her husband’s affair with a White House intern wasn’t an abuse of power.
        President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to federal investigators about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
        Lewinsky, who originally described the relationship as consensual, wrote this year in Vanity Fair that she now thinks the relationship was a “gross abuse of power” on the former president’s part.    But in an interview Sunday with CBS News, Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, took issue with that description.
        “It wasn’t an abuse of power?” CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil asked.    “No.    No,” Clinton said, adding that Lewinsky, who was 22 at the time, “was an adult.”    U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, of Louisville, expressed disgust at Clinton’s remarks via his official Twitter account on Monday.
        “This kind of defense is both outrageous and dangerous,” Yarmuth tweeted.    “It is never acceptable for a man or woman to sexually harass or abuse someone they manage.”
        The rise of the #MeToo movement, which has brought down several powerful men, has sparked a national conversation about sexual harassment and abuse.    It has many reconsidering Bill Clinton’s behavior at the time.
        The affair is considered by many to be inappropriate given that President Clinton, who was 49 during the relationship, was Lewinsky’s boss.
        Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, said in retrospect that it was the right call for her husband not to have stepped down.    She also denied having any role in criticizing the character of Lewinsky and other women who accused her husband.
        Clinton tried to turn the conversation to President Donald Trump’s own accusations of unwanted sexual advances and extramarital affairs.
        “Let me ask with this: Where’s the investigation of the current incumbent, against whom numerous allegations have been made, and which he dismisses, denies and ridicules?” she asked.
        “The View” co-host Abby Huntsman said Clinton’s attempt to switch the subject to Trump was why many people, “struggled to vote for her” two years ago.    She said Clinton can’t have it both ways.
        “You can’t put yourself on a pedestal and be a leader for the feminist movement and at the same time refuse to acknowledge the reality that you’ve lived with for all these years and stand by your husband,” Hunstman said.
        Other political commentators said Bill Clinton should be the one answering for his role in the affair rather than his wife.    “Hillary isn’t responsible for what her husband did, but she should be able to recognize it as an abuse of power,” political analyst Kirsten Powers tweeted.
        David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, put the comments in the context of the 2018 midterm election.
        “Just guessing this isn’t the story Democratic candidates were looking for in the homestretch of the midterms,” Axelrod tweeted.
        USA Today contributed to this story.    Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courierjournal.com.
    Rep. John Yarmuth

    10/15/2018 Pres. Defeats Daniels’ Defamation Case by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving
    the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        A federal judge is dismissing the defamation lawsuit filed by Stormy Daniels against President Trump.
        The decision by Judge James Otero marks a major defeat for Daniels and her attorney Michael Avenatti.
        The president is entitled to legal fees from the plaintiff for bringing forth the lawsuit.
        The president’s attorney in the case, Charles Harder, has since released a statement.
        He says there’s no way to characterize Monday’s ruling in any other way than a total victory for President Trump and a total defeat for Stormy Daniels.

    10/16/2018 Judge dismisses Stormy’s libel suit vs. Trump - Ruling: Tweet protected by First Amendment by John Fritze, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – A federal judge in California on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former porn star Stormy Daniels that alleged President Donald Trump defamed her.
        Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had filed the suit after Trump posted a tweet dismissing comments she had made in broadcast interviews.
        U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero indicated during arguments last month that he believed the tweet by Trump that named her appeared to be protected by the First Amendment.
        Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals shortly after Otero’s ruling.
        After Daniels said in an interview that a man confronted her over her allegations of an affair with Trump, the president tweeted that the person who made the threats was a “non-existent man” and that her allegation was a “total con job.”
    President Donald Trump accused Stormy Daniels of a “con job.” EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    10/15/2018 Sessions: MS-13, drug cartels top US threats by Michael Balsamo, ASSOCIATED PRESS
        WASHINGTON – Attorney General Jeff Sessions has created a new task force aimed at zeroing in on three of the world’s most notorious drug cartels and the brutal MS-13 street gang, already considered a top priority for federal law enforcement.
        Speaking to a group of federal prosecutors on Monday, Sessions designated five groups as top transnational organized crime threats and said the new task force will “develop a plan to take each of these groups off of our streets for good.”
        Sessions, who has been on the receiving end of relentless verbal jabs from President Donald Trump and may be in the final stretches of his tenure, was speaking directly to one of the president’s prime targets amid the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration: MS-13.
        Trump has said MS-13 gang members from the stronghold of El Salvador are coming to the U.S. both illegally and as unaccompanied minors to wreak havoc.    He has held up the gang as a reason for stricter immigration policies meted out by Sessions and others.
        “With more than 10,000 members in the United States, this gang is the most violent gang in America today,” Sessions said.
        Last year, Sessions directed officials to pursue all possible charges against MS-13 members, including racketeering, gun and tax law violations.    He also designated the gang as a “priority” to a multi-agency task force that has historically focused on drug trafficking and money laundering, which he called a “powerful weapon to use against this vicious gang.”
        The gang, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, is generally known for extortion and violence rather than distributing and selling narcotics.
        MS-13 members are suspected of committing several high-profile killings in New York, Maryland and Virginia.    On New York’s Long Island, where more than two dozen people are believed to have been killed by the gang since 2016, officials have arrested hundreds of MS-13 members, Sessions said.
        The task force will allow federal prosecutors to better target priority organizations and make prosecutions “more effective,” Sessions said.
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions, joined by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and Jessie Liu, U.S. attorney for D.C. announces efforts to reduce transnational crime. AP

    10/15/2018 Jeff Sessions creates new task force to help tackle transnational crime by OAN Newsroom
        Jeff Sessions recently announced the formation of a new Department of Justice task force to tackle transnational criminal organizations like MS-13.
        On Monday, the attorney general said the organization focuses on fighting the five largest international crime syndicates, including MS-13, Hezbollah and the Sinaloa Cartel.
        The new department would be headed by Office of Enforcement Operations head Adam Cohen.
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
    in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to announce on efforts to reduce transnational crime. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        Sessions said the new group will allow the administration to more effectively target violent criminal gangs as well as the drug trade.        “I’ve ordered each of these subcommittees to provide me with specific recommendations within 90 days on the best way to prosecute these groups, the tactics they intend to use, and how to take them off our streets,” stated the attorney general.
        Sessions said formation of the new task force will help the president keep his promise of combating groups like MS-13.

    10/15/2018 Police investigating attacks by ANTIFA in Portland, New Yorkby OAN Newsroom
        Police in Portland and New York are looking into several attacks by ANTIFA members on right-wing activists that took place over the weekend.
        According to reports Monday, members of ANTIFA began attacking members of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer during a rally Saturday night.
        Video shows members of ANTIFA burning an American flag before a member of Patriot Prayer saved it.
        Although police were able to break up the fighting, no arrests were made.
        Meanwhile in New York, members of ANTIFA reportedly vandalized the Metropolitan Republican Club before attacking a group of activists exiting the building.
    Who is ANTIFA?
        The Antifa movement is a conglomeration of left wing autonomous, self-styled anti-fascist militant groups in the United States.    The principal feature of antifa groups is their use of direct action, harassing those whom they identify as fascists, racists or right wing extremists.

    10/16/2018 Under growing EU pressure, May meets her ministers on Brexit by Elizabeth Piper and Alastair Macdonald
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
        LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will discuss Brexit with her ministers on Tuesday, under pressure to rethink her plans from both some members of her Conservative Party and the European Union.
        A day before May heads to Brussels for a summit, a senior EU official again made clear that parts of May’s plan could not work and said the time was right to step up plans for Britain leaving the bloc without a deal.
        With less than six months before Britain leaves the EU, Brexit talks have reached a stalemate over the so-called Irish backstop, a fallback plan to ensure there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.
        May told parliament on Monday she would not accept the EU’s proposal for such a backstop because, she said, it could break up the United Kingdom.
        On Tuesday, a German official repeated the EU’s line that the backstop needed to be legally watertight and without it there would be no Brexit deal.
        Germany’s European Affairs Minister Michael Roth offered this advice to May: “Take responsibility and be constructive.”
        But other ministers arriving in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU ministers pointed to the progress made so far in the Brexit talks.
        May will update her cabinet of top ministers on the Brexit negotiations later on Tuesday, aware that some have come under pressure from Conservative euroskeptic lawmakers to persuade her to change tack over her so-called Chequers plan.
        Eight of those ministers, some with concerns over Chequers and plans for a backstop, met late on Monday over pizza to discuss Brexit, the Telegraph newspaper reported, after reports that some may resign if May presses ahead.
        May has so far shown little sign of moving away from the proposal for future ties hashed out at her country residence, and tried to make clear to lawmakers on Monday that the issue was now over the backstop – part of Britain’s withdrawal terms.
        Talks with the EU reached a stalemate on Sunday, increasing the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, which, some companies say, could disrupt trade, delay the movement of goods and starve the world’s fifth largest economy of investment.
        EU and British officials suggest it is unlikely that there will be any agreement on the backstop at this week’s summit, but both are hopeful that progress can be made.
        “Even if in this week’s debate we are not going to have any kind of deal, there is still time, there is still possibility to get a deal,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said in Luxembourg.
    (Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    10/16/2018 EU’s Barnier says will work ‘seriously’ in coming weeks for Brexit deal
    The European Union's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier is welcomed by European Council President Donald Tusk
    prior to a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, October 16, 2018. Olivier Hoslet/Pool via Reuters
        LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union and Britain will work “calmly and seriously” in the next weeks to reach a deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc without creating a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said.
        Speaking to journalists before briefing EU ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg, Barnier said the withdrawal agreement with Britain had to be “orderly for everyone and all the subjects, including Ireland.”
        “We will take this time, calmly and seriously, to reach this overall accord in the next weeks,” Barnier said.    “We need more time to find this deal … and to reach this decisive progress.”
        Leaders of the 27 European Union countries that will remain in the bloc after Britain leaves in March 2019, will discuss progress in the negotiations on Wednesday evening.
    (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Alissa de Carbonnel and Gabriela Baczynska)

    10/16/2018 Peru detains opposition leader’s top advisers at political rally
    Supporters of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori and leader of the opposition in Peru,
    protest against her detention in Lima, Peru October 15, 2018. The banner reads: "Keiko is not alone." REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo
        LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian police detained two top advisers of jailed opposition leader Keiko Fujimori at a political demonstration on Monday, deepening a crisis at the heart of the country’s most powerful conservative movement.
        Hundreds of people chanting “Keiko is innocent” marched through downtown Lima to protest against Fujimori’s arrest last Wednesday pending charges in a money laundering investigation.
        Ana Herz and Pier Figari, Fujimori’s top political strategists, were arrested at the demonstration, Ursula Letona, a lawmaker of her party, told journalists.
        “They were arrested in the middle of the march,” Letona said in comments on domestic broadcaster RPP.    “I’m upset.    We’re victims of the arbitrary arrests of our party leaders.”
        Reuters could not immediately reach attorneys for Herz and Figari to seek comment.
        Their arrests were the latest blow to the conservative movement built by former autocrat Alberto Fujimori, Fujimori’s father, during his decade in power from 1990 to 2000.
        Since his imprisonment for human rights crimes in 2007, Keiko has led her father’s political following.    But she failed to win the presidency twice and has seen her popularity plummet as the head of the opposition party that runs Congress.
        Fujimori denies any wrongdoing and has said her arrest is part of broader campaign of political persecution against her party and family.
        This month, a judge annulled a presidential pardon that had freed Alberto Fujimori from prison late last year. He has been hospitalized since the ruling was announced.
        Fujimori’s troubles could give President Martin Vizcarra an upper hand in working with Congress, which pressured his predecessor, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, to resign over graft accusations in March.
        Prosecutors allege Fujimori led a criminal organization that sought to use her 2011 presidential campaign to launder illegal funds for Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction group at the center of the region’s biggest graft scandal.
        Fujimori and her party deny ever taking money from Odebrecht.
    (Reporting by Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

    10/16/2018 Rising oil turns up heat on vulnerable emerging economies by Karin Strohecker, Amanda Cooper and Ritvik Carvalho
    Employees walk inside the premises of an oil refinery of Essar Oil, which runs India's second biggest private sector refinery,
    in Vadinar in the western state of Gujarat, India, October 4, 2016. Picture taken October 4, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave
        LONDON (Reuters) – A rise in oil prices to four-year highs is heaping pressure on big emerging-market crude consumers such as Turkey, India, Indonesia and South Africa that are already grappling with current account deficits, weak currencies and rising inflation.
        Emerging markets worldwide have been buffeted in recent months by the strong dollar, climbing U.S. interest rates and slowing growth momentum with Turkey and Argentina descending into full-blown currency crises.
        Meanwhile Brent crude prices have risen above $80 per barrel, thanks largely to coordinated production cuts by some of the world’s biggest oil exporters, as well as impending U.S. sanctions on crude exporter Iran that could wipe yet more supply off the market.
        Some analysts now think benchmark prices could return to $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014.    But for a number of importers such as India, Turkey or Indonesia – who all have seen their currencies tumble to record lows this year – oil is already more expensive now at $85 a barrel than it was back in 2008 when the price hit a record $147 a barrel.
        Rising oil prices spell trouble for emerging markets, said Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist Northern Trust, an asset management firm with $1.1 trillion under management.
        “Look at the largest market cap countries … every one of them is an oil importer,” said McDonald.    “High oil prices are bad for them, unless it is tied to growth being really good – today what is driving oil prices higher is not a pick-up in growth, it is a slowdown in supply, and that’s a bad scenario.”
        Trouble is especially on the cards for those economies hit by the triple-whammy of a sharp currency drop, heavy reliance on dollar-denominated energy imports and external funding flows.
        While China, India, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia top the list of biggest emerging market oil importers, Thailand enjoys a solid current account surplus and China only edged into a rare deficit in the first half of the year.
        However, Turkey, Argentina, India and Indonesia find themselves high up on the list of countries featuring large current account deficits as a percentage of their GDP, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund for 2018.
        For many countries, the pressure is two-fold: rising crude imports with rising prices.    China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and South Africa imported 18 percent more crude oil in July 2018, the last month for which complete data is available, than they did in January 2017.
        The average cost of their oil imports in their respective currencies, however, has risen by an average of nearly 60 percent in that time.
        Analysts are also closely watching how another oil shock might affect country’s import cover and the adequacy of central banks’ foreign currency reserves.    As oil prices rise, that ratio will come under even more scrutiny.
        Consumer spending power across many of these countries is also bound to suffer as – unlike in 2008 – many consumers do not have the same cushion of fuel subsidies and central banks have to ramp up rates to tackle inflation pressures and steady their currencies.
        Meanwhile, the hit taken by emerging market economies is likely to be severe enough to slow down oil demand growth this year and next.
        All three major oil market forecasters – the International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and OPEC – cut their estimates for oil demand growth this year and next in the past days.    All three cited the financial pain visited upon emerging markets as the key catalyst.
    (Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Ritvik Carvalho, Amanda Cooper; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    10/16/2018 Oil falls on U.S. shale output, expected stocks data by Christopher Johnson
    Vehicles pass by a Shell petrol station in Buenos Aires, Argentina September 17, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Tuesday on evidence of higher U.S. oil production and increasing U.S. crude inventories, but reports of a fall in Iranian oil exports helped to limit losses.
        Brent crude was down 50 cents a barrel at $80.28 by 1320 GMT. U.S. light crude was 40 cents lower at $71.38.
        “Shale oil production continues unabated in the United States,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.    “Rising U.S. oil production is one key reason why the global oil market is likely to be amply supplied next year.”
        Oil production from seven major U.S. shale basins is expected to rise by 98,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November to a record of 7.71 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
        The largest change is forecast in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, where output is expected to climb by 53,000 bpd to a new peak of 3.55 million bpd.
        U.S. oil production has increased steadily over the last five years, reaching a record high of 11.2 million bpd in the week to Oct. 5.    But infrastructure has not kept pace with rising output, filling domestic tanks.
        “Once pipelines and oil terminals are built connecting the Permian to the U.S. Gulf Coast, then there will be a big step up in U.S. crude oil exports,” Harry Tchilinguirian, oil strategist at French bank BNP Paribas told Reuters Global Oil Forum.
        U.S. crude stockpiles are expected to have risen last week for the fourth straight week, by about 1.1 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
        API data are due at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) with the EIA at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Wednesday. [EIA/S] [API/S]
        Balancing the U.S. data were reports that Iranian exports of crude oil may be falling faster than expected ahead of new U.S. sanctions on Tehran from Nov. 4.
        In the first two weeks of October, Iran exported close to 1.5 million bpd of crude to countries including India, China and Turkey, some industry sources suggest.
        That is a sharp drop from 2.5 million bpd in April before U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran in May and ordered the re-imposition of sanctions.
        With the world’s only sizable spare oil output capacity, Saudi Arabia is expected to export more to offset the loss of Iranian oil supply from the sanctions.
        Tension over the disappearance of a Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey also remain.
        Saudi Arabia has denied it was responsible for the disappearance of Khashoggi.
    (Reporting by Christopher Johnson in LONDON and Jane Chung in SEOUL; Editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)

    10/16/2018 McConnell: USMCA will not get vote in 2018, but top agenda item in 2019 by OAN Newsroom
        The Senate majority leader is claiming the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada is at the top of the 2019.
        During an interview Monday, Senator Mitch McConnell said because of the process of new trade agreements, there will not be a vote in 2018.
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks after the Republican policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        However, he said the USMCA will be a main agenda item at the beginning of next year.
        Under the current rules, there is a number of boxes that need to be checked off before Congress can vote on a trade deal.
        Trade negotiations lasting longer than expected with Canada likely contributed to the delay in voting.
        Republicans wanted to vote on the deal before midterms in case they lost their majority, however, the three-way deal has received praise from the left with Chuck Schumer coming out in support of the deal.

    10/16/2018 President Trump: Far-left Democrats seek to outlaw private Medicare plans by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump speaks during the signing ceremony for ‘Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act’ and ‘Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018,’
    in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        President Trump has reaffirmed his commitment to protecting Medicare coverage for senior citizens.    The president announced on Monday that open enrollment is now available for affordable Medicare Advantage plans.
        President Trump added, far-left Democrats seek to dismantle Medicare with their push for open borders and a $30 trillion Health Care For All (HCFA) system.
        The president explained last week that Health Care For All would, in practice, mean health care for none because of the financial strain it causes.
        He went on to accuse Democrats of trying to outlaw private health care plans, driving huge increases in premiums.
        “A Democrat-controlled Senate will try to take away your Second Amendment.    They’re going to take it away.    They want to take over American health care and destroy it.    They want to make us Venezuela, that’s what they wanna do.” –President Donald Trump
        The president also stressed far-left Democrats — led by Bernie Sanders — would run the American health care system into bankruptcy.

    10/16/2018 AG Jeff Sessions blasts federal judges for ruling based off personal opinion by OAN Newsroom
        Attorney General Jeff Sessions slams the judicial branch for overstepping its authority and is pointing the finger at so-called “activist judges.”
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in
    Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to announce on efforts to reduce transnational crime. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        Sessions spoke before the Heritage Foundation on Monday, where he singled out New York District Court Judge Jesse Furman in particular.
        Furman is the judge who ordered Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to face questioning for allowing a citizenship question to be reinstated on the 2020 census.
        Sessions accused judges like Furman of making their decision based off personal opinion and not based off of facts and evidence.
        “But the Census question, which has appeared in one form or another on the Census for over a hundred years, is either legal or illegal.    Tell us judge.    One side or the other will take the appeal.    The word’s on the page don’t have a motive, they are either permitted or they are not, but the judge has has decided to hold a trial over the inner workings of the cabinet secretary’s mind.” — Attorney General Jeff Sessions
        The Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling this month on whether Ross will be forced to testify about the citizenship question.

    10/17/2018 Oil up $0.14 to $71.97, DOW up 548 to 25,798
    10/17/2018 Earnings give push to Dow’s 548-point rise by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        A strong batch of quarterly profit reports from a trio of stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average sparked a market rebound Tuesday on Wall Street.
        The better-than-expected thirdquarter results from companies in the health care and financial services businesses eased fears of an economic slowdown as interest rates move higher.
        The Dow gained 548 points, or 2.2 percent, to 25,798. That rise, the bluechip’s seventh-biggest daily point gain ever and its best day since late March, helped it recoup a chunk of its nearly 1,600-point drop after declines in six of the previous eight trading sessions.
        Third-quarter results from drug maker Johnson & Johnson, health insurer UnitedHealth Group and Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs pushed stock prices up broadly.    The good news on profits, coupled with upbeat data on home-builder confidence, job openings and the nation’s industrial sector, reinforced optimists’ belief that the economy remains strong in the face of rising borrowing costs and fallout from trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
        “I think solid earnings will stabilize the market,” says Nick Sargen, Fort Washington Investment Advisors in Cincinnati.
        While it’s still early, profits for all the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are expected to grow nearly 22 percent, putting profits on track for a third consecutive quarter of 20 percent-plus growth, earnings tracker Refinitiv says.
        After a gain of 2.2 percent Tuesday, the broad stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, was 4.1 percent below its September all-time high.

    10/17/2018 US targets network supporting Iran’s use of child soldiers
        The Treasury Department on Tuesday targeted a network of banks and businesses that provides financial support to a paramilitary force in Iran, which allegedly trains and deploys child soldiers to fight with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
        The department said the Bonyad Taavon Basij network is an example of how Iran has infiltrated seemingly legitimate businesses to fund terrorism and other malign activities.

    10/17/2018 Brazil’s federal police asks top court to indict President Temer on graft charges by Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu
    Brazil's President Michel Temer, talks with journalists after casting his vote in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 7, 2018. Marcos Correa/Brazilian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
        BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s federal police have asked the supreme court to indict President Michel Temer and confiscate his assets and those of some of his close associates over alleged graft, according to a copy of its report for the court, seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
        Police have been investigating Temer for allegedly taking bribes in return for helping shape a decree regulating Brazil’s ports, and in particular for extending concessions in the port of Santos to benefit companies of close associates.
        Temer, a former vice president who took office in 2016 after former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached, has repeatedly said he is innocent.    He has faced several graft allegations, but is immune from prosecution while in office, unless the supreme court decides to strip his immunity.
        Supreme Court Justice Lugs Roberto Barroso, who is overseeing the case, said on Tuesday he would wait to see the findings of Brazil’s public prosecutors office before deciding on how to proceed.
        The report produced by the federal police recommends that Temer, his daughter Maristela, his former advisor Rodrigo Rocha Loures and eight others face charges and have their assets confiscated for their role in allegedly laundering bribes through real estate transactions.
        Temer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.    His term ends on Jan. 1, and with it his immunity from prosecution.
        The federal congress voted twice last year to block Temer from standing trial in the Supreme Court on three corruption charges leveled against him.
    (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Clive McKeef)

    10/17/2018 Trump administration says to open trade talks with EU, UK, Japan by David Shepardson
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer speaks during a meeting hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump
    with governors and members of Congress at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Trade Representative’s office told Congress on Tuesday it intends to open trade talks with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan.
        Under fast-track rules, the United States cannot start talks with the EU, Japan and the United Kingdom until 90 days after notifying Congress.
        “We will continue to expand U.S. trade and investment by negotiating trade agreements with Japan, the EU and the United Kingdom,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
        “We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses.”
        The letters from Lighthizer to Congress come weeks after the United States won agreement on reworking the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and as the administration faces continuing trade friction with China.
        The administration aims to “address both tariff and non-tariff barriers and to achieve fairer, more balanced trade” with the EU and Japan, the letters said.
        Japan “is an important but still too often underperforming market for U.S. exporters of goods,” the letter said.    It said the United States had a $69-billion trade deficit in goods with Japan, much of that in the auto sector.
        In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would protect its interests, based on a joint statement issued at a Japan-U.S. summit on Sept. 26.
        “It will not be an easy negotiation,” Suga told a regular news conference.
        “But we would like to proceed with talks in line with our stance that we will push where necessary and defend our position where necessary, in a way that protects our national interests.”
        The letter on the EU said the European Union and the United States have $1.1 trillion in annual two-way trade, “the largest and most complex” economic relationship in the world, and added that the United States has a $151.4 billion trade deficit in goods."
        The letter to Congress on Britain said it planned to start talks “as soon as it is ready” after Britain exits the EU on March 29.    The United States wants to develop “cutting edge obligations for emerging sectors where U.S. and U.K. innovators and entrepreneurs are most competitive.”
        Representative Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said, “These three economies are some of our largest and most important trading partners, but they are also markets in which U.S. farmers, manufacturers, and service providers face significant barriers.”
        Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee that oversees trade issues, said, “The administration must take the time to tackle trade barriers comprehensively.”
        He urged that the opportunity be used to set a high bar in areas such as labor rights, environmental protection and digital trade to benefit American workers and businesses, adding that “a quick, partial deal that only addresses some problems” should be avoided.
        Last week, senators said Lighthizer informed them the administration planned to soon launch trade talks with the Philippines but the USTR on Tuesday did not notify Congress of formal plans to open talks.
        In July, Lighthizer told a Senate panel the United States was “close to beginning negotiations” with the Philippines.    A spokeswoman for Lighthizer did not immediately comment on why the administration was not now moving ahead.
        Wyden said last week he had “very serious concerns about undertaking trade negotiations with a Philippine president who brags about a bloody drug war that has reportedly claimed 12,000 lives.”
    (Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Editing by Diane Craft and Clarence Fernandez)

    10/17/2018 President Trump urges 5% cut to federal government spending to curb deficits by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is vowing to cut federal spending as part of his ongoing fiscal reforms.
        During a cabinet meeting Wednesday, the president touted a five-percent cut to the spending of all cabinet departments and federal agencies.
        President Trump called the initiative the “nickel plan.”    He said it will curb wasteful spending, misappropriations, fraud, and corruption at the federal government.
        This comes as budget deficit rose 17-percent to $779 billion this fiscal year.
        President Trump said his “nickel plan” would curb fiscal deficits as well as boost the efficiency of federal government.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018,
    in Washington. From left, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao,
    Trump, and Small Business Administration administrator Linda McMahon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        “I’ve heard about the penny plan for 15 years — one penny every year per dollar, after 4 or 5 years the country is in good shape,” he stated.    “I’m saying let’s not do the penny plan, let’s do the five-penny plan — I’m going ask everybody to come back with a five- percent cut next week, I think you’ll all be able to do it.”
        The president also touted further decisive steps to tackle budget deficits over the coming years.

    10/17/2018 President Trump: We have asked Turkey to hand over evidence on missing journalist by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump confirms the U.S. has asked Turkey to hand over evidence related to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
        While speaking from the Oval Office Wednesday, the president said his administration has asked Turkey to turn over audio and video evidence from the Saudi consulate in Instanbul.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        He predicted we will likely find out what happened to Khashoggi by the end of the week, signaling the investigation into the case is wrapping up.
        The president added, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be returning from Turkey Wednesday night and he plans to be briefed with a full report.
        “I’m not giving cover at all.    With that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East…if you look at Saudi Arabia they are an ally and they are a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment but other things.” — President Donald Trump

    10/17/2018 Gen. Dunford: Complacency in fight against radical Islam threatens U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        With the Islamic State now on the run, a new threat is rising to take its place.
        Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford is warning the U.S. and its allies not to get complacent with ISIS and other radical Islamic groups like Al-Qaeda.    He argued the Islamic State still has around 32,000 able bodied fighters ready to go despite ISIS losing all except two-percent of the land from its so-called caliphate.
        According to Dunford’s assessment as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the terror group “is far from defeated” and is getting creative by using the internet to spread propaganda as well as plan attacks across the globe.
    Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, speaks to reporters at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        Still there are signs of progress as the militants continue losing ground in Iraq and Syria, and with terror attacks on the decline for a third year in a row.
        Dunford is urging the west to keep pressure on ISIS, arguing the group has only grown stronger each time pressure was lifted in the past.    He then turned his attention to another issue plaguing the region also brought about by complacency from western powers.
        While meeting with dozens of international defense chiefs in Washington on Tuesday, Dunford renewed calls for U.S. allies to prosecute their radicalized citizens.    As of right now, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have around 700 detainees from 40 different countries.
        “And although we have been successful in returning some, there are still many more that have to be returned,” said Dunford.    “I think we all recognize that many of the individuals that led ISIS in the early days had been detainees at one time or another and so it’s very important is that we address this properly and particularly where appropriate return them home for prosecution.”
        Another intelligence official present at the meeting stressed the importance of these detainees remaining behind bars, where they can not get back onto the battlefield.
        “We’re also making sure inside Syria that these people are housed in a facility in which you cannot, they can’t simply co-mingle with each other so they become a kind of a nucleus for a future threat,” explained Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (now ISIS).    “We want to make sure that they can never get out and that as they remain in Syria they remain in a facility that is safe, that is secure, that has access to the ICRC so it meets international standards as much as possible.”
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis are working hard to ensure the 700 detainees receive justice in their own countries.

    10/17/2018 Several Cuban diplomats disrupt UN event on plight of political prisoners by OAN Newsroom
        A U.S. official is calling for several Cuban diplomats to be reprimanded for acting out during a recent United Nations meeting.
        Roughly 20 diplomats and protesters loudly disrupted Tuesday’s event, which was held to launch the “Jailed for What” campaign.    The campaign is working to advocate for the release of an estimated 130 political prisoners currently being held by the Cuban government.
        Cuba’s ambassador said the protest was held to defend the dignity of the country’s heroic people.    However, U.S. Ambassador Kelley Currie said the delegation would not let anyone speak for nearly 45 minutes.
    American Ambassador on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Kelley E. Currie speaks during a Security Council
    meeting on the situation in Syria, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
        “This is an unfortunate situation…the United Nations represents so much for so many of us here,” she stated.    “I work here every day, I work collegially with colleagues with whom I have disagreements — I have never in my life seen diplomats behave the way that the Cuban delegation did today, it was really shocking and disturbing.”
        Currie went on to say the diplomats should be ashamed of themselves and said the U.S. will be taking further action with authorities within the UN.

    10/17/2018 President Trump blasts Obama for failing to secure 2016 presidential election against foreign hacking by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is blasting the previous administration for failing to secure the 2016 presidential election against foreign hacking threats.
        During an interview on Tuesday, the president called into question Obama’s actions leading up to election day.
    FILE – In this Sept. 21, 2018, file photo, former President Barack Obama speaks as he campaigns in support of Pennsylvania candidates in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
        He said Obama was warned of possible meddling in September of 2016, but failed to act upon the information.    Instead, the former president only spoke about it after the election.
        On the other hand, President Trump says he has done more for election security than Obama ever did.
        “Everybody understands there was no collusion.    There’s no Russia.    It was all made up by the Democrats.    They’re the ones that colluded with Russia.    The Democrats colluded with Russia.    And, frankly, the previous administration didn’t do anything about Russia when they knew that they should have.” — President Donald Trump
        President Trump signed an executive order last month, ordering sanctions against any foreign official or government caught trying to meddle with the midterms.

    10/18/2018 Britain, EU decide to take some time in getting Brexit right
        Leaders from the European Union and Britain shrugged off previous deadlines Wednesday, giving themselves several more weeks to clinch a friendly divorce deal ahead of their separation.
        After the EU insisted for months that this week’s summit was a key meeting to get a deal, its Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said “we need much time, much more time, and we (will) continue to work in the next weeks” with his British counterpart.
        British Prime Minister Theresa May also spoke about “working intensively over the next days and weeks” to achieve agreement.    A no-deal departure on March 29 could create chaos.

    10/18/2018 Investors are buzzing over marijuana stocks by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Investors are buzzing over pot stocks.
        Recreational use of marijuana is now legal in Canada, a move Wall Street pros say is akin to the end of Prohibition in the U.S. back in the 1930s that legalized the sale of beer and booze after a nearly 15-year ban.
        Weed stocks, as a result, have been all the rage this year as investors at home and north of the border look to get in early on the budding but speculative business.    A confluence of factors, ranging from Canada’s legalization, pot’s growing use for medical purposes and major investments from big companies such as Corona brewer Constellation Brands, has shifted investing in pot from the fringe to the mainstream.
        Still, investors in weed stocks were bummed out Wednesday when pot stocks declined.
        Investors are looking to profit in a new market that generated $8.5 billion on legal marijuana in the U.S. last year and which is estimated to grow to $23.4 billion in 2022, according to Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics.
        Investors, however, need to be careful not to get burned out by these upstart investments, whose parabolic rise this year has been compared to the cryptocurrency boom.    Bitcoin, the best known digital currency that climbed as high as $19,501 late last year, has suffered a bust, losing two-thirds of its value this year to $6,496.
        Here are some pot stocks and funds to keep on your radar:
    • Tilray: Shares of Tilray, the Canadian-based company that cultivates and distributes medical cannabis and cannabinoids, have gone on a wild ride.    Since it began trading in July as a public company in the U.S. on the Nasdaq stock exchange, it has gained 771 percent.    But it slumped 4.4 percent Tuesday and fell 6.5 percent Wednesday.
    • Cronos Group: Toronto-based Cronos sells medicinal and recreational weed.    It dubs its pot for recreational use “Spinach.”    Cronos shares are up nearly 40 percent this year.    Shares fell nearly 8 percent Wednesday.
    • Canopy Growth: Canopy Growth is another Canadian company that focuses on the sale of medical cannabis.    Its products, which include oils, soft gel capsules and hemp, treat things such as chronic pain, seizures and nausea.    Its shares are up 114 percent this year.    Shares fell 4.4 percent Wednesday.
    • Aurora Cannabis: Aurora Cannabis, a licensed producer of medicinal marijuana in Canada, saw its shares rally more than 510 percent from its 52-week low in October 2017 to Tuesday’s most recent high.    Still, the stock has given back a big chunk of those gains and is up 41 percent in 2018.
    • ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF: Investors who want to invest in a broad basket of weed-related stocks can do so via the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ).    This exchange traded fund is up 22 percent in 2018. Shares slumped 3 percent Wednesday.
    TED S. WARREN/AP

    10/18/2018 More than 650 Venezuelans flee country on foot each day by OAN Newsroom
        More than 650 people flee Venezuela on foot each day to escape food shortages and rampant hyperinflation.
        According to reports, many refugees begin their journey at one of the hundreds of illegal trails that start along the country’s border with Colombia.
        The trails are used by those who can’t afford bus or plane tickets, and who do not have the proper documentation required to cross the border legally.

    10/18/2018 U.S. weekly jobless claims data bolsters labor market outlook by Lucia Mutikani
    FILE PHOTO: Passersby walk in front of a help wanted sign at a McDonalds restaurant
    in the Brooklyn borough of New York, March 7, 2014. REUTERS/Keith Bedford/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week and the number of Americans on jobless rolls fell back to levels last seen in 1973, suggesting a further tightening in labor market conditions.
        The labor market strength was also underscored by another report on Thursday from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showing manufacturers in the mid-Atlantic region boosting employment and increasing hours for workers in October.
        That, together with a robust economy likely keep the Federal Reserve on course to increase interest rates again in December.    The U.S. central bank raised rates in September for the third time this year and removed the reference to monetary policy remaining “accommodative.”
        “The labor market is tight by any quantitative metric and companies are holding on to labor because of the difficulty of replacing workers,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.
        Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 for the week ended Oct. 13, the Labor Department said.    Claims fell to 202,000 during the week ended Sept. 15, which was the lowest level since November 1969.
        Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 212,000 in the latest week.    The Labor Department said claims for South and North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence, which drenched the region in mid-September.    Claims for Florida were impacted by Hurricane Michael.
        The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 2,000 to 211,750 last week.
        The claims data covered the survey period for the nonfarm payrolls component of October’s employment report.
        While the four-week moving average of claims rose 5,750 between the September and October survey periods, that did not change expectations for a rebound in job growth this month after Florence depressed restaurant and retail payrolls in September.
        “We think that job growth could bounce back in October if the weakness from the September report that was tied to Hurricane Florence reverses,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
        The economy created 134,000 jobs in September, the fewest in a year.    The labor market is viewed as being near or at full employment with the unemployment rate close to a 49-year low of 3.7 percent.    There are a record 7.14 million open jobs.
    SHRINKING UNEMPLOYMENT ROLLS
        Minutes of the Fed’s Sept. 25-26 meeting published on Wednesday showed policymakers “generally agreed that (labor market) conditions continued to strengthen,” and united on the need to raise interest rates further.
        The dollar firmed against a basket of currencies and U.S. Treasury yields rose marginally.    Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower, also weighed down by a raft of weak earnings reports from industrial companies.
        Thursday’s claims report also showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell 13,000 to 1.64 million for the week ended Oct. 6, the lowest level since August 1973.    The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims dipped 1,250 to 1.65 million, also the lowest level since August 1973.
        In a separate report, the Philadelphia Fed said employment at factories in the region – which covers eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware – increased in October.    It said more than 30 percent of responding firms reported increasing payrolls this month.
        The Philadelphia Fed’s employment index rose 2 points to a reading of 19.5 this month and firms also reported increasing hours for workers.    The workweek index jumped to a reading of 20.8 from 14.6 in September.
        The survey’s business conditions index slipped to a reading of 22.2 in October from 22.9 in September amid a drop in new orders.    But firms were upbeat about new orders over the next six months and many expected to increase capital spending in 2019.
        Businesses also reported raising prices for their goods, with the survey’s prices received index rising 4.5 points in October to a reading of 24.1.    Further prices increases are expected over the next six months.
        While more companies reported paying more for raw materials this month, the survey’s prices paid index slipped 1.4 points to a reading of 38.2.    The prices paid index had dropped 15 points in September.    The survey’s findings suggest inflation could push higher over the coming months.
        “Firms’ pricing power is likely to grow and inflation is likely to accelerate,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.
    (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

    In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrants line up for free bread and coffee, donated by a Colombian family from their car,
    at a gas station in Pamplona, Colombia.    Millions have fled Venezuela’s deadly shortages and
    spiraling hyperinflation in an exodus that rivals even the European refugee crisis in numbers. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
        Despite the tough terrain and harsh weather conditions awaiting refugees who flee on foot, many say it’s worth it to escape the failing socialist state.
        “I feel like all Venezuelans are walking, any which way now.    We are leaving the country because we cannot handle this way of life anymore.    We are going hungry, we do not have medicine, and we are dying from illnesses.” — Sandra Cadiz, Venezuelan migrant
        An estimated two million people have fled the Maduro regime in Venezuela over the last four years to seek shelter in countries like Colombia and Ecuador.
        This represents the migration of almost 10-percent of the country’s population

    10/18/2018 Britain’s May and EU voice renewed confidence on Brexit by Elizabeth Piper and Philip Blenkinsop
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May and other EU leaders voiced renewed confidence on Thursday that they could secure a Brexit deal, saying they were working hard to overcome the very same hurdles that only days ago brought the talks to a halt.
        Less than six months before Britain quits the EU in its biggest shift in policy for more than 40 years, the two sides are at odds over how to deal with their only land border, between the British province of Northern Ireland and Ireland.
        The problem centers on a so-called backstop – an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland, a former focal point for sectarian tensions, if a future trading relationship is not in place in time.
        To try to unlock the talks, May had earlier signaled she would consider extending a so-called transition period “for a matter of months” after Britain leaves the EU in March, a move her critics called a betrayal but one which the bloc welcomed.
        Extending the transition period could mean that if a future partnership is not ready, a backstop, which so far has been unpalatable to the British side, would not have to be triggered.    But even an extension would not get rid of the EU’s insistence that such a backstop must be agreed to secure a deal.
        For now, both sides seemed to be happy to kick any solution to that problem a little bit further down the road.br>     “We are all working, we’re intensifying the work on these issues that remain,” May told a news conference after a two-day summit in Brussels had ended.
        “What I’ve had from leaders around the table … since I arrived here in Brussels yesterday is a very real sense that people want that deal to be done.”
        “I am confident that we can achieve that good deal.”
    TRANSITION
        EU leaders also voiced a new optimism after the last summit in the Austrian city of Salzburg ended in acrimony, with May irritated that the EU had criticized her Brexit plans in a particularly damaging way.
        EU Council President Donald Tusk described the mood as being much better than Salzburg.    “What I feel today is that we are closer to the final solutions and the deal,” he told a news conference.
        Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission president, said: “It will be done.”
        But behind the positive noises, one side will have to compromise to find a way to, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “to square the circle” of the Northern Irish border.
        On arriving at the second day of the summit, May said a “further idea” had emerged, an idea to extend the transition phase beyond December 2020 that caused uproar among some Brexit supporters back in Britain.
        May and a senior British government official tried to play down the significance of the consideration of such an extension, saying it had only “come up in negotiations in recent days” and that it was one of several options to help move the talks on – something London desperately wants to see.
        And a French official said any extension would come with conditions attached – it would not be automatic, it would be decided closer to the time and that it would have to be agreed by the leaders of the 27 other EU nations, probably unanimously.
        Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar summed it up by saying big gaps remained between the two sides.
        “A lot of things have been agreed but there are still big gaps both in terms of the shape of the future relationship and also the protocol on Northern Ireland and Ireland and the backstop,” he told reporters.
    (Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Michel Rose, Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and William James, Kylie Maclellan and Andrew MacAskill in London, Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Alison Williams)

    10/18/2018 As tensions mount, Mattis seeks more resilient U.S. ties with China’s military by Phil Stewart
    FILE PHOTO: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks with the media before an enhanced honor cordon arrival of Greek Minister
    of Defense Panagiotis Kammenos at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
        SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counterpart on Thursday that the world’s two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties so as to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict.
        Mattis saw firsthand last month how mounting Sino-U.S. friction can undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for him to travel to China in October to meet Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
        It was retaliation for recent U.S. sanctions, one of a growing number of flashpoints in relations between Washington and Beijing that include a bitter trade war, Taiwan and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.
        Mattis and Wei made no remarks as they shook hands at the start of their talks on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Singapore.    The meeting ended without any public statements.
        Randall Schriver, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said Mattis and Wei largely restated differing views on thorny security disputes but agreed on the need for durable ties.
        “Both acknowledged that the meeting itself was significant and that high-level communication can help,” Schriver said.    “So I think it was productive in that regard.”
        Schriver said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to helping reduce the chances of a devastating conflict.
        “Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interests – we need to make sure that when we step on one another’s toes, it doesn’t escalate into something that would be catastrophic,” Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis.
        Wei has a standing invitation to visit the United States but no date was agreed for his trip, Schriver said.
    MANAGING CRISES
        Military-to-military ties have long been one of the more fragile parts of the overall U.S.-China relationship, with Beijing limiting contacts when tensions run high.    That has been a source of major concern for years among U.S. officials, who fear an accidental collision or mishap could quickly escalate.
        “What we want in terms of stability are regular interactions at senior levels so we have a good understanding of one another’s intentions, that we have confidence-building measures that will help us prevent an unintended accident or incident,” Schriver said.
        “And, should one occur, that we have the ability to manage that, so it doesn’t worsen.”
        China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on its military for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped-up U.S. support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory.
        In a recent reminder of the risks amid rising tensions, the Pentagon this month accused China of an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea that brought a Chinese ship dangerously close to a U.S. Navy destroyer in international waters.
        Mattis, speaking to reporters as he flew to Asia this week, rejected Chinese claims that the United States was acting aggressively and pointed the finger at Beijing.
        “When the Chinese ships are putting bumpers over the side … You don’t do that when you’re out in the middle of the ocean, unless you’re intending to run into something,” Mattis said.
        But tensions between the United States and China have already extended well beyond naval maneuvers and even the bitter trade war.
        U.S. President Donald Trump last month accused China of seeking to meddle in Nov. 6 congressional elections, a charge almost immediately rejected by Beijing.
        Vice President Mike Pence, in what was billed as a major policy address, renewed that and other accusations this month and added that Chinese security agencies had masterminded the “wholesale theft of American technology,” including military blueprints.
        The Pentagon’s top concerns have been China’s rapid military modernization and simultaneous creation of military outposts in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway vital for international trade.    The Pentagon withdrew an invitation to China to a multinational exercise earlier this year in protest.
        China expressed disappointment to Mattis on Thursday over that decision, Schriver said.
        “Minister Wei said that he did hope that there’d be future opportunities.    And if the relationship progresses that way, I’m sure we’ll entertain it,” Schriver said.
        “But we’re not there right now.”
    (Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)

    10/18/2018 Pres. Trump Threatens To Send Military As Migrant Caravan Head For Mexico by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Oct. 11, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump listens to a question during
    a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        President Trump threatens to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border as thousands of Hondurans migrant push through Guatemala.
        The president said he would deploy the U.S. military if Mexico does not stop a caravan of Central America migrants from entering the U.S.
        Many Honduran migrants moved this week with some trying to cross the Mexico border.
        Mexican officials say migrants caught without papers would be deported.
        The incoming president of Mexico says the country’s foreign minister will speak with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, to explore a solution to the caravan issue.

    10/18/2018 Sen. Lindsey Graham supports President Trump’s stance on migrant caravans by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Lindsey Graham is agreeing with President Trump’s decision to put countries on notice for allowing migrant caravans to proceed to America’s southern border.
        In a series of tweets Thursday, the South Carolina Senator said the situation is unacceptable and shows a lack of respect for the U.S.
    Honduran migrants who are traveling to the United States as a group, get a free ride in the back of a trailer truck flatbed,
    as they make their way through Teculutan, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit
    the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump’s threat
    to cut off aid to Central American countries that don’t stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
        He added, the president is right to hold Mexico accountable since they could reduce the flow and stop the caravans if they chose to do so.
        Senator Graham explained he also wants to help stabilize Central and South American nations.
        He ended by saying the caravans are a separate issue than illegals who have lived in the U.S. for years, and should be dealt with as separate and distinct problems.

    10/19/2018 Oil down $1.10 to $68.65, DOW down 327 to 25,379

    10/19/2018 Trump threatens to shut border if Mexico doesn’t stop migrants
        President Donald Trump is lashing out over a caravan of Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S., saying that if Mexico does not stop the effort, he will use the military to “CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER.”    Trump tweeted Thursday that he wanted “Mexico to stop this onslaught.”    He also appeared to threaten a revamped trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

    10/19/2018 California will reconsider life sentences for 3rd-strike inmates
        California will reconsider life sentences for up to 4,000 nonviolent third-strike criminals by allowing them to seek parole under a ballot measure approved by voters two years ago, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday.    Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said that “they would have to go through rigorous public safety screenings and a parole board hearing.”

    10/19/2018 Mystery of journalist straining US-Saudi ties by David Jackson, Deirdre Shesgreen and Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Thursday that it appears Jamal Khashoggi, the missing Saudi journalist and U.S. resident, is dead.
        “It certainly looks that way to me, it’s very sad,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Missoula, Montana, where he will host a campaign rally.
        Trump vowed “very severe” consequences for Saudi Arabia if its government is found responsible for the journalist’s death.    “I mean, it’s bad, bad stuff.”
        The president did not elaborate on what action his administration could take.    He has said he doesn’t want to disrupt the long-standing U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia.
        The Saudi journalist, who wrote critically of the kingdom and royal family for The Washington Post, has been missing since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain paperwork to marry his fiancee.    Turkish officials said he was murdered inside the building, but Saudi officials denied that.
        Before leaving for Montana, Trump said he wanted to wait for the results of Saudi and Turkish investigations before deciding what steps the United States should take.
        Lawmakers suggested a range of actions, from economic sanctions on Saudi Arabia to blocking U.S. weapons sales to the Middle East ally.
        After a whirlwind emergency trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Trump earlier Thursday that the United States needs to give the Saudis “a few more days” to investigate Khashoggi’s fate.
        “We made clear to them that we take this matter very seriously,” Pompeo said after meeting with Trump to brief him on his two-day trip, during which he discussed Khashoggi’s disappearance with top government officials.    “They assured me that they will conduct a complete and thorough investigation.”
        Pompeo did not say whether he believes Khashoggi is dead.
        “There are lots of stories out there about what has happened,” Pompeo said.    “We just are going to allow the process to move forward, allow the facts to unfold.”
        It’s been more than two weeks since Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who obtained U.S. residency last year over fears for his safety, vanished after visiting the consulate in Istanbul.
        Turkish officials claimed there are gruesome audio and video recordings of Khashoggi being beheaded and dismembered within minutes of entering the compound.
        Saudi Arabia called the allegations against it completely “baseless.”
        Pompeo did not say anything about the recordings.    He expressed confidence that the Saudi government would conduct a full and “transparent” investigation.
        In the midst of the diplomatic crisis, Saudi Arabia transferred $100 million to the State Department – a longpromised contribution to help stabilize parts of Syria that were liberated from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
        The donation came as Pompeo landed in Riyadh to meet with Saudi officials.
        A top State Department official involved in securing the funds said there was no connection.
        “We always expected the contribution to be finalized in the fall time frame,” said Dan McGurk, the president’s special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.    “The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretary’s visit.”
    Turkish forensic officers leave the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul after searching it Thursday. EMRAH GUREL/AP
        “I mean, it’s bad, bad stuff.” President Donald Trump Speaking to reporters about Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and suspected death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

    10/19/2018 Pompeo speaks out about migrant caravan, says this is a moment of crisis by OAN Newsroom
        Thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America have breached the Guatemalan border with Mexico and are pushing toward the United States.    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling it a “moment of crisis.”
        The secretary of state met with his Mexican counterpart in Mexico City Friday.    While the pair discussed trade, the topic of the migrant caravan dominated their press conference.
        Pompeo reiterated that President Trump has made it clear there will be military action if that caravan is allowed to pass into the U.S.
        He also said the problem the U.S. faces at the southern border challenges American sovereignty.
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks during a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso , not shown, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, in Mexico City. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Image via AP)
        “We are quickly reaching a point which appears to be a moment of crisis,” stated Pompeo.    “Foreign Secretary Videgray and I spoke about the importance of stopping this flow before it reaches the U.S. border — we are deeply aware that the way Mexico will handle this is your sovereign decision.”
        Meanwhile, Mexico has called on the United Nations to intervene and is asking for humanitarian assistance to address the situation.

    10/19/2018 Mexican government seeking help from UN to process arrival of Honduran migrants by OAN Newsroom
        Mexico is seeking international aid as the country prepares for the arrival of thousands of migrants.    On Thursday, Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray called on the United Nations to assist in processing roughly 3,000 Honduran migrants currently heading to the country from Guatemala.
        To alleviate the crisis the Mexican government will not allow the migrants to enter the country in a group.
        Instead, each person would need to apply for refugee status individually or show a valid passport and visa.
        “For that reason we are soliciting the help and support of the United Nations, so that the determination of the requests for refuge will be done in transparency and with the support of the international community,” stated Videgaray.
    Hundreds of Honduran migrants stand at the shore of the Suchiate river on the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman,
    Guatemala, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Mexico’s foreign ministry says government officials at its southern border with Guatemala
    have started assisting the early arrivals from a caravan of some 3,000 Honduran migrants that has drawn sharp criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump. (AP Photo)
        The Mexican government is also requesting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees establish a series of shelters across the country’s southern border with added help in reviewing legitimate claims for asylum.
        The foreign minister went on to say the country will do everything in its power to respect human rights, but would not hesitate to turn away or deport any individuals who arrive without appropriate papers.
        “I would like to highlight that for the Mexican government it is essential, in the first place, to respect and protect the human rights and the fundamental dignity of all of the migrants, and to do it under the logic of respectful, humanitarian treatment,” said Foreign Minister Videgaray.
        Meanwhile, Mexico Ambassador to the U.S. Geronimo Gutierrez said if a migrant manages to travel through Mexico and then illegally crosses into America, Mexico will allow those individuals to be sent back.
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has welcomed the country’s plan and assures the White House will assist in the efforts.    Pompeo is now expected to travel to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, where the two will reportedly discuss potential solutions to the migrant crisis, narcotics and terrorism.

    10/19/2018 Migrant Caravan Clash With Mexican Police, Break Down Border Fence by OAN Newsroom
    Migrants tired of waiting to cross into Mexico, climb a border bridge fence to jump into the Suchiate River,
    in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. Some of the migrants traveling in a mass caravan
    towards the U.S.-Mexico border organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)
        Thousands of migrants traveling in a caravan toward the U.S. clash with Mexican police, as they break down a border fence.
        A group of migrants breached the Mexico-Guatemala border Friday, according to reports.
        Multiple people rushed through and towards the border bridge, before Mexican police used pepper spray to stop them.
        Despite the chaos, Mexican officials say roughly 100 migrants a day will be allowed into the country to have their asylum requests reviewed.

    10/20/2018 Caravan migrants break through border fence, rush into Mexico
        Central Americans traveling in a mass caravan broke through a Guatemalan border fence and streamed by the thousands toward Mexican territory Friday, defying Mexican authorities’ entreaties for an orderly migration and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliation.
        Waving Honduran flags, the migrants arrived earlier at the Guatemalan side of the muddy Suchiate River, noisily demanding they be let in.
        “One way or another, we will pass,” they chanted, clambering atop U.S.donated military jeeps parked at the scene as Guatemalan police looked on.

    10/20/2018 US and South Korea call off another major military exercise
        The United States and South Korea are scrapping another major military exercise this year, a Pentagon official said Friday, citing a push for diplomatic progress with North Korea.
        Washington and Seoul are suspending an air exercise known as Vigilant Ace “to give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue,” spokesman Dana W. White said.

    10/20/2018 Russian national charged in election conspiracy - St. Petersburg woman accused of role in disinformation effort by Kevin Johnson and David Jackson, USA TODAY
        ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A 44-year-old Russian national was charged Friday as part of a conspiracy to disrupt the U.S. political system, including the looming midterm elections, federal authorities announced Friday.
        A criminal complaint was unsealed here naming Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg, Russia, who allegedly served as chief accountant for the disruption campaign funded by businessman Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
        While the case involves Russian election interference, the charges were not brought by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the ongoing inquiry into election meddling by the Kremlin.
        Nevertheless, Prigozhin was among the 13 Russians indicted earlier this year by Mueller’s team, in connection with a wide-ranging political interference effort involving an internet firm tied to the Kremlin.
        Prigozhin was not charged in Friday’s action, though two of the companies he controlled – Concord Management and Consulting LLC., and Concord Catering — were listed as assisting in the case involving Khusyaynova.    Both of the companies were also charged, along with Prigozhin, in the earlier Mueller indictment.
        Khusyaynova, who is not in U.S. custody, is charged with managing the finances of a $35 million campaign, known as Project Lakhta, that targeted the United States and other countries in an influence operation that funded activists, purchased advertising and promoted postings across social media platforms.
        During the first six months of this year, the campaign’s operating budget totaled more than $10 million, federal authorities said Friday.
        In Arizona as part of a three-day midterm campaign swing, President Donald Trump said the new charges have “nothing to do with my campaign.”
        “All the hackers and everything you see – nothing to do with my campaign,” he said.
        The alleged conspiracy, according to court documents, sought to engage in “information warfare against the United States,” in part by spreading distrust toward candidates for political office.
        Prosecutors said the project involved a number of associates who took “extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were ordinary American political activists.”
        “This included the use of virtual private networks … They used social media platforms to create thousands of social media and email accounts that appeared to be operated by U.S. persons, and used them to create and amplify divisive social and political content targeting U.S. audiences,” the government alleged.    “These accounts also were used to advocate for the election or electoral defeat of particular candidates in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections.    Some social media accounts posted tens of thousands of messages, and had tens of thousands of followers.”
        The Russian campaign allegedly sought to arouse political responses to a range of hot-button issues in the U.S., from immigration and gun rights to race, including National Football League players’ protests during the pregame national anthem.
        The operation sought to exploit the raw emotion related to the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre; last year’s mass shooting in Las Vegas; the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and various fatal police shootings of African-American men.
        “The conspirators’ alleged activities did not exclusively adopt one ideological view; they wrote on topics from varied and sometimes opposing perspectives,” prosecutors asserted.
        Included in that effort, according to court documents, operatives called for assailing the records of Trump opponent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who died in August, and Mueller, claiming that the continuing Russia investigation is “damaging to the country.”
    Robert Mueller’s team indicted a man earlier this year with ties to the woman charged Friday. AP

    10/20/2018 Pres. Trump: Migrant Groups Heading to U.S. are not ‘Little Angels’ by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump ramps up the pressure to halt the migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. border.
        During a press briefing in Arizona on Friday, the President reminded reporters the groups are not “little angels” but rather “hardened criminals.”
    President Donald Trump talks to a pilot in the cockpit of an F-35 aircraft during a Defense Capability Tour
    at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        President Trump recently pushed Guatemala and Mexico to strengthen their borders in an effort to stop the migrants from entering the U.S., but said those efforts failed.
        This comes amid reports Honduran officials are sending authorities to their border in an effort to repatriate the group of migrants.
        Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents in Arizona are overwhelmed as large groups of Central American migrants continue to arrive at the southern border ahead of the migrant caravan.
        Hundreds of people, who are waiting for court dates, are being released as border officials say they don’t have the capacity to hold all of the migrant families.
        According to reports, more than 1,400 migrants have been left behind by smugglers in the desert across the Arizona-Mexico border.
        In response, Republican Senator Jon Kyl has asked the Department of Homeland Security to help find ways to deal with the wave of migrants in the region.
        President Trump has threatened to halt aid to Central American countries if they don’t do something to stop the caravan.

    10/20/2018 DHS Under Secretary: China, Iran, Russia Risks to Cyber Security in Midterm Elections by OAN Newsroom
        U.S. national security agencies are sounding the alarm amid ongoing cyberattacks from oversees in the run-up to the midterm elections.
        On Friday, DHS under Secretary Chris Krebs says he sees “continued and persistent attempts” by China, Iran, and Russia to use social media to meddle in the U.S. elections.
    A view of a business center building known as the so-called “troll factory’s” new office in St. Petersburg, Russia,
    Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018. The troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, is one of a web of companies allegedly controlled
    by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has reported ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
        According to Krebs, so far there hasn’t been a breach like the 2016 Presidential election, but he’s not ruling out the possibility.
        This comes after the President slammed China for attempting to meddle in the midterms, after it was revealed the Chinese government placed an ad containing anti-Trump propaganda in an Iowa newspaper.

    10/20/2018 Hundreds of thousands take to streets in London demanding second Brexit vote by Andrew MacAskill and Amanda Ferguson
    FILE PHOTO: A European Union flag is held in front of the Big Ben clock tower in Parliament Square
    during a 'March for Europe' demonstration against Britain's decision to leave the European Union,
    central London, Britain July 2, 2016. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/Files
        LONDON/BELFAST (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of supporters of the European Union marched through London on Saturday in the biggest demonstration so far to demand that the British government holds a public vote on the terms of Brexit.
        The protesters waved the blue and gold flag of the EU and held up “Bollocks to Brexit” banners under sunny skies to call for another referendum on the eventual deal on how Britain will leave the world’s biggest trading bloc.
        The march comes after another tumultuous week for Prime Minister Theresa May in which she failed to agree a divorce deal with EU leaders in Brussels and infuriated members of her own party by making further concessions in the talks.
        With just over five months until Britain is due to leave there is no clarity about what a future trade deal with the EU will look like and some rebels in May’s Conservative Party have threatened to vote down a deal if she clinches one.
        James McGrory, one of the organizers of the march, said voters should have the chance to change their minds because the decision will impact their lives for generations.
        “People think the Brexit negotiations are a total mess, they have no faith in the government to deliver the promises that were made, partly because they cannot be delivered,” he said.
        At the march, demonstrators carried placards saying “Brexit is pants,” “Time for an EU turn” and “European and proud.”
        Organizers said about 700,000 people took part in the march, which would make it the largest in Britain since a demonstration against the Iraq war in 2003.
        The “People’s Vote” campaign, which includes several pro-EU groups, said they had stewards stationed at regular intervals to estimate the size of the crowd.    The police did not provide an independent estimate of numbers participating.
        Protesters originally gathered near Hyde Park and then walked past Downing Street and finished outside parliament where they listened to politicians from all main political parties.
    BREXIT REVERSED?
        Britain’s 2016 referendum saw 52 percent vote in favor of leaving the European Union.    But the past two years have been politically fraught as the government has struggled to agree on a plan and there are fears that Britain could leave the bloc without a deal.
        Some opinion polls have shown a slight shift in favor of remaining in the European Union, but there has yet to be a decisive change in attitudes and many in Britain say they have become increasingly bored by Brexit.
        The prime minister has repeatedly ruled out holding a second referendum.    The opposition Labour party’s Brexit spokesman said last month his party open to a second referendum with the option of staying in the bloc in certain circumstances.
        In Belfast in Northern Ireland, around 2,000 people gathered on Saturday to oppose Brexit.
        Brendan Heading, a 39-year-old IT worker, said he was worried the decision to leave the EU would damage the economy and could lead to the break up of the United Kingdom.
        “I feel that Brexit threatens prosperity and stability,” he said.    “People should have the opportunity to vote for an alternative based on what we now know.”
        Brexit supporters held their own rally in the town of Harrogate in the north of England.
        Richard Tice, Vice-Chairman of Leave Means Leave and one of the speakers at the event, described the people on the march in London as “losers” and said a second referendum would trigger a constitutional crisis.
        “We had a vote, we voted to leave, the idea to have a second referendum would be incredibly damaging,” he said.
        “People need to be under no illusions as to how people feel about what is a significant potential for a total betrayal of democracy in this country.”
    (Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Ros Russell, Richard Balmforth)

    10/20/2018 U.S.-bound migrant caravan stuck on Guatemalan border with Mexico by Delphine Schrank
    Honduran migrants, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., rest on the bridge that connects
    Mexico and Guatemala in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, October 19, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
        TECUN UMAN, Guatemala (Reuters) – Hundreds of Central Americans in a U.S.-bound migrant caravan were stuck on Guatemala’s border with Mexico on Saturday as efforts began, under pressure from Washington, to send some home and stop their journey northward.
        Many of the migrants, the overwhelming majority fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras, had slept through heavy rain overnight on a bridge connecting Guatemala to Mexico, as dozens crammed against a metal border gate guarded by Mexican police.
        In the early morning hours, Guatemalan police said they had transported 62 Hondurans in two buses, among the first such efforts to remove migrants from the tense border crossing on the Suchiate River.
        For days U.S. President Donald Trump has warned the Central American caravan must be stopped.    He has made it a political issue in the Nov. 6 midterm U.S. congressional election, threatened to cut off regional aid, close the U.S.-Mexico border and deploy troops there if Mexico failed to halt the migrants.
        Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was due to meet his Guatemalan counterpart Jimmy Morales in the Guatemalan capital on Saturday for talks on implementing a strategy for returning the Honduran migrants.
        Organizers said the caravan included around 4,000 migrants on Friday but there has been no official estimate of the sprawling number of men, women and children traveling north on foot and in vehicles.
        “The (U.S.) tone is one of worry and they told us that we should act like allies,” a senior aide to Guatemala’s president told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly.
        “It’s really a very delicate situation because this could generate more caravans,” he said.
        On Friday, hundreds of migrants at the head of the caravan had poured through Guatemalan border posts and onto the bridge, but were repelled by dozens of shield-bearing Mexican police. Several complained they had been teargassed.
        Drained from days of walking and frustrated, many spent the night in the open. Some stretched towels and garbage bags along the bridge walls, others lay down on backpacks, while a man applied lotion to his tired feet.
        Mexico’s government, which says it will process migrants’ claims for asylum individually, vowed to tackle the caravan as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met top officials in Mexico City.    Pompeo urged Mexico to ensure the procession did not reach the United States.
        Most of the migrants Reuters spoke to said their ultimate destination was the United States.    Some said they hoped to stay in Mexico, but they had no idea how to get the documentation needed to do so.
        Still, many were determined to try.
        “No, I’ll fight.    I’ll try again,” said Honduran Hilda Rosa as her four teenage children sat upright, beaming as she pumped the air with her fist.
        The native of Tegucigalpa told a familiar tale when asked why she had left Honduras: “You know why: no work, violence.”
    SOME TURNING BACK
        Most of the people now caught trying to enter the United States illegally hail from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, among the poorest and most violent countries in the Americas.
        The caravan members ranged from farmers and bakers to housewives and students, and included a whole block of friends and family from the Honduran city of El Progreso, some of whom said they would start going back to where they came from on Saturday.
        Jose Ramon Rodriguez, 45, a construction worker from El Progreso, sat on the Guatemalan end of the bridge late on Friday with his head hanging low, his 9-year-old son tucked against him.
        “Tomorrow we go home,” he said.    His companions nodded.
        Among them was Osman Melgar, who nursed a bleeding gash on his shin, suffered when he fell as dozens of people packed on the bridge began fleeing when police, according to several eyewitnesses, used tear gas.
        Some, including 40-year-old Adriana Consuelo, went under the bridge, paying craftsmen 25 pesos ($1.30) to ferry them across the river on vessels made of giant rubber tires.
        After making it to the muddy banks of Mexico, she said, “No one checked my documents,” as Consuelo headed to a taco restaurant.
        But Mexico had stepped up its efforts to stop the flow of people, migration experts said.
        “Every time there’s a (migrant) caravan there are police sent to the southern border … but we’ve never seen anything as dramatic as we’re seeing today,” said Eunice Rendon, coordinator of migrant advocacy group Agenda Migrante.
        “This has everything to do with Trump,” she added.
    (Reporting by Delphine Schrank; Additional reporting by Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Editing by Dave Graham, Simon Cameron-Moore and Tom Brown)

        THE FOLLOWING FILES ARE RECENT ARTICLES ABOUT THE FISA CORRUPTION FROM DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO HELP HILLARY CLINTON BY DIGGING UP FALSE ACCUSATIONS OF TRUMP CORRUPTION THAT WAS NEVER VERIFIED BY THE FBI OR ANYTHING FOUND AND WAS CREATED BY THE PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST TO AID IN KEEPING IN POWER BUT IT BACKFIRED AS THE DEPLORABLES VOTED TRUMP AS PRESIDENT.

    9/7/2018 House Freedom Caucus Members Push for Carter Page, Ohr Docs by OAN Newsroom
        GOP members of Congress call on President Trump to declassify and release all documents regarding Bruce Ohr’s interviews with the FBI as well as the Carter Page FISA applications.    Lawmakers feel the Department of Justice may have broken protocol in their investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged dealings with Russia.
        One America’s Patrick Hussion spoke with Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz about the call to make the documents public.

    9/10/2018 President Trump to Declassify Page Docs, Release Investigative Activities of Bruce Ohr by OAN Newsroom
        A new report says President Trump is prepared to declassify key documents, shedding light on the origins of the special counsel’s investigation.    One America’s Alex Salvi takes a look at the fight over Carter Page’s FISA warrant.

    9/24/2018 CIA Director Gina Haspel vows efficiency, accountability of agency’s work by OAN Newsroom
        CIA Director Gina Haspel delivered her first public address in office, where she discussed threats to U.S. national security.
        In a speech at the University of Louisville early Monday, Haspel said her main focus is threats posed by hostile nation states rather than terror groups.
        Haspel said the CIA is working closely with U.S. allies to identify emerging threats and fill the gaps in CIA intelligence gathering.
        She also reaffirmed her commitment to eradicating political biases at the CIA, which some Republicans say thrived under the agency’s previous chief — John Brennan.

    10/13/2018 House Judiciary CMTE Chair Goodlatte may subpoena Deputy AG Rosenstein in near future by OAN Newsroom
        House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte announces he will subpoena Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, if he doesn’t agree to come before the panel very soon.
    Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s district has long been a safe seat for Republicans. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
        Goodlatte made the remark in an interview Saturday, saying it is essential that the committee speaks with him.
        He added, the panel has been looking to talk to Rosenstein, since the release of the New York Times report alleging he secretly talked about recording President Trump.
        Goodlatte went on to say, lawmakers want to question the official on other issues, such as his approval of FISA warrants using possibly illicit sources.

    CIA Director Gina Haspel addresses the audience as part of the McConnell Center Distinguished Speaker Series
    at the University of Louisville, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
        “Our work requires secrecy, and secrecy in turn requires a profound degree of trust from the American people,” stated the CIA director.    “That’s why our agency abides by and embraces an oversight structure that includes the congressional intelligence committees, the FISA court, and our own independent inspector general.”
        Haspel also highlighted her commitment to keeping the CIA accountable to the American people by ensuring transparency and full compliance with congressional oversight.

    10/8/2018 Rep. Nunes: FBI lawyer’s testimony is proof of FISA abuse, anti-Trump bias by OAN Newsroom
        House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is pointing to new evidence of political bias at the Obama-era FBI.
        On Sunday, Nunes said testimony from former FBI lawyer James Baker revealed the bureau failed to inform the FISA court of Democrat interests in the Russia probe.
        According to Baker, nobody at the FBI or Department of Justice was aware the Democratic Party and Clintons financed the Trump dossier.
        Nunes stressed the Democrats fed false information to the FBI.
    FILE photo – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., pauses while meeting with reporters
    outside the White House in Washington following a meeting with President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
        Meanwhile, his fellow Republican Mark Meadows of the Freedom Caucus said Baker’s testimony shed light on Democrat biases at the Obama-era FBI.
        “There is strong suggestions in some of the text messages, emails and so forth, who was involved that extraordinary measures were used to surveil,” stated Meadows.    "There was a suggestion there was as many as five different people that perhaps came under the surveillance of the DOJ and FBI in the early days of the Trump transition.”
        For his part, Nunes pointed out the FBI’s application for a warrant to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign amounts to the abuse of FISA authority.

    As seen on this site: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/fisa-scandal-clinton-obama-corruption-lawbreaking-whats-next-prosecution/
    2/13/2018 Scandal, Corruption, Lawbreaking — And So What? by Victor Davis Hanson
        What is the endgame to never-ending wrongdoing?
        The FISA-gate, Clinton emails, and Uranium One scandals are sort of reaching a consensus.    Many things quite wrong and illegal were done by both Hillary Clinton and her entourage and members of the Obama agencies and administration — both the acts themselves and the cover-ups and omissions that ensued.
        Remember, in the FISA-gate scandal such likely widespread criminal behavior was predicated on two premises: 1) certainty of an easy Clinton victory, after which the miscreants would be not only excused but probably rewarded for their zeal; 2) progressive hubris in which our supposedly moral betters felt it their right, indeed their duty, to use unethical and even unlawful means for the “greater good” — to achieve their self-described moral ends of stopping the crude and reactionary Trump.
        The wrongdoing probably includes attempting to warp a U.S. election, Russian collusion, repeatedly misleading and lying before the FISA courts, improperly surveilling American citizens, unmasking the names of citizens swept up in unlawful surveillance and then illegally leaking them to the press, disseminating and authenticating opposition smears during a political campaign, lying under oath to Congress, obstructing ongoing investigations, using federal funds to purchase ad hominem gossip against a presidential candidate, blatant conflicts of interests, weaponizing federal investigations, trafficking in and leaking classified information . . . The list goes on and on.
        The State Department is now involved.    Apparently anyone who was a former Clinton smear artist can pass fantasies to a sympathetic or known political appointee at State.    And if the “dossier” fits the proper narrative and shared agenda, it gains credence enough to ensure that it is passed up to senior State officials and on to the FBI.    Perhaps a private citizen with a grudge against a rival should try that as well.
        These scandals will grow even greater before various congressional investigations expire.
        But then what?
        In some sense, we are in uncharted territory — given the misadventure of appointing Robert Mueller as special counsel.    His team is now replaying the role of Patrick Fitzgerald in the Scooter Libby case: investigating a crime that did not exist and that even if it did was committed by someone else.
        The Mueller team’s likely parachute will have little if anything to do with the Russian collusion that it originally and chiefly was appointed to investigate.    Instead, it’s likely to settle for perjury and obstruction charges against peripheral Trump officials (if the cases are not thrown out by possible reliance on tainted FISA transcripts).
        The indictments may gain a little traction if they are timed to be released before the midterm elections, hyped in the mainstream media, and calibrated to be tried before liberal D.C. juries.    The investigation may seek some redemption or justification if it criminalizes the secretly taped bombast of a Trump family member, catching him in some sort of perjury trap or business misdeed.
        Yet Mueller’s appointment makes resolution of FISA-gate and its associated scandals more difficult to resolve.    His value for the Left is not in what he will find but that his mere presence will become an argument ipso facto for never again appointing anyone like him.    After all, has the U.S. government ever had two special counsels working at cross-purposes, each investigating one of the two candidates in the prior presidential election?
        Once a special counsel is appointed, can he be superseded by a really special or special-special counsel, an attorney who might have to investigate the other special counsel (who was in charge of the botched Clinton Uranium One scandal, who was appointed through a clear and constructed conflict of interest, and whose own team is largely composed of proud partisans and campaign donors, and who may have been involved in using poisoned FISA surveillance data to leverage confessions or indictments)?
        It is unlikely that Rod Rosenstein will demand to see whether Mueller, after almost nine months, has actually found much evidence of collusion.    Nor is Rosenstein apt to order Mueller to cease a mostly dead-end investigation and redirect it along a freeway of Clinton-Obama-connected collusion, obstruction, and fraud.    (Read the Page-Strzok text archive to see why the present weaponized bureaucratic culture in D.C. is utterly incapable of disinterested inquiry.)
        Still, Democrats at some point will see that what they thought was the formerly defensible is now becoming absolutely indefensible.    Adam Schiff, after months of leaking, making grandiose false statements on cable TV, and getting punked by Russian comedians, is now a caricature.    He became the sad legislative bookend to the neurotic James Comey.    Schiff will probably soon be forced to pivot back to his former incarnation as a loud critic of FISA-court abuse.
        Those who still persist in denying the extent of clear wrongdoing will suffer the tragicomic fate of Watergate-era Representative Charles Sandman (an authentic World War II hero) and Rabbi Baruch Korff (who as a child fled Ukrainian pogroms).    The last diehard supporters of Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment, they both ended up widely discredited because of their political inability or personal unwillingness to see what was right before their eyes.
        After all, professed civil libertarians, hard-hitting investigative reporters, and skeptics of nontransparent and overreaching federal agencies are now insidiously defending not the just the indefensible, but what they have claimed to have fought against their entire lives.    Woodward and Bernstein in their sunset years have missed the far greater scandal and in their dotage will likely nullify what they once did in their salad days.
        If the economy keeps improving, if Trump’s popularity nears 50 percent, and if polls show the midterm elections still tightening, we should see the politics of Democratic equivocation sooner rather than later.
        So what would be their terms to call it all off?
        I think the Democratic fallback position will be to point to the career carnage at the FBI and DOJ as punishment enough.
        Director Comey was fired.    Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was forcibly retired.    FBI lawyer Lisa Page was reassigned and demoted.    FBI general counsel James Baker resigned.    Senior agent Peter Strzok was reassigned and demoted.    The former FBI director’s chief of staff, James Rybicki, resigned.    Mike Kortan, FBI assistant director for public affairs, took retirement.
        Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr was reassigned and demoted.    Justice Department’s counterintelligence head, David Laufman, resigned.    A cadre of others “unexpectedly” have left, allegedly (or conveniently) for private-sector jobs.    Such career implosions do not happen without cause.
        And if that is not enough, Democrats may further tsk-tsk that if there were perhaps zealotry and excesses, they were in the distant past.    An out-of-office Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Samantha Power, James Clapper, John Brennan — and Barack Obama — may have stepped over the line a bit in matters of surveillance, unmasking, and leaking.    But do we really wish to go back and put another administration on trial, politicizing governmental transitions?
        And if that is not enough, Democrats will also shrug that the collusion mess was analogous to another Republican Benghazi hearing: lots of embarrassing smoke of “what difference does it make” admissions, but little fire in proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the main players engaged in prosecutable crimes.
        And if that is still not enough, Democrats in extremis may concede that Mueller could retire with his minor scalps, and both sides then could call it quits, even-steven.    Who knows, perhaps they will say that Christopher Steele had a history with Russian oligarchs and was using his paymaster Hillary Clinton as well as being used by her?
        Accepting any of these obfuscations would be a grave mistake.
        Despite a nonstop media assault on Trump’s administration, Representative Devin Nunes, and the congressional investigative committees, more than 50 percent of the public already believes that the Trump campaign was illegally surveilled and smeared through the confluence of the Clinton campaign, the Obama administration, and the FBI.
        Voters would only grow more cynical if some Americans were allowed to abuse constitutionally protected civil liberties, and to lie to the Congress, the FBI, and the courts, while the less connected others go to jail for much less.    Without a judicial accounting, it will be impossible to clean up the hierarchies of the FBI and the DOJ.
        Indeed, absent accountability and punishment, the new modus operandi would be for any lame-duck incumbent administration to use federal agencies to enhance the campaign of its own party’s nominee.    It would be only logical to conclude that criminal acts used to help a successor would be forgotten or rewarded under the victor’s tenure.
        Voters would only grow more cynical if some Americans were allowed to abuse constitutionally protected civil liberties, and to lie to the Congress, the FBI, and the courts, while the less connected others go to jail for much less.
        What is needed?
        Attorney General Sessions must find muscular, ambitious, and combative prosecutors (preferably from outside Washington, D.C., and preferably existing federal attorneys), direct them to call a Grand Jury, and begin collating information from congressional investigations to get to the bottom of what is likely one of gravest scandals in post-war American history: the effort to use the federal government to thwart the candidacy of an unpopular presidential candidate and then to smear and ruin his early tenure as president.
        Only another prosecutorial investigation, one way or another, will lead to resolution, take the entire mess out of the partisan arena, and keep the anemic Mueller investigation honest — with the full knowledge that if its own investigators have violated laws or used tainted evidence or in the past obstructed justice, then they too will be held to account.
    10/21/2018 Marchers clog streets of London to demand new Brexit vote
        Hundreds of thousands of protesters opposed to Britain’s impending exit from the European Union marched through central London on Saturday, demanding a new referendum and to have a say on the government’s final Brexit deal with the EU.
        Organizers say another public vote is needed because new facts have come out about the costs and complexity of Britain’s exit from the bloc since voters chose to leave in 2016.    They estimated some 700,000 people took part in the march Saturday.

        SHOULD WE IMMEDIATELY ASSUME HE IS A SEXUAL ASSAULTER AS THE DEMOCRATS DID TO KAVANAUGH OR IS HE DEFINETELY GUILTY BEFORE HE CAN PROVE HIMSELF INNOCENT OR DO WE ACT CIVIL!    SHOULD HE BE ASKED TO STEP DOWN AS A SENATOR?
        I NOTICED THAT THE FOLOWING NEWS WAS NOT ALL OVER THE REGULAR TV NEWS YESTERDAY AND WAS NOT APPARENTLY TODAY EITHER, WHICH SHOWS YOU THE BIAS FROM THE NEWS OUTLETS TO PROTECT A FUTURE DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT    .

    10/21/2018 Democrat New Jersey Senator Cory Booker Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Man by OAN Newsroom
        Democrat New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is now being accused of sexual assault by a man.
        On Saturday, an anonymous man released a detailed four page document on Twitter, claiming the incident happened when Booker visited his workplace back in 2014.
    Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks to a crowd at a Get Out the Vote Rally at the
    RiverCenter in Davenport, Iowa, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (Andy Abeyta/Quad City Times via AP)
        He claims Booker followed him to the bathroom, touched him inappropriately, and approached him for oral sex.
        The man says he reached out to two lawyers earlier this month disclosing his name, date, location, corroborating evidence, and two possible hearsay witnesses.
        The reported victim also said watching Booker’s defense of alleged sexual assault victims was “laughably ironic, jarringly cringe-worthy, and triggering” leading him to speak out.
        Booker who has admitted to sexual assault back in 1992, has yet to respond to the allegations.

    10/21/2018 Honduran Migrants from Caravan Begin Entering Mexico via Rafting, Swimming by OAN Newsroom
        Migrants from the caravan headed towards the U.S. border are beginning to enter into Mexico while many remain in Guatemala.
        On Saturday, reports say migrants primarily from Honduras, crossed into Mexico by swimming or using rafts.
    Central American migrants walking to the U.S. start their day departing Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018.
    Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border, about 5,000 Central American migrants resumed their advance
    toward the U.S. border early Sunday in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
        Reports also claim immigrants paid people to transport them across the river using giant rubber tires.
        This comes after the caravan clashed with Mexican police on Friday forcing them onto a bridge.
        Many have slept on the bridge overnight guarded by Mexican authorities.
        Officials say it’s difficult to track the migrants since many of them are dispersed to various locations.
        President Trump has threatened to cut-off aid and deploy troops if Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras fail to stop the caravan before reaching the U.S. border.

    10/21/2018 Brazil’s Bolsonaro says he intends to use armed forces to fight violence by Maria Carolina Marcello
    A supporter of Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL),
    attends a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes
        SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s leading presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Sunday that, if he is elected, he intends to use the armed forces for routine street patrols, describing the country as “at war.”
        The far-right lawmaker and former army captain said in an interview with Band TV that he would discuss the idea with his proposed defense minister and state governments, which are responsible for public safety.
        “If Congress grants permission, I would put armed forces in the streets,” Bolsonaro said.
        A 63-year-old, seven-term congressman who openly defends Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, Bolsonaro is widely expected to win the presidency this month.    Opinion polls show him leading his leftist rival Fernando Haddad by 18 percentage points just a week ahead of the Oct. 28 second-round vote.
        Scrambling to make up the difference, Haddad on Sunday pledged to increase benefits paid under Brazil’s top social assistance program, known as Bolsa Família, by 20 percent.
        Bolsonaro, a polarizing candidate who has been charged with hate speech for his comments regarding gays, blacks and women, has pitched himself as the anti-establishment choice, appealing to voters fed up with political corruption and violent crime.
        In August 2017, a year after Rio de Janeiro hosted the Olympic Games, the federal government dispatched 8,500 soldiers to quell violent crime in the city.    But military officials said from the outset that they would not be the ones to resolve issues underpinning the urban violence.
        On Sunday thousands of supporters took part in rallies for Bolsonaro in Brazil’s major cities, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.
        That followed women-led protests against him on Saturday, for the second time in a month.
    (Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello, Writing by Carolina Mandl, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

    10/21/2018 Italy expects EU budget rejection on Tuesday: source by Giuseppe Fonte and Valentina Za
    Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio speaks at the 5-Star Movement party's open-air rally
    at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy, October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi
        MILAN (Reuters) – The Italian government expects the European Commission to decide for the first time ever on Tuesday to ask a member state to revise its draft budget, a government source said on Sunday.
        The Commission has slammed as an unprecedented breach of EU fiscal rules Italy’s 2019 budget plan, which aims to lift the deficit to 2.4 percent of domestic output next year from 1.8 percent in 2018.
        Since receiving beefed-up powers in 2013 over member states’ budgetary plans, the Commission has never asked a country to submit a revised budget.
        Italy’s 2.3 trillion euro ($2.65 trillion) public debt, one of the world’s largest, makes the country vulnerable and a potential source of contagion for other euro zone countries.
        Investors have shed 67 billion euros in Italian bonds since a populist government formed in May, sending the risk premium Italy pays over safer German paper to a 5-1/2 year high of 3.4 percentage points.
        The source said Economy Minister Giovanni Tria and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had unsuccessfully pushed for a reduction of the 2019 deficit target at a cabinet meeting on Saturday.
        The source did not rule out an agreement to lower the deficit goal could be found during a three-week period of negotiations with Brussels that will follow the rejection.
        Though the decision was expected on Tuesday, the source said it may not be announced on the same day.
        Asked for comment, a Commission spokesman said that the Commission had expressed its “serious concerns” over the draft budget to the Italian authorities, seeking clarifications by noon on Monday to facilitate an assessment.
        Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the government was working on the letter it would send to the Commission on Monday, adding he expected a speedy reaction.
        Di Maio, who leads the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, told RAI state television he hoped the explanations Rome would provide “over a long discussion process … could lead the Commission to share the goals we have set.”
        After riding popular anger at the austerity measures Italy adopted in response to the euro zone crisis of 2011-2012, Italy’s ruling coalition, also comprising the far-right League, wants to lower the retirement age and provide a basic income for the poor.
        On Friday, credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Italy’s debt to one notch above junk status citing concerns over the government’s budget plans.
    NO PLAN B
        Di Maio said he hoped the Commission would take into account Italy’s strengths such as the private sector’s low debt and high household wealth, which Moody’s cited among reasons supporting a ‘stable’ outlook on the rating.
        He joined other government members in efforts to dispel concerns about Italy’s euro membership.
        “We understood from conversations with people from the ECB (European Central Bank) and the markets, meaning investors, that the (bond yield spread) jumped because there is a concern that this government wants to leave the euro or the European Union,” Di Maio said.
        “I want to say it here, and there will be other solemn occasions to reiterate it as a government and a political party, … there is no Plan B (to leave Europe) but only Plan A which is to change Europe,” Di Maio said.
        “As long as I’m head of this movement and a minister of this government I’ll always guarantee that Italy remains within the euro and in Europe,” he added.
        The ECB declined to comment on Di Maio’s remark about conversations with people from the central bank.
        Di Maio said Italy had a chance to prove public debt could be reduced by “investing in social rights” and trigger important changes across Europe.
        He said the 5-Star, founded by comedian Beppe Grillo, was working to present in January-February a program that brought together similar grassroots movements from other European countries with the goal to back a heart and humanity to European institutions.” ($1 = 0.8686 euros)
    ($1 = 0.8686 euros)
    (Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Brussels, Editing by Adrian Croft)

    10/22/2018 ‘No one will stop us, only God’: Migrant caravan bound for US swells by John Bacon, USA TODAY
        A caravan of Central American migrants marching into Mexico bound for the United States grew to more than 5,000 people Sunday despite threats from President Donald Trump to use the military to seal the border.
        The throng, many from Honduras, streamed across a bridge over the Suchiate River connecting Guatemala with Mexico.
        More than 5,100 migrants have registered in three shelters in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Hidalgo, Gerardo Hernandez, head of the local government’s emergency services, told Reuters.    He said up to 2,000 more were camped out in the central square.
        “You can’t even walk, there’s just so many people,” he said.    “So far, they’re all peaceful, thank God.”
        Many of the migrants cited poverty, corruption and gang violence in Honduras for their flight.    Mexico had been trying to slowly process asylum requests in small groups, in some cases providing 45-day visitor permits.    But thousands of the migrants grew impatient, circumventing the bureaucracy and crossing on makeshift rafts or just swimming into Mexico undeterred by border authorities.    They were cheered on by crowds on the Mexican side who shouted, “Venganse!” – “come on in!”
        The Mexican government has warned caravan participants “of grave risks” they could face from human trafficking networks if they illegally enter Mexico. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Sunday that the United States was closely monitoring the caravan’s advance.
        “We must remain mindful of the transnational criminal organizations and other criminals that prey on the vulnerabilities of those undertaking the irregular migration journey,” she said in a statement.
        Nielsen said the United States was working with “our partners in the region” to investigate and prosecute anyone making a profit from the migration.
        But the crowd was large and the mood mostly ecstatic Sunday.    Olivin Castellanos, 58, a truck driver and mason from Villanueva, Honduras, said he took a raft into Mexico.    He hopes to work in construction in the U.S.
        “No one will stop us, only God,” he said.    “We knocked down the door and we continue walking.”
    Contributing: Associated Press
    Central American migrants walking to the U.S. depart Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico,
    on Sunday as they make their way north. MOISES CASTILLO/AP

    10/22/2018 Take Five: World markets themes for the week ahead
    FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York,
    U.S., October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
        (Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
    • 1/SEVEN DEADLY…
          The real possibility of the yuan weakening to the 7-per-dollar mark last seen in 2008, hangs over China, emerging markets and global equities.    The thinking so far has been that the risk of capital outflows, along the lines of what happened in 2016, would dissuade Beijing from allowing such a slide in the currency.    But more recently, weak benchmark yuan/dollar fixings, a drop in the trade-weighted yuan index to below 2017 lows, and a flurry of comments and measures from policymakers reveal both a sense of panic and determination to prop up the economy.
          With third-quarter economic growth slowing to crisis-era lows, no let-up in Washington’s trade rhetoric and a stock market that’s lost 28 percent since February, China has been forced to ease monetary conditions and is cajoling banks to lend to small firms.    It has just announced tax cuts that could reach one percent of GDP next year.
          A weaker yuan would complement those efforts.    Yet a 7-per-dollar yuan would erode faith in the China’s stability and provoke more U.S. ire.    And coming on top of rising U.S. yields, Brexit and Italian politics, it would add another layer of worry to world markets.
          Lost in transmission: China’s small firms get more loans on paper but not in reality –
          China central bank chief says plenty of room for monetary adjustments amid trade row –
          China’s tax cuts next year expected to reach 1 pct of GDP
          China’s policymakers pledge market support – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OyNcCL
    • 2/EUROPE’S TROUBLE AND STRIFE
          Stock market turmoil, conflict over a contentious Italian budget, high oil prices, sputtering economic growth — not quite the backdrop a central bank wants to see three months before its it ends its stimulus program.
          But that is exactly what the European Central Bank faces when it meets on Thursday.    For now, the heightened risks to the growth outlook are not expected to derail its plans to end QE by year-end, but the bank could downgrade the growth risk assessment in its policy statement.
          That would be a dovish signal and one likely to cheer euro zone bond markets which have been guided already to not expect a rise in the ECB’s record low rates until well into 2019. No wonder then, that the gap between short-dated bond yields in the United States and Germany are at their widest in 30 years, while 10-year euro area bond yields (with the exception of Italy) have been largely insulated from the recent spike U.S. Treasury yields.
          Merkel calls for stable euro zone budgets in warning shot to Italy
          Trade dispute, Brexit angst weigh on German investor morale
          ECB should keep policy options open regardless of Fed
          The ECB’s QE program – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OvmDhU
    • 3/HOME RUN
          The U.S. housing market, the store of much of Americans’ wealth, has taken a leg down of late, against the backdrop of the Federal Reserve’s signals of another rate hike this year and more in 2019.    With rising borrowing costs and prices outstripping wage growth, the market has been a weak spot in the robust economy.    So new homes sales data, due on Oct. 24, will be closely scrutinized.
          U.S. homebuilding dropped more than expected in September, while mortgage activity was knocked in the latest week to its lowest since 2014.    The housing market has also been hobbled by an acute shortage of properties for sale and higher home prices.    Residential investment contracted in the first half of the year and the latest data supports economists’ expectations that housing remained a drag on economic growth in the third quarter.
          U.S. house prices to rise more than 6 percent this year, then slow
          U.S. new home sales rebound, but trend weakening
          U.S. housing market continues to sputter – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OuB4To
    • 4/APPROACHING JUNK
          Moody’s has just cut Italy’s credit rating to within a notch of ‘junk’ — the sub-investment grade category below BBB-/Baa1 which is usually populated by the weaker emerging economies.    On Friday, S&P Global is likely to do the same, premising the move on Italian plans to boost spending to boost growth and the impact on a debt ratio that’s already one of the world’s worst.
          But Italy’s debt is trading with yields that suggest investors are pricing it as junk already.    So the bigger risk than a one-notch ratings downgrade has been that one or both of the agencies set the outlook on Italy’s rating to Negative, instead of Stable.    That would suggest a fall into junk is a real possibility in the near future.
          Loss of investment grade carries a high cost — hundreds of billions of euros in fund flows and possibly even a fresh euro zone crisis.
          Luckily for Italy, Moody’s has held off doing that, maintaining a steady outlook on the credit and providing a boost to bonds and stocks.    Many will be hoping S&P follows its lead.
          Italy’s draft budget is serious breach of EU rules- Commission
          ANALYSIS-The rating game: ‘Junk’ Italy still hard to imagine, funds say
          Italy’s CDS price trades in line with junk-rates issuers – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OcNyPA
    • 5/EUROPEAN AUTOS AND BANKS IN BEAR PIT
          European companies’ Q3 earnings are a key test for a market which according to EPFR Global, has seen investors pull out almost $5 billion this week.    Investors are jumpy about China’s economy, rising costs, trade wars, and lackluster euro zone growth.
          The coming week sees Europe’s most hated sectors — autos and banks — reporting earnings.    French carmakers Renault and Peugeot will report figures.    Coming after Daimler’s profit warning and negative outlooks from tyre maker Michelin and car dealership Inchcape, these will be watched for signs of strain from weaker car demand and higher trade tariffs.
          Results from UBS, Barclays, Nordea and the struggling Deutsche Bank will give a read on how bad things are for the banking sector.
          Analysts have slashed earnings forecasts for carmakers consistently over the past six months – and have become increasingly pessimistic on banks’ earnings since March.    Shares in both sectors are in bear territory, having fallen around 20 percent this year.
          Earnings for MSCI Europe companies are seen growing more in 2019 than 2018, I/B/E/S Refinitiv data shows.    And while earnings expectations were relatively stable in 2017, pessimism over Europe this year has led analysts to steadily downgrade their forecasts.
      European earnings growth expectations fall – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OwPKkV
          LIVE MARKETS-An inconvenient trend for the Q3 earnings season
          Michelin cuts market forecasts on EU emissions squeeze, China slowdown
          Weaker China demand, regulation spell tough quarter for Europe’s auto stocks – GS
      (Reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore, Jennifer Ablan in New York; Helen Reid, Dhara Ranasinghe and Tommy Wilkes in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Toby Chopra)

    10/22/2018 President Trump says U.S. now cutting aid to Central American nations over migrants by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump has declared that the U.S. will start blocking federal aid to Central American countries for failing to to contain the migrant caravan.
        In a tweet Monday, the president said Guatamala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and illegally coming to the U.S.
        He continued by saying the U.S. will now begin cutting off or substantially reducing the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.
    Central American migrants making their way to the U.S. in a large caravan cling to the trucks of drivers who offered them
    free rides, as they arrive to Tapachula, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the Guatemala-Mexico
    border, about 5,000 Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the U.S. border Sunday in southern Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
        This comes after the presidents of Honduras and Guatemala met over the weekend.    According to the two leaders, over 2,000 people have returned home despite reports claiming the caravan has expanded to at least 5,000 migrants as of Monday.
        President Trump also expressed disappoint with Mexico’s government for failing to block thousands of migrants headed toward the U.S. border.
        The president went on to say you can “blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic immigration laws.”

    10/22/2018 Speaker Ryan blasts ‘Medicare for All,’ warns against socialism by OAN Newsroom
        House Speaker Paul Ryan is condemning the notion of ‘Medicare for All’ and is also speaking out against socialism.
        In a video released Monday, Ryan suggested adopting ‘Medicare for All’ would destroy and obliterate the private and employer sponsored health care systems.
        He also said ‘Medicare for All’ would hasten the bankruptcy of Medicare, and pointed out socialism is long on promises and extremely short on delivering on them.
        Ryan outlined the damage ‘Medicare for All’ could cause and warned about the harm of socialism.
        The speaker went on to suggest socialism “ruins” access to good health care as well as having choices and innovation.

    10/22/2018 EU eyes Brexit customs deal to break Irish deadlock: sources By Alastair Macdonald and Francesco Guarascio
    FILE PHOTO: A Guinness truck passes a sign for Customs and Excise on a road near the border
    with Ireland near Kileen, Northern Ireland, October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union negotiators are looking at ways to promise Britain a customs deal that could stretch Brussels’ Brexit red lines but might break a deadlock over the Irish border, EU sources close to the talks have told Reuters.
        Accounts of how British and EU negotiators came close to a deal on Oct. 13 focus on how Prime Minister Theresa May balked at an EU demand for a “backstop” clause.    This could put Northern Ireland in a special relationship with the EU that might distance it from the British mainland to avoid putting up customs posts on Britain’s only EU land border, with Ireland.
        But as the two sides try to rebuild momentum following a Brussels summit last week, the readiness of EU negotiator Michel Barnier’s team in that outline deal to soften their refusal to pre-empt the outcome of later talks on a future EU-UK trade pact may help in unlocking an acceptable package.
        EU diplomats briefed on the negotiations said a vital part of a complex package was to “anchor” a reference in the legally-binding withdrawal treaty to May’s proposal to keep the whole of the United Kingdom in a customs partnership with the EU — thus avoiding special treatment for Northern Ireland.
        Negotiators, who declined direct comment for this report, acknowledged in briefings to EU officials the difficulties of linking the treaty to a more general, and non-binding, political declaration of intent on future relations.
        But the EU’s shift, as talks move into an end-game where failure would see Britain crashing out of the bloc in March, is part of what one senior negotiator calls a “jigsaw” solution –elements of which on their own cross one side or the other’s red lines but that, as a whole, form a package both can live with.
    BACKSTOP
        The EU is now considering May’s “all-UK backstop” offer.    Under this both Northern Ireland and the mainland would remain within an effective EU customs area, avoiding a “hard border” that risks reviving violence in the north against British rule.
        One problem for the EU has been that May’s proposal seemed to extend what was meant to be a specially favorable deal for one small region to Europe’s third ranked economy.    It could be considered only under tighter terms, the EU said.    The second problem is that such talks should start only after Brexit.
        Still, the EU has signaled a will to blur its distinction between Brexit treaty talks and post-Brexit negotiations — a move that London has demanded since talks started.    “You cannot absolutely keep separate the withdrawal treaty and the declaration on the future relationship,” Barnier’s boss, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker, said two weeks ago.
        Building an “all-UK customs element” into the treaty to be finalised soon would, EU officials argue, lend May credibility for her insistence to critics at home that Northern Ireland will never need to be treated differently from the mainland.
        The EU also volunteered to extend the post-Brexit status quo transition period by a year until the end of 2021.    This would be to ensure more time to negotiate the kind of all-UK customs arrangement that would satisfy Brussels’ demands that Britain abide by rules preventing it getting an unfair advantage in EU markets.
        However, the EU still wants a “Northern Ireland-only” clause to fall back on in case that UK deal cannot be closed — that in the end was a dealbreaker for London before last week’s summit.
        An early offer of an EU-UK customs arrangement, note EU officials, also runs a risk of angering Britons who want to hold May to her rejection of a customs union.    The arrangement both sides are studying is very close to a customs union in EU eyes, but Brussels understands that May cannot call it that.
        The timetable for talks has been shifted back as May faces stiff opposition within her own party and allies to the Irish and customs elements of a deal.    But EU leaders expressed growing confidence after meeting May last week that the jigsaw would fall into place in time for parliamentary ratification by March.
    (editing by David Stamp)

    10/22/2018 UK’s May tries to calm Brexit rebels, says deal almost done by Kylie MacLellan and William James
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves a news conference at the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May urged restive lawmakers to back her in the final stages of     Britain’s exit from the European Union, saying talks were in their most difficult phase even if a deal was close.
        After facing some of the fiercest attacks to date over her Brexit plans since again failing to clinch a deal at an EU summit last week, May tried to calm passions in parliament where her strategy has angered eurosceptics and EU supporters alike.
        “Serving our national interest will demand that we hold our nerve through these last stages of the negotiations, the hardest part of all,” May told parliament.
        Financial markets seized on the possibility that May could be toppled as prime minister by rebels in her Conservative Party, driving sterling below $1.30 to its lowest since Oct. 4.
        With just over five months until Britain is scheduled to exit the EU, talks have stalled over a disagreement on the so-called Northern Irish “backstop,” an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if a future trading relationship is not agreed in time.
        But May’s attempt to unlock the talks by considering an extension to a status-quo transition period beyond the current proposed end date of December 2020 has further riled both pro- and anti-EU factions in her deeply split Conservative Party.
        May again dismissed the EU’s proposed backstop as unacceptable and she set out two options for Britain to choose from: an extension to the transition period, or a temporary UK-EU customs territory which was first outlined earlier this year.
        May said the EU had made a substantial shift on the latter option. EU sources told Reuters negotiators were looking at ways to promise Britain a customs deal that could stretch Brussels’ Brexit red lines but might break a deadlock.
        In an attempt to highlight how much progress has been made in more than a year of talks with the EU, she told parliament the government has reached agreement on everything from Gibraltar to future security over the last three weeks.
        “Taking all of this together, 95 per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement and its protocols are now settled,” she said.
    “VASSAL STATE”
        But the deal – the terms of Britain’s divorce – cannot be signed off until the two sides settle on future management of the border between Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland.
        British and EU leaders are committed to avoiding obstacles at the border, a crucial aspect of the 1998 Good Friday peace deal that ended decades of Irish sectarian bloodshed.
        The EU proposal for Northern Ireland to remain in the bloc’s customs union has been rejected by May as it would potentially create barriers to trade with the rest of Britain – something ruled out by Northern Ireland’s DUP party, whose 10 votes in parliament prop up May’s government.
        At an EU summit in Brussels last week, any agreement seemed just as far off as it did months earlier, with EU officials and diplomats saying that May had offered nothing new to ease the deadlock.
        Since then, her proposal to extend the transition period has stoked anger among Conservative eurosceptics, who fear she is leading Britain into a deal that will make Britain a “vassal state” indefinitely – unable ever to fully leave the EU or to forge its own free trade deals with other countries.
        Critics of May used Britain’s Sunday newspapers to rhetorically savage the British leader, with unnamed rivals using phrases such as “assassination is in the air.”
        However, that approach looked to have backfired as even May’s harshest critics condemned the violent nature of the comments, tempering any confrontation with their leader.
        A vote of no-confidence in May would be triggered if 48 Conservative lawmakers submit letters to the chairman of the party’s so-called “1922 Committee” of backbenchers to demand such a vote.    The Sunday Times said 46 had now been sent, but Reuters could not verify that number.
        However a planned show of strength among the Brexiteers, who intended to rebel at a vote on Northern Ireland legislation in parliament later this week, was called off by the leader of the rebellion, former minister Steve Baker.
    (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Toby Chopra)

    10/22/2018 Belgium chooses Lockheed’s F-35 over Eurofighter: Belga by Philip Blenkinsop and Andrea Shalal
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35 Lightning II aircraft participate in a training mission near
    Kunsan Air Base, South Korea in preparation for VIGILANT ACE 18 in South Korea in this December 1, 2017 U.S Air Force
    photo made available on December 5, 2017. Courtesy Josh Rosales/U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS
        BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Belgium has chosen Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth jets over the Eurofighter Typhoon to replace its aging F-16s, news agency Belga cited government sources as saying, in a move that would cement the U.S.-made war plane’s position in Europe.
        The country has been deliberating for months over a multibillion-dollar purchase of 34 new fighter jets, with the latest deadline for a decision being Oct. 29.
        A defense ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on the government’s decision and did not confirm the end-October deadline.
        Lockheed spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson did not confirm that a decision had been made but said the company remains confident that the F-35 is the right choice for Belgium.
        “The F-35 offers transformational capability for the Belgian Air Force and, if selected, will align them with a global coalition operating the world’s most advanced aircraft.”
        If confirmed, the decision will make Belgium the 12th country to buy the radar-evading F-35 jets and could help to strengthen the U.S. aerospace company’s position in forthcoming tenders in Switzerland, Finland and Germany.
        The decision, the likely outcome of which was reported by Reuters last Friday, had been expected in July before the NATO summit in Brussels.    The order for jets due for delivery from 2023 is estimated to be worth 3.6 billion euros ($4.14 billion). [nL2N1WV11Y]
        Washington has extended the terms of the F-35 bid to Oct. 31 at Brussels’ request, U.S. sources said, adding that any further delay would trigger changes in pricing.
        Lockheed has said its bid will give Belgian companies significant opportunities to contribute to the global F-35 enterprise.
    EUROFIGHTER BLOW
        Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has previously said he would like to make the decision on the F-16 replacements before a national election in May and Defence Minister Steven Vandeput has said he hoped to settle the matter before he steps down at the end of the year.
        A win for Lockheed would mark a setback for Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, the four countries behind the Eurofighter program, who had mounted a strong lobbying campaign for the European war plane.
        It is also likely to anger France, which did not submit a formal bid for the Rafale fighter built by Dassault Aviation but had offered Belgium close defense cooperation to prevent a further spread of the F-35 in Europe.
        Other European buyers of the F-35 include Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Turkey and Norway.
        The Eurofighter is flown by Germany, Britain, Austria, Italy and Spain.
    (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and David Goodman)

    10/22/2018 Mexico to consider all actions in response to Canadian steel tariffs
    FILE PHOTO: Flags of the U.S., Canada and Mexico fly next to each other in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. August 29, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico will consider all possible actions in response to Canadian steel tariffs, including the possibility of going to the World Trade Organization, Deputy Economy Minister Juan Carlos Baker said on Monday.
        Mexico’s government has rejected Canada’s move to impose new quotas and tariffs on imports of seven categories of steel from many countries, including Mexico.
    (Reporting by Sharay Angulo)

    10/22/2018 Pres. Trump: We’ll Build Up Nukes Until Russia Comes To The Table by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington,
    Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Houston. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        President Trump defends his administration’s decision pull out of a cold war era nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
        The president told reporters Russia has not lived up to its end of the deal and accused Moscow of repeatedly violating the terms of the agreement.
        He said the U.S. will build up nukes until Russia comes back to the negotiation table and called for China’s involvement, as well.
        This comes after the president announced he would terminate the Reagan-Gorbachev deal over the weekend, which limits production of short and intermediate range nuclear weapons.

    10/22/2018 Pentagon: Mattis, Pres. Trump ‘Completely Aligned’ On Nuclear Treaty Withdraw by OAN Newsroom
    U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by Defense Secretary James Mattis (L) prior to a swearing-in ceremony
    for Mattis at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
        James Mattis agrees with President Trump on the idea of pulling out of a nuclear treaty relationship with Russia.
        The secretary of defense and President Trump are aligned on the issue, according to the Pentagon.
        Spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters, Mattis has consistently pointed out Russia is not in compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.
        Manning also said Mattis is in close contact with the president on this issue.
        Mattis told NATO defense ministers earlier this month if Russia didn’t return to compliance with the INF treaty, the U.S. would need to respond.
        President trump told reporters Saturday he wanted to withdraw from the three decade old treaty, saying Russia has been in violation of the INF treaty for many years.
        Russia continues to deny any violations.

    10/22/2018 Germany halts arms sales to Saudi Arabia by OAN Newsroom
        Germany is halting its arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
        German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her cabinet has put a temporary hold all sales of weapons and military equipment to the oil rich kingdom.    Merkel said Saudi Arabia must disclose all facts on Khashoggi’s death and hold those accountable involved in the murder.
    FILE – In this Oct. 17, 2018 file photo German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends the weekly cabinet meeting
    of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin. Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Sunday
    that she supports a freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
        Germany is the fourth largest arms exporter to the Saudis after the U.S., Britain and France.
        The German economy minister said new arms deals with the Saudis will stop immediately, while previous agreements are now subject to review.
        “On the basis of what we see at the moment, as long as the investigations continue, as long as we do not know what happened, as Foreign Minister Heiko Maas put it: there is no basis for positive decisions on arms exports to Saudi Arabia,” stated Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government.
        The German government also urged all European countries to impose an arms embargo on the Saudis, saying such a move could make Riyadh more inclined to address the international concern.

    10/22/2018 Speaker Ryan blasts ‘Medicare for All,’ warns against socialism by OAN Newsroom
        House Speaker Paul Ryan is condemning the notion of ‘Medicare for All’ and is also speaking out against socialism.
        In a video released Monday, Ryan suggested adopting ‘Medicare for All’ would destroy and obliterate the private and employer sponsored health care systems.
        He also said ‘Medicare for All’ would hasten the bankruptcy of Medicare, and pointed out socialism is long on promises and extremely short on delivering on them.
        Ryan outlined the damage ‘Medicare for All’ could cause and warned about the harm of socialism.
    The speaker went on to suggest socialism “ruins” access to good health care as well as having choices and innovation.

    10/23/2018 Migrants head north; Trump lobs threats - Mexican president calls for United Nations’ help by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        With an estimated 5,000 Central American migrants now making their way north through Mexico, President Donald Trump lobbed another series of threats Monday morning against the region’s governments for not being able to stop the growing caravan.
        Trump wrote that he would follow through on threats to cut off funding for Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now that the caravan has cleared Central America and ensconced itself in southern Mexico.    The president warned of “Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” mixed into the migrant caravan group, which originated in Honduras but has swelled in size as people from other nations have jumped in along the way.
        “There isn’t a single terrorist here,” Denis Omar Contreras, one of the caravan organizers, told the Associated Press.    He said caravan migrants come from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
        “As far as I know there are no terrorists in these four countries, at least beyond the corrupt governments,” he said.
        Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is requesting that the United Nations help process the group to determine whether they have valid asylum claims or should be returned to their home countries.    On Twitter, Trump said that wasn’t enough and blamed the caravan on America’s southern neighbors, Democrats and the nation’s “pathetic Immigration Laws.”
        “Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S.,” Trump wrote.    “We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.”
        The three countries combined received more than $500 million from the United States in fiscal year 2017, according to the AP.
        Trump also used the advance of the caravan as a political battle cry, as so many GOP candidates have done in recent days.
        “Remember the Midterms!” the president tweeted.
        His threats have done little to dissuade members of the caravan from trying to reach the U.S. border to make their claims for asylum.    Those in the group have become so insistent on staying together, in fact, that they’ve been turning down medical aid and offers of bus rides to ensure they continue as a group.
        Ulises Garcia, a Red Cross official, told the AP that the migrants have suffered a wide range of injuries, including lacerated, infected feet from the miles of walking to ankle and shoulder injuries from falls on the arduous trek.    But even they, Garcia said, refused trips to local hospitals and clinics under the theory that there is safety in numbers.
        “They fear they’ll be detained and deported” if they leave the group, Garcia said.
        Most of the caravan members were holding on in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday morning, trying to figure out how the Mexican government would treat them.
        Brenda Ochoa, a member of the Center of Human Rights Fray Matias de Cordova, part of a group of local organizations monitoring the caravan, said Monday morning that many of the caravan members already have been deported to their home countries.    She said the Mexican government has not provided any public information on the interviews of some caravan members and said government officials are providing only food, water and medical care to those who agree to be detained by immigration officials.
        “This humanitarian aid has been conditioned on detention,” Ochoa said, according to video posted on U.S.-based Spanish-language news network Telemundo.    “This has been a grave injustice.    We call on international organizations to jointly monitor the passage of this (caravan).”
        Pena Nieto sent two Boeing 727s filled with federal police to the southern border to monitor the growing number of migrants crossing the border.    But the outgoing president said those police officers would be unarmed and said it would be United Nations officials who would take the lead in determining which migrants have valid claims for refugee status and which should return home.
        The president’s successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who assumes office in December, won his election in part by vowing to fight back against Trump and doing what was in the best interest of Mexico, not necessarily the United States.    He said last week that Mexico should give work visas to the would-be refugees, which could lead them to the U.S. border.
        For now, United Nations officials in Mexico said they are bolstering their staff in southern Mexico to help process the rush of migrants.    In a series of tweets over the weekend, the Mexican office of foreign relations showed images of a migrant processing site, where they would begin interviewing women, children and the elderly to determine what should be done with them.
        Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Mexican government must confront and turn back the migrant caravan.
        “These caravans need to be stopped in Mexico,” Graham told Fox News.    “It’s an affront to our sovereignty."    “I will be practical with illegal immigrants who have been in America for decades,” he said, referring to the estimated 10 million to 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States.
        But “I’m not going to tolerate any more coming here through caravans, and we need to change our laws to disincentivize this behavior.”
       
    “There isn’t a single terrorist here.”    Denis Omar Contreras, caravan organizer
    LATE NEWS: AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE ABOVE RIGHT IMAGE IT LOOKS LIKE GOD MAY HAVE SENT HURRICANE WILLA TO STOP THE MIGRATION.
        Forecast to be one of the most powerful hurricanes to enter Mexico from the Pacific in recent years, Willa is expected to strike a few miles south of Mazatlan as soon as Tuesday afternoon.

    10/23/2018 Trump’s missile treaty pullout could escalate tension with China by Phil Stewart
    U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in Houston, Texas, U.S., October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. withdrawal from a Cold War-era nuclear arms treaty with Russia could give the Pentagon new options to counter Chinese missile advances but experts warn the ensuing arms race could greatly escalate tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
        U.S. officials have been warning for years that the United States was being put at a disadvantage by China’s development of increasingly sophisticated land-based missile forces, which the Pentagon could not match thanks to the U.S. treaty with Russia.
        President Donald Trump has signaled he may soon give the Pentagon a freer hand to confront those advances, if he makes good on threats to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which required elimination of short- and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles.
        Dan Blumenthal, a former Pentagon official now at the American Enterprise Institute, said a treaty pullout could pave the way for the United States to field easier-to-hide, road-mobile conventional missiles in places like Guam and Japan.
        That would make it harder for China to consider a conventional first strike against U.S. ships and bases in the region.    It could also force Beijing into a costly arms race, forcing China to spend more on missile defenses.
        “It will change the picture fundamentally,” Blumenthal said.
        Even as Trump has blamed Russian violations of the treaty for his decision, he has also pointed a finger at China.    Beijing was not party to the INF treaty and has been fielding new and more deadly missile forces.
        These include China’s DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a maximum range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) and which the Pentagon says can threaten U.S. land and sea-based forces as far away as the Pacific island of Guam.    It was first fielded in 2016.
        “If Russia is doing it (developing these missiles) and China is doing it and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” Trump said on Sunday.
        John Bolton, White House national security advisor, noted that recent Chinese statements suggest it wanted Washington to stay in the treaty.
        “And that’s perfectly understandable.    If I were Chinese, I would say the same thing,” he told the Echo Moskvy radio station.    “Why not have the Americans bound, and the Chinese not bound?”
    GROWING THREAT
        U.S. officials have so far relied on other capabilities as a counter-balance to China, like missiles fired from U.S. ships or aircraft.    But advocates for a U.S. land-based missile response say that is the best way to deter Chinese use of its muscular land-based missile forces.
        Kelly Magsamen, who helped craft the Pentagon’s Asian policy under the Obama administration, said China’s ability to work outside of the INF treaty had vexed policymakers in Washington, long before Trump came into office.
        But she cautioned that any new U.S. policy guiding missile deployments in Asia would need to be carefully coordinated with allies, something that does not appear to have happened yet.
        Mismanagement of expectations surrounding a U.S. treaty pullout could also unsettle security in the Asia-Pacific, she cautioned.
        “It’s potentially destabilizing,” she said.
        Experts warn that China would put pressure on countries in the region to refuse U.S. requests to position missiles there.
        Abraham Denmark, a former senior Pentagon official under Obama, said Guam, Japan and even Australia were possible locations for U.S. missile deployments.
        “But there are a lot of alliance questions that appear at first glance to be very tricky,” he cautioned.
        Still, current and former U.S. officials say Washington is right to focus on China’s missile threat.    Harry Harris, who led U.S. military forces in the Pacific before becoming U.S. ambassador to Seoul, said earlier this year that the United States was at a disadvantage.
        “We have no ground-based (missile) capability that can threaten China because of, among other things, our rigid adherence … to the treaty,” Harris told a Senate hearing in March, without calling for the treaty to be scrapped.
        Asked about Trump’s comments, China’s foreign ministry said a unilateral U.S. withdrawal would have a negative impact and urged the United States to “think thrice before acting.”
        “Talking about China on the issue of unilaterally pulling out of the treaty is completely mistaken,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Idrees Ali, David Brunnstrom and Eric Beech; Editing by James Dalgleish)

    10/23/2018 France’s ban on full-body Islamic veil violates human rights: U.N. rights panel by Tom Miles
    FILE PHOTO: French police and gendarmes check identity cards of two women for wearing full-face veils, or niqab, as they arrived
    to demonstrate after calls on the internet by Islamic groups to protest over an anti-Islam video, in Lille September 22, 2012. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
        GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Tuesday that France’s ban on the niqab, the full-body Islamic veil, was a violation of human rights and called on it to review the legislation.
        France had failed to make the case for its ban, the committee said, giving Paris 180 days to report back to say what actions it had taken.    The panel’s findings are not legally binding but could influence French courts.
        “In particular, the Committee was not persuaded by France’s claim that a ban on face covering was necessary and proportionate from a security standpoint or for attaining the goal of ‘living together’ in society,” it said.
        The panel of 18 independent experts oversees compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).    Implementation of its decisions is not mandatory, but under an optional protocol of the treaty, France has an international legal obligation to comply “in good faith.”
        There was no immediate reaction from French authorities.
        The same committee came to similar conclusions on the 2008 case of a woman sacked by a creche for wearing a veil.    In September, a top French judge was quoted by newspaper Le Monde as saying that while not binding, the panel’s decisions might still influence French case law.
    RISK OF MARGINALIZATION
        In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings are binding, upheld France’s ban on full-face veils in public, saying it did not violate religious freedom.
        But the U.N. Human Rights Committee disagreed with this in its statement on Tuesday, saying the ban disproportionately harmed the right of women to manifest their religious beliefs and could lead to them being confined at home and marginalized.
        The committee’s findings come after complaints by two French women convicted in 2012 under a 2010 law stipulating that “No one may, in a public space, wear any article of clothing intended to conceal the face.”
        In its findings the panel said the ban had violated the two women’s human rights and called on France to pay them compensation.
        Under the ban, anyone wearing the full-face veil in public is liable to a fine of 150 euros or lessons in French citizenship.
        The committee’s chair Yuval Shany said that he and several others on the 18-member panel considered it a form of oppression.
        Several countries in Europe have introduced legislation on Islamic dress. Denmark’s parliament enacted a ban on wearing of face veils in public in May.    Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the German state of Bavaria have also imposed some restrictions on full-face veils in public places.
        France has the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million or more out of a population of 67 million.    The place of religion and religious symbols worn in public can be a matter of controversy in the staunchly secular country.
        According to French media Metronews, some 223 fines were handed out in 2015 for wearing a full veil in public.
    (Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Paris; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    10/23/2018 Former top Clinton aide condones harassing Republicans in public by OAN Newsroom
        A former top Clinton aide is claiming that harassing Republicans is protected under the First Amendment.
        Over the weekend, Philippe Reines said protesters are confronting Republican officials in public spaces because it’s — “all that’s left.”
        Numerous Republican officials, including Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz and Sarah Sanders, have been heckled in public restaurants in recent months.
    Longtime Clinton family aide Philippe Reines (back right) stands alongside
    former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        Reines said if this is the worst treatment some may get, it’s fine with him.
        “You have a Republican Party who is giving aid and comfort to the Proud Boys, and to white nationalists,” he stated.    “They’ve become the party of white nationalists and all other hatred — that’s the bigger deal to me than someone not getting their supper.”
        Harassment has become a bigger issue ahead of the 2018 midterms, leading to President Trump’s most recent campaign slogan — “jobs not mobs.”

    10/23/2018 Socialism makes comeback in U.S. politics by OAN Newsroom
        A new report is detailing the devastating effects of socialism to national economy and the well-being of citizens.
        According to a report from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), socialism is making a comeback in American politics led by some on the left.    The report found Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are pushing the narrative.
        Additionally, researchers estimated the Democrat-proposed ‘Medicare for All’ would cause U.S. GDP to fall by nine-percent.
    Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses supporters at a “Medicare for All” rally on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard).
        The report’s findings confirm President Trump’s previous statements.
        “The Democrats don’t care that a flood of illegal immigration will bankrupt our country,” said the president.    “Democrats in Congress have already signed up for a socialist takeover of health care…the Democrats want America to become — it’s not even that they want it, but that’s what’s going to happen — Venezuela…Venezuela, how does that sound?”
        The CEA report also stressed that socialist policies and government overreaches inevitably deprive citizens of economic opportunity and eventually destroy individual freedoms.

    10/23/2018 White House working on additional 10% tax cut for middle-income workers by OAN Newsroom
        According to President Trump’s chief economic adviser, the administration is working on additional tax cuts for middle-income Americans.
        In an interview Tuesday, Larry Kudlow said the 10-percent tax cuts are in the “planning stage.”
        He said the White House is already working with the House Ways and Means Committee to get a plan in place, and to take the president seriously when he talks about these ideas.
    White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)
        This comes after President Trump talked about the tax cut during Monday’s rally for Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Houston.
        “We are going to be putting in a 10-percent tax cut for middle-income families,” announced the president.    “It’s going to be put in next week — ten-percent tax cut.”
        Kudlow confirmed the measure could not be put in place until after the midterms on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.
        He also defended the administration’s first round of tax cuts. The chief economic adviser said the cuts worked and “blue collar people are booming.”

    10/23/2018 Second caravan of at least 1K migrants braces for onslaught on U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        Another migrant caravan is bound for the U.S. and is currently gathering steam in Central America.
        According to recent reports, a second caravan of at least 1,000 migrants is marching from Honduras into Guatemala.    The migrants are following in the path of the previous caravan of 7,000, which formed in Honduras two weeks ago.
        The new caravan reportedly includes people previously deported from the U.S. President Trump has also said members of MS-13 and unknown people from the Middle East have blended into the crowd.
    Mexicans from religious organizations hand out small bags containing water, toilet paper, diapers and medicine to Central American migrants
    who got a free ride from a motorist, in Xochiltepec, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018.
    Motorists in pickups and other vehicles have been offering the Central American migrants rides, often in overloaded truck beds,
    as the group of about 7,000 people heads to the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
        The president has vowed to cut aid to Guatamala, Honduras and El Salvador if those countries don’t stop mass-migration into the U.S.
        “We give them hundreds of millions of dollars, they do nothing for us,” he stated.    “I guess it looks like the people are walking right through the middle of Mexico, so I’m not exactly thrilled there either.”
        President Trump has even mulled closing the U.S.-Mexican border to prevent the illegal crossing of migrants into the country.

    10/24/2018 Oil down $2.93 to $66.43, DOW down 126 to 25,191

    10/24/201/ Oil falls to $76 as worries mount on demand outlook by Alex Lawler
    Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil slipped to around $76 a barrel on Wednesday, paring losses after hitting its lowest since late August, pressured by concern that demand is weakening and supply ample even as U.S. sanctions loom on oil exporter Iran.
        In a sign supply is plentiful, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday U.S. crude stocks had risen by 9.9 million barrels – more than forecast.    The U.S. government’s supply report is due at 1430 GMT. Brent crude , the global benchmark, was down 37 cents to $76.07 a barrel at 1020 GMT.    It fell earlier in the day to $75.11, the lowest since Aug. 24. U.S. crude was unchanged at $66.43.
        “Rising oil inventories and growing petro-nations’ output calm the supply fears related to the Iran oil embargo,” said Norbert Ruecker, head of macro and commodity research at Swiss bank Julius Baer.
        Crude fell sharply in the previous session, with Brent closing down 4.3 percent.
        “This price movement comes as little surprise with attention now clearly being focused on the weakening economic situation and gloomy demand outlook,” analysts at JBC Energy said in a report.
        A sell-off in equities due to concern about the economic outlook also weighed on crude on Tuesday.    Forecasters such as the International Energy Agency already expect slower oil-demand growth for 2019 due to a slowing economy.
        On Wednesday, Asian stocks edged up as signs of stimulus from China propped up sentiment and European shares attempted a tentative rebound.
        While U.S. sanctions on Iran, which start on Nov. 4, are expected to tighten supplies, other producers, notably top exporter Saudi Arabia, are already pumping more oil and willing to increase further if needed.
        Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia would step up to “meet any demand that materialises to ensure customers are satisfied.”
        Some analysts say nonetheless that prices could rebound before the end of the year.
        “We still see Brent reaching $85 per barrel by year-end,” said U.S. bank Morgan Stanley.
        Next year, slower demand and additional U.S. shale oil production should contribute to lower prices, Ruecker of Julius Baer added.
        “While in the near term prices are at risk from any further supply disruption, oil should trend lower heading into 2019 as slowing emerging market demand growth and the shale boom restore the oil market’s supply cushion,” he said.
    (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Mark Potter and David Evans)

    10/24/2018 Mexican town is teeming with caravan migrants by David Agren, Special to USA TODAY
        HUIXTLA, Mexico – The Central American migrants moving their way through Mexico as part of a controversial caravan – one President Donald Trump is pushing hard as a midterms election issue – is forging ahead in its journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
        Waves of migrants – who U.N. officials estimate may be as high as 7,200 and growing – have arrived in the small southern Mexican town of Huixtla, where many camped out on Tuesday.    Many staked out grassy spots in the town square to sleep outdoors overnight before continuing their grueling trip north.    They were at least 1,100 miles from McAllen, Texas, the nearest U.S.-Mexico border entry.
        The center of Huixtla, a small town of about 30,000 people in southern Mexico, was teeming with migrants, who sought shelter from the sun under tarps and shaded sidewalks.    Church groups served food and drink to migrants, while locals sold them everything from single cigarettes to coconut treats smothered in hot sauce.
        Among the migrants: Kevin Maldonado. The 20-year-old from Honduras said he had walked six hours from Tapachula to Huixtla under a scorching sun, passing through a Mexican immigration checkpoint just prior to entering Huixtla.    “We’re tired,” he said from the shade of the sidewalk outside a camera store, where he slept the night before.    “But the caravan is going to continue.”
        Maldonado said he had been picking coffee in western Honduras – where U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show an outflow of large numbers of migrants.    But, he said, a plunge in coffee prices prompted him to consider taking the treacherous trip to the United States.    He said he is not discouraged or dissuaded by Trump’s remarks and threats that the caravan would be stopped by soldiers, if necessary, and remains optimistic he can get to the U.S.
        “Maybe he’ll have a change of heart and give us a chance," he said of Trump.    Maldonado says he wasn’t sure how he’d travel to the U.S., which would require transiting Mexico, where crimes against migrants range from kidnap for ransom to extortion to rape.    But he saw a story on a Honduran news channel about the caravan being organized and thought it was his chance to flee the poverty rampant in his homeland.
        Danilo Ruiz, 26, said, he, too, joined the caravan after seeing a report on TV.
        “We were going to leave for the United States in January,” he said while resting in Huixtla with three friends – who all identified as LGBTQ and cited “discrimination and violence” for leaving.    “We saw the news about this caravan, immediately packed our bags and left the next day.”
        The caravan began Oct. 13 when a group of mostly Honduran migrants embarked on the trip north, fleeing government corruption, extreme poverty and rampant violence.    The caravan has trekked through Guatemala and is passing through southern Mexico with migrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.    It was organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a human rights group that provides aid and legal assistance to migrants.    It’s the second organized caravan this year, but this one is considerably larger and has garnered more media attention than one last spring.
        One man reportedly died late Monday when he fell from the back of a truck and died.
    Contributing: Sergio Bustos; The Associated Press
    Honduran migrants take part in a caravan heading to the U.S., on the outskirts of Tapachula, on their way to Huixtla, Mexico. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    10/24/2018 No new nuclear arms in Europe despite Russian treaty breach: NATO
    FILE PHOTO: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gestures as he speaks at a news conference after a NATO defence ministers
    meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO allies are not likely to deploy more nuclear weapons in Europe in response to what the West says is a Russian breach of a nuclear arms control treaty that Washington is pulling out of, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
        Washington will press ahead with a plan to quit a landmark nuclear arms control pact despite objections from Russia and some European countries, senior U.S. official John Bolton said on Tuesday, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
        “I don’t foresee that European allies will deploy more nuclear weapons as a response,” he told a news conference in his first public comments on the issue since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the treaty.
        The NATO chief also said that the United States was in full compliance with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and that Russia’s decision to develop what he said was a ground-launched SSC-8 cruise missile meant that the treaty was no longer “effective.”
        “All allies agree that the United States in full compliance … the problem, the threat, the challenge is Russian behavior,” Stoltenberg said.
    (Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Richard Balmforth)

    10/24/2018 Euro slides to two-month low on economic growth fears by Tommy Wilkes
    FILE PHOTO: A Japan Yen note is seen in this illustration photo taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
        LONDON (Reuters) – The euro skidded more than half a percent to its weakest since Aug. 20 on Wednesday after signs that economic growth could be slowing across the euro zone.
        Euro zone business growth slowed much faster than expected this month, a widely-watched Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) survey showed.
        German private-sector growth slowed to its lowest level in more than three years, and manufacturing in France hit a 25-month low, according to other surveys.
        The single currency, earlier trading flat, dropped more than to as low as $1.1402 after the surveys were published.
        The euro also fell 0.4 percent against the Swiss franc to 1.1372 francs , a two-week low.
        “Particularly the German PMI was disappointing … The environment for the euro is getting more difficult,” said Thu Lan Nguyen, a Frankfurt-based strategist at Commerzbank, pointing to a dispute over Italy’s spending plans and concerns about the bloc’s growth outlook.
        The European Central Bank holds its monetary policy meeting on Thursday, and investors will be looking for any comments about the deepening row between the European Union and Italy over Rome’s budget.
        Weakness in the single currency supported the dollar, which rose 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies to 96.380 <.DXY>.
        The Japanese yen – often bought when broader markets slide – gave up its earlier gains, suggesting some renewed demand for risk-taking as stock markets rebounded on Wednesday.
        The yen edged 0.2 percent lower to 112.65 yen per dollar, but remains almost two percent up since Oct. 4.
        Big falls in stock prices have shaken foreign exchange markets this week, with the yen the main gainer, as investors weigh up whether equity weakness is a major correction or just another wobble in a nearly decade-long bull-market run.
        The S&P 500 <.SPX> is on course for its worst performance since at least August 2015.
        “There are good reasons why you would want to be cautious,” said Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon, citing the Italian budget and U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of the Federal Reserve over interest rate rises.
        Worries about Italy, fears about ebbing world growth, global trade wars and political tensions between Saudi Arabia and the West are spooking investors.
        Sterling fell 0.6 percent to $1.2904 , a six-week low, amid intensifying concerns about whether the UK can get a Brexit agreement.
        The Canadian dollar edged marginally lower to C$1.3095 ahead of an expected Bank of Canada interest rate hike later on Wednesday.
        The Australian dollar stood at $0.7090, unchanged on the day, after earlier finding supported from improved sentiment in Asia, Australia’s key export markets.
    (Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    10/24/2018 Euro zone businesses hit the brakes as trade war stalls growth by Jonathan Cable
    FILE PHOTO: Employees of German car manufacturer Porsche work chassis at the Porsche factory
    in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany, January 26, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
        LONDON (Reuters) – Euro zone business growth slowed much faster than expected this month, dragged down by waning orders that put a big dent in confidence, adding to evidence the bloc’s halcyon days are behind it for now, a survey showed.
        October’s disappointing survey is likely to concern policymakers at the European Central Bank, who are expected to end their bond-buying program in less than three months, despite a slew of political and trade concerns.
        The economic slowdown comes amid an escalating trade war between the United States and China, a spiraling debt dispute in Italy, deadlocked Brexit negotiations and the prospect of steadily tightening financial conditions.
        Both the euro and euro zone government bond yields dropped on Wednesday after the survey’s release, with the single currency falling half a percent to $1.1417, its lowest since Aug. 20.
        Markets have taken a battering recently and European stocks <.STOXX> were trading near a two-year low on Tuesday, down 20 percent from their peak, but the index rose 0.6 percent on Wednesday.
        “The euro area economy is clearly suffering from the uncertainty created by the trade war and weaker global growth momentum, and the weakness is spreading to the domestic economy,” said Jan von Gerich at Nordea.    “The weak PMI data clearly increase downside risks to the euro area growth outlook.”
        Indeed, the outlook for global growth in 2019 has dimmed for the first time, according to Reuters polls of economists, who are also concerned about the U.S.-China trade war and have repeatedly said euro zone growth is well past its peak.
        ECB policymakers have slowly trimmed asset purchases, hoping they have done enough to bolster growth and inflation and are expected to hold policy steady on Thursday – despite evidence euro zone growth momentum peaked some time ago.
        “Amid the fiscal stand-off between Rome and Brussels as well as increasingly jittery global markets, the ECB is likely to stress caution,” said Stephen Brown at Capital Economics.
        IHS Markit said if the survey levels were maintained, they pointed to fourth quarter growth of 0.3 percent.    That would be the slowest pace in 2 1/2 years and below the 0.4 percent predicted in a Reuters poll earlier this month.
        Earlier figures from Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, showed private-sector growth slowed to its weakest in more than three years as manufacturing and services both lost momentum.
        Germany’s Chambers of Industry and Commerce, DIHK, last week cut its 2018 growth forecast and predicted a slowdown next year as the country faces mounting risks at home and abroad.    It predicted 2019 growth of 1.7 percent, below a Reuters poll forecast of 1.8 percent.
        However, it was a different story in France, the bloc’s second-biggest economy.    Its growth accelerated as strength in services offset weakness in manufacturing.
    ACROSS THE BOARD
        IHS Markit’s Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the euro zone tumbled to a 25-month low of 52.7 from a final September reading of 54.1, significantly below the median expectation in a Reuters poll for a modest dip to 53.9.    The lowest forecast was for 53.2.
        Anything above 50 in the survey, which is regarded as a good guide to economic health, indicates growth.
        Suggesting companies don’t expect a rebound anytime soon, the future output index, which gauges optimism, fell to a near four-year low of 59.4.    A similar reading from manufacturers fell to a level not seen in almost six years.
        Manufacturers suffered a similar fate with their PMI sinking to 52.1 from 53.2, missing a median prediction for 53.0, as factory orders contracted for the first time since late-2014.
        An index measuring output, which feeds into the composite PMI, dropped to 51.2 from 52.7.    It hasn’t been lower since the end of 2014.
        A similar gloomier picture emerged for the bloc’s dominant service industry.    The services PMI plummeted to a two-year low of 53.3 from September’s 54.7, also far short of all forecasts in a Reuters poll.
        In a further sign of a dimming outlook, the services employment index – a lagging indicator, also fell.
    (Editing by Larry King)

    10/24/2018 Violent deaths of Venezuelans in Colombia more than triple in 2018 by OAN Newsroom
        Venezuelan migrants fleeing the Maduro regime are being met with rising levels of violence in neighboring Colombia.
        Government statistics gathered between January and September of this year show “violent deaths” for Venezuelans are up 244-percent since 2017.    That comes out to about 310 deaths, which is up from the 90 recorded just last year.
        Of that total, more than half were murdered with most violence taking place along the Venezuelan border.
    In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelans illegally cross into Colombia, to Villa del Rosario, along a path known as a “trocha.”
    Uncontrolled by Venezuelan or Colombian authorities, the trochas are ruled by bands of armed men sporting rifles and dressed in
    fatigues. They charge migrants about $10 to be let through, frequently robbing or assaulting those who can’t pay. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
        While the Colombian report did not explain who was to blame for the huge increase in violence, many migrants are pointing the finger at local drug gangs.
        “I feel really unsafe.    I have my four-month-old daughter here.    It is madness here at night.    People are getting stabbed out there.    Colombians come to smoke drugs here and then they say it’s the Venezuelans who are smoking drugs, but that’s not the case.” — Roberto Jose Castro, Venezuelan migrant.
        Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez has promised to help the Venezuelan refugees and is willing to spend close to nine billion dollars in humanitarian aid.    However, he is also calling on international partners to help with the crisis.

    10/24/2018 President Trump blasts Federal Reserve as threat to presidency, economy by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is calling out the Federal Reserve for treating him different than former President Obama.
        During an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the president blasted the Federal Reserve as the single biggest risk to the booming economy he has created.
        He pointed out how the central bank kept interest rates at zero during the last administration, but they have raised the rate three times this year alone.
        That number is now at 2.25 -percent with the interest rate expected to increase again for a fourth time in December.
        Many experts believe this is being done to curb the possibility of unsustainable economic growth, which could manifest as inflation or grow into a financial bubble.    They explain the interest rate was kept at historic lows under Obama to help the economy recover from the Great Recession, which began about a decade ago.
    FILE- In this Sept. 26, 2018, file photo Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference in Washington.
    On Wednesday, Oct. 17, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its September meeting when it lifted rates for the third time this year. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
        President Trump is arguing the rate hikes are happening too fast, in turn, pushing auto-loan and mortgage rates to their highest levels in years as well as causing dips in the stock market.
        On top of that, the president claims rising interest rates make it harder for him to save enough money to help pay down the massive national debt.
        This isn’t the first time the president has publicly disagreed with the policy makers over at the central bank.
        “I think the fed is making a mistake, they’re so tight,” he stated.    “I think the fed has gone crazy.”
        While President Trump refused to say if he would consider removing chairman Jerome Powell, he hinted he may be starting to regret nominating him to a four-year term.

    10/24/2018 President Trump looking to strike British-American trade deal, Says U.K. trade secretary by OAN Newsroom
        According to British Trade Secretary Liam Fox, President Trump is “very keen” on striking a trade deal with the United Kingdom.
        In a statement Tuesday, Secretary Fox said a trade deal with the U.S. is one of his main priorities after the U.K. leaves the EU next march.
        This comes after the HMS Queen Elizabeth docked in the New York Harbor earlier this week to host a series of British-American trade events.
    Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox arrives in Downing Street for a Government Cabinet meeting,
    in London, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018, ahead of crucial Brexit negotiations. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
        Secretary Fox also expressed confidence Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts will allow Brexit to go into effect next March despite political setbacks.
        “I think she is, and will be the Prime Minister that leads us out of the EU at the end of March 2019,” stated the British trade secretary.    “I think that people need to give her the space to finish the negotiations, parliament will have a vote on what that ultimate outcome is, but it’s very difficult to negotiate with European Union when you also have to negotiate with your own colleagues.”
        Fox stressed that he and President Trump agree that trade and security cooperation are interconnected.    He suggested this makes a British-American trade deal a matter of utmost urgency.

    10/24/2018 Mexicans regroup after Willa’s ‘end of world’ onslaught by David Alire Garcia
    A child walks near a tree that fell on a car along a street in Escuinapa, near the southern tip of
    Sinaloa state after Hurricane Willa hit, Mexico October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
        ESCUINAPA, Mexico (Reuters) – Residents on Mexico’s Pacific Coast on Wednesday began clearing up the wreckage left by Hurricane Willa, which ripped through towns overnight, tearing off rooftops, downing power lines and splitting trees apart.
        Willa hit the northwestern state of Sinaloa late Tuesday as one of the strongest storms to lash the coast in recent years, with winds of up to 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour).
        “I thought it was the end of the world,” said Alma Rosa Ramirez, a 45-year-old resident of the town of Escuinapa, as she described how her whole house rattled in the blasting winds.
        Now with the sun peeking through and wind nearly at a standstill, Ramirez and scores of other residents took to the streets to pick up debris, while emergency crews poured in to work on reestablishing basic services.
        Ramirez arrived at her tiny fruit and vegetable stand in the shadow of a large stone church in Escuinapa’s central square, saying she feared the storm had devastated the farming region that supplies her with the carrots, squash and chiles she sells.
        “There’s going to be a lot of poverty,” she said.
        No deaths have been reported as thousands of people were evacuated from coastal towns and resorts before the storm hit.
        “The population took cover in time,” said Luis Felipe Puente, head of the country’s Civil Protection agency, confirming that no deaths had been reported as of early on Wednesday.
        On the other side of Escuinapa, 74-year-old retiree Virginia Medina sat in a white plastic chair, a 4-week-old kitten winding between her legs, as she took in the damage.
        Willa showed her little mercy: a metal corrugated roof collapsed, water pooled in the kitchen and gnarled branches littered Medina’s front patio and backyard.
        “I can’t even walk in my backyard … Here in the neighborhood a lot of walls came tumbling down.    Now there is no power, no gas, there’s nothing,” Medina said.
        Willa struck the coast about 50 miles (80 km) south of Mazatlan, a major city and tourist resort in Sinaloa, as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
        The storm had reached rare Category 5 status on Monday, with winds nearing 160 miles per hour (260 kph), as it headed toward the coast.
        The storm dissipated by mid-morning as it moved quickly inland over northwest-central Mexico on Wednesday.    It was still expected to dump heavy rains across the region.
        By then, the storm was about 75 miles (120 km) west of the city of Monterrey, blowing maximum sustained winds of 25 mph, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
        Downpours in Mexico prior to Willa’s arrival have heightened the risk of flooding, and the NHC said the storm could drench some areas in as much as 18 inches (45 cm) of rain.
    (Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Brendan O’Brien; writing by Anthony Esposito and Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Robert Birsel, Helen Popper, Frances Kerry and G Crosse)

    10/24/2018 Nasdaq confirms correction while S&P 500 and Dow erase 2018 gains by Caroline Valetkevitch
    A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks plunged again on Wednesday, confirming a correction for the Nasdaq and erasing the Dow and the S&P 500’s gains for the year, as disappointing forecasts from chipmakers and weak home sales data fueled jitters about economic and profit growth.
        The Nasdaq closed down 12.4 percent from its Aug. 29 record closing high, falling 4.4 percent for the day in its biggest one-day percentage decline since Aug. 18, 2011.
        Chipmakers Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics warned of slowing demand.    They followed disappointing forecasts on Tuesday from Caterpillar and 3M .
        The forecasts gave investors further reason to pause and helped fuel the selling momentum, said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.
        “Once a snowball like this starts, it doesn’t stop until it gets to the bottom of the hill.    And we don’t know if we’re at the bottom yet,” Tuz said.
        Stocks have been punished this month by a range of worries, from rising borrowing costs and bond yields to Italy’s budget and U.S. congressional elections due in less than two weeks.
        On Wednesday, data showed sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell to a near two-year low in September, the latest sign that rising mortgage rates and higher prices were hurting demand for housing.
        Adding to weaker sentiment in late trading, the Federal Reserve said in a report on the economy that U.S. factories have raised prices because of tariffs.
        The Cboe Volatility Index <.VIX>, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term gyrations for the S&P 500, jumped 4.52 points to close at 25.23, its highest close since Feb. 12.    The S&P 500 fell for a sixth consecutive day.
        “It looks like more panic and fear as the selling has continued to roll,” said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Independent Advisor Alliance based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 608.01 points, or 2.41 percent, to 24,583.42, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 84.59 points, or 3.09 percent, to 2,656.1 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 329.14 points, or 4.43 percent, to 7,108.40.
        Texas Instruments dropped 8.2 percent, helping pull the Philadelphia Semiconductor index <.SOX> down 6.6 percent in its biggest daily percentage drop since October 2014. Intel , due to report earnings later this week, fell 4.7 percent.
        The beaten-down S&P technology sector retreated <.SPLRCT> another 4.4 percent.
        While third-quarter profit growth estimates have risen to 22.4 percent from 21.6 percent in the last 10 days, weaker forecasts have pulled down fourth-quarter growth estimates to 19.5 percent from 20 percent, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.
        Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.38-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 5.42-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
        The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and 91 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 15 new highs and 445 new lows.
        About 9.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges.    That compares with the 8 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days.
        After the closing bell, Microsoft rose 2.7 percent following the release of its results.
    (Additional reporting by Kate Duguid and Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and James Dalgleish)

    10/24/2018 Investigation underway into suspicious packages sent to prominent Democrats, CNN by OAN Newsroom
        The FBI is currently investigating a number of suspicious packages that were addressed to the Obamas, the Clintons, news outlet CNN as well as other Democrats.
        The Secret Service released a statement Wednesday morning, announcing they intercepted two suspicious packages during routine mail screenings that were addressed to the homes of Hillary and Bill Clinton as well as Barack and Michelle Obama.
        The first package addressed to the Clintons was flagged an intercepted Tuesday near the couple’s New York home, while a second package addressed to the Obamas was intercepted in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.
        About an hour later, CNN employees were evacuated after a third suspicious package was delivered to the Time Warner Center in New York City. According to NYPD, a pipe bomb was discovered in the mail room of the Time Warner Wenter where CNN studios is located.
        Law enforcement said the package was addressed to former CIA director and CNN correspondent John Brennan.    CNN has confirmed no other threats were made against any of its other bureaus.
        During a press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bomb threats an attempt to undermine our free press and leaders.    He also commended first responders and law enforcement for their handling of the situation.
    A member of the FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction team works outside the Time Warner Center, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018.
    A police bomb squad was sent to CNN’s offices in New York City and the newsroom was evacuated because of a suspicious package. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
        A short time after the incident at CNN, the Florida office of Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was also evacuated after a forth suspicious package was found and that flags that Florida is related to this incident.    A bomb squad was immediately called to the scene.
        Meanwhile, Secret Service has confirmed they did not intercept any suspicious package addressed to the White House as previously reported.
    [My comment: Since this article came out it includes the Clintons (Hillary no civility), Obama (former president who talked out of both sides of his mouth), CNN (fake news specialists), then the bombs increased to George Soros (the billionaire backing the progressive socialist regime for the last 10 years), John Brennen (FISA criminal to be), James Clapper (another FISA criminal to be), Joe Biden (may run for president), Robert DeNiro (hollywood democrat actor), Eric Holder (kicker), Cory Booker (sex assaulter unpunished) and Maxine Waters (rhetoric speciliast to hassle all republicans anyway you can).
        What is unusual is that this occurred 13 days before the Nov. 6 elections as if someone wants attention as if these Democrats are being singled out, and the culprit who made these pipebombs with a timer and not one of them were exploded, zero detonations, NADA detonations, making you wonder if their intention was to show a threat, and soon after the Democrats are on the news coming back at President Donald Trump at inciting anger against Democrats.
        And soon after of ourse Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer blamed Trumps rhetoric for the recent bomb threats occurred.    HMMMM!    I rest my case.
        Later they sincled out that the bombs had igniters that failed and it was discovered that the packages may have been sorted at the Opa-Loku, in South Florida center.
        By noon on 10/6/2018 the feds, etc have captured a suspect from the city Plantation, name Caesar Sayoc Jr., 56 year old    .]

    10/25/2018 As winter comes, NATO kicks off largest maneuvers since Cold War by Terje Solsvik
    FILE PHOTO: Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters
    during the move to the new building, in Brussels, Belgium April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
        OSLO (Reuters) – Military forces from 31 countries began NATO’s largest exercise in decades, stretching from the Baltic Sea to Iceland, on Thursday, practicing military maneuvers close to Russia, which itself held a huge military drill last month.
        As temperatures fell below freezing across training grounds in central Norway, giving a taste of what it means to defend NATO’s vast northern flank, some 50,000 troops, 250 aircraft and 10,000 tanks, trucks and other land-based vehicles were ready.
        “Forces are in position, they are integrating and starting combat enhancement training for major battlefield operations over the next two weeks,” Colonel Eystein Kvarving at Norway’s Joint Headquarters told Reuters.
        Dubbed Trident Juncture, the exercise is by far the biggest in Norway since the early 1980s, a sign that the alliance wants to sharpen its defenses after years of cost cuts and far-flung combat missions.
        Increasingly concerned about Russia since it annexed Crimea in 2014, Norway has sought to double the number of U.S. Marines receiving training on its soil every year, a move criticized by Moscow.
        Russia last month held its biggest maneuvers since 1981, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), mobilizing 300,000 troops in a show of force close to China’s border which included joint drills with the Chinese and Mongolian armies.
        NATO’s war games were originally meant to involve 35,000 troops, but the number grew in recent months and included the late addition of an aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman with some 6,000 personnel.
        NATO fears Russia’s military build-up in the region could ultimately restrict naval forces’ ability to navigate freely, and on Oct. 19 the Truman became the first American aircraft carrier to enter the Arctic Circle since before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
        Although a solid majority of Norwegians support membership of NATO, whose secretary general is former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, some parties on the left would prefer that the country quit the alliance and form some type of military cooperation arrangement with its Nordic neighbors.
        “The effect of this activity will increase the tension between Norway and Russia,” Socialist member of parliament Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes said of the exercise, adding that the presence of an aircraft carrier caused particular concern.
        “You have to be quite hawkish to view this as something that brings peace in any way,” he told Reuters.
    (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos; Editing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

    10/25/2018 WATCH: Democrats, Soros politicize alleged bombing attempts ahead of midterms by OAN Newsroom
        Some liberals are already trying to politicize the string of apparent mail bombs sent to current and former Democrat politicians around the country, and are blaming President Trump over the matter.
        One America’s Kristian Rouz has more.

    10/25/2018 Authorities investigate suspicious packages addressed to Joe Biden, Robert De Niro by OAN Newsroom
        An investigation is underway in Delaware and New York City, where suspicious packages addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro have been discovered.
        Authorities said they recovered a second package addressed to Biden at a facility in New Castle Thursday morning after a similar package was addressed to him Wednesday.
        Meanwhile in New York City, authorities removed a package from a building housing De Niro’s offices and have taken it to an NYPD facility for further investigation.
    Police are standing watch near a building associated with Robert DeNiro,
    Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018, in New York after reports of a suspicious package. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
        This comes just one day after a number of Democrat officials received suspicious packages.
        The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said all federal facilities are under a heightened alert due to recent bomb scares across the country.

    10/25/2018 WATCH: Democrats, Soros politicize alleged bombing attempts ahead of midterms by OAN Newsroom
        Some liberals are already trying to politicize the string of apparent mail bombs sent to current and former Democrat politicians around the country, and are blaming President Trump over the matter.
        One America’s Kristian Rouz has more.
        DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made the announcement Wednesday, saying federal facilities are following enhanced security procedures.
        Nielsen said she condemns the cowardly attacks in the strongest terms, and said Americans will not be intimidated.

    10/25/2018 Megyn Kelly skips out on her NBC show after Blackface comments by OAN Newsroom
        Megyn Kelly did not appear on her NBC show Thursday, fueling speculation the network may drop her over controversial comments she made regarding Blackface.
        According to insider sources, Kelly is currently negotiating with the NBC over a possible exit deal.
        This comes after her talent agency dropped her as a client on Wednesday.    While there was not a reason given for the decision, the talent agency let Kelly go just one-day after she apologized for the comments.
        “That conversation turned to whether it is ever okay for a person of one race to dress up as another — a black person making their face lighter or a white person making theirs darker to make a costume complete.    I defended the idea, saying as long as it was respectful and part of a Halloween costume it was okay — well I was wrong and I am sorry.” -Megyn Kelly
    FILE – This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows Megyn Kelly on the set of her show,
    “Megyn Kelly Today” at NBC Studios in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
        Political analysts have noted Kelly’s career has been on a steady decline since she attacked then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
        Kelly’s NBC show has been on thin ice lately after receiving consistently low ratings.
    [Sorry Megyn it is hard to work around NBC Democrat lovers now why don’t you join the Trump team and give it back to them for your freedom of speech violation.    We don't care if you say blackface or horseface.    Or you can take the money and start a new show on a network that lets you say what it is.]

    10/25/2018 Press Secretary Sarah Sanders defends President Trump’s criticism of the media by OAN Newsroom
        White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders backs President Trump’s criticism of the media in wake of the explosive package mailed to CNN.
        Speaking with reporters Thursday morning, Sanders slammed CNN by saying the network only focuses on the negative and agreed with the president’s claim the media has a role to play in the current political climate.
        She said the first thing the network did was immediately accuse the president of being responsible for the bomb threats targeting Democrats, and went onto call their finger pointing “disgraceful.”
    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks to reporters outside the
    West Wing of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        Sanders defended the president by saying he has condemned violence in all forms since day one and will continue to do so.
    .     “Look, there’s a big difference between comments made and actions taken,” stated the press secretary.
        “The president is certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages to someone no more than Bernie Sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a Republican baseball field practice last year — the idea that this is at the hands of the president is absolutely ridiculous.”
        Sanders said it is important for both political sides to remain civil.

    10/25/2018 Erik Prince hires lobbyist to push Congress to privatize Afghan war by OAN Newsroom
        Blackwater founder Erik Prince has called in more help in his effort to convince the U.S. government to privatize the war in Afghanistan.
        According to reports, Prince hired Ron Phillips of Gavel Resources to push his agenda on Capitol Hill.
        The former House Armed Services Committee staffer is setting up meetings between Prince and members of Congress in an effort for Prince to convince them to turn the war over to private security forces.
    Blackwater founder Erik Prince arrives for a closed meeting with members of the
    House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
        Prince has been pushing the idea for more than a year as a way to cut costs in the 17-year war.
        “All I am trying to say is what worked after 9/11 when the Pentagon advocated a conventional invasion through Pakistan and the CIA said small, light…a few special forces officers, a few CIA officers backed by air-power…they smashed the Taliban in a matter of weeks,” he explained.
        Prince does not believe America’s longest running war is close to an end if the government continues with its current strategy.    However, he is claiming that he can turn the war around in six-months and with 3,600 men.

    10/25/2018 WTO members hold urgent talks to tackle challenges to its future by David Ljunggren and David Lawder
    Canada's International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr gestures while posing with officials during
    the Ottawa Ministerial on WTO Reform in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
        OTTAWA (Reuters) – Senior officials from 12 countries gathered in Canada on Thursday for talks to find ways to reform the World Trade Organization and address U.S. grievances which are threatening the body’s future.
        The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is blocking appointments of WTO judges and has threatened to pull out of a grouping designed to ensure a rules-bound global trade system.
        Participants said the one-day meeting in Ottawa was a first step to addressing the organization’s many challenges.
        “We need to go from just talking about the importance of the WTO to also being able to get (something) more concrete,” European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Reuters after the first session.
        As well as the EU the one-day conference also groups Canada, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Australia and seven other countries.
        Absent from the meeting are the United States and China, whose escalating tariff war has thrown the future of the 23-year-old trade body into doubt.
        Canadian Trade Minister Jim Carr, conceding “there can be no meaningful reform of the WTO without the Americans and Chinese,” said Ottawa had first wanted to “bring in a group of nations who … share the value and the belief that the rules-based international order is worth preserving.”
        Delegates will mull over proposals from Canada and the European Union, including boosting the number of WTO judges and dealing with log-jams in the body’s dispute settlement system.
        They also will discuss rewriting trade rules for industrial subsidies, state-owned firms and technology transfers, potentially addressing some of Washington’s complaints that WTO rules have given an unfair advantage to China.
        Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said he wanted the meeting to demonstrate enough progress to make clear that many countries were determined to maintain a rules-based system.
        “I would hope that type of momentum is then seen by, for example, the U.S., as a positive demonstration that other nations hear their concerns about the way the WTO hasn’t been working,” he told reporters.
        Jennifer Hillman, a former WTO appellate judge who is a Georgetown University law professor, said much could be gained from participants’ efforts to reach consensus.
        “If they can, it obviously puts pressure on the U.S., or China or both to figure out whether there’s any part of this package that they can live with,” she said in an interview.
    (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa; editing by Susan Thomas and James Dalgleish)

    10/25/2018 Meadows: Papadopoulos Insistent On No Russia Collusion by OAN Newsroom
    George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, arrives for his first appearance
    before congressional investigators, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        Republicans are hailing the questioning of George Papadopoulos a success, claiming it further pushes the narrative there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
    Congressman Mark Meadows says Papadopoulos was cooperative and transparent during questioning, while speaking after Thursday’s hearing.
        He claims Papadopoulos was very insistent that there was no collusion and no opportunity for collusion based on his contacts.
        Congressman Meadows says Thursday’s hearing further indicates there was inappropriate behavior on behalf of the FBI and DOJ, as it relates to how the probe began.
    [SO THAT TELLS ME THAT THE DEMOCRATS UNDER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FALSELY CHARGED THE ABOVE USING THE FBI AND IT LOOKS LIKE THE BEGINNING OF THE FISA CORRUPTION.]

    10/25/2018 Sen. Grassley refers Avenatti, Swetnick to DOJ for possible criminal investigation by OAN Newsroom
        The third Brett Kavanaugh accuser and her lawyer were recently referred to the Department of Justice for a possible criminal investigation.
    FILE – In this July 27, 2018, file photo Michael Avenatti, talks to the media during a news conference
    in front of the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
        In an announcement Thursday, Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley said attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick gave false statements to Congress.
        Grassley claimed their actions amount to obstruction of justice and perjury.
        This comes weeks after Swetnick claimed she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a party back in the early 80s.
        Grassley said these false statements can’t be ignored to prevent such behavior in the future.

    10/25/2018 President Trump blames high cost of drugs on ‘freeloading’ countries by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump said the rising costs of prescription drugs for Americans is because foreign countries are taking advantage of U.S. research breakthroughs.
        Speaking from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department in Washington Thursday, the president said foreign countries are paying practically nothing for drugs since their governments pay whatever drug companies set.
    President Donald Trump arrives to talk about drug prices during a visit to the
    Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh
        Meanwhile, he said the U.S. is paying billions of dollars for its own home-grown drugs.
        This supports a recently released HHS report, which found U.S. drug prices were nearly twice as high as those in foreign countries.
        However, he says under his administration’s new plan Medicare will be allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies and Americans will be able to pay the lower price other countries are paying.

    10/26/2018 Oil up $0.51 to $67.33, DOW up 401 to 24,985

    10/26/2018 WHAT TO WATCH - Dow rallies, but can this bounce last? By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Just when it looked like the stock market would never stop going down, it reversed course and went up a lot.
        The bounce Thursday was a big relief to jittery investors.    The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 401 points, erasing some of the sting from the previous three-day rout that knocked it down 860 points.        The rally put the Dow back in positive territory for the year.
        Wall Street pros cited a number of factors to explain the move higher.
    • Stocks “oversold:” The washout suffered in Wednesday’s 608-point Dow drop caused stocks to get too beat up and sentiment to get too gloomy.    But that day’s pain came on lower trading volume than the two-day plunge ending Oct. 11.    “That shows a decline in selling pressure,” says Mark Arbeter, president of Arbeter Investments.
    • Good earnings news: A slew of strong profit reports from high-profile companies, ranging from software giant Microsoft to social media player Twitter to electric-car maker Tesla, reaffirmed the strength of the American economy and leading companies, says Bill Hornbarger, chief investment strategist at Moneta Group.
    • Panic selling dries up: The market’s recent slide looked more like panic selling than investors making rational investment decisions, says Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network.    But the strong earnings reports allowed investors to recognize “that things are not as bad” as the recent swoon suggest.    But what matters now, is what comes next? Hornbarger says it’s a “little too early to signal the all clear.”
    10/26/2018 No suspects identified; authorities intercept devices sent to former VP Biden, actor De Niro by Bart Jansen and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
            Investigators increasingly focused on mail streams in and out of Florida as authorities continued to hunt for whoever sent 10 suspected explosive devices to officials and high-profile individuals.
        Attention turned to Florida on Thursday largely because a device addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder was recovered when it was routed back to the return address of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DFla., in Sunrise, Florida, according to two law enforcement officials.    Schultz has nothing to do with the mail campaign.
        The two officials, who are not authorized to comment publicly, said authorities had not identified a suspect.
        Three new potentially explosive devices found Thursday were nearly identical in design to the seven seized earlier in the week, a law enforcement official said Thursday.    One of the latest was sent to actor Robert De Niro at of fices in New York, and two were sent to former Vice President Joe Biden and intercepted at postal facilities in Delaware.
        Biden is no longer under Secret Service protection.
        The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the devices were assembled with pieces of plastic PVC pipe containing black powder and shards of shrapnel that appeared to be glass.    The pipes were wrapped in tape and a timing-like mechanism was attached.
        New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill said Thursday that the devices were not being treated as hoaxes, but he stopped short of calling them “live” devices.
        “I would say it’s a suspected explosive device.    We are treating them as suspected explosive devices,” he said.
        The powder found in packaging in New York wasn’t a biological weapon, but further testing is being done, O’Neill said.    The devices were being examined at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.
        “We are discovering things by the hour,” he said.
        FBI Assistant Director Bill Sweeney declined to provide details about the devices to avoid disclosing significant information.    “It does remain possible that further packages have been or could be mailed,” he said.    “These devices should be considered dangerous.”
        Kevin Barry, a former member of New York Police Department’s bomb squad and former director of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, expected the FBI analyses to be focused on both the design and recovery of physical evidence.
        Testing at the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico would gauge the functionality of the devices, check the type of pipe used and examine the powder to determine whether it is high explosive, low explosive or a chemical substance intended to be dispersed when the devices were triggered, Barry said.
        If the tests found a fingerprint on the devices or their packaging, the FBI would run that evidence through a criminal database seeking a match.    Investigators would likely be able to identify a suspect within days from a matching fingerprint, Barry said.
    Contributing: Kevin McCoy
        “I condemn these cowardly acts in the strongest possible terms.” Kirstjen Nielsen, Homeland Security secretary.
    Police stand guard near a building associated with actor Robert De Niro
    after a suspicious package sent to the actor was seized Thursday. MARK LENNIHAN/AP

    10/26/2018 Senator seeks probe of lawyer, client in Kavanaugh case
        A key Senate chairman asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate Julie Swetnick and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, for allegedly false statements made during the confirmation process for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
        Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the FBI to investigate potential conspiracy, false statements and obstruction of Congress.    Grassley said it was a request for investigation, not a criminal allegation.
        Avenatti welcomed further investigation.    “Senator Grassley has just made a major mistake,” Avenatti said.    “Let the investigation into Kavanaugh and his lies begin.”

    10/26/2018 French President Macron regrets Belgium choosing Lockheed jets
    French President Emmanuel Macron gestures during a news conference with his Slovak counterpart Andrej Kiska
    at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava, Slovakia October 26, 2018. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa
        BRATISLAVA/PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he regretted Belgium’s decision to choose Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth jets over the Eurofighter Typhoon planes.
        “It’s a decision that was the result of a process which I greatly respect and which was linked to political constraints specific to Belgium, which are not for me to comment upon, but strategically it goes against European interests,” said Macron at a news conference held with Slovakia President Andrej Kiska.
        “For my part, I regret the choice that was made.”
        On Thursday, Belgium announced its decision to go with the Lockheed Martin planes to replace its ageing F-16s in a 4 billion euro ($4.5 billion) deal, saying the decision came down to price.
        The decision is a setback for Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, who are behind the Eurofighter program, and also means the rejection of an informal French offer to sell Belgium the Rafale fighter built by Dassault Aviation.
    (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Michel Rose)

    10/26/2018 Cypriot rivals agree new checkpoints, but stop short of peace talks
    Elizabeth Spehar, U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission (UNFICYP)
    attends a meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci
    in the buffer zone of Nicosia airport, Cyprus October 26, 2018. Iakovos Hatzistavrou/Pool via REUTERS
        ATHENS (Reuters) – The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus agreed on Friday to open more checkpoints along the militarized frontier that separates them, marking a rare sign of cooperation in the deadlocked conflict.
        Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were meeting for the first time in about six months, but they stopped short of announcing the resumption of peace talks that collapsed last year.
        The leaders had a “frank exchange of views” on the way forward, they said in a joint statement after meeting at a United Nations compound on the island on early on Friday.
        Anastasiades and Akinci agreed to open one new checkpoint in the west of the island and another in the east.    The crossing points are due to be opened on Nov. 12 and will ease interaction between populations estranged for decades until the first checkpoints opened in 2003.
        There are presently seven checkpoints dotted along the 180-km (112-mile) ceasefire line splitting Cyprus east to west, which is patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers.
        The island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.
        U.N.-led peace talks between the two sides collapsed in acrimony in Switzerland in July 2017, mainly due to disagreement over the role Turkey could play in a post-settlement Cyprus.
        The perils of the stalled process have underscored simmering tension between Cyprus’s internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government and Turkey in overlapping claims of jurisdiction for offshore oil and gas research.    The matter also strains ties between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.
    (Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Helen Popper)

    10/26/2018 Migrant caravan may be funded by Democrat organizations by OAN Newsroom
        Border security remains at the forefront of the Trump administration as the president announced he will deploy military troops to the southern border.    This comes as some conservatives speculate over whether caravan is being funded by partisan operatives.
        One America’s Gabrielle Cuccia has more from Washington.
        The list is long of Democrat agencies who are funding the caravan.
        See https://www.oann.com/migrant-caravan-may-be-funded-by-democrat-organizations/
    [NOT ONLY ARE THEY FUNDING THAT, THEY MAY EVEN FUNDED THE NUT JOB WHO SET THE BOMBS TO THE DEMOCRATS WHO NOW WANT TO USE IT TO IMPEACH TRUMP AS I REST MY CASE AGAIN]

    10/26/2018 Mexican Government Offers Plan To Keep Caravan In Mexico by OAN Newsroom
    People rest as a thousands-strong caravan of Central American migrants heading for the U.S. sets up camp for the night in
    Pijijiapan, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. Many migrants said they felt safer traveling and sleeping with several thousand
    strangers in unknown towns than hiring a smuggler or trying to make the trip alone. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
        The Mexican government offers a plan to keep Central American migrants in Mexico, as caravan pushes toward U.S. President Enrique Pena Nieto offered migrants temporary identification papers, jobs and education for their children if they register for asylum.
        This comes as thousands of migrants are making their way to the U.S. seeking a better life.
        “In Mexico, you will be able to get medical attention and even send your kids to school,” said Pena Nieto.    You will also get a temporary official ID for the paperwork you’ll need to do while you regularize your migration situation.    And something very important, once incorporated into the plan, you will be able to access the temporary work program.”
        President Trump has threatened to cut aid to Central American countries if nothing is done to stop the caravan from reaching the U.S.

    10/26/2018 Pres. Trump Calls On Congress To Pass Immigration Laws by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this March 13, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a tour
    as he reviews border wall prototypes in San Diego. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        President Trump is again calling on Congress to pass legislation addressing illegal immigration to secure the nation’s borders.
        The president said the U.S. spends billions of dollars a year on illegal immigration, but that will not continue adding Democrats must vote to pass strong, but fair laws.
        Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed his comments, while touring the
    first completed section of the president’s 30 foot high border wall in Southern California.
        “This should not be a partisan issue,” said Nielsen.    It seems that many in Congress are currently suffering from amnesia.    In 2006, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act with broad bipartisan support.    Border security is national security and it is vital to our mission of protecting the homeland.”
        She also commented on a possible executive order to address the migrant caravan, saying the administration is reviewing all legal options and everything is on the table.
        This comes as two migrant caravans, totaling nearly 10,000 people, are currently advancing through Mexico to the U.S.

    10/26/2018 President Trump Dismisses Blame Over Threats Made Against Democrats by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018,
    before boarding Marine One for the short trip to Andrews Air Force Base. Trump is traveling to North Carolina for a rally. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        President Trump says he deserves no blame in the recent threats made to Democrats.
        The president said he heard that the suspect was one of his supporters, however that doesn’t mean he should take the wrap over the bomb threats made against a number of prominent Democrats.
        The president said threats have nothing to do with party affiliation.
        “There’s no blame,” said the president.    There’s no anything.    If you look at what happened to Steve Scalise.    That was from a supporter of a different party.    You look at what happened in numbers of these incidents, they were supporters of others.”
        The president has condemned the acts and said threats against politicians should not happen in our country.

    10/26/2018 President Trump Praises law enforcement over arrest of mailer bomb suspect by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is praising law enforcement over the arrest of the suspect in connection with threats made against Democrats.
    In this undated photo released by the Broward County Sheriff’s office, Cesar Sayoc is seen in a booking photo, in Miami.
    Federal authorities took Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Fla., into custody Friday, Oct. 26, 2018
    in Florida in connection with the mail-bomb scare.(Broward County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
        While speaking Friday, the president said there was a far-reaching investigation to find who was responsible for the threats.
        He applauded the FBI, Secret Service, the Department of Justice, and local law enforcement who were involved in the arrest.
        The president also called the acts by the suspect terrorizing and despicable, and said political violence should never happen.
        This comes after reports claim 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc Jr. from Aventura, Florida has been detained in the city of Plantation and is being charged over the series of bomb threats in the past few days.
        DNA evidence reportedly played a role in the arrest.

    10/26/2018 Dept. of Justice announces 5 federal charges against mail bomb suspect by OAN Newsroom
    In this undated photo released by the Broward County Sheriff’s office, Cesar Sayoc is seen in a booking photo, in Miami.
    Federal authorities took Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Fla., into custody Friday, Oct. 26, 2018
    in Florida in connection with the mail-bomb scare. (Broward County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
        The Department of Justice announces federal charges against the suspect in custody over several suspicious packages sent to Democrats.
        In a press briefing Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Cesar Sayoc Jr. will face five federal charges in connection with the incident.
        Those charges include interstate transportation of an explosive, threatening and assaulting former and current federal officials — including a former president — as well as the illegal mailing of explosives.
        Officials also warned there could be still be more packages in transit and reminded the public to remain vigilant.
        They also said the IED’s that were recovered are not hoax devices, and consisted of several bomb-making materials.
        If convicted on all charges, Sayoc Jr. could spend up to 58-years behind bars.
    Attorney General Jeff Sessions pauses before speaking about the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Fla.,
    in the package bomb case, during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    10/27/2018 Feds charge Florida man in bomb mailings plot - Suspect has history of arrests dating back to at least the early 1990s by Ken Alltucker, Kevin Johnson and Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY
        A Florida registered Republican with a history of financial problems, petty arrests and flamboyant political criticism mailed at least 14 explosive packages through the mail, targeting Democratic leaders and multimillionaires in a plot that struck a chord of fear throughout the nation, federal officials said in arrest records Friday.
        Several people who know the suspect, Cesar Sayoc, 56, said they were shocked at the charges, although their descriptions paint a picture of a man who is hard to get a handle on: Sayoc attended the Little Flower Church in Fort Lauderdale, but he told acquaintances he had a working relationship with male strip clubs in South Florida.
        None of the explosive packages detonated, and no one was injured in the mailings.
        Sayoc told at least one neighbor he was a “flash dancer” at strip clubs and needed to keep his body in prime shape through weight training.    But in court depositions, Sayoc is depicted as occasionally bankrupt and living with his mother.
        “He was always cordial, courteous and professional,” said Daniel Lurvey, a Miami-Dade defense attorney who represented Sayoc in two theft cases in 2013 and 2014.    “We talked a little bit about his work, and I remember him referring to an association with the Chippendale dancers.”    The group is a nationally renowned touring troupe of male strippers, but Lurvey said he did not know exactly what Sayoc’s association was, and it remains unclear if Sayoc actually had any connection with the troupe.    Chippendales spokesman Michael Caprio on Friday said Sayoc “has never been affiliated in any way with Chippendales.”
        In 2001, Chippendales sued – and won a judgment – to prevent Gold Productions Inc. from using the Chippendales name in their productions.    Sayoc claims on his LinkedIn professional page to have been a promoter and booking agent for Gold Productions.
        A former neighbor, Robert Blake, said he used to give Sayoc rides to the nearest health club, where Sayoc, who appeared to enjoy bodybuilding, would work out most days.
        He said Sayoc told him he made a living as a flash dancer and needed to work out to stay in shape.    Blake, in an interview Friday with USA TODAY, said Sayoc lost his home to foreclosure during the nationwide real estate crash and disappeared from their suburban Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, a community of older single-family homes near Pompano Beach in Broward County.
        Blake said Sayoc was unmarried, did not have any kids and lived next door to him for about three years.
    [SO THERE IS A CONNECTION TO A DEMOCRAT ACTOR AND HIGHER UPS]
        Sayoc describes himself on LinkedIn as a “Promoter, booking agent Live entertainment, owner, choreographer.”    He was born in Brooklyn, New York.    Records show he has a criminal history dating back nearly three decades, including a 2015 arrest in Broward County for petty theft and probation violation.
        Federal authorities charged Sayoc with five federal crimes, including interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of an explosive and threats against former presidents.
        Sayoc was arrested near an auto store in Plantation, Florida.    Police examined a white van shrouded in stickers with political and anti-media messages.    Cops covered the vehicle with a tarp and took it away on the back of a flatbed truck.    The stickers included images of President Donald Trump, American flags, and what appeared to be logos of the Republican National Committee and CNN, though not all the images were clear.
        FBI Director Christopher Wray said a fingerprint recovered from an envelope mailed to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters matched Sayoc’s fingerprint.
        Wray said investigators tracked more than a dozen devices mailed to highprofile Democrats and their supporters that all were similar.    Each mailed device included 6 inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, battery, wiring and potentially explosive material designed to give out heat and energy.    “These are not hoax devices,” Wray said.
        Earlier Friday, Trump applauded the suspect’s arrest, calling it “an incredible job” by law enforcement.    The bombing attempts were “despicable” and have “no place in our country,” Trump said.
        “We must never allow political violence to take root in America,” Trump said, and “I’m committed to doing everything in my power to stop it.”
        The total number of bombs reached at least 14 Friday after more suspicious packages were recovered: one in Florida addressed to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, another in New York addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a device recovered at Sen. Kamala Harris’ office in Sacramento, California, and another package that was intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, California, addressed to billionaire Tom Steyer.
        “Today’s arrest doesn’t mean we are out of the woods,” Wray said Friday.
    Contributing: Brett Murphy, Herb Jackson, Hannan Adely and Phaedra Trethan for the USA TODAY Network
    The exterior of one of the suspicious packages that were received at multiple locations
    in the New York and Washington, D.C., areas and Florida this week. FBI, HANDOUT, EPA-EFE
    A van is towed through Plantation, Fla., on Friday in connection with
    the 14 suspicious packages mailed to prominent Democrats. MICHELE EVE SANDBERG/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    10/27/2018 More violence feared as Brazil braces for far-right presidency by Brad Brooks
    FILE PHOTO: Federal deputy Jair Bolsonaro, a candidate for Brazil's presidential elections,
    shows a doll of himself during a rally in Curitiba, Brazil March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Rodolfo Buhrer/File photo
        SAO PAULO (Reuters) – After a presidential campaign that has seen political violence overshadow policy debate, many Brazilians fear attacks will continue after the likely election on Sunday of tough-talking far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
        Bolsonaro’s supporters in recent weeks have threatened to harm Supreme Court justices and physically attacked journalists and opposition voters.
        There has also been violence attributed to backers of Bolsonaro’s opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), but to a far lesser extent.
        Brazil’s tense political climate has been compared by some to divisions in the United States, where several high-profile opponents of President Donald Trump received pipe bombs in the mail this week.
        But the situation in Brazil, is far more perilous, analysts say, because it already suffers from extreme violence, often without consequence for perpetrators.
        Nearly 64,000 murders were registered last year, but less than 10 percent of homicide cases result in charges, according to government data.
        Bolsonaro, who maintains a double-digit lead in all polls, himself suffered a near-fatal stabbing during a campaign rally last month.
        He is still recovering, but the episode only reinforced his aggressive rhetoric, combining verbal attacks on political foes with vows to violently combat crime and pursue graft cases against opponents.
        “You PT crew, you’ll have the civil and military police with legal support to bring the law down on your backs,” he said in a video broadcast to supporters at demonstrations last Sunday.    “These delinquent Reds will be banned from our homeland.”
        He says he does not condone violence carried out by his supporters, but analysts say his daily rants on social media platforms are taking a toll.
        “Bolsonaro, because of his rhetoric supporting violence and the aggressive manner he has campaigned, has opened the Pandora’s box on political violence in an already extremely violent country,” said Rafael Alcadipani, a public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university in Sao Paulo.
        “If people thought Brazil had extremely high levels of street violence in normal times, imagine what it will be like under a president who aggressively pushes violence among police and against political opponents?”
    TARGETING JOURNALISTS
        Bolsonaro’s attacks on the media over aggressive reporting that he calls “fake news” have also sent a chill through newsrooms which have dealt with a surge in threats and physical violence.
        Brazilian investigative journalism group Abraji said since January 64 reporters who cover the campaign have been physically attacked and another 82 targeted in online hate campaigns.
        By comparison, 40 U.S.-based journalists covering all topics were physically attacked during that period, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database run by over two dozen press freedom groups.
        Bolsonaro supporters were blamed for most of the attacks in Brazil, Abraji said, while PT backers were responsible for a smaller fraction.
        Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s biggest newspaper, has been flooded with threats, including ones targeting the six-year-old son of a reporter who uncovered alleged illegalities in the Bolsonaro campaign’s use of WhatsApp to spread misinformation.
        Federal police are investigating a retired Army colonel who has made repeated threats against Supreme Court judges in widely shared videos, warning them not to rule against Bolsonaro.    The man is now wearing an electronic ankle bracelet so authorities can monitor his whereabouts.
        Supreme Court Justice Carmen Lucia said the attacks were a threat against democracy, saying this week that “aggressions that target any justice are attacks on the entire court as an institution.”
    ROUGH RHETORIC
        Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former army captain, is an ardent supporter of Brazil’s 1964-85 military regime and cites one of the period’s most notorious torturers, Colonel Carlos Ustra, as a personal hero.
        As president, he says he would encourage police to kill suspected criminals with abandon.    He wants to loosen gun controls so civilians can defend themselves and at times he suggests violence can solve Brazil’s political problems too.
        In one campaign rally, he grabbed a cameraman’s tripod, shouldered it like a rifle and yelled into a microphone that “we are going to gun down all these Workers Party supporters!”
        His campaign says his rhetoric simply veers into politically incorrect jokes meant to irritate his leftist presidential rival Fernando Haddad.
        Bolsonaro has won over tens of millions of Brazilian voters with his inflammatory, anti-establishment stance, citizens who are sick of being the targets of rampant street crime and endemic political corruption he vows to eradicate.
        Matheus Ferreira, an 18-year-old snack stand vendor in Sao Paulo who hails from a violent slum, said the tense situation fills him with fear, but not much beyond what he faces daily.
        “I will vote for Bolsonaro,” he said this week.    “If he can make Brazil safer, he would have been worth the risk.”
    (For graphic on Brazil election, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ixe0NI)
    (Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Clive McKeef and Joseph Radford)

    10/27/2018 PA. Suspect in Custody After Killing at Least 11 People at Tree of Life Synagogue by OAN Newsroom
        Pennsylvania police say at least 11 people have been killed and several are injured including four police officers, after a shooting situation at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill today.
        Officials say the suspect in custody is identified as 49-year-old Robert Bowers and are treating the shooting as a hate crime.
        Bowers reportedly had multiple firearms, including a high-powered rifle.
    Officials near the scene of a shooting in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. (KDKA Photo/Tim Lawson)
        Police say they received reports of shots fired at the Tree of Life Synagogue at around 10:00 AM local time and say the gunman walked into the building and reportedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs such as, “All Jews must die.”
        According to 911 dispatchers, the suspect opened fire shortly after entering the synagogue – and later fired at first responders.

    10/27/2018 President Trump Condemns Anti-Semitism After Deadly Pa. Synagogue Shooting by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump embraces Rabbi Benjamin Sendrow after he prays at the
    91st annual Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis,
    Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, following a shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        President Trump condemns anti-Semitism following the deadly synagogue mass shooting in Pennsylvania.
        The president made the comments Saturday at the Future Farmers of America Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.
        He said the the apparent anti-Semitic act unleashed such horror on the congregation.
        The president added there is no place for religious or racial prejudice of any kind in the United States.
        Authorities say 11 people died in the synagogue massacre.
        First Lady Melania Trump also condemned the deadly shooting in a tweet.
        The first lady said the violence needs to stop, adding the country must unite together.
        Other members of the Trump family also weighed in on the incident, including Ivanka Trump– who is Jewish.
        She called the shooting “the acts of a depraved bigot and anti-semite.”
        She added all good Americans stand with the Jewish people and called for unity against hatred and evil.

    10/27/2018 Russia, Germany, France and Turkey meet for four-way Syria summit
    Flags of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey flutter in front of the presidential Vahdettin Mansion
    prior to a summit on Syria, in Istanbul, Turkey October 27, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
        ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey gathered in Istanbul on Saturday for a summit on Syria, where violence this week in the last remaining major rebel stronghold highlighted the fragility of a deal to avert a massive government offensive.
        Ankara, which has long backed rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow, Assad’s principal foreign ally, brokered the deal last month to create a demilitarized zone in the northwest Idlib region.
        Idlib and adjacent areas are the last stronghold of the rebels, who rose up against Assad in 2011.    The area is home to an estimated 3 million people, more than half of whom have already fled other areas as government forces advanced.
        Shelling in Idlib killed at least seven civilians on Friday, the largest one-day loss of life there since Russian air strikes stopped in mid-August, a war monitor said.
        Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Erdogan are due to have four-way talks in Istanbul on Saturday.    Putin spoke ahead of the summit by phone to Macron and Erdogan.
        U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is stepping down at the end of next month for family reasons, is also taking part.
        Under their deal last month, Turkey and Russia agreed to set up a buffer zone running 15-20 km (9-13 miles) into rebel territory that had to be evacuated of all heavy weapons and all jihadist fighters.
    (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Can Sezer; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen and David Dolan; Editing by Peter Graff)

    10/27/2018 Romans protest at eternal decline of Italian capital
    People gather outside Rome's City Hall to protest against the decline
    of the Italian capital in Rome, Italy October 27, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
        ROME (Reuters) – Several thousand people protested in front of Rome City Hall on Saturday to denounce the ragged state of the Italian capital, where roads are potholed, rubbish often goes uncollected and wild boar roam the streets.
        Critics say the city has been in decline for years and accuse Mayor Virginia Raggi, who took office in 2016, of failing to fulfill campaign promises to clean up the mess.
        “We’re here because Rome deserves better, because Rome is in a state of neglect the like of which has never been seen before,” said Marita Monaco, 57, who took part in the protest in a Renaissance square designed by Michelangelo.
        “It is a city in disarray, where there are no more rules or social cohesion,” she added.
        Raggi is a member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and was swept to power following a wave of public disgust over corruption scandals that had battered previous administrations run by both traditional left- and right-wing parties.
        The first female mayor in the history of the city, Raggi says she needs more time to overcome Rome’s myriad problems, but argues that she is already making good progress.
        Her critics say things are getting worse, not better.
        A strike by rubbish collectors has left many trash cans overflowing, potholes riddle the roads, while the local transport system is in permanent crisis.
        More than 20 buses have caught fire on the streets of the city so far this year, largely the result of poor maintenance, while a broken escalator injured more than 20 Russian soccer fans at a city metro station last Tuesday.
        The death this week of a 16-year girl, whose body was found in an abandoned building used by drug dealers, underscored fears about law and order in the city.    Police say they believe the girl was gang-raped and have arrested four migrants.
        Under the hashtag #romadicebasta (“Rome says enough”) residents’ associations and civil society groups banded together to organize Saturday’s protest, which Reuters reporters estimated drew between 5,000-8,000 people.
        “Rome has become an open sewer, a scandal, full of rats, foxes, wild boar and rubbish,” said Rome resident Salvatore Golino.    “We are drowning in trash and we can’t take it anymore.”
        A recent video that went viral online showed a family of boar foraging through sacks of rubbish on a city street.    Another video earlier this year showed a large boar running up a major city road under the gaze of astonished drivers.
        Raggi is standing trial for alleged abuse of office over a contested appointment within her administration.    She has denied the accusation, but has said she will resign if found guilty.
        A verdict is due on Nov. 10 and Raggi’s administration would fall if she left office, potentially opening the way for fresh elections.
    (Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alison Williams)

    10/27/2018 Central American caravan moves on in spite of Mexico jobs offer by Delphine Schrank
        ARRIAGA, Mexico (Reuters) – A U.S.-bound caravan of Central American migrants pressed on through southern Mexico on Saturday, in spite of government offers of jobs, as authorities stepped up efforts to disperse the convoy that has angered U.S. President Donald Trump.
        Mexican police in riot gear briefly blocked the march of men, women and children as they neared Oaxaca state before dawn, to relay the offer of temporary identification papers, jobs or education for those seeking asylum in Mexico.
        Trump has threatened to send troops to the U.S. border and cut aid to Central America to try to stop the group of several thousand people that left Honduras two weeks ago.
        Estimates vary significantly on the group’s size, which has morphed as some migrants return home and newcomers join.    At least 150 migrants traveling separately were detained by Friday near Guatemala’s border, a Mexican official said.
        More than 1,700 people in the convoy have applied for asylum, while others have returned home, according to Mexico’s government.    The Honduran ambassador said on Friday the group officially had 3,500 members.    Other estimates go much higher.
        By Saturday, more than 100 Honduran migrants opted to seek refugee status and enter the temporary work program proposed by President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday, said Mexico’s National Migration Institute.    Many others rejected the offer.
        “We’re going to the United States.    Because that’s our dream,” said 28-year-old Honduran Daniel Leonel Esteves at the head of a 50-person wide column of migrants snaking down a highway into the hills.
        Others echoed his goal to cross the border, declining Mexico’s offer.
        “Our destination is the United States,” said migrant Francisco Ramirez.
        A police official on a road just south of Oaxaca, where migrants were proceeding north from the town of Arriaga in Chiapas state, said authorities intended to keep presenting the asylum offer.
        “We think it’s very important that every person in the caravan knows these benefits, so that they stop putting their safety at risk crossing these roads,” said federal police commissioner Benjamin Grajeda.
        Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the migrant caravan and immigration major issues before the Nov. 6 elections, in which Republicans are battling to keep control of Congress.
        Honduras said 4,500 of its citizens attempting to emigrate have returned to the country in recent days.
    (Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

    10/27/2018 Central American caravan moves on in spite of Mexico jobs offer by Delphine Schrank
    Police line up for a temporary blockade of a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America,
    en route to the United States, making its way to San Pedro Tapanatepec
    from Arriaga, Mexico October 27, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
        ARRIAGA, Mexico (Reuters) – A U.S.-bound caravan of Central American migrants pressed on through southern Mexico on Saturday, in spite of government offers of jobs, as authorities stepped up efforts to disperse the convoy that has angered U.S. President Donald Trump.
        Mexican police in riot gear briefly blocked the march of men, women and children as they neared Oaxaca state before dawn, to relay the offer of temporary identification papers, jobs or education for those seeking asylum in Mexico.
        Trump has threatened to send troops to the U.S. border and cut aid to Central America to try to stop the group of several thousand people that left Honduras two weeks ago.
        Estimates vary significantly on the group’s size, which has morphed as some migrants return home and newcomers join.At least 150 migrants traveling separately were detained by Friday near Guatemala’s border, a Mexican official said.
        More than 1,700 people in the convoy have applied for asylum, while others have returned home, according to Mexico’s government.    The Honduran ambassador said on Friday the group officially had 3,500 members.    Other estimates go much higher.
        By Saturday, more than 100 Honduran migrants opted to seek refugee status and enter the temporary work program proposed by President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday, said Mexico’s National Migration Institute.    Many others rejected the offer.
        “We’re going to the United States.    Because that’s our dream,” said 28-year-old Honduran Daniel Leonel Esteves at the head of a 50-person wide column of migrants snaking down a highway into the hills.
        Others echoed his goal to cross the border, declining Mexico’s offer.
        “Our destination is the United States,” said migrant Francisco Ramirez.
        A police official on a road just south of Oaxaca, where migrants were proceeding north from the town of Arriaga in Chiapas state, said authorities intended to keep presenting the asylum offer.
        “We think it’s very important that every person in the caravan knows these benefits, so that they stop putting their safety at risk crossing these roads,” said federal police commissioner Benjamin Grajeda.
        Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the migrant caravan and immigration major issues before the Nov. 6 elections, in which Republicans are battling to keep control of Congress.
        Honduras said 4,500 of its citizens attempting to emigrate have returned to the country in recent days.
    (Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Additional reporting by Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

    10/28/2018 ‘Horrific’ Pa. synagogue shooting kills at least 11 -Official: Suspect yelled anti-Semitic epithets during attack by Rick Jervis, Sean Rossman and Candy Woodall, USA TODAY
        Robert Bowers, 46, has been identified as the suspect in Saturday’s “horrific” mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, according to a law enforcement official.
        Police took Bowers into custody after the rampage that resulted in at least 11 fatalities and six injuries, according to the Associated Press.    Four of the six injured were police officers, three of whom were shot, according to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department.
        Bowers allegedly burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and screamed, “All Jews must die!” – among other anti-Semitic epithets – as he opened fire on the congregants, according to the law enforcement official.
        The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the suspect was armed with at least one rifle.
        The official said the suspect left a trail of anti-Semitic rants on social media accounts, prompting authorities to designate the FBI as the lead agency to investigate the attack as an alleged hate crime.
        “It’s a very horrific crime scene,” Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said at a news conference.    “It’s one of the worst I’ve see.”
        Teams of armed police swarmed the neighborhood near downtown Pittsburgh just before 10 a.m. Saturday.    Residents were urged to shelter in place as armed law enforcement agents canvassed the neighborhood.
        Speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, President Donald Trump praised law enforcement’s response in the shooting and called the suspect in custody a “madman” and a “wacko.”
        He said he would like to see more armed guards at synagogues and other places of worship and impose more death penalty sentences on convicted murderers.
        “It’s a terrible, terrible thing what’s going on with hate in our country and, frankly, all over the world,” Trump said.    “Something has to be done.”
        “It’s a very horrific crime scene.    It’s one of the worst I’ve seen.” Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh public safety director.
        Posts believed to be from Bowers’ social media accounts show pictures of several Glock pistols in their cases and derogatory remarks about refugees, Jewish people and Trump.    The last such post on the social network Gab, issued Saturday morning, criticized a refugee advocacy group that “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people.”
    “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered,” the author wrote.    “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
        At the scene, Pittsburgh Police Commander Jason Lando told reporters that the shooting took place near the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
        Squirrel Hill is a Jewish enclave near Carnegie Mellon University.    A little more than 50 percent of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish community lives in or around the neighborhood, said Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
        Tree of Life’s immediate past president, Michael Eisenberg, told KDKA-TV that there were three congregations meeting simultaneously, probably totaling about 100 people, at the time of the shooting.    They were gathered in the main part of the building, as well in the basement and in the rabbi study room, he said.
        The shooting occurred during a babynaming service.    Eisenberg said he spoke with a maintenance man who hid in a bathroom during the shooting and witnessed a congregant being shot before fleeing through an exit.
        Eisenberg said he was on his way to a service there when he noticed police swarming the streets.
        “There were police cars everywhere, guns drawn, rifles,” he told KDKA-TV.    “It was surreal.”
        In the interview, Eisenberg said synagogue officials recently adjusted the exit doors to make them easier to open, which probably saved lives Saturday.    During Saturday services, the front door is kept unlocked, allowing visitors to come and go freely, he told KDKA-TV.
    Police respond to an active shooter situation Saturday at Tree of Life synagogue
    in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. PAM PANCHAK/AP

    10/28/2018 Border officials prepare for arrival of migrant caravan - Say they see no way to speed asylum process by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        SAN DIEGO – With 2,100 National Guardsmen already fanned out along the southern border and another 1,000 troops on the way, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to ensure that members of the migrant caravan headed north through Mexico do not illegally enter the United States.
        But after touring the largest port of entry along that border Friday, the head of Customs and Border Protection conceded that his officers don’t have a way to speed up their ability to process caravan members trying to enter the country legally by requesting asylum.
        While visiting the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the main crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said his agency views the looming arrival of the migrant caravan as a “law enforcement situation.”
        He said his Border Patrol agents and members of the military will be ready to rapidly deploy anywhere along the nearly 2,000-mile border to ensure the caravan does not force its way across the border, as it did when it crossed from Guatemala into Mexico.
        “We’re not going to allow a large group to push into the United States unlawfully,” he said.    “We can’t have it.    It’s not safe for anybody involved.”
        But the last migrant caravan that reached the United States earlier this year showed that most participants took the legal route by applying for asylum.    According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 122 caravan members were caught illegally crossing the border, but 401 requested asylum, with 93 percent passing their initial screening.
        Still, McAleenan said his hands are tied as to how his officers can process more caravan members who present themselves at ports of entry, as the Department of Homeland Security has urged them to do.
        “It’s not turning people away; it’s asking them to wait,” he said.
        McAleenan’s tour of the border comes as the Trump administration searches for a way to dissuade or halt the migrant caravan that has been estimated at up to 10,000 people.
        Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said during her own tour of the California border Friday that “everything is on the table,” including a proposal to halt all asylum requests along the southern border.
        Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, under pressure from President Donald Trump, announced that caravan members who stay in the southern portion of his country would be given temporary work permits and access to public health benefits, education and shelters.    None of that has stopped the majority of caravan members, who continue their slow trek north.    U.S. officials are updating their mass migration response plans all across the border because it remains unclear where or when the group will arrive.
        McAleenan, who oversees Customs officers who man the nation’s ports of entry and Border Patrol agents who monitor the vast stretches in between, said the ideal place would be the San Ysidro port.    Officials there finalized a multiyear, $750 million upgrade in August that vastly expanded the number of lanes available for cargo trucks, buses, personal vehicles and pedestrians.    About 100,000 people cross through the port each day.
        Despite improvements, the facility can only process about 100 asylumseekers each day, housing them in basement holding cells.    McAleenan said they are often stuck there until space opens up in detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for adults and the Department of Health and Human Services for minors.
        “We’re not going to allow a large group to push into the United States unlawfully.    We can’t have it.    It’s not safe for anybody involved.” Kevin McAleenan, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
    Customs and Border Protection head Kevin McAleenan is briefed
    at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing. ALAN GOMEZ/USA TODAY

    10/28/2018 Pres. Trump: Fake, Dishonest Reporting Fuels Division, Hatred Among Americans by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Oct. 11, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump listens to a question during a ceremony
    in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File )
        President Trump blasts the mainstream media over its attempts to tie him to recent acts of violence.
        The president took to twitter Sunday criticizing the media for its negative coverage of his administration.
        President Trump slammed, what he called, the fake and dishonest reporting of some mainstream outlets.
        This comes after several reports blamed Republicans for last week’s bomb threats, as well as the synagogue shooting in Pennsylvania.
        President Trump also suggested the negative media coverage of his work and his supporters is stirring hostility and division among the American people.

    10/28/2018 Defense Secy Mattis Discusses Military’s Role In Preparing For Migrant Caravan by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this July 14, 2018 file photo, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis
    addresses a press conference at the Ministry of Defense in Olso, Norway. (Jim Watson/Pool Photo via AP, File)
        Defense Secretary James Mattis discusses the military’s role in making preparations, as the so called migrant caravan continues to advance toward the United States.
        Mattis described the DOD’s activities as defense support for the civilian authorities on the border.
        He explained the agencies are in a planning phase, using an approach which is similar to the way they prepare for a major storm.
        “We are planning logistics right now, said Mattis.    Obviously, logistics are always are a tough part, where you have to actually line up where is the gear at, where are the troops at for the mission.    Our staffs have meeting over the last three days, they’re meeting now, they’re meeting tomorrow, and we’ll make certain we have whatever material, just like we do for storms.”
        Mattis went on to say orders are being drafted and materials like barriers and construction supplies are being sent, in case they are needed.

    10/28/2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue Suspect To Make Court Appearance Monday by OAN Newsroom
    A person brings flowers to a makeshift memorial at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
        Pennsylvania authorities say the synagogue shooting suspect is set to make his first court appearance on Monday.
        Officials released the names of 11 victims ranging from 54 to 97-years-old Sunday, three who are women.
        The crime scene is expected to take up to a week to process following Sundays removal of the bodies.
        Officials reported multiple weapons were recovered, including an AR-15 and three Glock handguns.
        They also gave an update on those injured, saying a second officer will soon be out of the hospital.
        Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto called the shooting the “darkest day” in the city’s history.
        Peduto claims armed guards would not have prevented the attack, however, some Jewish groups say otherwise.

    10/29/2018 German governing parties punished in state election
        Germany’s governing parties lost significant support in a state election Sunday that was marked by discontent with infighting in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national government and prompted calls for her administration to get its act together quickly.
        Projections showed Merkel’s conservatives heading for an extremely lackluster win in the vote for the central Hesse region’s state legislature.

    10/29/2018 State election losses further dent Merkel’s authority by Joseph Nasr
    FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a news conference
    after a Syria summit, in Istanbul, Turkey October 27, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced calls on Monday from her own conservatives to cede the party’s leadership, further eroding her authority after painful losses in a regional election.
        Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) came home first in Sunday’s election in the western state of Hesse but support fell by more than 11 points, reigniting a succession debate by conservatives unhappy with the chancellor’s grip on power.
        She will also have to contend with pressure from her Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners, who have also bled support in Hesse and are under pressure to rethink their alliance with Merkel.
        SPD leader Andrea Nahles, whose party saw support fall to its lowest since 1946, has threatened to end the alliance with Merkel’s conservatives if there is no improvement on policy.
        Merkel, chancellor for 13 years, will have to invest her political capital and tactical acumen to keep together her loveless coalition, borne out of necessity seven months ago after an inconclusive federal election last year.
        This will distract her from tending to major challenges at home and abroad – ranging from overcoming a digital deficit and pushing the German car industry toward cleaner mobility to seeing through euro zone reforms and managing Britain’s planned departure from the European Union.
        “The election results show that people expect renewal from the CDU,” conservative lawmaker Matern von Marschall told the Stuttgarter newspaper.
        His CDU colleague Christian von Steffen was more blunt: “We need a meaningful program with a clear path and new faces.”
        A senior CDU member told Reuters that party leaders wanted to discuss the possibility of Merkel reversing her decision to seek re-election as party chairwoman in December.
        “This should be discussed,” the member of the CDU governing board told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.    CDU leaders will meet next Sunday to prepare for a summit in December where party members will vote for a new chairman.
        Nahles is also feeling the heat from SPD members still disgruntled with their leaders’ decision to join Merkel instead of fulfilling an election promise to sit in opposition if they fail to win the federal vote.
        Nahles said on Sunday she would propose a roadmap to allow the SPD to measure the progress of the ruling coalition, which has been plagued by infighting, at a mid-term review next year.
        Her proposal did little to appease the head of the SPD’s youth wing, who said the election in Hesse was a clear signal that the ruling coalition was not viable.
        “The final verdict on the coalition has been spoken,” Kevin Kuehnert wrote in Twitter.    “Voters don’t want ‘business as usual.'”
        Merkel’s coalition was twice on the brink of collapse, once over immigration policy and then over a dispute about the fate of the domestic intelligence chief who was accused of harboring far-right views.
        The instability has further eroded the credibility of the conservatives and the SPD in the eyes of German voters, who are increasingly turning to smaller parties on the right and on the left.
        In Hesse, where Merkel’s CDU rule with the ecologist Greens, the two biggest winners were the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
    (Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    10/29/2018 U.S.-bound migrants enter Guatemala, others clash at border by Nelson Renteria and Delphine Schrank
    Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the United States,
    rest on the roadside in Tapanatepec, Mexico, October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
        SONSONATE, El Salvador/TAPANATEPEC, Mexico (Reuters) – A new group of migrants bound for the United States set off from El Salvador and crossed into Guatemala on Sunday, following thousands of other Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence who have taken similar journeys in recent weeks.
        The group of more than 300 Salvadorans left the capital San Salvador on Sunday.    A larger group of mostly Hondurans, estimated to number between 3,500 and 7,000, who left their country in mid-October and are now in southern Mexico, has become a key issue in U.S. congressional elections.
        A third group broke through a gate at the Guatemala border with Mexico in Tecun Uman on Sunday, and clashed with police.    Local first responders said that security forces used rubber bullets against the migrants, and that one person, Honduran Henry Adalid, 26, was killed.
        Six police officers were injured, said Beatriz Marroquin, the director of health for the Retalhuleu region.
        Mexico’s Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete told reporters on Sunday evening that federal police did not have any weapons, even to fire plastic bullets.
        He said that some of the migrants had guns while others had Molotov cocktails, and this information had been passed on to other Central American governments.
        Guatemala’s government said in a statement that it regrets that the migrants didn’t take the opportunity of dialogue and instead threw stones and glass bottles at police.
        U.S. President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to make immigration a major issue ahead of Nov. 6 elections, in which the party is battling to keep control of Congress.
        Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on “Fox News Sunday” said Trump was determined to use every authority he had to stop immigrants from crossing the border illegally.
        “We have a crisis at the border right now … This caravan is one iteration of that but frankly we essentially see caravans every day with these numbers,” she said.
        “I think what the president is making clear is every possible action, authority, executive program, is on the table to consider, to ensure that it is clear that there is a right and legal way to come to this country and no other ways will be tolerated,” Nielsen added.
        Trump has threatened to shut down the border with Mexico and last week said he would send troops.    On Friday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authorized the use of troops and other military resources at the U.S.-Mexico border.
    BLISTERING HEAT
        By Sunday evening, hundreds of the Salvadorans had crossed the border into Guatemala, having walked and hitched rides in pickups and on buses from the capital.
        They organized using social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp over the last couple of weeks, inspired by the larger group in Mexico.
        Salvadoran police traveled with the group, who carried backpacks and water bottles and protected themselves from the hot sun with hats.
        Several migrants, gathered by the capital’s ‘Savior of the World’ statue before leaving, said they were headed to the United States.
        El Salvador’s left-wing government said it had solidarity with the migrants and respected their right to mobilize, but urged them not to risk their lives on the way.
        In Mexico, the original group of Hondurans, exhausted by constant travel in blistering heat, spent Sunday resting up in the town of Tapanatepec, Oaxaca, planning to head north at 3 am on Monday.
        “It’s far … the farthest yet,” said Honduran Bayron Baca, 26, pulling open a map that Red Cross volunteers had given him in a medical tent.
        Dozens took dips in a nearby river to refresh themselves from the trek, which has covered an average 30 miles (48 km) a day.
        An estimated 2,300 children were traveling with the migrant caravan, UNICEF said in a statement, adding that they needed protection and access to essential services like healthcare, clean water and sanitation.
        Eduardo Grajales, a Red Cross volunteer in Arriaga, Mexico, attending to migrants on Friday night, said the worst case his colleagues had seen that day was of a baby so badly sunburned from the tropical heat, he had to be hospitalized.
    (Reporting by Nelson Renteria and Delphine Schrank, additional reporting by Carlos Rawlins, Sofia Menchu and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Christine Murray; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Rosalba O’Brien and Darren Schuettler)

    10/29/2018 Central American migrants ‘push and kick’ their way through border fence by OAN Newsroom
        Members of a migrant caravan recently forced their way through a gate at Mexico’s southern border.
        According to Sunday reports, more than 100 Central American migrants forced their way through a customs gate connecting Guatemala and Mexico.
        Officials said several Guatemalan police officers and migrants were injured as the group “pushed and kicked” its way through the gate.
    Central American migrants try to force their way through a customs gate at the border bridge connecting Guatemala and Mexico,
    in Tecun Uman, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018. A new group of migrants, who called themselves a second caravan, gathered on a bridge after
    forcing their way through a gate at the Guatemalan end and clash with Mexican authorities. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy)
        This incident comes just more than a week after separate reports showed migrants clashing with Mexican riot police along Mexico’s southern border.
        About 50 migrants were able to push through and others threw rocks at police before officers deployed pepper spray to regain control.
        At least one person was reportedly killed and six police officers were hurt.
    Central American migrants run from Mexican authorities during clashes on a border bridge that connects
    Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018. A new group of migrants, who called
    themselves a second caravan, gathered on a bridge after forcing their way through a gate at the Guatemalan end. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy)
        Mexico offered members of the caravan long-term work last Friday if they agreed to apply for asylum in Mexico.    While some are accepting that offer, others are determined to reach the United States.
        Meanwhile, President Trump is calling on the migrants to go back, saying they will not be admitted into the U.S. unless they go through the legal process.
        The president made the comment on Twitter Monday.    He said many gang members and some very bad people are mixed into the caravan.    The president went on to call the caravans an invasion of our country.
        President Trump has said he will close the southern border and send U.S. troops to aid border security officials.    The Pentagon has already approved the deployment of 5,000 active duty service members if needed.

    10/29/2018 Thousands of U.S. troops could be sent to Mexico border: sources by Phil Stewart
    Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the U.S.,
    walk on the train tracks, in Arriaga, Mexico October 26, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thousands of U.S. troops may be headed to the border with Mexico ahead of a caravan of migrants trekking toward the United States, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, offering much higher estimates than the 800 to 1,000 initially forecast.
        The Pentagon declined comment on potential troop numbers, saying planning was still underway for a mission that risks drawing the U.S. military into a politically charged operation just days ahead of Nov. 6 mid-term congressional elections.
        President Donald Trump, who has seized upon the Central American migrant caravan in campaign rallies ahead of the vote, said on Twitter that the military would be waiting for the procession — suggesting a far more direct role in confronting the migrants than U.S. defense officials have previously suggested.
        “Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border,” Trump tweeted.
        “Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” he added.
        U.S. officials told Reuters last week the military will have not have an active law enforcement role, instead sending engineers, pilots and other support staff including some that may be able deal with crowd control on the U.S. side of the border. Pentagon officials declined comment on Monday.
        Last week, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authorized the use of troops and other military resources at the U.S-Mexico border.    U.S. officials told Reuters they would begin deploying as soon as Tuesday and their mission was authorized through mid-December.
        That authorization could be extended, they noted.
        Mattis’ authorization last week allowed the military to provide “mission-enhancing capabilities” to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help build temporary barriers and housing.
        On Sunday, Mattis told reporters that some construction materials were already being moved to the border, including barriers.    He said the Department of Defense was still planning the logistics and details of the deployment.
        Mattis suggested the mission would take time to develop, saying it would be a “phased” operation. U.S. officials have told Reuters the support mission would be coordinated by the U.S. military’s Northern Command.
        Trump, who campaigned against illegal immigration to win the 2016 U.S. presidential vote, has seized on this caravan in the run-up to the congressional elections, firing up support for his Republican Party, which is seeking to maintain control of Congress.
        If the Republicans lose Congress, it could make it much harder for Trump to pursue his policy agenda in the remaining two years of his term in office.
        Estimates on the size of the caravan vary from around 3,500 to more than double that.    Some migrants have abandoned the journey, deterred by the hardships or the possibility of making a new life in Mexico.    Others joined it in southern Mexico.
        Trump’s decision to call in the military appears to be a departure from past practice, at least in recent years, in which such operations were carried out by National Guard forces — largely part-time military members who are often called upon to serve in response to domestic emergencies.
        There are 2,100 U.S. National Guard forces at the border already, sent after a previous Trump request in April.
        The decision to send active duty forces this time gives the Pentagon the ability to more rapidly mobile greater capability than would be immediately available with the Guard, officials tell Reuters.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)

    10/29/2018 Election of far-right president in Brazil cheered by Trump, markets by Ricardo Brito and Rodrigo Viga Gaier
    Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL),
    react after Bolsonaro wins the presidential race, in Brasilia, Brazil October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former Army captain who won Brazil’s presidential election in convincing fashion, rode a wave of enthusiasm on Monday from giddy supporters, bullish investors and budding ally U.S. President Donald Trump.
        Bolsonaro, who early in his legislative career declared he was “in favor” of dictatorships and demanded that Congress be disbanded, vowed on Sunday to adhere to democratic principles while holding up a copy of the country’s Constitution.
        U.S. President Donald Trump said he had an “excellent call” congratulating Bolsonaro and tweeted about their plans to “work closely together on Trade, Military and everything else!”
        Markets also cheered Bolsonaro’s victory, sending Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index to an all-time high on his pledges to balance the federal budget and privatize state firms.
        Bolsonaro’s win alarmed critics around the globe, given his defense of Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, vows to sweep away leftist political opponents and a track record of denigrating comments about gays, women and minorities.
        His victory brings Brazil’s military back into the political limelight after it spent three decades in the barracks following the country’s return to civilian rule.    Several retired generals will serve as ministers and close advisers.
        “You are all my witnesses that this government will defend the constitution, of liberty and of God,” Bolsonaro said in a Facebook live video in his first comments after his victory.
        The president-elect’s future chief of staff told Reuters his first international trip would be to Chile — one of the South American neighbors that swung to the right in recent elections.
        An outspoken Trump admirer, Bolsonaro also vowed to realign Brazil with more advanced economies such as the United States, overhauling diplomatic priorities after nearly a decade and a half of leftist rule.
        The 63-year-old former paratrooper joins a list of populist, right-wing figures to win elections in recent years such as Trump, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
        Trump’s friendly call augurs closer political ties between the two largest economies in the Americas – both now led by conservative populists promising to overturn the political establishment.
        Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist with Rio de Janeiro State University, said he was concerned that the tense and violent atmosphere that enveloped Brazil’s election campaign may continue.
        “It’s a worrying scenario.    It’s possible that even with his win, we could see a further wave of violence among Bolsonaro’s supporters against those who backed his opponent,” Santoro said.
        Bolsonaro supporters carried out several attacks in the run-up to Sunday’s vote, in particular targeting Brazilian journalists, according to a tally kept by Abraji, an investigative journalism group.
        Bolsonaro himself was stabbed at a rally last month and will need to undergo surgery in mid-December.
    EASY WIN
        Bolsonaro won 55.2 percent of votes in a run-off election against left-wing hopeful Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), who garnered 44.8 percent, according to electoral authority TSE.
        The fiery lawmaker’s rise has been propelled by rejection of the leftist PT that ran Brazil for 13 of the last 15 years and was ousted two years ago in the midst of a deep recession and political graft scandal.
        Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters cheered and set off fireworks outside his home in Rio de Janeiro’s beachfront Barra de Tijuca neighborhood as his victory was announced.
        “I don’t idolize Bolsonaro and I don’t know if he will govern well, but we are hopeful.    People want the PT out, they can’t take any more corruption,” said Tatiana Cunha, a 39-year-old systems analyst in the midst of the noisy celebrations.
        Investors cheered Bolsonaro’s ascent, relieved that he could keep the PT out of power and hopeful that he would carry out fiscal reforms proposed by his orthodox economic guru.
        Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose as much as 3 percent to an all-time high in opening trade, led higher by shares of state-owned firms and blue-chips.
        State lender Banco do Brasil SA rose nearly 5 percent and state oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA opened 4 percent higher at an 8.5-year high.
        Brazil’s currency, the real, gained around 10 percent against the dollar this month and interest rate futures have tightened dramatically as Bolsonaro’s prospects improved.
        Investors are particularly heartened by his choice of Paulo Guedes, a Chicago University-trained economist and investment banker, as future economy minister.
        Guedes, who wants to privatize an array of state firms, said on Sunday the new government will try to erase Brazil’s budget within deficit in a year, simplify and reduce taxes, and create 10 million jobs by cutting payroll taxes.    New rules will boost investment in infrastructure, he told reporters.
    BIG CHALLENGES
        Still, Fitch Ratings on Monday highlighted the “deep fiscal challenges” confronting Bolsonaro’s team, as weak growth and a huge budget deficit give little room to maneuver.
        “The exact details of how his administration plans to achieve (its) objectives are limited,” wrote Fitch analysts led by Shelly Shetty.    “The lack of fiscal space, a high unemployment rate and a sluggish economic recovery will also likely limit economic policy options.”
        Onyx Lorenzoni, a fellow congressman whom Bolsonaro has tapped as chief of staff, told journalists that Guedes would be responsible for structuring an independent, autonomous central bank with targets.
        Asked about Brazil’s currency, Lorenzoni said Bolsonaro would offer businesses more predictability, but ruled out an exchange rate target.
        In a separate interview with Reuters, he said the president-elect would meet with Guedes and other members of his team on Tuesday.    He will oversee the transition from Rio this week and fly to the capital Brasilia next week, Lorenzoni added.
        In parallel, representatives for Bolsonaro will begin meeting this week with President Michel Temer’s team to start work ahead of the Jan. 1 inauguration.
    (Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Rio de Janeiro and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro, Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo and Jake Spring in Brasilia; Editing by Neil Fullick and Alistair Bell)

    10/29/2018 Wall Street claws back as financials lead by Lewis Krauskopf
    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
        (Reuters) – U.S. stocks gained on Monday, helped by relief over Italy maintaining its debt rating, as equities clawed back from a sharp sell off last week.
        Financials <.SPNY> led broad gains among sectors as the benchmark S&P 500 rose more than 1 percent.
        Shares of software maker Red Hat Inc gave among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500, surging 45.3 percent after the company agreed to be bought by IBM Corp for $34 billion.    IBM shares fell 1.9 percent.
        Still, stocks had come off their session highs, as investors were wary of any rally given increased volatility over the past month, stemming from higher interest rates and worries about the economy and trade tensions.    The S&P last week flirted with correction territory.
        “They were so oversold, it invited a bounce,” said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee.    “The question is whether or not it can go anywhere.”
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 254.08 points, or 1.03 percent, to 24,942.39, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 34.9 points, or 1.31 percent, to 2,693.59 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 63.18 points, or 0.88 percent, to 7,230.39.
        Investors who are bullish about stocks point to strong corporate earnings and economic strength, although weak housing data has raised some concern about the economy.
        Data on Monday showed U.S. consumer spending rose for a seventh straight month in September, but income recorded its smallest gain in more than a year amid moderate wage growth, suggesting the current pace of spending was unlikely to be sustained.
        “Many investors are starting to take a step back from all the noise and are looking at the strong fundamentals of the U.S. economy right now,” said Arian Vojdani, an investment strategist at MV Financial in Bethesda, Maryland.
        Earlier, relief over Italy dodging a ratings downgrade helped global sentiment and overturned an earlier fall in U.S. stock futures.
        Shares of carmaker Ford Motor Co rose 5.1 percent, while General Motors Co gained 3.7 percent after Bloomberg reported China was planning to cut the tax levied on car purchases by half.
        Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.62-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
        The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 20 new highs and 54 new lows.
    (Additional reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Thomas)

    10/29/2018 End of era beckons as Merkel says will not stand again as chancellor by Andreas Rinke and Paul Carrel
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacts as she attends a news conference following
    the Hesse state election in Berlin, Germany, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she would not seek re-election as party chairwoman and that her fourth term as chancellor would be her last, heralding the end of a 13-year era in which she has dominated European politics.
        Merkel, 64, has been chairwoman of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2000 and chancellor since 2005.    Her decision to step down as chairwoman comes after her party suffered its second regional election setback in as many weeks.
        Merkel made the announcement a day after Sunday’s vote in the state of Hesse, at which the CDU came first but suffered a slump in support from the last election there in 2013.
        “I have the firm feeling that today the time has come to open a new chapter,” Merkel, looking serious but calm, told reporters in Berlin after a meeting of the CDU’s leadership.
        Drawing the consequences of the CDU’s weak result in Hesse and dissatisfaction with her coalition, she said: “Firstly, at the next CDU party congress in December in Hamburg, I will not put myself forward again as candidate for the CDU chair.”
        “Secondly, this fourth term is my last as German chancellor.    At the federal election in 2021, I will not stand,” she added.
        The move sets in motion the process for the CDU to settle on and groom Merkel’s successor.    It caused the euro to fall briefly and German government bond yields rose.
        Stepping down as CDU chairwoman further undermines Merkel’s authority, as she had previously said the party chair and chancellery should be held by the same person.
        Her authority has already been dented this year by the two regional election setbacks and a close ally losing his role as leader of her conservatives’ parliamentary group.
        Merkel has loomed large on the European stage since 2005, helping guide the EU through the euro zone crisis and opening Germany’s doors to migrants fleeing war in the Middle East in 2015 – a move that still divides the bloc and Germany.
        “We are witnessing a continuation of the pattern in place ever since Merkel’s mistakes in the 2015 migration crisis: the gradual but steady erosion of her political power,” said Carsten Nickel, managing director at Teneo, a consultancy.
        “Rather than outright instability in Germany and Europe, it simply means a continuation of the current leadership vacuum.”
        Monday’s news came as a surprise to CDU party officials, who had expected Merkel to seek re-election as chairwoman at a party congress in Hamburg in early December.
        The shock move started the race in the CDU to succeed Merkel.    It also raises questions about whether she can stage manage a smooth exit.
        Merkel is under pressure from her Social Democrat coalition partners to deliver more policy results and the center-left party could yet pull out of the government at a mid-term review next year.
        Germany’s other leading CDU chancellors – Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl – both had messy ends to their time in office.
    SUCCESSION RACE
        Merkel standing down from the party chair will allow a new CDU chairman or chairwoman to build a profile before the next national election.
        Merkel said CDU party Secretary General Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Health Minister Jens Spahn – a leading critic of the chancellor – had announced they would seek the party chair.    Party sources said Friedrich Merz, a former parliamentary leader of Merkel’s conservative alliance, would also run.
        Merkel’s weakness at home may limit her capacity to lead in the European Union at a time when the bloc is dealing with Brexit, a budget crisis in Italy and the prospect of populist parties making gains at European parliament elections next May.
        When Merkel came into office in 2005, George W. Bush was U.S. president, Jacques Chirac was in the Elysee Palace in Paris and Tony Blair was British prime minister.
        In Sunday’s vote in Hesse, the CDU came out top but lost 11 percentage points in support from the last election in 2013.
        “With these latest results, it has simply become untenable that Merkel continues to lead the CDU,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director at Eurasia Group, a consultancy.
    (Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    10/29/2018 Greek students clash with police in central Athens
    Riot police officers try to avoid flames from a petrol bomb during clashes as Greek students demonstrate
    against a draft bill changing university entrance requirements in Athens, Greece, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
        ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek youths clashed with police in central Athens on Monday as a protest against education reform turned violent when it reached parliament’s Syntagma square.
        Protesters threw stones, flares and petrol bombs at police who responded with teargas.
        The incidents occurred during a march by students to parliament, protesting against a draft bill changing university entrance requirements.
        Reuters witnesses saw at least three petrol bombs hurled by demonstrators, who also threw flares.    Police responded with rounds of teargas.
        The incidents ended almost as rapidly as they started and the central square soon opened up for traffic.
        Reforms wanted by the education ministry include curriculum changes in the final year of high school and alterations to what are now uniform entrance exams to university, irrespective of the chosen field of study.
        High school students say the changes will increase the exam burden and create a system which discourages critical thought.
    (Reporting by Athens newsroom,; Editing by Alison Williams and Ed Osmond)

    10/29/2018 U.S. urges EU to stop WTO steel spat, hopes for deal with Canada, Mexico by Tom Miles
    FILE PHOTO: Dennis Shea U.S. Ambassador to the WTO arrives for the General Council meeting at the
    World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, July 26, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States urged European Union governments on Monday to reflect on whether it was really in their interest for the EU to go ahead with a trade dispute over U.S. metals tariffs, and said it was hopeful of settling the issue with Mexico and Canada.
        U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea told the WTO’s monthly dispute settlement meeting, which was considering 12 requests for adjudication over U.S. tariffs and related retaliation, that Washington was “>deeply disappointed” with the EU’s stance.
        “We would encourage the European countries to consider carefully their broader economic, political, and security interests,” Shea said, according to a transcript of his remarks seen by Reuters.
        But another U.S. trade official later told the same meeting that the United States had held constructive discussions on the tariffs with Canada and Mexico, the transcript showed.
        “The United States is hopeful these discussions may be concluded satisfactorily,” the official said.
        China, Norway, Russia and Turkey had also asked the WTO to judge the legality of the U.S. tariffs, despite Washington’s claim that they are based on national security and therefore outside WTO jurisdiction.
        “We will not allow China’s Party-State to fatally undermine the U.S. steel and aluminum industries, on which the U.S. military, and by extension global security, rely,” Shea said.
        National security claims were taboo for most of the WTO’s 23-year history, because trade diplomats feared a domino effect as countries cited national security to get out of a wide range of obligations.    But Shea suggested it would be even worse to try to challenge the U.S. national security claim.
        “The United States wishes to be clear: if the WTO were to undertake to review an invocation of (the national security exemption), this would undermine the legitimacy of the WTO’s dispute settlement system and even the viability of the WTO as a whole,” he said.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter)

    10/29/2018 Officials: Migrant Caravan Will Not Enter U.S. by OAN Newsroom
    U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, right, listens as Commander of United States
    Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command Gen. Terrence John O’Shaughnessy, left, speaks
    during a news conference in Washington, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, on the Department of Defense deployment to the Southwest border. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        The Pentagon announces how it will respond to the thousands of migrants headed toward the U.S. border.
        Officials Monday said there have been multiple resources deployed to address the approaching migrant caravans, including thousands of Border Patrol agents and Special Task Forces.
        They pointed to the recent violent acts by the caravan, after forcing their way through the Guatemala-Mexico border over the weekend, and warned they will not allow them to enter the U.S. unlawfully.
        Officials added the Mexican government has already offered the migrants a deal to stay in Mexico, including guaranteed shelter and employment, but that offer was denied.
        “By the end of this week we will deploy over 5,200 soldiers to the southwest border,” said Gen. Terrence John O’Shaughnessy.    That is just the start of this operation.    We’ll continue to adjust the numbers and inform you those but please know that’s an addition to the 2,092 that are already employed from our National Guard Operation Guardian support that’s been so effective.”
        This comes as President Trump is expected to announce a plan to deal with the caravan on Tuesday.

    10/29/2018 Secretary Pompeo: Iran’s economy faces deep recession amid corruption, bad policies by OAN Newsroom
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Alex Brandon/AP/Photo)
        According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Iranian economy is headed for a deep recession.
        In a tweet Monday, Secretary Pompeo said the Ayatollah regime is ruining the Iranian economy by moving money out of the country instead of creating jobs.
        He pointed to a recent report from the International Monetary Fund that forecast Iran’s GDP would fall 3.6-percent next year.
        Pompeo’s remarks come just ahead of a U.S. oil embargo against Iran due on Sunday, November 4.
        In the meantime, the Ayatollah Regime is seeking to maintain its business ties with the EU and protect itself from internal dissent.
        “Russia, China, India, European Union, some African countries and some countries from Latin America, they are our friends — we should work with them,” stated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.    “The U.S. showed that it not only opposed Iran’s government and not only Iran’s regime, but it is opposed Iran and Iranian nation.”
        Secretary Pompeo also said Iran’s economic struggle is a result of its support for the Assad government in Syria.

        10/29/2018 Synagogue shooter appears in court by OAN Newsroom
    This undated Pennsylvania Department of Transportation photo shows Robert Bowers,
    the suspect in the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh
    on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation via AP)
        The suspect accused of fatally shooting 11 people at synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend recently made his first court appearance.
        46-year-old Robert Bowers appeared before a judge Monday, where he waived a reading of the criminal complaint against him and the possible penalties he faces if convicted.
        He also waived his right to a bail hearing and will be held without bond.
        Leading prosecutor Scott Brady spoke with reporters following the hearing, where he confirmed Bowers will make a second court appearance on Thursday.
        Bowers has been indicted on 29 criminal counts, including first degree murder and assault.
        Meanwhile, the rabbi of the Tree Life Synagogue is claiming an extra security review is taking place in an effort to prevent future incidents from happening.
        While speaking Monday, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said security personnel is examining the deadly incident for the community.    He said it’s not just Pittsburgh that needs to examine the situation, but rather the Jewish community as a whole.
    Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life/Or L’Simcha Congregation stands
    across the street from the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
        Local residents where the shooting took place discussed ways they believe could combat future incidents.
        “Shouldn’t really need security you know, psychopaths are everywhere — the only way to defend against them is to defend yourselves typically,” said resident Mark Weiler.    “I’m an advocate for concealed carry in things like this and maybe that’s what the Jewish community needs to do.”
        Other locals said they will survive this incident and be stronger because of it, but will never be the same.

    10/30/2018 Strong Wall Street start ends in big drop - S& P 500 index falls just short of correction territory by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Wall Street took investors on a wild ride Monday, with the Dow swinging more than 900 points before closing down for the day.    The Standard & Poor’s 500 also shifted violently but avoided ending in official “correction” territory.
        The latest sell-off was prompted by renewed tariff worries.
        The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 350 points in morning trading before going into a free-fall that dragged it down 566 points from Friday’s close.    When trading ended, the blue-chip average was down 245 points, or 1 percent, at 24,443.    The broad S& P 500, which was up as much as 2 percent and fell nearly 4 percent from its high point for the day, closed down 0.7 percent at 2641.25 – or 9.9 percent off its Sept. 20 high.    That left the index just shy of the 10 percent drop needed for a correction.
        Stocks, which have been under pressure for weeks since the S& P 500 hit its high, continue to struggle under the weight of trade-war fears and concerns that the U.S. central bank will hike interest rates too aggressively and cause damage to the economy.
        The broad stock market gauge turned sharply lower in the afternoon after Bloomberg reported that the U.S. is preparing to announce more tariffs on China in early December if talks between President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping are not able to ease the trade war in talks.
        That news triggered a fresh round of selling by investors who are increasingly concerned that a protracted trade fight with China, the world’s second- biggest economy, will cause the U.S. economy and foreign economies to slow.
        Many leading stocks fell, including Amazon.com, which dropped more than 6 percent, and video streaming service Netflix, which slipped more than 5 percent, and airplane maker Boeing, which cratered more than 6.5 percent after one of its Boeing 737 planes was involved in a deadly crash in Indonesia.
        With the S&P 500 now in danger of suffering its second corrective phase this year following a 10.2 percent drop that ended in early February, Wall Street is debating whether the 9-year-old bull market is in danger of falling more and vulnerable to its first bear market, or a 20 percent-plus drop.
        “It doesn’t take heavy analysis to recognize this market is now approaching bear territory,” Michael Wilson, equity strategist at Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley, told clients in a report.
        While the broad S&P 500 is down only about 10 percent from its high, more than 40 percent of U.S. stocks, he says, have fallen more than 20 percent from their highs in the past year.
        The main worry is that the economic challenges that are building could cause investors to re-evaluate their high expectations for corporate profits in the quarters ahead.    While earnings for companies in the July-September quarter are seen growing at a 20 percent clip for the third consecutive quarter, Wall Street pros are worried that earnings will slow next year from the 10 percent growth now expected by analysts.    What could cause the drag?    Higher wages and rising commodities costs due to tariffs.

    10/30/2018 Reinforcing the US-Mexico border
        As several thousand migrants tramp through Mexico, heading for the United States, the Pentagon is sending 5,200 troops to the border ahead of them.
        The troops will not be carrying out law enforcement activities.
        Instead, they will provide support services for the regular agents of the border patrol.    They are to be added to the 2,100 National Guardsmen already deployed at the border.
        The caravan, estimated to consist of as many as 7,000 people, is headed slowly north.
        The new deployment is seen as the latest effort by the Trump administration to show robust border security in the days before the midterm elections.
    Customs and Border Protection agents stand guard at the Gateway International Bridge
    in Brownsville, Texas, on Monday. JASON HOEKEMA/THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD VIA AP

    10/30/2018 Pentagon to deploy troops to border - 5,200 sent south to head off caravan by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Just one week shy of the midterm elections, the Pentagon will deploy at least 5,200 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to prevent members of a migrant caravan from illegally entering the country, the Department of Defense announced Monday.
        About 2,100 National Guard troops already were fanned out across the border under an order from President Donald Trump earlier this year.    In recent weeks, the president has been warning repeatedly about the dangers posed by the caravan of mostly Central American migrants.
        Critics accused Trump of using the Pentagon as a tool to rally his political base ahead of the midterm elections by drumming up anti-immigrant fears.
        “At a moment we need a president that helps the nation heal and unite, we have one that is ripping us apart and using racism, xenophobia and antisemitism as strategic weapons in the run up to the elections,” tweeted Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group.
        The caravan stands at about 3,500 people after 1,700 of them filed asylum applications in Mexico or accepted assistance to return to their home countries.
        Administration officials said last week that they were considering a plan to send up to 1,000 active-duty troops to the border. But that deployment, dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot, will surpass 5,200, said Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of U.S. Northern Command.
        “That is just the start of this operation,” O’Shaughnessy said in a news conference Monday.    “Border security is national security.”
        The troops will not conduct law enforcement activities, but some will be armed as they provide support to Border Patrol agents along the border.
        National Guard units have already been assisting by monitoring video surveillance feeds to direct Border Patrol agents patrolling the vast stretches between U.S. ports of entry.    The new deployment of active-duty troops will include helicopter and other aviation units armed with night vision technology to help identify anyone trying to illegally cross the border, and to deploy agents to apprehend them, O’Shaughnessy said.
        The operation will also include engineering units to build temporary barriers, lay out concertina wire at ports of entry and construct temporary housing for U.S. personnel, he said. About 800 troops are already en route to Texas from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, and more will follow this week headed toward Arizona and California.
        Typically, migrant caravans travel in numbers to seek safety and avoid risks such as kidnap, rape and extortion.    When the last migrant caravan reached the U.S. border in April, a majority of people presented themselves at ports of entry to request asylum, a legal way to enter the United States.
        Trump on Monday again claimed, without evidence, that the migrant caravan may have “many gang members” and “some very bad people.”    Reporters from USA TODAY and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, have not seen the presence of such individuals.    Supporters of the caravan have denied such allegations.    Many of the migrants are families traveling with children.
        Critics accused Trump of using the Pentagon as a tool in his political game by drumming up anti-immigrant fears to rally his political base in the leadup to the midterm elections.
    Contributing: David Jackson and Tom Vanden Brook in Washington.
    BORTAC secures the southwest Border in Arizona at the U.S. / Mexico border. NICK OZA/THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

    10/30/2018 Grand jury will be given Pittsburgh shooting case - Suspect called a danger to the community by John Bacon, Chris Kenning and Max Londberg, USA TODAY
        PITTSBURGH – The long-haul trucker accused of shooting and killing 11 worshipers in a hate-driven rampage at a local synagogue made a brief court appearance in a wheelchair Monday and was ordered back for a preliminary hearing Thursday.
        Robert Bowers, 46, was assigned a court-appointed lawyer and waived a reading of the charges he faces.    He was being held without bail for the attack the Anti-Defamation League called the deadliest against the Jewish community in U.S. history.
        Bowers, who was wounded in a gunfight with police during Saturday’s carnage at Tree of Life Synagogue, was released from a local hospital hours before the hearing.
        Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, said after the hearing that the case would be presented to a federal grand jury within 30 days.
        In court documents filed just before the hearing, prosecutors described Bowers as a danger to the community.
        Prosecutors wanted Bowers held without bail, asserting that “no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure” his appearance at future court hearings.
        Brady said earlier that he has begun the process of gaining the approval of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to pursue a death penalty case against Bowers.
        President Donald Trump has expressed support for Brady’s position, saying that “when people do this, they should get the death penalty.    And they shouldn’t have to wait years and years.”
        The White House announced that Trump and first lady Melania Trump would visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday “to express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community.” Brady said Bowers’ apartment in Baldwin, about 10 miles south of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the shooting took place, and his vehicle were being searched.    Jon Pushinsky, 64, a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue, came to watch the court proceedings, saying he wanted to bear witness.
        He was struck by Bowers’ everyday appearance.
        “It was not the face of villainy that I thought we’d see,” he said.
        Jean Clickner, another Tree of Life member in court to get a glimpse of Bowers, said she doesn’t support prosecutors’ push for the death penalty.    She said she is focused on helping heal the injured and grieving.
        Pushinsky and Clickner were members of Dor Hadash Congregation, one of those within the Tree of Life Synagogue.
        After the hearing, Brady read a statement to reporters but took no questions.    He promised to present a preliminary case at the next hearing Thursday at 10 a.m.
        “At that time, we will have the opportunity to present evidence demonstrating that Robert Bowers murdered 11 people who were exercising their religious beliefs, and that he shot or injured six others, four of whom were police officers responding to the shooting.”
        “Our investigation of these hate crimes continues,” he said.
        Authorities say Bowers, armed with a semiautomatic rifle and three Glock .357 handguns, burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue on Saturday, shouting anti-Semitic epithets and opening fire on the congregants.    Bowers was wounded in a shootout with police that left four officers injured, police say.
        Judah Samet, 80, said he arrived a few minutes late for the 9:45 a.m. service Saturday – and his tardiness probably saved his life.
        Samet, who survived 10 months at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II before serving in the Israeli Army, pulled into the parking lot and was told the rampage was underway.
        Samet said the shooter came outside when Bowers briefly exited the synagogue.
        “The bullets were whizzing by me” until Bowers went back inside, Samet said.    “He kept killing.    I was lucky.”
        Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said he had just started services when he heard the gunfire.
        He told eight congregants to duck behind the thick oak pews and remain silent while he hustled some near the front out of the room.
        The shooting grew louder and he could not make his way back, he said.    He raced to a safe space in the choir loft while calling police.
        Twenty minutes later, he was extricated by SWAT officers, he said.    One of the congregants left behind was shot but survived, he said.
        “The other seven of my congregants were gunned down in my sanctuary,” Myers told CNN.    “There was nothing I could do. ... I wish I could have done more.”
        Bowers is charged with 29 criminal counts, including 11 federal hate-crime charges.    Another 11 counts of using a firearm to kill carry a maximum penalty of death.
        All 11 victims died from rifle wounds, and several suffered head wounds, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said.
        The victims included middle-age brothers, an elderly husband and wife and a grandmother nearing 100.
        Barton Schachter recalled meeting one of the victims in the late ’80s, when the two coached Little League together.    Daniel Stein, Schachter said, loved baseball. He had an enormous smile.
        Recently, a new love had come into his life. Within the last year, the 71 year-old member of the Tree of Life congregation had his first grandchild, Schachter said.
        Stein’s smile spread across his face when he spoke of the grandchild.
        “He didn’t need to use a lot of words because he generated that enormous smile when he was talking about his kids, his grandchild, his synagogue,” Schachter said.
        Stein’s congregation, known as New Light, had only recently moved in with Tree of Life, Schachter said.
        Members had grown out of their former synagogue a few blocks away and were welcomed warmly about a year ago, sharing space with Jews from two different groups.    Their safe space of prayer and reflection abruptly turned into the scene of a bloodbath when Bowers allegedly burst in before 10 a.m. Saturday and started gunning down the congregants.
        David Haber, at his home overlooking Murray Avenue, called his wife when he noticed the street swarming with first responders.
        After he opened the front door, police officers yelled to get back inside.
        “We just watched it happen.    We stood at our door dumbfounded,” Pam Haber said.    “It was like a war zone.”
        Their front yard and street soon became the center of the police staging area.    They soon got a text that told them the shooting was at Tree of Life, their own synagogue.
        “Our beautiful utopia has been damaged,” David Haber said, adding he feels “somewhat violated.”
        The first burials have been scheduled for Tuesday, those close to the victims said.    Other families were waiting for the investigation to continue before they could quickly bury their loved ones as required by Jewish tradition.
        Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Londberg and Kenning reported from Pittsburgh. Contributing: Ryan Miller and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
        “Our beautiful utopia has been damaged.” David Haber
        “It was not the face of villainy that I thought we’d see.” Jon Pushinsky on suspect Robert Bowers
    A makeshift memorial welcomes mourners outside the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh. MATT ROURKE/AP

    10/30/2018 Bomber suspect appears in court by Sara Marino, USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA
        MIAMI — The strip club DJ accused of mailing bombs to critics of President Donald Trump will remain in Florida this week as lawyers prepare for his transfer to New York City for prosecution.
        Cesar Sayoc, 56, appeared in federal court Monday.    He faces five charges, including interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of an explosive and threats against former presidents.    If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 48 years in prison.
        U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres scheduled another hearing for Sayoc on Friday. Monday’s hearing was brief, with Sayoc’s lawyers asking for more time and the judge agreeing to hold him without bond.
        Prosecutors are seeking to transfer Sayoc to New York, where he will be prosecuted.    A New York City public defender has been appointed in the case.
        As Sayoc heads to court Monday, the FBI said its bomb squad in Atlanta is responding to “a suspicious package” at the U.S. Postal Service in downtown Atlanta.
        The FBI did not identify to whom the package was addressed.    But earlier in the day, CNN President Jeff Zucker announced that a suspicious package addressed to the cable television network was intercepted Monday at an Atlanta post office.
        Sayoc, who was living in a van for much of the last decade, listed his mother’s Aventura condominium as his residence.    When authorities confiscated the van Friday, it was covered in images of President Donald Trump, American flags and what appeared to be logos of the Republican National Committee and stickers criticizing Democrats and CNN.
        Sayoc is a registered Republican and last voted in the November 2016 election.    He graduated from North Miami Beach High School in 1980.
        Sayoc was working the night before his arrest as a DJ at a strip club in West Palm Beach.
        Authorities used a fingerprint found on an envelope sent to Rep. Maxine Waters to identify Sayoc as a suspect, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Friday.
        Wray said investigators tracked more than a dozen devices mailed to highprofile Democrats and their supporters that all were similar.    Each mailed device included 6 inches of PVC pipe, a small clock, battery, wiring and potentially explosive material.    The total number of bombs reached at least 14, including package sent to former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Democratic donor George Soros, and Florida U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman- Schultz. Authorities found a package Friday with a device in Florida addressed to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, another in New York addressed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a device recovered at Sen. Kamala Harris’ office in Sacramento, California, and another package that was intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, California, addressed to billionaire Tom Steyer.
        Sayoc’s recent social media posts paint a picture of a staunch supporter of Trump and Ron DeSantis, the GOP nominee for Florida governor who the president has endorsed, as well as Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
        Other posts vilify Democrat Andrew Gillum, Tallahassee’s mayor, who is locked in a fierce battle with DeSantis.
        Authorities focused last week on a postal distribution center in Opa-Locka after discovering several of the suspicious packages passed through it.
        Sayoc was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved with his family to South Florida as a child.
        Records show he has a history of arrests dating back to at least the early 1990s.    He also had financial troubles, filing for personal bankruptcy in 2012 during the Great Recession.
        Sayoc’s criminal history includes a 2015 arrest in Broward County for petty theft and probation violation, and a 2002 Miami-Dade charge for threatening to blow up Florida Power and Light.
    Contributing: The Associated Press.
    Cesar Sayoc.

    10/30/2018 President Trump considers building tent city to hold migrants applying for asylum by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is considering building a “tent city” along the southern border as a possible solution to the approaching migrant caravan.
        During an interview on Monday, the president explained the tents would be used to hold migrants who have applied for asylum while they wait for their case to go to trial.    He added, very few asylum applications are actually approved and those whose applications are rejected will be deported from the country.
        President Trump went on to blast the Obama administration for following a ‘catch and release’ policy, stressing how that will not happen under his watch.
    Children wait for a ride on the side of the road, as a caravan of Central Americans continues its slow march toward the U.S.
    border, near Tapanatepec, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. Thousands of migrants traveling together for safety resumed their
    journey after taking a rest day Sunday, while hundreds more migrants were pushing for entry to Mexico. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        In order to accomplish this, the president is sending thousands of military troops to secure the border.
        “This caravan that’s coming up is not getting through.    It’s — no way it’s getting through.    And, in fact, I called up the United States military to make sure.    People are not going to come through in the caravan.    They are going to apply, and they have to come through legally.    And we want a merit system, not this ridiculous system that we have.    Merit.” — President Donald Trump
        Defense Secretary James Mattis had originally approved sending around 800 service members to the border, however, that number has since grown to over 5,000.
        Around 800 soldiers from bases in Kentucky are on their way to Texas to help secure the border as the migrant caravans march closer to the U.S.    The soldiers are part of the 5,200 active duty troops of ‘Operation Faithful Patriot,’ which will be deployed to Texas, Arizona and California.
        Air Force General Terrance O’Shaughnessy announced the U.S. will send the remaining service members and weapons by the end of the week.
        This comes after police in Mexico clashed with migrants, leaving one dead after the group attempted to enter Mexico from Guatemala.
        O’Shaughnessy said the military will work to maintain immigration policies set by the commander-in-chief.
        In the meantime, President Trump has not elaborated on his proposed tent city, but he added it will be “very nice” and will cost less than building more permanent structures.
    A new group of Central American migrants wade in mass across the Suchiate River, that connects
    Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. The first group was able to cross the river
    on rafts — an option now blocked by Mexican Navy river and shore patrols. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy)

    10/31/2018 UK, Norway agree right to remain for their citizens after Brexit by Nerijus Adomaitis and Gwladys Fouche
    The London Eye, the Big Ben clock tower and the City of London financial district are seen from the
    Broadway development site in central London, Britain, August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
        OSLO (Reuters) – British citizens already living in Norway and Norwegian citizens living in Britain will have the right to remain residents, even in case of a no-deal Brexit, the prime ministers of Britain and Norway said on Tuesday.
        The agreement announced Tuesday was the first concrete step agreed between Britain and the Nordic country on terms that would apply after Britain leaves the EU in March.    Norway is not a member of the EU but is part of the single market as a member of the wider European Economic Area (EEA).
        “Prime Minister May and I agreed that Norway and UK will put in place a comprehensive citizens rights’ agreement,” said Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway.
        “We will treat all UK citizens living in Norway … so they will have the same opportunities as they had before also after March 2019,” she said, adding that Britain and Norway were “very close” on agreeing a deal to mirror any Brexit deal London concludes with Brussels.
        British Prime Minister Theresa May, visiting Oslo, said she was making the same commitment to Norwegian citizens, as part of a wider pledge to grant such rights to citizens of all EEA countries already living in Britain.
        “Whatever happens, we confirm that people from the EEA, the Norwegian citizens and those others who are living in the UK, and who have made their life choice to be in the UK, well, to be able to be in the UK.    We want them to stay.”     Solberg said that in the event Britain leaves the EU without a free trade deal with the EEA countries, the most challenging issue between Norway and Britain would be the trade in goods.
        “The most difficult part will be goods, especially from Norway to Britain, because there will be problems on the British side more than on our side,” she told Reuters.
        “We will have to deal only with Britain, but (Britain) will have to deal with everybody,” she said after a session of the Nordic Council at the Norwegian Parliament where May spoke earlier.
        Britain is Norway’s most important trading partner, buying oil, gas and fish.
        Still, Solberg said she “absolutely believed” that Oslo and London would be able to make “things function” between Norway and Britain even in the case of a hard Brexit.
    (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Peter Graff)

    10/31/2018 New Brexit vote may hamper independence goal, Scottish lawmaker says
    FILE PHOTO: Pete Wishart MP (2ndL) and John Swinney MSP arrive at Perth Congregational Church in Perth, Scotland
    October 18, 2014. A private memorial service was held to commemorate David Haines. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
        EDINBURGH (Reuters) – A senior member of the Scottish National Party has questioned his party’s backing for a second vote on European Union membership, arguing that it could undermine its Scottish independence goal.
        In a rare public sign of dissent Pete Wishart, an SNP lawmaker in Britain’s national parliament, said in a newspaper column that supporting a second “confirmatory” referendum could undercut the SNP’s goal of secession from the United Kingdom by inviting comparison.
        Infighting in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives is complicating her efforts to reach a deal in time for Brexit day on March 2019.    The SNP, Scotland’s biggest party, said this month it would back a second referendum on the issue — although Scotland already voted to keep its EU membership in 2016.
        Up to now the SNP had been one of the most unified parties on Brexit, supporting Britain’s continued membership of the single market and customs union.
        “There is now a view amongst the politicians leading the “People’s Vote” (second EU referendum) campaign that all big constitutional referendums should now have a “confirmatory” second vote,” Wishart wrote in Scottish newspaper The National.
        “By enthusiastically buying into this ‘confirmatory’ vote for an EU referendum we weaken our hand in resisting unionist calls for a second vote on a successful indyref (independence referendum).”
        In the UK’s 2016 referendum on EU membership, a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the bloc, while England – by far the most populous of the home nations – and Wales voted to leave.
        May has consistently ruled out the idea of a second Brexit referendum while Labour, whose ranks are also divided, has dithered over the issue.
    (Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)

    10/31/2018 U.S. general says troop numbers at Mexican border to rise further by Phil Stewart
    A U.S Custom and Border Protection agent guards one of the gates at the border on the
    international bridge between Mexico and the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. general overseeing a deployment of more than 5,200 troops to the border with Mexico said on Tuesday that troop levels would rise further, but declined to say how high or estimate what the operation will cost.
        Many basic questions remained unanswered a day after the Pentagon announced the open-ended deployment of over 5,200 active-duty troops to the border, including the scope of the mission as well as the Pentagon’s assessment of any threat posed by arriving migrants.
        President Donald Trump has hardened his stance on immigration ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections.    He has drawn attention to a caravan of migrants that is trekking through Mexico toward the United States as he seeks to fire up support for his Republican party, which is facing some tough battles as Democrats seek to wrest control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
        Republican lawmakers and other Trump supporters have applauded the deployment.    But critics say Trump is politicizing the military, deploying them as a stunt to drive Republican voters to the polls without any real national security threat.
        General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the head of U.S. Northern Command, defended the operation at a briefing on Tuesday.    He echoed Trump administration concerns about the caravan and compared the border support mission to other domestic military missions, like hurricane relief.
        “I firmly believe that border security is national security,” O’Shaughnessy said.
        The U.S. military still had no firm idea of what the operation would cost, he added.    Pentagon officials have said the Defense Department will need to find a way to pay for the operation, suggesting money may need to be taken from other national security programs.
        O’Shaughnessy said that just over 1,000 troops had deployed to Texas as of Tuesday, where they will carry out tasks like building barriers, erecting tents, and flying government personnel by helicopter to and from different locations along the border.
        He said the troops now slated to go to Texas, Arizona and California were only the start of a larger deployment and that eventually troops would go to New Mexico as well.
        “What I can confirm is there will be additional force over and above the 5,239.    The magnitude of that difference, I don’t have the answer for now,” he said.
        The projected U.S. deployment is already roughly the same size as the U.S. military contingent in Iraq.
        Trump railed against illegal immigration to win the 2016 presidential election and has seized on the caravan of Central American migrants at campaign rallies in the run-up to next week’s vote.
        Trump has characterized the migrants as an “invasion” and falsely stated they harbor terrorists and are financed in part by Democrats.
        O’Shaughnessy declined to comment on intelligence about the caravan when asked whether there were terrorists among the migrants.    He said the caravan was “different” than those seen by the United States in the past, adding that they were better organized.
        “We’ve seen violence coming out of the caravan,” O’Shaughnessy said.
        Mexico’s government said on Tuesday that it had deported two Honduran men for whom there were arrest warrants back home, one for homicide, the other for a drug-related offense.    The two men, ages 21 and 47, crossed into Mexico with the migrant caravan in the state of Chiapas.
        Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, estimated on Monday that the caravan was comprised of about 3,500 migrants.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler)

    10/31/2018 Thousands of Venezuelans head to Peru to beat residency deadline by Marco Aquino
    Venezuelan migrants queue to get the needed paperwork for a temporary residency permit
    outside the Interpol headquarters in Lima, Peru October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo
        LIMA (Reuters) – At least 6,000 Venezuelans lined up at Peru’s northern border on Tuesday in hopes of entering the country before a deadline for acquiring residency, and another 4,000 were due to arrive in the next two days, Peru’s ombudsman’s office said.
        Peru was one of the first countries to offer temporary residency cards for Venezuelans who have been fleeing their crisis-stricken homeland and crossing Colombia and Ecuador to reach Peru.
        As the number of Venezuelans in Peru has surged to nearly half a million, the government moved the deadline from the end of the year to the end of October.    They must enter the country by Wednesday to be eligible for the cards which allow them to live, work and study in the country legally.
        Peru also started requiring passports for entry.
        As the deadline has neared, a growing number of Venezuelans have crowded at Peru’s border with Ecuador, said Abel Chiroque, the head of the ombudsman’s office in the border town of Tumbes.
        “Demand for services is overwhelming … the capacity to respond has collapsed,” Chiroque said by phone, describing migrants who have been in line for nearly 24 hours.    “The situation is worrisome.”
        Chiroque said he asked the government to distribute tickets to Venezuelans in line when the deadline closes, so they can be eligible for the residency cards later.
        Peru’s immigration agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
        As oil-rich Venezuela’s economy has sunk into crisis under President Nicolas Maduro, as many as 1.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015, according to the United Nations.    Some 90 percent of recent departures, the U.N. says, remain in South America.
        The exodus has stressed social services and sparked concerns about crime and jobs in host countries, and many migrants are facing restrictive immigration laws and discrimination.
        Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra said Monday that Peru could not give residency to Venezuelans indefinitely.
    (Reporting By Marco Aquino, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

    10/31/2018 Bolsonaro’s economic guru urges quick Brazil pension reform by Rodrigo Viga Gaier
    A woman takes a t-shirt with the image of Brazil's new president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, in front of
    Bolsonaro's condominium at Barra da Tijuca neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The future economy minister tapped by Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro insisted on Tuesday that he wanted to fast-track an unpopular pension reform to help balance government finances despite mounting resistance to getting it done this year.
        Paulo Guedes, whom Bolsonaro selected as a “super minister” with a portfolio combining the current ministries of finance, planning and development, has urged Congress to pass an initial version of pension reform before the Jan. 1 inauguration.
        “Our pension funds are an airplane with five bombs on board that will explode at any moment,” Guedes said on Tuesday.    “We’re already late on pension reform, so the sooner the better.”
        He called the reform essential to controlling surging public debt in Latin America’s largest economy and making space for public investments to jump-start a sluggish economy.    Markets surged in the weeks ahead of Bolsonaro’s Sunday victory on the expectation that he could pull off the tough fiscal agenda.
        Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index <.BVSP> rose 3.7 percent on Tuesday, boosted by strong corporate earnings and the resolve shown by Guedes on pension reform.
        Yet the University of Chicago-trained economist, who is getting his first taste of public service, met with skepticism from more seasoned politicians.
        Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of the lower house of Congress, said on Tuesday that reform is urgent, but cautioned that the conditions to pass it were still far off.
        Major Olimpio, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s own party who helped run his campaign, agreed the political climate was not ready for reform.
        Even Bolsonaro’s future chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, said in a Monday radio interview that he only expects to introduce a reform plan next year.
        After a meeting with Lorenzoni, Guedes said the decision on timing was ultimately a political one that the chief of staff would weigh.
        “We can’t go from a victory at the ballot box to chaos in Congress,” Guedes told journalists.
        On other issues, Guedes made clear he was the final word on economic matters, laying out plans to give the central bank more institutional independence and clarifying comments made by Lorenzoni about exchange-rate policy.
        “You are all scared because he is a politician talking about the economy.    That’s like me talking about politics.    It’s not going to work,” Guedes said.
    HOT BUTTON ISSUES
        While advisers work out the details of his economic program, Bolsonaro revisited some of his most contentious campaign promises on Monday night: looser gun laws, a ban on government advertising for media that “lie,” and urging a high-profile judge to join his government.
        In interviews with TV stations and on social media, Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former Army captain who won 55 percent of Sunday’s vote after running on a law-and-order platform, made clear he would push through his conservative agenda.
        Bolsonaro said he wants Sergio Moro, the judge who has overseen the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption trials and convicted former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of graft, to serve as his justice minister.
        Barring that, he said he would nominate Moro to the Supreme Court.    The next vacancy on the court is expected in 2020.
        Bolsonaro had not formally invited Moro as of Tuesday afternoon, and the judge remained noncommittal on the proposal.
        “In case I’m indeed offered a post, it will be subject to a balanced discussion and reflection,” Moro said in a statement.
    MEDIA SHOWDOWN
        Late on Monday, Bolsonaro said in an interview with Globo TV that he would cut government advertising funds that flow to any “lying” media outlets.
        During his campaign, the right-winger imitated U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy of aggressively confronting the media, taking aim at Globo TV and Brazil’s biggest newspaper, the Folha de S.Paulo.
        “I am totally in favor of freedom of the press,” Bolsonaro told Globo TV.    “But if it’s up to me, press that shamelessly lies will not have any government support.”
        Bolsonaro was referring to the hundreds of millions of reais the Brazilian government spends in advertising each year in local media outlets, mainly for promotions of state-run firms.
        The UOL news portal, owned by the Grupo Folha, which also controls the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, used Brazil’s freedom of information act as the basis for a 2015 article that showed Globo received 565 million reais in federal government spending in 2014.    Folha got 14.6 million reais that year.
        Globo said on Tuesday that federal government advertising represented less than 4 percent of the revenue for its flagship channel, TV Globo, without providing more detailed figures.
        Grupo Folha did not reply to requests for comment.
    (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Brad Brooks; Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Larry King and Leslie Adler)

    10/31/2018 Each illegal immigrant costs $70K, according to Center for Immigration Studies report by OAN Newsroom
        According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the cost of illegal immigration is rising as the border surge reaches its highest level since 2011.
        In a report published Wednesday, the organization said the cost to taxpayers is around $70,000 per illegal immigrant, which is about seven times more than the cost of deportation.
        The CIS also reported the taxes paid by illegal immigrants are not enough to offset the cost of the services they consume, in turn, leaving a net cost of $70 billion dollars per year.
        The organization also said immigration as a whole in 2016 was equal to the highest numbers on record, with over 1.7 million people coming to the U.S. through legal and illegal means.
    Migrants climb on the trailer of a truck as others wait in a line for a ride on the road that connects Tapanatepec
    with Niltepec, Mexico, as a caravan of Central Americans continues its slow march toward the U.S. border, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        This report comes as President Trump continues to double-down on his stance on immigration amid the influx of non-citizens charging toward the border in a so-called migrant caravan.
        In a series of tweets Wednesday, the president told the thousands of Central American migrants making their way to the southern border to go home.
        He pointed out that many in the caravan are violently assaulting Mexican authorities as they attempt, with many succeeding, to cross into Mexico from Guatemala.
        President Trump called the U.S. border “sacred” and assured members of the caravan will not be let into the country.

    10/31/2018 Mexico’s ambassador to U.S. claims there are very violent migrants in caravan by OAN Newsroom
        Mexico’s U.S. Ambassador — Geronimo Gutierrez — is blasting Democrats for saying everyone in the migrant caravan are all peaceful refugees seeking asylum.
        On Tuesday, Gutierrez explained there have been multiple instances where migrants have been “very violent,” while rebelling against border authorities.
        This comes after Mexican officials warned some migrants in Guatemala are building makeshift bombs to use against police officers guarding the border between Mexico and Guatemala.
    This Oct. 29, 2018 photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows deployers from Headquarters Company, 89th Military Police Brigade,
    Task Force Griffin get ready to board a C-130J Super Hercules from Little Rock, Arkansas, at Fort Knox, Kentucky,
    in support of Operation Faithful Patriot. The Trump administration on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, announced plans to deploy 5,200 active duty troops,
    double the 2,000 who are in Syria fighting the Islamic State group, to the border to help stave off the caravans. (Airman 1st Class Zoe M. Wockenfuss/U.S. Air Force via AP)
        The Trump administration is sending over 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with the thousands of incoming migrants.
        Some troops have already arrived at their posts, while others are expected to be deployed by the end of the week.

    10/31/2018 Trump hardens stance on Mexico border, says 15,000 troops could be sent by Jeff Mason and Idrees Ali
    U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the "Our Pledge to America's Workers"
    event at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States could send as many as 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico, as he hardens his stance against a caravan of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.
        The numbers cited by Trump are significantly higher than defense officials have disclosed.    The Pentagon said on Monday it was deploying more than 5,200 troops to the border but that the number would rise.    On Wednesday, it said more than 7,000 troops would support the Department of Homeland Security along the border.
        Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have accused Trump of politicizing the military ahead of next week’s congressional elections with his plans to use active military personnel to buttress border patrol efforts.
        “As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out … We’ll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel, on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
        Trump did not say how many of those 15,000 would be National Guard.    There are already 2,100 U.S. National Guard forces at the border, sent after a previous Trump request in April, and they are authorized to go up to 4,000.     If 15,000 troops were drawn into the effort, it would mean there would be more U.S. troops on the border with Mexico than there are in Afghanistan, which has become America’s longest conflict.
        Trump has sought to use immigration as an issue to motivate Republican voters ahead of the Nov. 6 elections, where Republicans will seek to maintain control of both congressional chambers.
        As a presidential candidate before the U.S. election in 2016, Trump promised to harden immigration laws and build a wall along the southern border with Mexico, but implementation of his signature campaign promise has been slow.
        A caravan of Central American migrants estimated to number at least 3,500 people left Honduras in mid-October and is now in southern Mexico on its way to the U.S. border.
    “WE DON’T DO STUNTS”
        Before Trump’s comments, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday rejected criticism that deploying thousands of troops to the border with Mexico was a political stunt.
        “The support that we provide to the secretary for homeland security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police, so we don’t do stunts in this department,” Mattis said after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon.
        Republican lawmakers and other Trump supporters have applauded the deployment.    But critics argue Trump has manufactured a crisis to drive Republican voters to the polls.
        “The move to send 5,200 active duty troops to the southern border is a craven political stunt that sets a bad precedent and is arguably an abuse of power,” said Kelly Magsamen, a former senior Pentagon official who is currently with the Center for American Progress left-leaning think tank.
        Trump’s decision to call in the military appears to be a departure from past practice.    In recent years, such operations have been carried out by National Guard forces, largely part-time military members often called upon to respond to domestic emergencies.
        A U.S. official told Reuters that as of Wednesday the Pentagon had identified more than 7,000 active-duty troops, which included about 2,000 on standby, that could be deployed to the border with Mexico if needed.
        Many basic questions remained unanswered days after the Pentagon announcement, including the scope of the mission as well as the Pentagon’s assessment of any threat posed by arriving migrants.
    (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Idrees Ali; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)

    10/31/2018 U.S. doesn’t want to harm friends, allies with Iran sanctions: Bolton
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton answers a question from a reporter about how
    he refers to Palestine during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday the Trump administration wants sanctions on Iran’s crude exports to strain Tehran, but does not want to harm countries that depend on the oil.
        “We want to achieve maximum pressure but we don’t want to harm friends and allies either,” Bolton said in a talk at the Hamilton Society.
        Bolton said the administration understands that a number of countries, some close geographically to Iran which he visited last week, and others “may not be able to go all the way, all the way to zero immediately.”    It was a more conciliatory tone about the sanctions from Bolton, a proponent of being tough on Iran and winding down its crude exports to zero.
        Still, Bolton said that consequences can already be seen in Iran including the collapse of the rial, its currency.    “I think it’s important that we not relax in the effort,” he said.
        The administration is weighing whether to give waivers to some countries that have cut their purchases of Iranian oil on Nov. 5, when sanctions on Iranian exports snap back.
        Three of Iran’s five largest buyers of crude – China, India and Turkey – have resisted calls by Washington to end their oil purchases outright.    This week South Korea asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for “maximum flexibility” on its request for a waiver to prevent companies there from being hit by the sanctions.    Other countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, depend on some imports from Iran.
        The administration has said it is considering waivers on a case-by-case basis.
    (Reporting by Steve Holland, Timothy Gardner and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by James Dalgleish)

    10/31/2018 New migrant caravan departs Salvadoran capital for U.S. by Nelson Renteria
    People walk in a caravan of migrants departing from El Salvador en route to the United States, in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
        SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – About 2,000 migrants began walking north from El Salvador’s capital on Wednesday, the latest of several groups trying to reach the United States, even as President Donald Trump increases pressure to halt the flow of people.
        The migrants departed in two groups, including men and women pushing strollers and others with children on their shoulders.    On Sunday, a separate group comprising about 300 people set off for the U.S. border from the Salvadoran capital.
        A caravan estimated to number at least 3,500 people, which left Honduras in mid-October and is now in southern Mexico, has become a major issue in U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6.
        The bulk of migrants caught trying to enter the United States illegally via Mexico come from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.    Many make the dangerous journey north to escape high levels of poverty and violence in their homelands.
        The United States is in the process of sending 5,200 troops to its southern border as part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.    The prospect has so far not discouraged people from leaving El Salvador.
        “It scares us a little.    But since we’re seeing a ton of people going together, we can help one another to cross,” said Jose Machado, one of the migrants departing San Salvador, carrying a backpack stuffed with clothing and toiletries.
        Trump, who has threatened to slash U.S. aid to Central America and close the U.S. border with Mexico, said in a tweet on Wednesday that Mexico needs to keep up efforts to discourage the migrants, who he described as “tough fighters.”
        A clash at the Mexico-Guatemala border on Sunday left one migrant dead and several law enforcement officers injured.
        “Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan.    Should stop them before they reach our Border, but won’t!” Trump said in a Tweet.
        White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday praised Mexico’s actions to slow the movement of people, but told Fox News: “They can do more.”
        Police estimated the two groups leaving San Salvador numbered around 1,000 each.    One cohort left around dawn, followed by a second later in the morning.
        Some waved Salvadoran flags as motorists honked in support and shouted, “God bless you.”
    (Reporting By Nelson Renteria, Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Dave Graham and Alistair Bell)

    10/31/2018 Mattis rejects criticism of sending U.S. troops to border by Idrees Ali
    FILE PHOTO: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks with the media before an enhanced honor cordon arrival of
    Greek Minister of Defense Panagiotis Kammenos at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday rejected criticism that deploying thousands of troops to the border with Mexico was a political stunt.
        “The support that we provide to the secretary for homeland security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police, so we don’t do stunts in this department,” Mattis said after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon.
        Several groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have accused President Donald Trump of politicizing the military ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
        Trump has hardened his stance on immigration ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections.    He has drawn attention to a caravan of migrants that is trekking through Mexico toward the United States as he seeks to fire up support for fellow Republicans in campaign battles with Democrats who are trying to wrest control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
        Republican lawmakers and other Trump supporters have applauded the deployment.    But critics say Trump is politicizing the military, deploying them as a stunt to drive Republican voters to the polls without any real national security threat.
        “The move to send 5,200 active duty troops to the southern border is a craven political stunt that sets a bad precedent and is arguably an abuse of power,” Kelly Magsamen, a former senior Pentagon official, said.    She is currently with the Center for the think tank American Progress.
        The deployment will create an active-duty force comparable in size to the U.S. military contingent in Iraq.
        Trump’s decision to call in the military appears to be a departure from past practice.    At least in recent years, such operations were carried out by National Guard forces, largely part-time military members often called upon in response to domestic emergencies.
        A U.S. official told Reuters that as of Wednesday the Pentagon had identified about 7,000 active-duty troops, which included about 2,000 on standby, that could be deployed to the border with Mexico if needed.
        On Tuesday, the top U.S. general overseeing a deployment of more than 5,200 troops to the border said troop levels would rise further, but declined to say how high or estimate what the operation will cost.
        Many basic questions remained unanswered days after the Pentagon announcement, including the scope of the mission as well as the Pentagon’s assessment of any threat posed by arriving migrants.
    (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

    11/1/2018 Trump, Xi upbeat on U.S.-China trade disputes ahead of meeting by Susan Heavey and Joseph Campbell
    U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Estero, Florida, U.S., October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
        WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping both expressed optimism on Thursday about resolving their bitter trade disputes ahead of a high-stakes meeting planned for the two leaders at the end of November in Argentina.
        Trump said on Twitter that trade discussions with China were “moving along nicely” and that he planned to meet with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit, after the two had a “very good” phone discussion.
        In comments to state media, Xi said he hoped China and the United States would be able to promote a steady and healthy relationship, and that he was willing to meet with Trump in Argentina.
        “The two countries’ trade teams should strengthen contact and conduct consultations on issues of concern to both sides, and promote a plan that both can accept to reach a consensus on the China-U.S. trade issue,” Xi said on CCTV state television.
        Xi was quoted by CCTV as saying after the call with Trump that the two leaders had hoped to expand bilateral trade cooperation.
        Neither leader specified any details of potential progress in their first known direct discussion in several months.    Trump administration officials have said that trade talks with China cannot resume until Beijing comes up with specific actions it is willing take to meet U.S. demands for sweeping changes to policies on technology transfers, industrial subsidies and market access.
        The two countries already have imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods and Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on the remainder of China’s $500 billion-plus exports to the United States if the disputes cannot be resolved.
        But Trump struck a more upbeat tone on Twitter after the phone call with Xi.
        “Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China.    We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade,” Trump tweeted.    “Those discussions are moving along nicely with meetings being scheduled at the G-20 in Argentina.    Also had good discussion on North Korea!”
    U.S. LAWMAKERS IN BEIJING
        Earlier on Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told a group of visiting U.S. politicians that China and the United States could overcome their differences and get relations back on track if they worked together in a spirit of mutual respect.
        China and the United States are locked in an increasingly bitter trade war, and both countries have already placed tariffs on some of each others’ imports.
        Meeting a group of Republican lawmakers in Beijing, China’s Li noted the China-U.S. relationship’s “ups and downs” over the past four decades of diplomatic ties.
        “We do hope that China and the United States will meet each other halfway and work together in the spirit of mutual respect and equality,” Li told Trump’s fellow Republicans.
        U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told Li that the delegation was there “to show our respect to a great country and a great people,” and that the two countries “are competitors but not adversaries.”
        Alexander said he would be discussing trade with Li, though neither of them mentioned the ongoing tariff war in remarks in front of reporters.
        Earlier this week, Trump said he thought there would be “a great deal” with China on trade, but warned that he had billions of dollars worth of new tariffs ready to go if a deal did not materialize.
        The United States has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, with duties on $200 billion of the total set to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1, 2019.    China has responded with retaliatory duties on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods.
    (Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Joseph Campbell, Yawen Chen and Michael in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai. Ben Blanchard and David Lawder; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Rosalba O’Brien and David Gregorio)

    11/1/2018 Trump increases pressure on Venezuela with sanctions on gold by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland
    FILE PHOTO - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro touches a gold bar as he speaks during a meeting with the
    ministers responsible for the economic sector at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump increased economic pressure on Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday with new sanctions aimed at disrupting the South American country’s gold exports.
        Trump signed an executive order to ban anyone in the United States from dealing with entities and people involved with “corrupt or deceptive” gold sales from Venezuela, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton said in a speech in Miami.
        “The Maduro regime has used this sector as a bastion to finance illicit activities, to fill its coffers, and to support criminal groups,” Bolton said.
        Bolton made the announcement as part of a pledge to crack down on what he called “the troika of tyranny” in the western hemisphere, naming Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
        Miami is home to large numbers of immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela.    Bolton made his appearance there just days before U.S. congressional elections that include close races for a Senate seat and the governorship in Florida.
        Bolton’s remarks were likely to be well received by those Cuban-Americans and other Hispanics in Florida who favor stronger U.S. pressure on Cuba’s Communist government and other leftist governments in Latin America.
        Bolton spoke at Freedom Tower – a building where Cuban refugees were welcomed in the 1960s following Fidel Castro’s revolution – a day after Trump campaigned in Florida for Republican candidates.
        Florida has traditionally been a swing state and former President Barack Obama was scheduled to rally Democrats in Miami on Friday ahead of the Nov. 6 elections.
    HARDER LINE ON CUBA
        Bolton said Cuba is aiding Maduro’s government in Venezuela, referring to the close ties between the two countries since Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, came to power in 1999.
        Trump has taken a harder line on Cuba after Obama sought to set aside decades of hostility between Washington and Havana.    He has rolled back parts of Obama’s 2014 detente by tightening rules on Americans traveling to the Caribbean island and restricting U.S. companies from doing business there.
        Bolton said the U.S. State Department would “within days” add more than two dozen entities to a list of Cuban organizations associated with country’s military and intelligence services.    U.S. persons and companies are banned from doing business with the restricted companies.
        He said the administration would review whether to allow U.S. citizens whose property was seized by the Castro government to sue foreign companies that have invested in the properties in Cuba.    The review, requested by a group of Republican lawmakers from South Florida, was first reported by McClatchy.
        “We want to look at this question with a fresh set of eyes,” Bolton said.
        Bolton also singled out Nicaragua for criticism over leftist President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on political opponents, saying its government “will feel the full weight of America’s robust sanctions regime” with measures coming “in the very near future.”
        Almost 2 million Venezuelans have fled since 2015, driven out by food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation, and violent crime.    Thousands have made their way to south Florida.
        Maduro, who denies limiting political freedoms, has said he is the victim of an “economic war” led by the United States.
        Venezuela this year turned to gold as a way to receive desperately-needed hard currency, exporting 23.62 tonnes of gold worth $900 million to Turkey in the first nine months of the year, compared with zero in the same period last year, official Turkish data showed.
        In 2016, Maduro declared war on illegal miners and declared gold a strategic priority in an effort to spur production in the so-called ‘Mining Arc’ to create an alternative source of revenue for the oil-dependent economy.
        Critics and opposition leaders say this decision has in fact led to a surge in wildcat mining and violence, with the government reaping the benefits of illegal gold production.
        The country’s gold revenues remain small compared to the OPEC member’s oil sector, which accounts for over 90 percent of export revenue.
        The Trump administration had threatened sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry, but a senior U.S. official said this month there is less need to target the energy sector given that it is unraveling under Maduro-appointed military officials.
        Analysts say higher oil prices and a desire to protect U.S. Gulf Coast refiners have also weighed on Washington’s decision.
        Early in his presidency, Trump briefly spoke about a “possible military option” for Venezuela, without providing details.
        Bolton brushed off a question about whether Trump would consider interventions other than stepped-up sanctions.    “I don’t see that happening in part because I am very firmly of the view that as the sanctions torque up, the pressure will become unbearable,” Bolton said.
    (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick add Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Luc Cohen and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; editing by Frances Kerry and Grant McCool)

    11/1/2018 Trump’s trade war looms over divided U.S. farm belt ahead of vote by Humeyra Pamuk and P.J. Huffstutter
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump stands with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
    as he delivers remarks on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during a news conference in the Rose Garden
    of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 1, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
        (Reuters) – Chuck Wirtz voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, inspired by the then-political outsider, but the veteran Iowa hog farmer now has buyer’s remorse as the U.S. Republican president’s trade policy exacts a heavy toll on his business.
        Wirtz, 56, estimates the tariffs resulting from the U.S. trade war with China and other nations have cost him $200,000 this year and forced the liquidation of part of his farm in northwestern Iowa.
        “I was obviously wrong and I regret my vote,” said Wirtz, who says he is undecided ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections that will decide whether Republicans continue to control the U.S. Congress.
        Some of the nation’s 3.2 million farmers and ranchers, traditionally staunch Republicans, are wavering in this election because of the trade dispute with China, the main buyer of U.S. soybeans and pork, interviews with nearly two dozen farmers showed.
        Those interviews and a survey of 2,454 farmers by trade publication Farm Journal also point to a surprising generational split in agricultural areas.    While younger producers largely believe in Trump’s pledge to cut a better trade deal with China and his administration’s patriotic appeal for short-term sacrifice, older farmers recall past economic crises and the years of work involved in opening the Chinese market.
        Veteran farmers worry they will not be able to recover from a prolonged dispute with the world’s other economic superpower and are concerned the downturn will take too big a bite out of their retirement savings.
        Barry Bean, a Missouri cotton marketer whose family sells crops, said that older producers have been cautioning their younger peers about the longer-term risks of the trade battle.
        “They’re saying, ‘Look, I’ve taken two or three for the team in the past. We can’t keep taking one for the team.’”
        A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that about 53 percent of registered voters in rural areas approved of Trump as of last month.    Farm Journal found that some 70 percent of farmers had voted for Trump and 52 percent found him favorable as of August.    However, 61 percent of farmers under 45 favored the president while only 40 percent over 65 did.
        Overall in the United States, 55 percent of voters over the age of 55 supported Trump in 2016, according to the Reuters/Ipsos 2016 Election Day poll.    Only 30 percent of voters under 24 and 38 percent of those aged 25-34 voted for the president.
        Democrats, who have high hopes to win back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, see the changing tide in the farm belt as possibly boosting their chances in areas that Trump won in 2016 but are now seen as toss-ups.
        They would need to gain at least 23 of the House’s 435 seats to have a majority in the chamber, which would enable them to block at least part of Trump’s agenda.    Recapturing the Senate is considered far more difficult.
        Two of the four House races in Iowa, the top corn producing state, are considered up for grabs.    Democrat Abby Finkenauer has been hitting the trade issue hard as she vies to oust Trump ally and U.S. Representative Rod Blum in one of the districts.
        In Kansas, the nation’s top wheat producing state, the Kansas Farm Board took the unusual step of declining to endorse a candidate for governor after Republicans nominated staunch Trump ally Kris Kobach.
    Congressional election battlegrounds interactive graphic – https://tmsnrt.rs/2OqGizy
    ‘ANOTHER YEAR OR SO’
        Political divisions are prompting debates in Republican farm families like that of Donald Schexnayder, 57, who farms corn with his two brothers in Louisiana.
        “I have one brother who’s not sure about the president, and the other that is very sure that what he’s doing is right,” Schexnayder said.
        The Trump administration has tried to sweeten its relationship with farmers in recent months with a $6 billion farm aid package meant to compensate them for markets that were lost due to the trade wars.
        Farmers started receiving checks in September, and the U.S. Agriculture Department has promised more aid for the end of the year.
        Last month, Trump, who has embraced an “America First” policy aimed at boosting jobs and reducing U.S. trade deficits, promised to expand domestic sales of corn-based ethanol, a key market for Iowa farmers.
        Fears that other markets could be lost also eased after the trilateral trade deal signed by the United States, Canada and Mexico on Oct. 1. U.S. corn and dairy farmers, in particular, had fretted about the prospect of a North American trade war.
        Nevertheless, a study by economists at Perdue University in Illinois this week showed the retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada and Mexico during the trade negotiations would cause U.S. agricultural exports to decline by at least $1.8 billion annually, outweighing market access improvements it said were worth $450 million.
        U.S. farmers, however, remain most worried about trade with China, which last year bought 60 percent of U.S. soy and has virtually halted purchases this year.
        “He probably should have gotten Mexico and Canada, get that deal done and then went after China,” said Curt Mether, a 63-year-old corn and soybean farmer in Iowa, referring to Trump.
        Mether said he had voted for Trump and would vote Republican next week, partly because of alignment on social issues like abortion, but added that he could reevaluate Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
        “We’ll be willing to put up with him for a while, I’d say another year or so.    If he doesn’t get the negotiations turned around by the time he himself is up for election, then we’ll definitely reassess,” Mether said.
    (Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Additional reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Paul Simao)

    11/1/2018 Chile to join China´s Belt and Road Initiative by Dave Sherwood
    FILE PHOTO - Chile's Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero Espinoza attends the
    World Economic Forum on ASEAN at the Convention Center in Hanoi, Vietnam September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Kham
        SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile will join China´s Belt and Road initiative, Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero said on Thursday, in a move to deepen economic and political cooperation with the Asian powerhouse in a zone of strong U.S. influence.
        Ampuero said in a statement that joining China´s global infrastructure initiative would make Chile more attractive to Chinese investors and position the Andean nation as the “landing point for investments in Latin America.”
        The agreement is set to be signed on Friday, the statement said.
        China is Chile´s top trading partner, and the two countries are deepening ties.    Last week, Chile and China signed a trade deal to streamline customs controls and widen access to the Chinese market for Chilean products.
        China has increasingly taken a more aggressive foreign policy position throughout Latin America as the United States, under President Donald Trump, has opted for a more protectionist stance.
        The “One Belt, One Road” initiative, proposed in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, promotes expanding links between Asia, Africa and Europe, with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.
        China has sought a bigger role overseas since Trump was elected, presenting its Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade agreement as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the United States has abandoned.
        The country is already testing U.S. dominance in Latin America, offering the region $250 billion in investment over the next decade.    It is the top trading partner of many other countries in the region, including Brazil and Argentina.
    (Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by David Gregorio)

    11/1/2018 Social Security and the U.S. deficit: Separating fact from fiction by Mark Miller
    FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen on the entrance to a Social Security office in New York City, U.S., July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
        CHICAGO (Reuters) – For decades, some of our most prominent U.S. politicians have been sounding the alarm that Social Security is an important driver of the federal budget deficit.    But is that really true?
        U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, recently pointed to “entitlements” as the key cause of rising federal deficits, and blamed Democrats for refusing to go along with proposals to cut spending by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
        McConnell was responding to a report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury last month that the budget deficit grew to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, the highest in six years.    Treasury attributed the increase to the tax cuts contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), higher spending and rising interest payments. (Full Story)
    (https://reut.rs/2CNjSBm).
        The call for cuts to our very popular entitlement programs just before an election makes for surprising politics – and it is not selling well with the public; a poll this week by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist (https://bit.ly/2zewazj) found that 60 percent of Americans would prefer to reverse the tax cuts than cut spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
        But is there substance to McConnell’s argument?
        You can make a case that rising spending on Medicare and Medicaid contribute to deficits, since both depend partially on federal general revenue.    I would counter that the rising cost of these programs reflects a general problem with rising healthcare costs that affects not just government, but employers who insure workers and individuals buying their own insurance.
        But it is quite a stretch to argue that Social Security drives deficits.
        By law, Social Security cannot contribute to the federal deficit, because it is required to pay benefits only from its trust funds.    Those, in turn, are funded through a dedicated payroll tax of 12.4 percent of income, split evenly between employees and employers, levied on income (this year) up to $128,400.
        The program’s revenue and expenses are accounted for through two federal trust funds that have operated with large and growing surpluses in recent years, and they finished fiscal 2018 with an estimated $2.89 trillion.    By law, Social Security must invest these surplus funds only in special-issue U.S. Treasury notes, which have the same full faith and credit guarantee as any other federal bond.
    LONG-RANGE OUTLOOK
        Going forward, the trust fund surplus will be drawn down as an aging population claims benefits, and as the U.S. fertility rate continues to decline, which means fewer workers are coming along to pay taxes into the system.
        That already is starting to happen.    In fiscal 2018, expenditures exceeded revenue (including interest on investments) for the first time since 1982.    Social Security took in $912 billion in fiscal 2018 and spent $991 billion.    The difference – $79 billion – came from repayment of interest on those Treasury notes.    Some conservative policy analysts point to that payment as evidence that Social Security is a cause of deficits, since the $79 billion payment came from general revenue.
        “We can call that $79 billion an interest payment on past borrowing – fine,” said Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.    “Social Security in the past ran annual surpluses and lent that surplus money to the Treasury.    In those years, the existence of Social Security reduced the federal budget deficit.    Today, it is relying on a cash infusion from the Treasury to pay full benefits.”
        Riedl’s point is technically correct.    But in this sense, Social Security is no more a cause of the deficit than any other holder of U.S. Treasuries, be it Wall Street or the Chinese government.    “Government needs to raise a certain amount of money unless it balances its general fund,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group.
        “If it doesn’t do that, it issues bonds – the only question is, who buys them?” said Altman.
        A second argument that Social Security contributes to deficits is related to the longer-run outlook for the program.    The trust funds are projected to be exhausted in 2034; at that point, incoming revenue would be sufficient to continue paying only about 75 percent of promised benefits.
        We might or might not reach that point – we could eliminate much of this long-range shortfall by gradually increasing payroll taxes and raising the cap on covered income.    Or we could reduce benefits by further increasing the full retirement age, or craft some combination of tax increases and benefit cuts.
        Other creative options could include permitting the Social Security trustees to invest a modest portion of reserve funds in equities, or to levy a tax on financial services.    From where I sit, the smart move is to bolster the program with higher revenue to close the shortfall and expand benefits.
        But deficit hawks point to the 2034 exhaustion date to argue that the government would have to make up any shortfall and continue paying full benefits.    The argument here is that Congress would never allow a huge cut to Social Security benefits in light of the program’s popularity and the importance of benefits; if the trust fund were to run dry, lawmakers would simply make up the difference out of general revenue.
        But the assertion that we will reach the 2034 benefit cuts is speculative.    Congress may craft a solution ahead of that date, or it may not.
        Even more speculative is the question whether general revenue would be tapped if we do reach the 2034 exhaustion doomsday scenario.    The long-range budget forecast by the Congressional Budget Office assumes this would happen – but not because the nonpartisan congressional budget scorekeeper has an opinion one way or the other.    Federal law requires the CBO to assume that payments for some mandatory programs would continue to be fully funded in this situation.
        What would the Social Security Administration actually do if the trust fund were exhausted?    The answer is not clear, according to recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service.    It could continue paying benefits on a delayed schedule or cut payments.    And beneficiaries might take legal action to claim full benefits, since Social Security is a legal entitlement.
        One hopes that these questions will never be answered, because exhaustion would be a real mess.    But we can get the answer to the question of whether Social Security drives the deficit right now: No.
    (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)
    (Reporting and writing by Mark Miller in Chicago)

    11/1/2018 Pres. Trump Issues Stern Warning To Caravan by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Oct. 27, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump pauses while
    speaking at a rally at Southern Illinois Airport in Murphysboro, Ill. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
        President Trump issues another stern warning to the group of illegal immigrants making its way north from Central America and promises big changes to the U.S. asylum system.
        During a speech from the White House Thursday, the president told migrants in the caravan they are wasting their time and should turn around.
        He also said the Army Corps of Engineers is building tent cities along the border to detain illegal immigrants calling it catch, but not release.
        The president said the generosity of the U.S. is being taken advantage of and reiterated calls for merit based immigration system.
        He also warned if any migrants in the caravan try to use rocks to break into the country like they did in Mexico, the U.S. military will consider them to be using firearms.

    11/1/2018 U.S., Iran policy depends not just on sanctions but on flexibility by Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton
    U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Estero, Florida, U.S., October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As U.S. President Donald Trump resumes sanctions on Iran, the success of his push to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities may hinge on how flexible he is willing to be on his extensive demands to coax Tehran into talks.
        Washington will reintroduce sanctions on Monday targeting Iran’s most important industry – oil – and U.S. officials have indicated a measure of flexibility is needed to ensure global markets are well supplied to keep prices from surging.
        In abandoning the international 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump and his top aides have touted the re-imposition of economic penalties on Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign to force a change in a wide range of Iranian behavior.
        What Trump wants from Tehran, though, is seen by former officials as a “maximalist” position that includes ending uranium enrichment, giving U.N. inspectors access to all sites across Iran and ceasing support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen and the Hamas Palestinian militant group.
        On May 21, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed 12 demands that also covered Iran ending development of nuclear-capable missiles, withdrawing forces under its command in Syria, and ceasing threatening acts toward its neighbors.
        “They are maximalist demands and no Iranian government would be willing or able to accept them,” said Robert Einhorn, a former U.S. official now at the Brookings Institution.
        Trump wants Iran’s government to capitulate or collapse, Einhorn said.
        “They are not going to knuckle under,” he said.    “But if the administration began to signal some flexibility … it’s possible the Iranian regime would agree to enter into talks.”
        Such flexibility could include signaling that Iran might limit, but not eliminate, uranium enrichment and that it might allow for greater inspections than in the 2015 deal, if not the anywhere-anytime inspections Washington wants.
        The sanctions resuming on Monday include those aimed to force Iran’s oil customers such as China, India and Turkey, to cut their oil purchases, ideally to zero, though the White House appears to recognize that is unrealistic.
        “We want to achieve maximum pressure but we don’t want to harm friends and allies either,” White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday, in a hint Washington may grant “exceptions” to these sanctions for countries that significantly reduce their purchases from Iran.
        Another penalty would be to blacklist roughly two dozen previously sanctioned Iranian banks, which may get the Brussels-based SWIFT financial messaging system to disconnect them, further inhibiting Iran’s trade with the world.
        When he abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, Trump promised to impose “the highest level of economic sanction” on Iran, saying this would make them want a new pact.    “When they do, I am ready, willing and able,” he said.
        A central impediment to any negotiation is the lack of trust given Trump’s abrogation of the 2015 agreement and the Iranian belief that his real aim, despite U.S. denials, is to bring down its government.
        Richard Nephew, a former U.S. official now at Columbia University, summed up Tehran’s stance on talks as “Why bother?”
        Iran was more likely to try to evade and resist U.S. sanctions, taking a position of “if we are going to go down, at least we won’t go down on our knees, we’re going to die standing up,” Nephew said.
        Iran may try to survive the shrinking oil revenues for two years to see if Trump is re-elected and then decide on talks.
        “They will be averse to doing so from a position of abject weakness,” said Jon Alterman, a former U.S. official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
        Before talking, Iran would likely increase support for regional proxies or conduct missile tests to create chips it could concede in a negotiation.
        “If I had to bet, all these things will happen – the U.S. will tighten the screws, the Iranians will do more things that are worrying to the Trump administration, and the two sides will talk,” Alterman said.
    (Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)

    11/1/2018 EU floats new Irish border compromise in tentative Brexit plan: FT
    A Guinness truck passes a sign for Customs and Excise on a road near the
    border with Ireland near Kileen, Northern Ireland, October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – European Union negotiators have floated a tentative Brexit plan to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and to give Britain stronger guarantees that a customs border would not be needed along the Irish Sea, the Financial Times said on Thursday.
        As Reuters reported last month, EU negotiators offered to include a plan in the withdrawal agreement to keep mainland Britain in a customs union after Brexit in order to avoid a hard border.
        The deal offered was bending EU “red lines,” which have included refusing to give assurances on future EU-UK trade relations in the Brexit treaty.
        Accounts of how British and EU negotiators came close to a deal on Oct. 13 focus on how Prime Minister Theresa May balked at an EU demand for a “backstop” clause.
        The FT said EU Brexit negotiators were now considering a new proposal to compromise on an Irish “backstop” which would be an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return of customs checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland if a future trading relationship is not in place in time.
        The biggest obstacle to a Brexit deal has been Britain’s wish to keep the border of its province of Northern Ireland with Ireland open, preserving frictionless trade and a 1998 peace deal that ended sectarian violence while leaving the EU’s single market and customs union to forge its own trade deals.
        With just over five months until Britain is scheduled to leave the EU talks have stalled over the issue.
        EU diplomats familiar with the latest briefing by negotiators this week said that the EU proposals did not appear to have changed significantly from that October offer.
        Northern Ireland would remain in a deep customs union with the bloc, applying the union’s full “customs code” and following single market regulations for goods and agri-food products, the FT reported.
        Meanwhile, the UK would be in a more “bare-bones” customs arrangement with the EU, in which it would apply a common external tariff on imports from outside the union and rules of origin, the FT reported, saying the plan had been presented to EU ambassadors on Wednesday and floated with UK officials.
        The paper said May’s negotiating team would give an indication next week on whether Britain was open to the compromise which would be a crucial decision on whether the EU will hold a special summit to discuss a potential deal this month.
        Such a compromise plan is likely to face opposition from Brexit supporters in May’s government and party who do not want Britain to be tied into an open-ended customs union with the bloc until a UK-EU trade deal was agreed.
        The FT said the plan contained many proposals which London had rejected last month.
        “The same fundamental problems are there,” the FT quoted one EU diplomat briefed on the plan.    “They’ve played around with the ingredients to the deal.”
        However, sterling rose against the U.S. dollar and euro following the report, adding to earlier gains after officials said Britain and the EU had made progress on a deal to give London’s dominant financial center basic access to the bloc’s markets after Brexit.
    (Reporting by Michael Holden and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Balmforth)

        On the last three days:
    10/31/2018 Oil down $0.86 to $66.18, DOW up 432 to 24,875,
    11/1/2018 Oil down $0.87 to $65.31, DOW up 241 to 25,116,
    11/2/2018 Oil down $1.68 to $63.69, DOW up 265 to 25,381    .

    11/2/2018 Oil falls again as U.S. allows Iran sanctions waivers by Christopher Johnson
    FILE PHOTO - Cyprus-flagged oil product tanker "Prisco Elena" (C) and other oil tankers
    are seen against the skyline of the central business district (CBD) in Singapore April 18, 2012. REUTERS/Tim Chong
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped further on Friday, heading for a weekly loss of more than 6 percent, after a report that Washington has granted several countries waivers on sanctions on Tehran, allowing them to continue to import Iranian crude.
        Benchmark crude oil was down 20 cents a barrel at $72.69 by 0900 GMT.    The contract has fallen 12 percent since the beginning of October.
        U.S. light crude was 25 cents lower at $63.44, down more than 13 percent since hitting four-year highs a month ago..
        Global markets, including oil, were lifted earlier on Friday by hopes that the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies could be resolved soon.
        But sentiment turned negative after a report that several governments received waivers that would allow them to import some Iranian crude once U.S. sanctions are imposed next week.
        The U.S. government has agreed to let eight countries, including close allies South Korea and Japan, as well as India, keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes the sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a U.S. official.
        “Oil prices sold off sharply … on news that the U.S. administration would grant waivers for oil imports from Iran,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note to clients.
        A list of all countries getting waivers is expected to be released officially on Monday, several industry sources said.
        Despite these efforts, analysts said any potential Iranian oil sanction waivers would likely only be temporary.
        Goldman Sachs said it expects Iran’s crude oil exports to fall to 1.15 million bpd by the end of the year, down from around 2.5 million bpd in mid-2018.
        Beyond Iran sanctions, oil output has been rising significantly in the past two months.
        Russian Energy Ministry data showed on Friday the country pumped 11.41 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in October, a 30-year high.
        The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted oil production in October to 33.31 million bpd, up 390,000 bpd and the highest by OPEC since 2016. [OPEC/O]
        And in the United States, crude production is now well over 11 million bpd, putting the U.S. in a neck and neck race with Russia for the title of top producer.
        By the end of next year, however, Goldman expects Brent to fall to $65 a barrel, largely due to “the unleashing of Permian (U.S. shale) supply growth once new pipelines come online.”
    (Reporting by Christopher Johnson in LONDON and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

    11/2/2018 US charges Chinese companies in theft of trade secrets
        The United States has charged companies in China and Taiwan and three individuals with stealing trade secrets from a U.S. semi-conductor company, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
        The Justice Department said the defendants, including a Chineseowned company singled out this week by the Trump administration, targeted Idaho-based Micron over a technology it produces that stores memory in electronics.

    11/2/2018 US vows tough approach to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba
        The Trump administration is laying out a tougher approach to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
        President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said Thursday that those three countries form a “troika of tyranny” and he’s announcing new sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba, and says the U.S. will impose additional ones on Nicaragua.
    Bolton says the countries represent “destructive forces of oppression, socialism and totalitarianism.”

    11/2/2018 Federal health care website up and running after slow start
        The federal website where consumers can get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act was running Thursday after a slow start as sign-up season for 2019 opened days before the midterm elections.
        Early Thursday, people accessing the site were directed to a screen that said work was underway.    Things seemed to be normal by 9 a.m. EDT.
        Before the site went live for signups at the start of a new coverage year, technicians had to load up details on thousands of changes in plans and premiums.

    11/2/2018 Trump ad blaming Democrats in killings denounced - President steps up fight against immigrants by William Cummings, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s campaign claimed in an ad that Democrats are responsible for a Mexican citizen who killed two California deputies, and Trump’s critics have called the spot racist and divisive.
        “Illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, killed our people!” reads the opening text in a campaign ad tweeted by Trump on Wednesday.
        “Democrats let him stay,” the next line reads.
        The man featured in the video is Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican citizen who had repeatedly entered the U.S. illegally and was sentenced to death for the murder of two Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies.    The ad is part of Trump’s push to make immigration a key issue ahead of the midterm elections next week.
        “It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country.    Vote Republican now!” the president tweeted alongside the
        The 53-second spot, paid for by the Trump campaign, is being derided by many as the most racially charged campaign commercial since the infamous 1988 “Willie Horton ad.”
        “This is distracting, divisive Donald at his worst,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told CNN.    Perez characterized the commercial as “dog-whistle politics” based on “fearmongering” and a desperate move ahead of the midterm election.
        Pollsters have predicted that the Democrats will gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
        During his trial, Bracamontes was removed from the courtroom for threatening outbursts.    At the reading of his verdict in February, Bracamontes smiled and vowed to “to kill more cops soon.”    The commercial centers on Bracamontes’ antics, while the text tells the viewer that “Democrats let him stay.”
        The video, which had been seen by 1.9 million people as of 7 a.m. EDT Thursday, then cuts to scenes of apparent migrants crashing through unspecified gates.
        “Who else would Democrats let in?” the ad asks rhetorically in conclusion, before closing with a message that “President Donald J. Trump and Republicans are making America safe again.”
        Immigration has long been a top issue for Trump since he entered politics, but in recent weeks, he has stepped up the tempo in his warning cries about an “invasion” across the U.S.-Mexico border.    He has used his platform to help keep up step-by-step media coverage of a caravan of Central American migrants traveling north through Mexico.
        On Wednesday, the president threatened to deploy 15,000 U.S. troops to the border in response to the approaching caravan.
        Also this week, Trump began to argue he can end birthright citizenship, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment, with an executive order.
        It is not the first 2018 midterm campaign commercial paid for by Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.    Another ad that says a Democratic victory would endanger the country’s economic gains, but never mentions Trump, began airing Monday as part of a $6 million ad buy.
        “You have to make people feel things.    I think that’s what commercials are, from a commercial for a car, a phone or anything that might be,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale told CNN about the “We Can’t Go Back” ad.
        In response to the new ad featuring Bracamontes, Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a Trump critic, said, “This is just a new low in campaigning.    It’s sickening,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
        Several critics compared the ad to a conservative PAC commercial for former President George H.W. Bush’s successful 1988 campaign to succeed President Ronald Reagan.    The ad centered on William Horton, a convicted murderer who fled custody after being released as part of a weekend furlough program supported by Bush’s Democratic opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.    Horton committed a violent rape while out of prison.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally Wednesday at the Hertz Arena in Estero, Fla., to help Republican candidates. JOE RAEDLE
    [TRUMPS AD JUST SHOWED WHAT WAS PUT OUT ON THE LOCAL NEWS SERVICES IN THESE ADS BUT LEFT OUT CNN AND NBC'S COMMENTS.]

    11/2/2018 Trump admin. to reimpose sanctions on Iran by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration is ramping-up pressure on Iran by reimposing sanctions previously lifted under former President Obama as part of the Iran nuclear deal.
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the sanctions Friday, saying they target Tehran’s energy, shipbuilding, shipping and banking sectors.
        They also said countries which continue to do business with Iranian entities will be penalized.
        In audio released by the State Department, Pompeo said the ultimate goal is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country.
        “These sanctions hit at core areas of Iran’s economy, they are necessary to spur changes we seek on the part of the regime,” said Secretary Pompeo.    “These sanctions are far tougher than the sanctions that have ever been imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran — that is why they are so desperate to find ways to circumvent it.”
        After Pompeo’s announcement, President Trump tweeted a “Game of Thrones” reference in relation to the move.
        Back in May, the president pulled-out of the Iran Nuclear Deal.    He called it a horrible deal and warned anyone who fails to comply with the sanctions will face severe consequences.

    11/2/2018 President Trump responds to threats made by Rep. Pelosi if Democrats take House by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump recently responded to threats made by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to subpoena the president if Democrats take control of Congress.
        In an exclusive interview with The Washington Times Thursday, the president called the threat illegal.
    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (L), President Donald Trump (R). (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        Furthermore, he said if Democrats take control of either chamber and they follow through with a subpoena then he will take the fight to the Supreme Court.
        His comments come in response to remarks made by the California lawmaker during a CNN campaign forum last week.
        “And subpoena power is interesting, to use it or not to use it…what we will do is exercise oversight, which is the responsibility of the Congress of the United States,” said Representative Pelosi.
        In response, the president shook off any threats of impeachment by saying the process would take two years to get to the Supreme Court.

    11/2/2018 POLL: Almost half of voters credit President Trump with improving economy by OAN Newsroom
        The results of a new poll is showing most voters credit President Trump with jump-starting the economy despite some Democrats trying to give the credit to former President Obama’s past policies.
        According to Thursday’s Harris Poll, nearly 50-percent of respondents believe President Trump is the reason why unemployment is at a record low and manufacturing is booming.
        On the other hand, only 21-percent of voters think the economy is the result of policies put in place by the former administration.
    President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a campaign rally Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018, in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
        “I think we are now at the most successful level that the country has ever seen.    That’s how we’re doing.    And let me just tell you because I hear a couple of the fakers the other day say ‘Well, I think it’s Obama’s economy.'    Obama’s economy?    Obama?    They want to put on more regulations, they want to take back your tax cuts which are massive.    They want to take them back and they want to raise the hell out of your taxes and the whole thing will go boom.” — President Donald Trump
        The economy grew by 4.2-percent last quarter despite many in the media saying it would be impossible to achieve.

    11/2/2018 Poll: Pres. Trump’s Job Approval At 51% by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 12, 2018,
    in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        President Trump’s approval rating is growing, signaling good news for the GOP ahead of the midterm elections.
        A daily Rasmussen survey released Friday, shows 51 percent of likely voters approve of the president’s job performance.
        The survey also shows 37 percent of voters strongly approve of the president.
        The results are up from the same poll released earlier this week, which showed the president’s approval at 50 percent.
        Economic growth has been a major factor for voters going into next week’s elections and last month’s jobs report shows the economy has continued to thrive under the Trump administration.

    11/2/2018 Trade deficit climbs 10% in 2018 comes despite tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports by OAN Newsroom
    FILE- In this July 5, 2018, file photo, a rubber tire gantry moves a shipping container
    in the container yard at the Port of Savannah in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)
        Despite a strong economy, the U.S. trade gap has continued to widen due to a record high number of imports.
        On Friday, the Commerce Department said the trade deficit grew for the fourth straight month in September.
        The difference between what America buys and what it sells climbed 1.3-percent to $54 billion.
        Despite U.S. exports increasing, the amount the country takes in increased at a greater rate.
        The deficit with China rose over four-percent to a record $40.2 billion.
        President Trump has made reducing trade deficits a cornerstone of his economic agenda, implementing steel and aluminum tariffs to help control the damage.

    11/2/2018 U.S. approves key step toward German missile defense deal by Andrea Shalal
    FILE PHOTO: The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) is pictured during a presentation at
    European Defense Group MBDA in Schrobenhausen, near Ingolstadt, Germany, June 25, 2015. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo
        BERLIN (Reuters) – The U.S. government has approved integration of the U.S. Patriot PAC-3 MSE missile into a next-generation German missile defense system, a spokesman said on Friday, a key step toward completion of a long-delayed multibillion-dollar arms sale.
        The decision followed high-level talks by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis this summer, two sources familiar with the issue said.
        Germany selected the Medium Extended Air Defence System (MEADS) built by Lockheed Martin Corp and European missile maker MBDA over Raytheon’s Patriot air and missile defense system in 2015, but it has taken years to move forward on the new defensive system called TLVS.
        U.S. Air Force Col. Mike Andrews, the Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the use of the MSE missile had been approved for use in the German program, but gave no further details.
        “This is a significant step forward.    The impasse has been solved,” said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
        Lockheed, the top U.S. weapons maker, and MBDA gave no details, but said they were upbeat that the program was moving forward.    MBDA is jointly owned by Airbus, Britain’s BAE Systems and Italy’s Leonardo.
        A spokesman at the German defense ministry gave no details, but said both the U.S. and German sides were committed to signing a contract.    “There is new momentum.    Both sides are clearly committed to successful completion of the TLVS program,” the spokesman said.
        Germany’s defense ministry in August asked Lockheed and MBDA to submit a best and final offer for the program, but that required U.S. government approval of the integration of the PAC-3 MSE missile, one of the sources said.
        Lockheed, which developed the MEADS program together with MBDA, also builds the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile, but needed approval for its integration into German program since the missile was developed separately from MEADS.
        The MEADS system was developed with $4 billion in funding from Germany, Italy and the United States, although the U.S. Army later ended its participation in the program.
        Germany hopes to sign a contract for TLVS in 2019 and field the system in 2025.
        MBDA and Lockheed executives have said progress on the German deal could fuel interest by other countries in the system, which will offer the ability to knit together a variety of different systems, including Patriot.
        Initially slated to cost about 4 billion euros ($4.56 billion), sources say the final cost of the TLVS system is likely to be several billion euros higher.
    (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

    11/2/2018 Venezuelan migration to Colombia may generate growth: World Bank
    FILE PHOTO: Colombian migration officers check the identity documents of people trying to enter Colombia from Venezuela,
    at the Simon Bolivar International bridge in Villa del Rosario, Colombia August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
        BOGOTA (Reuters) – The arrival of more than a million Venezuelans fleeing a deep social and economic crisis in their country could lead to economic growth in Colombia, if the country takes the right steps to manage the migrant crisis, the World Bank said in a report released on Friday.
        More than 2 million Venezuelans have emigrated amid food and medicine shortages and profound political divisions in their country, according to figures from the United Nations.    Half have opted to live in Colombia, and many have arrived with only what they could carry.
        Providing migrants access to healthcare, utilities and education will cost Colombia between 0.26 percent and 0.41 percent of its gross domestic product this year, the report said, adding that the country must make medium-term investments to improve those services.
        But legalizing migrants – some of whom cross the two countries’ porous border without visas or other permissions – will help them find formal jobs and increase tax revenue and consumption, the report said.
        “Despite short-term negative impacts, the evidence suggests that if adequate policy decisions are taken, migration has the potential to generate growth in Colombia,” the report said.
        Colombian President Ivan Duque says Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is a dictator, and he has promised to continue to accept migrants.
        Of the 1.03 million Venezuelans living in Colombia, more than half a million have visas or other legal permission, while 240,000 are in the process of acquiring temporary permission.    The remaining 217,000 lack authorization to stay.
        Some 3,000 migrants arrive in Colombia each day, and the government says 4 million could be living in the country by 2021, costing Colombia nearly $9 billion.
        The European Union, United Nations and the United States have given millions in aid money to help Colombia cope with the migrant influx.
        Maduro and other top officials of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party have dismissed migration figures as stemming from politically motivated alarmism and “fake news” meant to justify foreign intervention in Venezuela’s affairs.
    (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Leslie Adler)

    11/2/2018 Shopping at well-stocked Venezuelan stores?    Better take dollars by Corina Pons and Mayela Armas
    People shop inside a convenience store at a five-star hotel in Caracas, Venezuela
    October 12, 2018. Picture taken October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello
        CARACAS (Reuters) – At a luxury hotel in Venezuela’s capital, a small store with amply-stocked shelves offers an array of goods ranging from fine wines to imported baby formula, in stark contrast to the crisis-stricken nation’s barren supermarkets.
        Another store, on the other side of the country in the sweltering western city of Maracaibo, sells American-branded breakfast cereals, soap and truffle salt.
        In a country with annual inflation topping 400,000 percent, the stores’ prices are the only ones that will remain steady.
        “Here we sell in dollars,” said Lourdes Torres, manager of the Maracaibo store, as she attended customers waiting to pay with U.S. legal tender.
        “We accept cash as well as transfers from American banks,” she said, adding that she also accepts payment in local bolivar currency with prices converted at the black market exchange rate that is nearly four times the official rate.
        The privately run “bodegones,” reminiscent of the “dollar stores” Cuba’s government ran in the 1990s, have steadily expanded in recent months as conducting business in the beleaguered bolivar currency becomes increasingly difficult.
        Their rise follows a decision by the government of President Nicolas Maduro to loosen a 15-year-old currency control system that made dollar-based commerce explicitly illegal.
        It also coincides with the growing dollarization of a collapsing economy in which many professionals – from doctors and dentists to personal trainers – are now charging in hard currency to avoid having their earnings swallowed by hyperinflation.
        The clientele of the “bodegones” are primarily well-heeled Venezuelans with earnings in hard currency.    But shoppers also include a growing number of residents who receive remittances from some two million Venezuelans who have emigrated to escape hunger and disease.
        Reuters visited six newly established stores selling in dollars in Caracas and five other major cities, including the border city of San Cristobal and the once-bustling industrial hub of Valencia, now filled with empty factories.
        It was not immediately evident how many such stores have opened nor why the government was not requiring the stores to meet state price controls that are enforced at major supermarket chains.
        The Information Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.
    WE HAVE DIAPERS
        The “bodegones” often grab customers’ attention with luxury products such as high-end chocolates or high-tech gadgets.
        But the most popular items are personal hygiene products like deodorant and toothpaste that are consistently available in greater variety than in supermarkets, according to store managers.
        “People are always asking if we have diapers,” said the manager of a weeks-old shop in eastern Caracas who, like most shop owners who spoke to Reuters, asked not to be identified.    They worry that their operations fall within a legal gray area and could be targeted by authorities.
        She said her supply of diapers, displayed next to bottles of champagne, always runs out within a week.
        Dollarized prices were unthinkable under regulations created by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.    They put the government in charge of carrying out nearly all foreign currency transactions and setting prices for consumer goods.
        Maduro’s government, which often blames shortages and inflation on unscrupulous businesses overcharging or hoarding products, in August lifted a prohibition on the free exchange of hard currency.    But the government did not create a law saying such operations are allowed, which has left many shop owners trepidatious about speaking to the media.
        In September, as the new bodegones were starting to emerge, the government jailed 34 managers of well-known supermarkets on accusations of price-gouging.    They were later released and immediately resigned, according to industry sources.
        Maria Uzcategui of commerce association Consecomercio said stores pricing goods in dollars do so “at their own risk,” while the government has turned a blind eye and gone after big-name grocery chains for political effect.
        “The arrests are a show to blame retailers for the country’s economic situation,” Uzcategui said.    “That is why they single out the large chains, and not small businesses or these new ‘bodegones.'”
        Prices at the dollar stores are exorbitant for those living on a bolivar-based salaries.    The minimum wage is around $10 per month, and at least 80 percent of the population skips at least one meal per day, according to a quality of life study known as Encovi carried out by private universities.
        Meanwhile, some $1.1 billion in annual remittances have turned into a lifeline for civil servants, retirees and salaried professionals who want to avoid waiting in long lines or scouring supermarkets in search of what they need.
        Sonia Ramirez, a 52-year-old retired judge in San Cristobal, shops at the ‘bodegones’ with the $120 she gets from her two sons who live in the Dominican Republic and Spain.
        “They are always well-supplied, but at much higher prices than what the government requires,” she said.
    (Additional reporting by Isaac Urrutia in Maracaibo, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal, Tibisay Romero in Valencia and Maria Ramirez in Puerto Ordaz; Writing by Luc Cohen and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Dan Grebler)

    11/3/2018 Oil down $0.55 to $63.14, DOW down 110 to 25,271

    11/3/2018 US economy adds booming 250,000 jobs in October by Paul Davidson USA TODAY
        The economy added a healthy 250,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department said Friday in the last employment report before midterm elections that President Donald Trump has cast as a critical referendum on his stewardship of the economy.
        The unemployment rate was unchanged at a near 50-year low of 3.7 percent.    Annual wage growth topped 3 percent for the first time in nine years.
        Economists had estimated 200,000 jobs were added last month, according to a Bloomberg survey.
        Trump has boasted that low unemployment is a result of the cuts to taxes and regulations championed by his administration and warned that electing Democrats would reverse the gains.
        “At stake in this Election is whether we continue the extraordinary prosperity we have achieved - or whether we let the Radical Democrat Mob take a giant wrecking ball to our Country and our Economy!” he tweeted this week.
        Economists, however, say there likely would be no significant impact on the economy and labor market if the House or Senate flipped to Democratic control.
        Politics aside, the significance of Friday’s report was tempered by the effects of recent hurricanes.    Hurricane Florence appeared to reduce employment by 50,000 in the Carolinas in September, likely leading to a similar-size boost last month as workers returned to job sites, Goldman Sachs estimated.
        Payrolls increased by just 118,000 in September.
        But the research firm expected that to be largely offset by a decline of 20,000 to 40,000 jobs as a result of Hurricane Michael, which battered the Florida Panhandle. Goldman expected a net 15,000 bump from weather effects.
        Monthly job growth has averaged a sturdy 212,000 this year, up from 182,000 in 2017, despite low unemployment and related labor shortages that are making it harder for businesses to find workers.
        “Businesses have started relaxing their (hiring) standards,” says Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.    “They’re being more rational.    That’s why we’re seeing sustained strong job growth” despite the smaller supply of available workers.

    11/3/2018 US puts sanctions on Iran back in place - 8 nations exempt, temporarily, on oil purchases by Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Friday reimposed economic sanctions on Iran’s oil, banking, shipping and other sectors – penalties lifted by the Obama administration as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
        The White House hopes the sanctions – set to go into effect Monday and aimed at more than 700 Iranian individuals and entities – will strangle Iran’s economy and force the regime into a new round of negotiations.
        The U.S. wants Iran to curb its ballistic missile program and its support for terrorism, among other steps.
        Iran’s leaders have said they are not interested in talks with the Trump administration.
        “Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Friday in a conference call.    The U.S. penalties will hit foreign countries and companies that do business with the targeted Iranian entities, including its national oil company, its banks and its shipping industry.
        Critics say the move will hurt the Iranian people, not the regime, at a time when its economy is already reeling from a drop in the value of its currency and other problems.
        “These sanctions are a slap in the face to the Iranian people who have been squeezed between the repression of their government and the pressure of international sanctions for decades,” Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement ahead of Pompeo’s announcement.    “Impoverishing ordinary Iranians will not hurt the regime or achieve any of America’s security interests, but it will set back the Iranian people’s aspirations for years.”
        Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, said the U.S. has asked Saudi Arabia to increase its production of oil “while we take off Iranian oil from the market.”
        That will help prevent a global spike in the price of oil, which would end up helping Iran.    The Trump administration’s strategy – relying on Saudi Arabia to squeeze Iran – illustrates why the White House has been cautious in its response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
        Asked how the Trump administration could square its condemnation of Iran’s human rights abuses with its support for Saudi Arabia, which also has an abysmal record on that front, Hook said, “I can only speak to how the Saudis have helped our Iran strategy.”
        The sanctions stem from President Donald Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement, negotiated by the U.S. and five other nations.    Under that Obama-era deal, Iran agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons and agreed to inspections of its military sites and other facilities.    In exchange, the U.S. and its partners – including Germany, France, China and Russia – lifted global sanctions that had devastated Iran’s economy.
        Iran’s leaders have said they will continue to adhere to the agreement.    Other signatories to the accord are trying to salvage it – with the European Union seeking to create a work-around to avoid U.S. sanctions and continue doing business with Iran.    In a joint statement, the foreign and finance ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom noted that 12 consecutive reports from an independent watchdog have documented Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement. And they said they would continue to do business with the regime.
        Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the EU’s proposed loophole will not work – and warned that the Trump administration will go after any entity trying to dodge the U.S. sanctions.
        Pompeo said eight countries, which he declined to name, were cooperating with the administration on its push to move to “zero” oil imports from Iran.    Those countries will earn temporary exemptions when the sanctions go into effect.
        There will also be some exemptions for food, medicine and humanitarian goods, Pompeo said.

    11/3/2018 Budget deficit continues its upward trend by Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool
        Across the U.S., families have to keep their budgets balanced in order to make ends meet.    But the same has never been true of the U.S. government, which has routinely run deficits by spending more than it brings in through taxes and other revenue sources.
        Budget deficits have been a bipartisan effort, with Republicans and Democrats trading positions of power without having found any permanent resolutions to the issue.
        In October, the Treasury Department announced the budget deficit for fiscal 2018, which ended on Sept. 30, rose to $779 billion.    That was up from $666 billion the year before, marking the third consecutive year of higher deficits.
        Rising deficits were largely expected for several reasons.    First, tax cuts that took effect at the beginning of calendar 2018 reduced the amount of quarterly tax payments taxpayers paid to the Treasury during the first nine months of the year.    Also, rising interest rates forced the federal government to pay more in interest on the national debt, which stands at more than $21 trillion.    And finally, an increase in inflation contributed to higher government spending for several key programs.
        With current projections for more than $1 trillion in deficits for fiscal 2019, many expect debate to center on what combination of spending cuts and tax increases is most appropriate to get the U.S. government on a firmer financial footing.    Yet given the past track record of lawmakers and presidential administrations, Americans shouldn’t expect a quick resolution anytime soon.
    [The problem with the above is that during the Bush administration it was only 7 trillion and then Obama came in and in 8 years ran it up close to 20 trillion, and now they are trying to blame Trump on being stuck with his debt.]

    11/2/2018 Judge Rules In Favor Of Trump Admin. In California Federal Lands Case by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at
    Erie Insurance Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, in Erie, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        The Trump administration scores a legal victory after a California judge blocked a state law that limits federal land transfers.
        The measure, passed Thursday, gives the state the first right of refusal over government proposals to sell federal land.
        The ruling says the law violated the constitution, because it interferes with the federal government’s right to regulate the sale of federal property.
        The law was adopted by the state, as environmentalists were concerned the administration was planning to sell off the land for mining or drilling.
        The DOJ sued the state back in April, as federal officials claimed the law slowed down a number of planned transfer.

    11/3/2018 Maduro blasts new economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration by OAN Newsroom
        Socialist leader Nicolas Maduro takes shots at President Trump, over newly imposed sanctions.
        On Friday, the Venezuelan dictator harshly criticized the penalties which were approved this week, which places a limit on the gold imported from Venezuela.
        Maduro called the sanctions criminal and crazy, as President Trump gets tough on the regime.
    President Nicolas Maduro has urged the Government of Canada, a country with which Venezuela
    has diplomatic relations since 1948, to “go away” if it “is not interested in Venezuela.” (Photo Ariana Cubillos, AP)
        Since Maduro took office, millions of Venezuelans have fled the South American country due to economic turmoil, and government corruption.
        “That’s why I say that the sanctions from the imperialist United States government against Venezuela are crazy, demented, crazy, schizophrenic, criminal.    But with or without sanctions, Venezuela is moving forward, nobody can stop the growth and prosperity of our people.” – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
        The U.S. remains the main oil-importer for Venezuela, but the Trump administration reportedly will consider placing restrictions on current deals, if tensions continue to flare.

    11/3/2018 Pres. Trump comments on allegedly false accusation against Justice Kavanaugh by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump sounds off on a recent alleged admission by one of the women accusing now Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
        In a tweet Saturday, apparently referring to Judy Munro-Leighton, the president said a vicious accuser of Justice Kavanaugh has just admitted she was lying, and added her story was totally made up or fake.
    President Donald Trump, right, stands with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, left, before a ceremonial swearing in in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        He then said can you imagine if he didn’t become a Supreme Court Justice because of her disgusting false statements.
        The president also questioned the validity of other unproven accusations made against the Justice and asked where are the Democrats on this.
    [That is 3 out of 3 women who had accused the Supreme Court nominee, and where is Finestein (the leaker) and Booker (the speaker of rights who was wrong) and the mob (brought in to interfere) at now, without even an apology to Kavanaugh.].

    11/4/2018 French far-right overtakes Macron in EU parliament election poll by Geert De Clercq
    FILE PHOTO: French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party leader Marine Le Pen
    looks on as she delivers her speech in Mantes-la-Ville, France, September 23, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        PARIS (Reuters) – France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party jumped ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM for the first time in a poll of voting intentions for May 2019 European Parliament elections.
        An Ifop poll published on Sunday showed the centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) with 19 percent of voting intentions compared to 20 percent at the end of August, while far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s RN — formerly the National Front — rose to 21 percent from 17 percent previously.
        Together with the seven percent score of sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and one percent each for “Frexit” parties led by former Le Pen associate Florian Philippot and Francois Asselineau, far-right parties won a combined 30 percent of voting intentions, up from 25 percent end August.
        The poll asked nearly 1,000 French people on Oct 30-31 who they would vote for if the European Parliament elections were to be held the next Sunday.
        The conservative Les Republicains party led by Laurent Wauquiez slipped two percentage points to 13 percent, while the far-left France Insoumise led by Jean-Luc Melenchon fell from 14 to 11 percent.
        Melenchon was widely criticised and mocked after yelling at police officers during a raid of his party offices as part of an anti-corruption inquiry.
        In an Odoxa-Dentsu poll released mid-September, Macron and Le Pen’s parties were neck-and-neck at around 21 percent, while the conservative Les Republicains came third with 14 percent and Melenchon’s France Insoumise fourth with 12.5 percent.
        In an Ifop poll in May, the LREM was seen winning 27 percent of the EU parliament vote, well ahead of the far right’s 17 percent and more than Macron’s 24 percent in the first round of France’s April 2017 presidential elections.
        The European elections are shaping up to be a major battle between centrist, pro-EU parties like Macron’s LREM and far-right formations that want to stop immigration and globalisation.
        The European Parliament elections determine who leads the major EU institutions, including the European Commission, the bloc’s civil service, and are also important as a bellwether of sentiment among the EU’s 500 million people.
        In a YouGov poll published last week, Macron’s popularity fell to its lowest level since his 2017 election, with only 21 percent of those polled saying they were satisfied with him.
        Macron’s reputation has been hit by the brusque departure of two high-profile ministers and a summer scandal over his bodyguard, while stubbornly high unemployment, high taxes and rising fuel prices add to a general feeling of discontent.
    (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Helen Popper)

    11/3/2018 Mexico’s Interior Secy: caravan wants to capitalize on midterm elections in U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        A top Mexican security official is raising questions about the timing of the migrant caravan headed toward the U.S.
        Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete said earlier this week, its no coincidence the caravan is approaching the U.S. during election season.
    Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border,
    get a ride on trucks, in Donaji, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
        This, as President Trump continues blasting Democrats for encouraging illegal immigrants to break the nation’s laws, calling it an assault on the country.
        Many experts believe the migrants may be motivated to come to the U.S., by the possibility of Democrat’s gaining seats on election day.
        Now, President Trump has announced the White House may increase the amount of troops stationed at the border to as many as 15,000.

    11/4/2018 Oil rally faces tidal wave of supply by Devika Krishna Kumar and David Gaffen
    FILE PHOTO: A drilling crew uses a mechanical roughneck machine to thread drill pipe together
    on an oil rig in the Permian Basin near Wink, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        (Reuters) – The oil market’s two-year bull run is running into one of its biggest tests in months, facing a tidal wave of supply and growing worries about economic weakness sapping demand worldwide.
        After topping out at more than $75 and $85 a barrel just a month ago, both U.S. crude and Brent benchmark futures have grappled with near-relentless selling.    For a time, prices had some support on hopes that renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran would force barrels off the market.
        That changed in the last week.    The world’s three largest producers – Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States – all indicated they were pumping at record or near-record levels, while the United States said it would allow waivers that could allow buyers to keep importing Iranian oil, lessening the threat of a supply crunch.
        Those factors, along with a spate of recent weak economic reports out of China and other emerging markets, have shifted the conversation back toward worries about oversupply, and pushed U.S. futures to lows not seen since April, interrupting an upward move that had consistently found support during the rally’s modest pullbacks.
        The structure of the U.S. crude futures curve had for several months indicated expectations for tighter supply, but future-dated contracts now suggest investors think markets could be awash in oil over the coming months.
        “The magnitude of recent selling is strongly suggesting that global oil demand is weaker than expected as a result of tariff issues, especially between the U.S. and China,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.
        There has been an exodus among speculators as well.    In the last two weeks, net bullish bets on oil have declined to the lowest level in over a year.    Selling notably accelerated on Thursday after U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell below $65 a barrel, a level that had stood firm in previous selloffs during the summer and fall.
        The oil market ran higher in anticipation of this week’s formal re-imposition of sanctions against Iran by the United States, and on concerns that supply from producers like Saudi Arabia would not be able to make up the difference.
    (Russian, U.S. & Saudi crude oil production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2CTwqaq)
        However, the U.S. government said on Friday it will temporarily allow several countries including South Korea and Turkey to keep importing Iranian oil when U.S. sanctions come back into force on Monday, sparing them for now from the threat of U.S. economic penalties.
        Still, some analysts believe the current selloff has come too far, too quickly.    Major OPEC producers won’t be able to add more supply should it become necessary, particularly with production in Iran, Venezuela and Libya still at risk.
        “A loss of 1 million bpd from Iran, further declines in Venezuela, coupled together with geopolitical disruption in Libya and Nigeria could easily wipe out what little spare capacity we have left,” Bernstein analysts said this week.
        Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, rose to levels not seen in two years. U.S. production hit a record 11.3 million barrels a day in August, and Russia’s output rose to 11.4 million bpd, a post-Soviet era peak.
        For U.S. crude, the key area to watch is between $64.45 and $64.80, where prices had found support in the past, said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com.    If oil dips below this point, “the path of least resistance would be to the downside,” he said.
        For Brent, Razaqzada is watching the range between $69.50 and $69.60 a barrel, and if it were to slip below that, we could see a much larger correction, he said.
    (Reporting By David Gaffen and Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

    11/4/2018 Merkel’s conservatives quarrel over party’s course by Michael Nienaber
    German Health Minister Jens Spahn attends the CDU board meeting in Berlin, Germany November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) argued on Sunday over whether they should return to a more conservative agenda once she steps down as party chair as contenders to succeed her gear up for the leadership race.
        Support for their Social Democrats (SPD) coalition partner meanwhile hit a record low, according to a poll published hours before senior members of both the CDU and the SPD were due to discuss the parties’ future courses in closed-door meetings.
        Merkel announced last week that she would step down as CDU party leader in December, ending an era of nearly two decades in which she shifted Germany’s most powerful party gradually from the right to the center.
        Her decision followed two regional votes in which Merkel’s center-right bloc and the left-leaning SPD suffered their worst election results in decades while the ecologist Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained support.
        Health Minister Jens Spahn, one of the three contenders to replace Merkel as party leader, said the CDU had watered down its profile by becoming too centrist in the past years.
        “Parties must differ from another again more strongly,” Spahn told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.    “The way we view people and society is fundamentally different from the one of the Social Democrats,” he added.
        Spahn is one of the fiercest critics of Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million refugees, mainly Muslims from war zones in the Middle East.
        Spahn ruled out a coalition with the anti-immigration AfD, saying the CDU could not work together with a party he called anti-American and which he said idolizes Russian autocrats.
        CDU deputy chair Armin Laschet warned against moving the CDU more to the right.    “I’m convinced that such a policy shift would be wrong,” Laschet told Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.    The CDU should stick to its centrist course, he added.
        Speaking to reporters shortly before the CDU board meeting in Berlin, Laschet and CDU deputy leader Julia Kloeckner both suggested that the candidates to succeed Merkel should present themselves in several regional conferences in the coming weeks.
    LEADERSHIP RACE
        The candidate most likely to stand for a continuation of Merkel’s centrist course is CDU party secretary general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer who is expected to comment on her candidacy in the coming days.
        The third candidate is Friedrich Merz who would stand for a shift towards the low-tax, business-friendly right-wing conservatism that Merkel has pushed into the background.
        The CDU seems to be split over its leadership question.    An Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag showed that 44 percent of party members backed Merz and 39 percent favored Kramp-Karrenbauer.    Support for Spahn was at 9 percent.
        SPD deputy chair Ralf Stegner said his party would not remain in the coalition “at any price.”
        “If the coalition does not drastically and rapidly change its work mode and image, it cannot and will not last,” he said.
        A Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv broadcasters showed on Sunday that support for the SPD plunged to a record low of 13 percent while Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc rose to 27 percent.
        The pro-immigration Greens jumped to 24 percent to become the second-strongest party, the poll showed.    The AfD fell to 13 percent while the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the party The Left both stood at 9 percent.
    (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

    11/4/2018 U.S. Troops Entrench At Southern Border To Stop Illegal Immigration by OAN Newsroom
    Members of a U.S Army engineering brigade place Concertina wire around an encampment for troops, Department of Defense
    and U.S. Customs and Border Protection near the U.S.-Mexico International bridge, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Donna, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
        U.S. troops are setting up camps at the U.S.-Mexican border, preparing to stop migrant caravans.
        U.S. Army engineers are building new customs and border enforcement facilities, as part of President Trump’s effort to secure the region.
        Military officials say the new facilities will help prevent illegal entry into the U.S. and speed up deportations of apprehended migrants.
        This comes as 7,000 troops have been deployed to the border in Texas, Arizona and California with more to come.
        President Trump stressed the deployment comes in line with the law.

    11/4/2018 Migrant Caravan Splits Into Groups, Some Return Home by OAN Newsroom
    Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border,
    travel during the night on a truck in Orizaba, Veracruz state, Mexico, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        The migrant caravan approaching the U.S. has split into several groups.
        At least 3,000 migrants from the original caravan have applied for asylum in Mexico, while hundreds more have reportedly returned home, according to Mexican authorities.
        Around 4,000 migrants are still en route to the U.S. and are expected to pass through Veracruz in the next few days.
        This as the president said he is prepared to send as many as 15,000 troops to secure the southern border.

    11/5/2018 First wave of Central American migrants arrive in Mexico City
    Migrants, part of a caravan traveling en route to the United States, queue to receive
    food as they stay in a sport center used as shelter in Arriaga, Mexico November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The first Central American migrants from a caravan traveling through Mexico toward the United States in hopes of seeking asylum arrived in Mexico City on Sunday, taking up temporary shelter at a sports stadium.
        More than 1,000 Central Americans, many fleeing gang violence and financial hardship in their home countries, bedded down at the stadium where the city government set up medical aid and food kitchens.
        Ahead of U.S. congressional elections this Tuesday, President Donald Trump has warned repeatedly about the advance of the caravan and ordered thousands of troops to the Mexican border, where units strung up razor wire this weekend.
        The migrants arrived in the capital, nearly 500 miles (805 kilometers) from the closest border crossings in Texas, four weeks after setting out from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.
        “Our heads are set at getting to the United States, to fulfill the American dream,” said Mauricio Mancilla, who traveled with his six-year old son from San Pedro Sula.    “We have faith in God that we will do this, whatever the circumstances.”
        Thousands more Central Americans were moving in groups in the Gulf state of Veracruz, the central state of Puebla and in the southern state of Chiapas, local media reported.
        “This is an exodus,” Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest and migrant rights activist, told reporters.    “It’s without precedent.”
        The U.S. government has pressured Mexico to halt the advance of the migrants and President Enrique Pena Nieto has offered temporary identification papers and jobs if they register for asylum in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.
        Mexico’s government said on Saturday it was processing nearly 2,800 asylum requests and that around 1,100 Central Americans had been deported.
        At the capital’s famed shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, a group of Mexican volunteers called out on bullhorns, offering bus rides to migrants to the stadium.
        Cesar Gomez, a 20-year old Guatemalan, said he jumped at joining the caravan to avoid the dangers of traveling alone and paying thousands of dollars to human smugglers.
        “This was a good opportunity,” he said as he waited for a ride.    “The first thing is to try for the United States.    If not, maybe I will stay here.”
    (Reporting by Josue Gonzalez, Stefanie Eschenbacher and Alberto Fajardo; Editing by Susan Thomas)

    11/5/2018 Ireland says UK cannot unilaterally scrap border backstop
    FILE PHOTO: Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney, speaks at a
    'Getting Ireland Brexit Ready' workshop at the Convention Centre in Dublin, Ireland October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
        DUBLIN (Reuters) – Neither Ireland nor the European Union would ever sign up to a backstop agreement to keep the Irish border open after Brexit that could be ended unilaterally by Britain, Ireland’s foreign minister said on Monday.
        With just five months until Britain is due to exit the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to clinch a divorce deal, with negotiators stuck on the terms of the so-called “backstop” insurance arrangement to keep open the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland.
        Cautious optimism that a deal between the EU and London may be in the offing in coming weeks has been kept in check by the fact that it remains far from clear whether any such agreement could go through the British parliament.
        The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that May’s Brexit Minister Dominic Raab had privately demanded the right to pull Britain out of the “backstop” arrangement for the Irish border after three months.
        “The Irish position remains consistent and v[ery] clear that a ‘time-limited backstop’ or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by Ireland or the European Union,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Twitter.
        “These ideas are not backstops at all + don’t deliver on previous UK commitments,” he added, following the media report that Raab made the pitch to Coveney in a private meeting in London last Tuesday.
        The message quickly won endorsement from the EU’s deputy Brexit negotiator, Sabine Weyand, who reacted to Coveney’s comments by saying: “Still necessary to repeat this, it seems.”
        After a meeting in Dublin on Friday with Britain’s Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, May’s de facto deputy, both Coveney and Lidington said the two sides were “very close” to resolving differences on the border issue.
        The sides have moved closer to agreeing on customs arrangements under the emergency Irish border fix, sources in Brussels have said, which would keep all of the United Kingdom in a customs arrangement with the EU, as London has sought.    It would also keep Northern Ireland in the customs union of the EU, as long insisted by the bloc.
        Lidington also said the British government would stand by the written commitments it had already made on the backstop, which include an agreement that it would apply unless and until a better solution is found.
        The EU has suggested that the tweaked “two-tier” backstop covering all of the UK could give mainland Britain some scope to set its own trade rules while keeping Northern Ireland aligned with the EU.
    (Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin, additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    11/5/2018 Trump admin. reimposes sanctions on Iran previously halted by Obama-era nuclear deal by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration has reimposed all sanctions previously put on hold under the Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal.
        On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced penalties on Iran’s energy banking and shipping sectors.
        “Since the Trump administration came into office we’ve done 19 round of sanctions, targeting 168 Iranian entities,” stated Pompeo.    “Today’s (Monday) sanctions will accelerate the rapid decline of international economic activity in Iran since the implementation of our strategy in May — since that time, since back May, over 100 companies have withdrawn from Iran or canceled plans to do business there.”
        Mnuchin said 700 individuals, entities, aircraft and vessels were targeted in the largest single day action against the Islamic Republic.
        The secretary of state announced China, Italy, Greece, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and Japan will be initially exempt.
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, present details
    of the new sanctions on Iran, at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Monday, Nov. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        The officials said the U.S. will continue this maximum pressure campaign on Iran until it stops its malign behavior in the Middle East, which includes being the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism.
        “It should be noted that if a company evades our sanctions routine and secretly continues sanctionable commerce in the Islamic Republic, the United States will levy severe, swift penalties on it, including potential sanctions,” warned Pompeo.
        He added, Iran will never come close to a nuclear weapon on President Trump’s watch.

    11/5/2018 President Trump: Central American leaders may have ‘stolen’ foreign aid by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is still threatening to cut off foreign aid to the Central American nations, whose citizens have become involved in caravans headed to the U.S. border.
        During a rally Sunday, the president claimed the leaders of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala may have stolen millions of dollars worth of U.S. aid.
        According to reports, the U.S. donated more than $100 million to El Salvador and Honduras in 2017 as well as about $250 million to Guatemala.
        This comes just weeks after the president blasted those nations for not stopping their people from migrating north.
        “I can only tell you this.    We give them hundreds of millions of dollars.    They do nothing for us.    You know what?    Maybe it will and maybe it won’t, but it certainly has an effect.    They could do a lot better job.    You look at the three countries in particular, and I don’t know what’s going on with Mexico, I guess it looks like the people are walking right through the middle of Mexico, so I’m not exactly thrilled there either.” — President Donald Trump
        During his speech, President Trump said he has advised Vice President Mike Pence to inform the leader of Honduras the U.S. will be cutting off aid.
    Central American migrants pack into the back of a trailer truck as they begin their morning trek as part of a thousands-strong
    caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, in Isla, Veracruz state, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018.    Thousands of wary
    Central American migrants resumed their push toward the United States on Sunday, a day after arguments over the path ahead saw some
    travelers splinter away from the main caravan, which is entering a treacherous part of its journey through Mexico. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
        Meanwhile, the migrant caravan recently voted to try and reach Mexico City by Monday.    In a voice vote of over 1,000 migrants, the group decided to make their longest single-day trek yet with a 178-mile goal.
        On Sunday, the largest remaining group walked and hitch-hiked over 100-miles through Veracruz, which is considered the most dangerous region for migrants as hundreds have disappeared in recent years and kidnappers seek ransom payments.
        Despite the dangers, many are still planning to press on to Mexico City and seek asylum in the U.S.
        “I’m happy to go to Mexico City because we are advancing and we, all the migrants, are closer of our dream — it’s our goal to enter to the U.S. to improve the future of our children,” said Betsy Jaqueline Martinez, migrant from Honduras.
        Though the caravan is still hundreds of miles away, President Trump is preparing for the migrants by deploying thousands of U.S. troops to the southern border.

    11/5/2018 Pope condemns anti-Semitism amid increase in attacks on Jews by Philip Pullella
    Pope Francis meets a delegation of Rabbis from the "World Congress of Mountain Jews" of Caucasus,
    during a private audience at the Vatican, November 5, 2018. Vatican Media/¬Handout via REUTERS
        VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis called on Monday for the eradication of anti-Semitism following an increase in attacks and hate crimes against Jews in several countries and said it was vital to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
        In the worst attack ever against U.S. Jews, a gunman yelling “All Jews must die” stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue on Oct. 27, killing 11 worshippers and wounding six other people including four police officers, before he was arrested.
        “We are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti-Semitism is banned from the human community,” Francis said during a meeting with rabbis from the World Congress of Mountain Jews.
        Mountain Jews are the descendants of Jews who left ancient Persia and settled in the Caucasus.
        Francis said the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six million Jews around Europe during World War Two, must continue to be commemorated to keep its memory alive.
        “Without a living memory, there will be no future, for if the darkest pages of history do not teach us to avoid the same errors, human dignity will remain a dead letter,” he said.
        He noted the recent 75th anniversary of the deportation of Rome’s Jews by Nazi occupiers and that Nov. 9 will be the 80th anniversary of “Kristallnacht,” the night when mobs ransacked thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses in Germany and Austria.
        “Sadly, anti-Semitic attitudes are also present in our own times.    As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti-Semite, we share the same roots,” Francis said, stressing the importance of inter-faith dialogue.
        In the run-up to Tuesday’s contentious U.S. elections, in which immigration has become a central issue, racist fliers have been reported on university campuses in at least five states, while synagogues in New York and California have been sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.
        Last week British police launched an investigation into alleged anti-Semitic hate crimes within the opposition Labour Party, after a report that Labour itself had found evidence of party members threatening politicians.
    (Additional reporting by Nick Carey and Bernie Woodall in Washington and Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    11/5/2018 Explainer: Britain’s big Brexit vote – Will parliament back PM May? by William James
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May stands at the door of 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – If British Prime Minister Theresa May is able to strike a Brexit deal with the European Union in the coming days or weeks, she will face a crucial vote in parliament when she asks lawmakers to approve it.
        How will the vote in parliament work?
    WHAT DOES MAY HAVE TO DO?
        If a deal is agreed, May has to publish in parliament a copy of the withdrawal agreement and an outline agreement of Britain’s future relationship with the EU.
        Ministers must then arrange a debate.    In the directly elected lower house of parliament this will culminate in a vote to determine whether parliament has approved the deal.    This is the big vote.
        The government can move very quickly to organize the vote once a deal is reached, but any debate is expected to last several days.
    HOW WILL THE VOTE WORK?
        The format of the debate and vote is yet to be decided and currently subject to fierce disagreement.    This is because it could have a crucial role in determining whether the government wins the vote.
        Ministers argue that any decision by parliament must be unambiguous in endorsing the deal as it is presented by the government.    If not, they say the vote might not meet the legal criteria necessary for ratification of the withdrawal agreement.
        But, opponents of May’s strategy instead want to use the debate to demonstrate that there is majority support for an alternative exit strategy, such as a second referendum, or remaining inside the EU’s customs union.
        The way in which they are able to do this will depend on the format.    There could be multiple votes which, although not legally binding, would be politically hard to ignore if they show support for an alternative exit arrangement.
        A final decision on the format will be made closer to the time by parliamentary officials, based on recommendations from lawmakers.    Legislation only stipulates ministers should try to hold a debate before the European Parliament has its own vote.
    WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE OF LORDS?
        The unelected upper house of parliament, the House of Lords, will also debate the deal, but will only be asked to “take note” of it.    The Lords will not get a straight “approve” or “reject” vote, and will not have the power to block the deal.
        The legislation defining the procedure for parliamentary approval does not specify how quickly after a deal is announced the vote will happen.
    WHAT WILL LAWMAKERS VOTE ON?
        Lawmakers will be voting on whether to approve a package consisting of:
    1) The withdrawal agreement – a legal text setting out issues such as citizens’ rights, the financial settlement, a backstop for the Irish border, and the terms of an implementation period designed to smooth the exit process.
    2) The future relationship framework – a non-legal document defining how Britain and the EU will work together in the long term on issues such as trade and security.
        These two documents define the deal May and her team have been negotiating with the European Commission since June 2017.
    WHO GETS TO VOTE?
        There are 650 elected lawmakers in Britain’s House of Commons.    Excluding non-voting members such as the speaker and others who never take up their seats, around 320 votes are needed to be certain of winning a vote.    The actual number needed for victory depends on abstentions and absences on the day.
        The vote is decided by a simple majority. Whichever side has more votes wins.
    HOW WILL THE RESULT BE ANNOUNCED?
        At the end of the debate, the speaker will typically ask for those in favor of the motion to shout “aye,” and then those against to say “no.”    As long as some lawmakers shout “no,” the speaker will call for a formal vote, known as a division.
        Votes are registered by lawmakers walking through different doorways, out of sight of television cameras and onlookers.    Once the headcount is complete – which can take up to 15 minutes – lawmakers return to the debating chamber.
        Four appointed tellers will assemble in front of the speaker, and one will read the result out loud.
    HOW WILL THE PARTIES VOTE?
        The ruling Conservative Party has 315 lawmakers.    It governs with a working majority of 13 thanks to a deal with the 10 lawmakers of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
        But May’s party is not united behind her current plan.    Eurosceptics think it leaves Britain too tied to EU rules, and pro-EU lawmakers say the ties are not close enough.    Both groups are potentially large enough to inflict defeat.
        The support of the 10 DUP lawmakers is dependent on the solution agreed on the Irish border.    They have said they will not support any deal that leaves Northern Ireland subject to different rules to the rest of the country.
        The opposition Labour Party has 257 lawmakers.    Led by Jeremy Corbyn, the party has pledged to vote down any deal that does not meet its criteria.    The plans currently under discussion are unlikely to do this, so most Labour lawmakers can be expected to vote against May.
        However, some who disagree with Corbyn’s stance could rebel and vote with the government in order to avoid the risk of leaving without a deal.    Media reports have said May is courting these Labour “moderates.”
        The Scottish National Party’s 35 lawmakers are expected to vote against the government deal, as are the 12 Liberal Democrats.
    IF MAY WINS, IS THAT IT?
        No.    Although the vote is the focal point for resistance to the deal, the government is also required to pass separate legislation to implement the withdrawal agreement and complete the ratification process.
        This legislation will be known as the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill.    It will be subject to full scrutiny in parliament, involving multiple rounds of possible amending and voting.    It has to be passed before March 29, 2019.
        This process is unlikely to be used to unpick the deal as the legislation will be implementing what has already been approved by parliament.    However, if parliament feels as if May has ignored its wishes and is forcing the deal through, it could use the bill to stall the exit process.
    WHAT IF MAY LOSES?
        This would be a politically explosive outcome that could topple May and her government.    There are legislative guidelines on what happens next, but they could be overtaken by events.
        By law, if the government motion is rejected, ministers have 21 days to set out in a statement how they intend to proceed.    The government has said that if their deal is rejected, Britain will leave the EU without a deal.
        It then has to call a fresh debate in parliament that could give lawmakers another chance to set out amendments – effectively giving parliament a vote on an alternative path.    These amendments would not be binding, but if approved May would again find them hard to ignore.
        However, it is also technically possible that the government could call a second vote in the commons and ask lawmakers for their approval again on either the same, or amended terms.
    (Reporting by William James; Editing by Alison Williams and Guy Faulconbridge)

    11/5/2018 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with North Korea Official by OAN Newsroom
        The U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is expected to meet with a North Korean official this week, according to new reports on Sunday.
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and Kim Yong Chol, left, a North Korean senior ruling party official and
    former intelligence chief, arrive for a lunch at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, July 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
        Pompeo is said to be traveling to New York City on Thursday, where he is expected to hold talks with North Korean Central Committee Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol.
        The pair are slated to discuss progress on the ‘Four Pillars of the Singapore Summit Joint Statement’, as well as the full denuclearization of the North Korea.
        The joint statement is the product of the historic summit last June between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-Un, which includes discussions of building stable peace on the Korean Peninsula.

    11/6/2018 Frost thaws in U.S.-China ties ahead of G20 meeting by David Brunnstrom and John Geddie
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Chinese flags are placed for a joint news conference by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
    and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
        WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The United States and China will hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday, the latest sign of a thaw in relations, as China’s vice president said Beijing was willing to talk with Washington to resolve their bitter trade dispute.
        The resumption of high-level dialogue, marked by a phone call last week between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, comes ahead of an expected meeting between the two at the G20 summit in Argentina starting in late November.
        It follows months of recriminations spanning trade, U.S. accusations of Chinese political interference, the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan.
        China and the United States have both described last week’s telephone call between Xi and Trump as positive.
        Trump predicted he’d be able to make a deal with China on trade.
        In a concrete sign of the unfreezing, the U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chinese politburo member Yang Jiechi and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe will take part in diplomatic and security talks later this week in Washington.
        China said last month the two sides had initially agreed “in principle” to hold the second round of diplomatic security talks in October but they were postponed at Washington’s request amid rising tensions over trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
        Mattis had been due to hold talks with Wei in Beijing in October, but those plans were upended after Washington imposed sanctions on China’s People’s Liberation Army for buying weapons from Russia.
        Mattis did meet Wei in Singapore on Oct. 18 and told him that the world’s two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties to reduce the risk of conflict.
        Speaking in Singapore on Tuesday, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, who is close to Xi, reiterated China’s readiness to hold discussions and work with the United States to resolve trade disputes as the world’s two largest economies stand to lose from confrontation.
        “Both China and the U.S. would love to see greater trade and economic cooperation,” Wang told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
        “The Chinese side is ready to have discussions with the U.S. on issues of mutual concern and work for a solution on trade acceptable to both sides,” he said.
        “The world today faces many major problems that require close co-operation between China and the United States,” Wang said.
        Wang echoed comments made by Xi on Monday at a major import fair in Shanghai that Beijing will embrace greater openness.
        Trump has railed against China over intellectual property theft, entry barriers to U.S. business and a gaping trade deficit, which U.S. data showed reached a record $40.2 billion in September.
        The trade war, which has seen both sides impose tariffs on billions of dollars worth of the other’s imports, is beginning to hurt China’s economy and has battered Chinese shares and the yuan currency.
        It has also brought purchases of U.S. soybeans by China to a virtual standstill.    Soybeans are the largest U.S. agricultural export to China.
        Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shanghai import fair that both countries understood the need to maintain their relationship.
        “I think both sides are optimistic … more optimistic after the call last week that took place, that some kind of a solution can be reached,” he said.
    (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and John Geddie; Additional reporting by Tom Daly and Michael Martina in Shanghai; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tony Munroe and Neil Fullick)

    11/6/2018 Migrant caravan arrives in Mexico City by OAN Newsroom
        The majority of the migrant caravan has arrived in the Mexican capital, with many still planning to walk hundreds of miles to the U.S. border.
        After three weeks on the road, a group of around 1,000 migrants traveled more than 100 miles to Mexico City on Monday, with officials expecting up to 5,000 to arrive by Wednesday.
        Mexican officials are housing the group in a sports stadium and have been serving them hot meals.
    Central American migrant Jerson Suazo, left, stands with his wife Anabel Pineda next to their six-year-old son Fernando,
    at a shelter in the Jesus Martinez stadium, in Mexico City, Monday, Nov. 5, 2018.
    Thousands of Central American migrants have arrived at the stadium.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        In the meantime, local humanitarian workers are trying to provide migrants with opportunities in Mexico.
        “There will be an interdisciplinary team to work with the people wishing to stay, to give them immediate attention, including a job, and for those who wish to continue on their journey, they will be given information, it’s their decision,” said Father Alejandro Solalinde, Catholic priest and human rights defender in Mexico.
        President Trump has made the migrant caravan a central campaign issue ahead of the midterms, and has deployed thousands of military personnel to the southern border to protect national security.

    11/6/2018 Pelosi: 100 percent certain Democrats will take back House by OAN Newsroom
    House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, center, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
    Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., left, speak with reporters on Election Day at the Democratic National Committee
    headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she is 100 percent certain about the midterm election results.
        In a briefing Tuesday morning, the California lawmaker said the Democrats would take back control of the House of Representatives.    Pelosi said she is confident because she has spoken to campaign volunteers and the quality of the Democrat’s candidates this election cycle is inspiring voters.
        The congresswoman went on to say she’s not sure how big the Democrat’s win will be, but said it could be a “blue wave” or a “blue tsunami.”
        Pelosi previously said she’ll run for House Speaker again.    But many Democrats say they don’t want her in the speaker role and are looking for new leadership.

    11/6/2018 5 victims rescued during Texas human trafficking sting, 75 suspects arrested by OAN Newsroom
        Multiple law enforcement agencies work together to rescue five victims of human trafficking in Texas during a sting operation.
        At a press conference Monday, authorities announced the arrests of more than 75 suspects in connection with the sex trafficking ring.
        Last month, some agents taking part in ‘Operation Cross County’ went online to pose as sex workers, while others offered to pay money for sexual favors.
    Mug shots of suspects taken into custody in connection with sex trafficking. (Photos/Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office/handout)
        Authorities explained prostitution has evolved into sex trafficking over the years with many victims forced into the illicit business by fraud or coercion.
        “The best part about this operation, and I think we can all agree, is that the one thing we were all after was finding the true victims of that were involved in this unfortunate activity,” stated Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.    “We were able to identify and rescue five confirmed victims of trafficking, one of them was a juvenile and that’s what we are most proud of.”
        Authorities credit much of their success with help from the community, and are urging residents to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious to authorities.

    11/7/2018 Oil down $0.89 to $62.21, DOW up 173 to 25,635

        Below is the way the elections went.
          
        SENATE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOVERNOR------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOUSE


    11/7/2018 How a Democratic U.S. House could alter foreign policy by Patricia Zengerle
    A rainbow forms over the U.S. Capitol as evening sets on midterm Election Day in Washington, U.S. November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats will use their new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to reverse what they see as a hands-off approach by Republicans toward President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, and push for tougher dealings with Russia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
        Representative Eliot Engel, the Democrat in line to head the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said they may also push for congressional authorization for the use of military force in places like Iraq and Syria.    But on some hot-button areas, like China and Iran, he acknowledged there was little they could do to change the status quo.
        Now that they have taken control of the 435-member House of Representatives for the first time since 2011, Democrats will decide what legislation is considered in the chamber and have a bigger role in setting spending policy and writing legislation.
        “I don’t think we should challenge something just because it’s put forth by the administration, but I do think we have an obligation to review policies and do oversight,” Engel told Reuters in a telephone interview.
        Since they must still work with a Republican-controlled Senate to pass any bills, the Democratic majority’s greatest influence will be oversight, the ability to call hearings and, if necessary, subpoena witnesses, as they lead committees like Foreign Affairs as well as Armed Services and Intelligence.
    HOW DO THE DEMOCRATS SEE RUSSIA?
        Democrats plan Russia-related investigations, such as a probe of possible business ties and conflicts of interest between Trump and Russia.
        From a policy perspective, a Democratic-led House would push to punish Russia for interference in U.S. elections and activities including its aggression in Ukraine and involvement in the Syrian civil war.
        The House would push for more sanctions, including measures targeting new Russian sovereign debt.    It would also try to pressure Trump to enact all of the sanctions in a sweeping bill he reluctantly signed into law in August 2017.
        Members of Congress have also vowed to push harder, using subpoena power if necessary, to obtain information about Trump’s summit last summer with Russian President Vladimir Putin.    The White House has released few details about the meeting.
        “It’s ludicrous that there could be such a high-level meeting between the two leaders and Congress should be in the dark about it,” Engel said.
        He said the issue of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election “hasn’t been at all resolved.”
    WILL KHASHOGGI’S KILLING INFLUENCE SAUDI TIES?
        The furor over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has added to lawmakers’ frustration with Saudi Arabia over the war in Yemen and human rights.
        A Democratic-led House would vote on legislation to block arms deals with Riyadh, make it difficult to win congressional approval of a nuclear energy deal and consider a measure to stop U.S. aircraft refueling and other support for the campaign in Yemen.
        While Engel still views Saudi Arabia as a counterweight to Iran’s influence in the Middle East, he said Washington must demand more from Riyadh.    “If the Saudis want our support, then they have to address some of the things that concern us,” he said.
    DON’T DEMOCRATS WANT PEACE WITH NORTH KOREA?
        Democrats say they are determined to obtain more information about meetings by Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, worried that Trump is so eager to make a “great deal” that he will give Kim too much.
        Engel and other Democrats plan to call administration officials to testify in public, and behind closed doors, about the status of talks.    But they also will walk a fine line, because they do not want to be seen as interfering with diplomacy and efforts to prevent a nuclear war.
        “I think it’s good to have some kind of a dialogue with them.    But we shouldn’t be deluded in thinking that they’re going to have any major changes,” Engel said.
    CAN DEMOCRATS CHANGE CHINA POLICY?
        Democratic House control is not expected to yield significant changes in China policy.    Democrats will hold more hearings and demand more briefings, but criticism of Beijing has so far crossed party lines and that is not expected to change.
        Prominent Democrats, such as Representative Adam Schiff, who is in line to chair the House Intelligence Committee, have joined Republicans backing measures to clamp down on China, like legislation treating ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] technology and phones as major cyber security threats.
        But Engel and others acknowledged the need for China as a partner, particularly in dealing with North Korea.    “I think we need to be careful not to lash out,” Engel said.
        Like Republicans, Democrats are divided on Trump’s trade war with China.    Some party members see free trade as a generator of jobs, while others back tariffs to protect workers in industries such as steel and manufacturing.
    CAN DEMOCRATS REVIVE THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL?
        Democrats were infuriated by Trump’s withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran that Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration reached in 2015.    But there is little they can do to change the policy as long as Republicans occupy the White House.
        Lawmakers also are wary of seeming too friendly to Iran, especially given hostility to Tehran by the government of Israel.    While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has worked increasingly closely with U.S. Republicans, strong ties to Israel remain a top priority for both parties.
        Engel was among Democrats who opposed the Iran deal, but he said Trump should work more closely with important allies, like the members of the European Union, on that and other issues.    “I think what we should do is try to repair the damage with our alliances that has been done,” he said.
    (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

    11/7/2018 Firepower for U.S. stocks may lose spark as Democrats gain clout by Lewis Krauskopf
    FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. stock market may be facing the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidential term with the prospect of less juice to supercharge it.
        Stock returns have been fueled the past year by Trump’s corporate tax cuts, which have pumped up profits.    Yet, any hope of further fiscal stimulus in the form of more tax cuts faded with the results of Tuesday’s congressional elections, with Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives from Trump’s Republican party.
        “The return to political gridlock in Washington will likely serve to temper growth expectations, or at least moderate the prospect of additional stimulative fiscal policy,” said Jon Hill, US Rates Strategist at BMO Capital Markets in New York.
        The election comes as the market is also losing the low-rate monetary policy that has supported equities during its near decade-long bull run, as the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to stave off inflation.
        Without both fiscal and monetary stimulus, Wall Street performance will depend even more on fundamental factors at a time investors are looking for signs pointing to when the long economic expansion will finally end.
        “This is really not a stock market that needs more fiscal stimulus and I think in order for the bull market to continue what it really needs is strong earnings in the face of what is likely to be increasing interest rates,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, in New Vernon, New Jersey.
        Indeed, some investors may see a silver lining in the diminished prospects for more tax cuts, given concerns about the ballooning deficit and even higher interest rates.
        “If the Republicans swept today, you would get more fiscal stimulus but that also would likely result in higher interest rates and the Fed moving potentially faster,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta.    “So beyond the initial positive reaction, my sense is that there would be some offsets from higher interest rates.”
        At the same time, the potential for some fiscal stimulus is still alive through an infrastructure spending package, an area where analysts say Trump and Democrats could find common ground and where an agreement could boost stocks, particularly shares in construction and materials companies.
    HEADWINDS AHEAD
        Tuesday’s result of a split Congress, with Republicans keeping control of the Senate, was the most likely scenario projected by polling data and prediction markets ahead of the elections, and had been anticipated by investors.
        Immediate market moves to the news may be misleading.    Two years ago, stocks futures plunged when it became clear that Trump would win the presidency, only for them to reverse course within hours.
        Stock market gains this year may indeed continue – stocks historically have climbed following midterm elections.    For the two calendar years following each national U.S. election, the S&P 500 had a mean annual increase of 12 percent under Republican-controlled governments, compared to an increase of 9 percent for Democratic-controlled governments and a 7 percent rise for gridlocked governments.
        Yet replicating the lofty returns of Trump’s first half of his term – the stock market is up 29 percent since his election – may prove elusive.
        Democratic control of the House makes the prospect of a new tax-cut package, following the recent steep cut in the U.S. corporate tax rate, appear less likely.    Trump has been seeking a 10 percent middle-class tax cut while making permanent individual tax cuts from his 2017 tax overhaul.
        The change in House control could bring other challenges for the market.
        Trump’s favoring of light regulations for banks and other industries has created a climate that investors say has helped stocks.    A Democratic-led House could bring greater oversight on industries such as pharmaceuticals and banks.
        With fresh oversight power, Democrats could inspect nearly every aspect of Trump’s presidency from his long-elusive tax returns to possible business ties with Russia and conflicts of interest.    In the event the House attempts to impeach Trump, history suggests market volatility could spike, at least in the short term, according to OppenheimerFunds.
        But, on the positive side for stocks, analysts doubt Democrats would be able to roll back the heart of the market-friendly changes, including the corporate tax cuts.
        The Democrats’ victory in the House could also benefit the market, some investors have said, by tempering Trump’s aims such as on international trade.
        Any pressure on stocks could be less severe because the stock market already endured a steep pullback in October from record highs, which some investors in part attribute to jitters over uncertainty about the election.
        And some investors will be happy just to move on from the elections.
        “It’s one less thing that’s in front of you that you have to worry about,” said Walter Todd, chief investment officer at Greenwood Capital in Greenwood, South Carolina.
    Full U.S. election coverage: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018 (Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; Editing by Megan Davies and Frances Kerry)

    11/7/2018 With eye on chancellery, Merkel protege wants new era in Germany by Paul Carrel
    Chancellor Angela Merkel's protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, addresses a news conference to promote her candidacy to
    succeed the German leader as chief of their conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Pitching to succeed Angela Merkel as Christian Democrat (CDU) leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer promised on Wednesday a new chapter for Germany in which “people feel at home here” after a period of political turmoil marked by the rise of the far-right.
        Should she secure the CDU leadership, Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, would be in pole position to succeed Merkel as chancellor.
        But polls show Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is the conservative party’s general secretary, lags businessman Friedrich Merz, 62, in the race.    Merkel said last week she would vacate the CDU leadership at a party congress in December, heralding the end of a 13-year era in which she has dominated European politics.
        As heir to Merkel’s centrist cause, Kramp-Karrenbauer could probably cohabit as party leader with Merkel as chancellor, which she wants to remain until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021.
        For Kramp-Karrenbauer, the challenge is to define her own profile distinct from Merkel’s, while remaining loyal to the chancellor.
        “This is the end of the era,” Kramp-Karrenbauer, who German media have nicknamed “AKK” after her initials, told reporters in Berlin.    “We have to thank Angela Merkel for a great deal.”
        “My experience is … that one always stands on the shoulders of one’s predecessor,” she added, stressing the need for political stability in uncertain times.
        “We need to work out a way for people here to feel at home – people who have lived here a long time and people who have arrived more recently,” she added, with reference to the upheaval caused by Germany’s migrant crisis in 2015.
        She laid out the challenges of delivering prosperity and social cohesion but did not spell out any specific policy prescriptions.
        It could prove harder for Merkel to remain chancellor with Merz as CDU leader, as he lost out to her in a power struggle in 2002 and has since pursued a successful business career.
    GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE
        Kramp-Karrenbauer’s advantage over the other two candidates, Merz and Health Minister Jens Spahn, is that she has won an election – albeit in the small western state of Saarland – and served as state premier there.
        She is on the CDU’s left on economic policy, being a strong advocate of the minimum wage.    Before the 2013 national election she suggested the top rate of tax be raised to 53 percent.
        But she is conservative on social issues, opposing advertising for abortions, and caused controversy in 2015 by saying allowing same-sex marriages could open the door to incest and polygamy.
        Vowing “not to pursue an election campaign against others,” Kramp-Karrenbauer delivered a message of party cohesion and said that if she won the leadership she would seek to work with Merz and Spahn, who lags the other two candidates in polls.
        Merz is chairman of the German arm of the U.S. hedge fund BlackRock, whose Munich offices prosecutors searched on Tuesday as part of Germany’s largest post-war fraud investigation, a person with knowledge of the matter said.    BlackRock says it is fully cooperating with the investigation covering the period of 2007-2011.
        Merz took his role at BlackRock only in 2016 and has condemned illicit dividend stripping, but his role at the world’s biggest fund manager risks reflecting poorly on him in socially-minded Germany.
        In an election, Merz’s right-wing pitch could draw back some CDU voters from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which has gained from unease among some voters about the influx of more than 1 million asylum seekers since 2015.
        Kramp-Karrenbauer is more likely to be able to form a coalition with the rising force in German politics – the Greens, now the second-strongest party.
    (Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers and Michelle Martin; editing by David Stamp)

    11/7/2018 Joe Biden leads potential 2020 Democratic field – Reuters/Ipsos poll by Ginger Gibson and Doina Chiacu
    Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden campaigns with Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives
    Abby Finkenauer and Democratic candidate for Iowa governor Fred Hubbell in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., October 30, 2018. REUTERS/KC McGinnis
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is the early leader for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination, a Reuters/Ipsos Election Day opinion poll found, in a field likely to quickly take shape as candidates seek to challenge Republican President Donald Trump.
        Biden received 29 percent of the support.
        Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who made an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination in 2016, finished second in the hypothetical field with 22 percent.    The rest of the poll was tied between Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California.
        All of the Democrats fared well in a popular vote hypothetical matchup against Trump.
        Before a single dollar has been spent on election ads or campaign rallies, the poll found Biden scored best in a hypothetical matchup, beating Trump 51 percent to 39 percent in the popular vote.
        The poll found Sanders, Booker and Harris would also defeat Trump nationally if the election were held today.
        Trump did the best against Booker, losing by only 4 percentage points in the hypothetical popular vote.
        In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots but lost the presidential election to Trump, who won the state-by-state Electoral College vote.
        Opinion polls at this early a stage tend to be largely dominated by those with the most widespread name recognition.
        Several polls after the 2014 congressional midterm elections found Jeb Bush, who ultimately lost his bid for the Republican nomination, to be the front-runner. Few polls even included Trump.
        On the Republican side, 65 percent of Tuesday’s midterm voters said they would renominate Trump to represent their party.    Another 11 percent said they would prefer Vice President Mike Pence and 12 percent said they did not know who should be the nominee.
        The poll was conducted online on Tuesday and based on responses from 38,196 people who voted in 37 states.    The poll is ongoing and will be updated as the vote is tallied.
    For all Reuters election coverage, click: https://www.reuters.com/politics/election2018
    (Reporting by Ginger Gibson, Doina Chiacu and Chris Kahn)

    11/7/2018 ‘Invasion’ or ‘brother migrants’? Caravans threaten Mexico-U.S. detente by Dave Graham
    Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends a rally as part
    of a tour to thank supporters for his victory in the July 1 election, in Mexico City, Mexico September 29, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A stream of U.S.-bound Central American migrant caravans risks clouding the rapprochement between Mexico’s next leader and U.S. President Donald Trump, who has railed against illegal migration to energize his electoral base.
        Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a combative leftist who takes office in December, has signaled he hopes to repair bilateral ties damaged by Trump’s criticism of Mexico for failing to stop migration and his demands for a border wall.
        From opposite sides of the political spectrum, he and Trump have so far defied fears they could clash, with both helping to find common ground for a new North American trade deal.
        But a spate of Central American migrant caravans pushing into Mexico in recent weeks revived tensions in the run-up to U.S. congressional elections on Tuesday.    Trump has threatened to close the U.S-Mexico border if the migrants are not stopped.
        “This is one of the potential flashpoints that could end the bromance between Lopez Obrador and Trump,” Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, told Reuters.
    Trump’s 2016 election win sent relations between the two neighbors to their lowest ebb in years.     During the campaign, he repeatedly vowed to make Mexico pay for a border wall to keep out migrants, and accused the country of sending rapists and drug runners north.
        Tensions over migration spilled over into economic affairs.
        Trump tried to use border security to extract concessions in the revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he threatened to scrap before the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed a new deal on Sept. 30.
        Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States and the NAFTA renegotiation rattled Mexico’s financial markets and disrupted investment.
        Since a convoy of Hondurans left the city of San Pedro Sula on Oct. 13, several thousand Central Americans have crossed into Mexico.    Trump has said he will send troops to the U.S. southern border to stop what he calls an “invasion.”
        Lopez Obrador, by contrast, has been offering to help his “brother migrants” with visas and employment.    He wants to persuade Trump to contribute to a plan to promote development in Central America and Mexico’s poorer south.
        However, Sarukhan said Trump would almost certainly continue to campaign divisively on border security and migration as the race for the 2020 U.S. presidential election heats up.
        “It’s hard for me to see, given the current dynamics in the United States, how Lopez Obrador is going to either ensure that this doesn’t become a flashpoint or convince Trump to spend significant political, diplomatic and financial capital in holistic development in Central America,” he said.
        Angered by the caravans, Trump has threatened to cut aid to Central America – the very opposite of what the region needs, said Hector Vasconcelos, a lawmaker for Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party, and head of the Senate foreign relations committee.
        “We need big economic development programs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador if we really want to reduce migration from those countries,” Vasconcelos said.
        Most of the migrants say they are fleeing gang violence and poverty.    But Trump suggested, without providing proof, the caravans could be hiding “Middle Eastern” terrorists.
        Asked how a Lopez Obrador administration would seek to bridge the differences over migration, incoming foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard told Reuters on Oct. 22 in Canada that, once in office, it hoped to start persuading the United States and others of the benefits of investing in Central America.
        However, he added: “It’s not very easy.”
    SHARP WORDS
        Lopez Obrador has adopted a conciliatory tone toward Trump since winning Mexico’s July election, stressing his desire for good relations.
        Privately though, members of his transition team are skeptical whether the goodwill will last as the 2020 U.S. presidential election unfolds.
        If Trump returns to the rhetoric he deployed against Mexico during his first election campaign, it could encourage the fiercely patriotic Lopez Obrador to hit back.
        Just weeks after Trump took office in 2017, Lopez Obrador went to the United States to address Mexican-American voters, rounding on the new U.S. president in a speech in Los Angeles.
        “These astute but irresponsible neo-fascist rulers want to build walls to turn the United States into an enormous ghetto, and put Mexicans in general, and our migrant compatriots in particular, on the same level as the Jews stigmatized and unjustly persecuted in the age of Hitler,” Lopez Obrador said.
    (Reporting by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Rosalba O’Brien)

    11/7/2011 Germany to press China on arms control, foreign minister tells newspaper
    German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends a news conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias
    (not pictured) following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Athens, Greece, September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he will press China to embrace arms controls during upcoming meetings in Beijing, citing the need to regulate robotic and space-based weapons that could soon shift from “science fiction” to reality.
        Maas told German newspaper Die Welt that Germany would continue to press both Washington and Moscow to adhere to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and said it made sense to include China in future agreements.
        President Donald Trump on Oct. 20 announced plans to quit the INF Treaty, citing what he sees as Russian violations of the pact and concerns about China’s development of new weapons since it was not party to the treaty.
        Maas said it was imperative to create a disarmament regime that included emerging weapons systems and China.
        “Space weapons and autonomous weapons will soon no longer be science fiction, but possible reality,” he told the newspaper.    “We need rules that keep pace with the technological development of new weapons systems.”
        Maas gave no details of his plans to visit China, but said he would use his discussions with Chinese officials in “the next days to advocate for greater transparency and arms controls.”
        He said Germany remained in close discussions with the United States and its partners in NATO about the INF Treaty and wants to prevent a new arms race.
        NATO foreign ministers are due to discuss the issue in December.
        Maas said he had also urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to stick to the INF Treaty and be transparent about its development of new weapons, something that had not occurred to date.
    (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

    11/7/2018 Oil rises to $73 on report of Russia, Saudi output cut talks by Alex Lawler
    FILE PHOTO - Iraqi villagers guide their fishing boat past Al-Baath oil tanker in Shat-al-Arab waterway,
    which leads to the port of Umm Qasr, near the country's second largest city of Basra, February 10, 2005. REUTERS/Atef Hassan
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil rebounded to $73 a barrel on Wednesday after falling to its lowest since August, supported by a report that Russia and Saudi Arabia are discussing oil output cuts in 2019.
        Russia’s TASS news agency, citing an unnamed source, reported that the two countries, the biggest producers in an OPEC-led alliance that has been limiting supply since 2017, have started bilateral talks on the issue.
        “I think this is a little bit of verbal intervention, trying to get some speculative length back into the market,” said analyst Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix.    “The global supply and demand balance does not look very tight next year.”
        Brent crude , the global benchmark, rose $1.04 to $73.17 a barrel by 1057 GMT.    The contract hit $71.18 on Tuesday, its lowest since Aug. 16. U.S. crude rose 68 cents to $62.89.
        While Iranian oil exports are expected to fall because of U.S. sanctions that took effect on Monday, reports from OPEC and other forecasters have indicated that the global market could see a 2019 supply surplus as demand slows.
        A ministerial committee of some Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members and allies, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, is due to meet on Sunday in Abu Dhabi to discuss the market and outlook for 2019.
        Any return to limiting supply would follow a June decision by the OPEC-led group to relax output curbs in place since 2017, after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to cool prices and make up for losses from Iran.
        Supply from countries such as Saudi Arabia has risen sharply since June. In addition, having initially talked of cutting Iranian oil shipments to zero, Washington gave waivers to eight customers, raising the prospect of more Iranian oil in the market than expected.
        Earlier in the session on Wednesday, oil traded lower as rising U.S. inventories and sanction waivers allowing Iran to keep exporting crude reinforced an outlook for ample supplies.
        “The market continues to shift from worrying about tightening supplies to acknowledging upside supply risks and weakening demand growth,” analysts at JBC Energy wrote in a report.
        The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said on Tuesday U.S. crude stocks rose by 7.8 million barrels last week, more than analysts had forecast.    The government’s official supply report is due at 1530 GMT.
    (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Dale Hudson and Susan Fenton)

    11/7/2018 After losing House, Trump threatens Democrats with leak investigations by Haley Britzky
        President Trump threatened that if a Democrat-led House "[wastes] Taxpayer Money investigating us...we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them...at the Senate level" in a Wednesday morning tweet.
        "If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level.    Two can play that game!"
        The big picture: Axios' Jonathan Swan reported in August that House Democrats were preparing a wishlist of investigations they hoped to initiate if they won the majority, which House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi confirmed was coming in her post-midterms victory speech, promising to restore "the Constitution’s checks and balances to the Trump administration."
    [So will the newly developed Democratic controlled Congress begin their push to bring in all their anti-Christian policies and try to push it down the American people, and demean and attempt every vile thing they can do to harass President Trump as they have done for two years or will they try to go across the aisle and work on the U.S. to make everything good for America?]

    11/7/2018 Midterms 2018: GOP makes gains in Senate, House flips to Democrat control by OAN Newsroom
        It appears Democrats’ hopes for a so-called blue wave aren’t going to be fulfilled after all as Republicans maintain control and even add to their advantage in the Senate.
        Democrats lost Senate seats in Missouri, North Dakota, and Indiana.    They also failed to gain seats in Texas and Tennessee.
        However, it wasn’t all bad for Democrats as they were able to secure control of the House.
        Press Secretary Sarah Sanders gave her reaction from the White House about some of those early results and why it may have all come down to the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to members of the media on election night
    outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        “Look I think so far most of the races where the president has gone in, those candidates are doing extremely well,” she stated.    “You also have to look at the fact Joe Manchin is one of the few, the only Democrat to come out and vote for Brett Kavanaugh, I think that’s a moment that’s probably helped him in some cases….people that are embracing the president, embracing his policies are doing well.”
        Sanders added, the president’s agenda isn’t going to change depending on who has control of the House.

    11/7/2018 President Trump has heated showdown with CNN’s Jim Acosta by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is forced to go on the offensive as he was met by a fiery group of reporters in his first briefing since the midterms.
        The president’s call for unity appeared to fall on deaf ears Wednesday as he was repeatedly interrupted and shouted down by the White House press pool.
        Tensions grew even more heated when the president and CNN reporter Jim Acosta got into a tense exchange, following a question on immigration.
    President Donald Trump speaks as CNN’s Jim Acosta, standing at right, listens,
    during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN and if you did it well your ratings would be much better…I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them, you are a rude, terrible person, you shouldn’t be working for CNN,” the president told Acosta.
            The president went on to accuse Acosta, as well as other members of the media, of being extremely hostile towards him and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
        He claimed the media is also fueling the divide we are seeing across the country.

    11/7/2018 Kellyanne Conway calls midterms ‘tremendous success’ for President Trump by OAN Newsroom
        While addressing the new make-up of the House of Representatives, Kellyanne Conway recently called the midterms ‘a tremendous success’ for President Trump.
        The counselor to the president made the comment in an interview Wednesday, and pointed out his recent rallies made a difference in flipping Democrat-held Senate seats in states such as Indiana and Missouri.
        When speaking on the new majority in the House, Conway asserted the president is the ultimate deal maker and negotiator.    She said the president has proven he’s willing to do deals with Democrats.
    Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway talks to members of the media on election night
    at the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        Conway also warned Democrats against being fixated on investigations and urged them to reach out to the president.
        “Congress needs to act and if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress spend all their time on impeachment investigations and subpoenas, they’ll be held to account by their voters.    They’ll basically hand the election, reelection to Donald Trump in 2020 if they do that.    So, they’re calling for unity.    They need to go first, they need to present to the president their proposals, their ideas, and he will consider them like he does everything else.” — Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president.
        She also emphasized the president is focused on principles and policies, pointing out the American people are tired of investigations.

    11/7/2018 Jeff Sessions resigns as attorney general by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump has named Matthew Whitaker as the new acting attorney general, following the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions.
        In a tweet Wednesday, the president declared Whitaker — Sessions chief of staff — as the interim attorney general.    He said Whitaker will serve the country well and thanked Sessions for his service.
        The president added, a permanent replacement will be named at a later date.
        This comes after the president hinted at getting rid of Sessions after the midterms for his performance as head of the Justice Department.
    FILE – In this June 30, 2010 file photo, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., then-the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking
    member is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington during a break in the committee’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee
    Elena Kagan. Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned Nov. 7, 2018. as the country’s chief law enforcement officer after enduring
    more than a year of blistering and personal attacks from President Donald Trump over his recusal from the Russia investigation.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

    11/7/2018 Trump expects Kim summit early next year despite Pompeo postponement by Jeff Mason and David Brunnstrom
    U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference following Tuesday's midterm
    U.S. congressional elections at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he expects to meet again with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un early next year and that a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials supposed to have taken place this week would be rescheduled.
        Pompeo had been due to hold talks in New York on Thursday with senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol aimed at paving the way for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un and at making progress on denuclearization.
        The State Department said early on Wednesday that the meeting had been postponed, but gave no reason, raising concerns that talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear arms could break down.    The State Department said the talks would be rescheduled “when our respective schedules permit.”
        Trump told a White House news conference the change was “because of trips that are being made,” but did not elaborate on these.”    "We are going to make it … another day,” he said.    “But we’re very happy with how it’s going with North Korea.    We think it’s going fine.    We’re in no rush.”
        Trump said he still expected to hold a second summit with Kim.    “Some time next year, I would say.    Sometime early next year,” he said.
        Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization at an unprecedented first meeting with Trump in Singapore but negotiations have made little headway since, with North Korea falling short of U.S. demands for irreversible moves to abandon a weapons program that potentially threatens the United States.
        Pyongyang has complained that Washington has not made concessions in return for the moves it has taken and last Friday warned it could resume development of its nuclear program if the United States did not drop its sanctions campaign.
        The Trump administration has said that sanctions will not be lifted until North Korea gives up its weapons.
        “The sanctions are on. … I’d love to take the sanctions off, but they (North Korea) have to be responsive, too,” Trump said on Wednesday.
        The State Department said “conversations continue to take place,” with North Korea, and added: “The United States remains focused on fulfilling the commitments agreed to by President Trump and Chairman Kim at the Singapore summit in June.”
        South Korea, which has worked to encourage U.S.-North Korea dialogue, sought to play down the talks delay.
        Its presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Seoul did not believe it would mean that the second summit would not take place and a senior South Korean foreign ministry official said that while the rescheduling was regrettable, there was no need to “overthink the postponement.”
        “I think we have to look at it as a part of the process of reaching complete denuclearization and setting up a peace regime,” the unnamed official told reporters.
        Trump spoke after his Republican Party lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday after the Democrats rode a wave of dissatisfaction with his presidency in mid-term elections.
        Some analysts believe this weakened state could impact Trump’s foreign policy and test his North Korean diplomatic gambit.
        While Republicans maintained control of the Senate, the Democrats now have the opportunity to block Trump’s agenda and open his administration to intense scrutiny.
        Democrats have said they are determined to obtain more information about meetings between Trump and Pompeo and Kim, worried that Trump is so eager to make a “great deal” that he will give Kim too much with little in return.
        North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions but the bellicose rhetoric from both Pyongyang and Trump that raised fears of war has eased this year.
    (Reporting by Jeff Mason, David Brunnstrom and Lisa Lambert in Washington; additional reporting by Eric Beech in WASHINGTON and Joyce Lee in SEOUL; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish)

    11/7/2018 U.S. political gridlock may create investment opportunity by Trevor Hunnicutt
    A day after the mid-term election, the dome of the U.S. Capitol is seen through
    autumn leaves in Washington, U.S., November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors hope the split between Republicans and Democrats controlling the U.S. Congress will open up opportunities to pick new winners and losers because some government policies will be harder to predict.
        Correlations between stocks and sectors were high in the run-up to Tuesday’s congressional elections, meaning investors have been either dumping or buying all kinds of unrelated stocks at once.    Some funds have been damaged in what is a tough market to be a stock picker.
        Now, with voters giving Democrats control of the House of Representatives and Republicans retaining their Senate majority, fund managers can take opposite sides of various policy bets.
        These might include whether financials will benefit from deregulation even with stricter House oversight, if healthcare will face more policy proposals aimed at restraining costs, and whether military spending will get caught in a tussle between the two parties.
        “If we are in a generally volatile environment but one that’s not overly negative, in other words a choppy market as opposed to a bear market, I think that’s an environment where correlations can fall,” said Evan Brown, head of macro asset allocation strategy at UBS AG’s asset management business.
        “There’s potential for sector out-performance and under-performance as a result of the election.”
        President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he was willing to work with Democrats on some policy priorities.
        Issues that could gather bipartisan support include a package to improve infrastructure, protections against prescription drug price increases and a push to rebalance trade with China.
        Stocks rallied on Wednesday, but one Cboe S&P 500 Implied Correlation Index <.ICJ> was down more than 9 percent and another <.JCJ> was flat.
        Correlations between stocks and sectors bottomed in September but spiked in October.    Even more damaging: bonds and stocks moved in tandem, with both down for the month for only the 12th time since the March 2009 dawn of the U.S. bull market.
    MACRO VS MICRO
        The October selloff was driven by macroeconomic concerns tied to the U.S. Federal Reserve, tariffs and inflation and hit active fund managers badly. U.S. large-cap active mutual fund managers posted their worst results versus their benchmark since September 2011, according to Bank of America Corp data.
        More conflict in policy decisions could mean those factors drive stocks more than macroeconomic developments.
        For instance, investors are bidding up sand and gravel suppliers Martin Marietta Materials Inc and Vulcan Materials Co on the hope that bipartisan support for infrastructure spending can move forward.    But ValueWorks LLC founder Charles Lemonides said he is trimming his stake in the stocks as they begin to reflect too much optimism.
        “We think there is a lot of opportunity for people who are willing to do the hard work of investing, which is find individual investments that make sense,” said Lemonides.
        Macro forces might be less relevant than assumed in the short run.    The meeting expected at the end of the month between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could yield hopeful words but no firm commitments to resolve trade issues.
        The U.S. Federal Reserve could raise rates as expected in December while striking a tone that keeps markets calm.    Both concerns – trade war and monetary policy tightening – may end up being left until 2019.
        So long as markets focus on more parochial issues instead of trade and monetary policy the implications for stocks could be positive going into next year, investors said.
        Low correlations between stocks typically also mean lower volatility for the market overall.    It was such a benign scenario that helped stocks weather the uncertainty of a new Trump administration in 2017.
        Of course headlines on trade, monetary policy or an unexpected macro issue could upset the rosy outlook, keeping correlations high.    Global earnings and economic growth could peak.
        Policymakers, even those in the same party, could be so at odds that they make no policy changes.    Republicans who have controlled the White House and Congress since January 2017 surprised investors by failing to replace the Affordable Care Act even though it was a campaign promise.
        That makes oddsmaking hard now on a range of issues, from repealing a medical device tax to passing a budget or loosening regulations on banks.    Each event could matter at the sector level, but are not likely to determine the course of the market overall.    U.S. tariffs in place will start to bite companies and industries, adding new relevance to stock and sector picks.
        And the aggressive monetary policy response to the 2007-2009 global financial crisis is wearing off, prompting differences between countries and allowing more defensive shares to gain in the United States, where they had once been eclipsed by technology names.
        Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for Charles Schwab & Co Inc, said a market driven a broader range of stocks could help more people stay invested.
        “Diversification has been a hard sell.”
    (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Megan Davies and Grant McCool)

    11/7/2018 Sen. Mitch McConnell credits President Trump with GOP maintaining Senate majority by OAN Newsroom
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in high spirits as Republicans keep their majority in the upper chamber.
        During a phone call with President Trump Tuesday night, McConnell thanked the president for hitting the road in support of Republican candidates.
        McConnell is crediting the president’s marathon rally schedule with flipping the seats of three Democrat incumbents — Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly.    President Trump held rallies in their three states in the lead up to election day.
    President Donald Trump, left, invites Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., right, onstage as he speaks at a rally at Alumni Coliseum in Richmond, Ky., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        McConnell explained how Democrats missed the mark this election cycle by putting their energy into attacking the president.
        “I remember the price we paid for trying to, well actually we did impeach Bill Clinton, I kind of remember all the enthusiasm of lots of Republicans in the House and Senate,” stated the Senate majority leader.    “It worked exactly the opposite — the public got mad at us and felt sympathy for President Clinton, so, this business of presidential harassment may or may not quite be the winner they think it is.”
        President Trump has since weighed in on election night, calling it a tremendous success for the Senate.

    11/7/2018 Trudeau apologizes for Canada’s 1939 refusal of Jewish refugee ship by Steve Scherer
    Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a formal apology over the fate of the MS St. Louis and its passengers,
    in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
        OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized on Wednesday for the country’s 1939 refusal to take in a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, adding that the country would do more to protect Canadian Jews from violence.
        The St. Louis left Hamburg in May 1939 in a desperate search for a safe haven from persecution by Nazi Germany.    After it was rebuffed by Canada and other nations, it returned to Europe, where historians have estimated that more than 250 of the passengers were murdered in Nazi death camps.
        “We apologize to the 907 German Jews aboard the St. Louis, as well as their families,” Trudeau told the House of Commons.    “We are sorry for the callousness of Canada’s response.    We are sorry for not apologizing sooner.”
        The apology came less than two weeks after a gunman shot dead 11 people, including a Canadian woman, at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.    Vigils were held across Canada in the aftermath of the attack.
        Jewish Canadians “are understandably feeling vulnerable” and there have been calls “to protect synagogues and other places that are at risk of hate-motivated crimes,” Trudeau said during his parliamentary address.
        “And I pledge to you all now: we will do more,” he said, noting that around 17 percent of all Canadian hate crimes target Jewish people.
        Shimon Koffler Fogel, head of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, applauded Trudeau’s “historic apology” and his pledge to expand security measures for Jewish institutions.
        Earlier, Trudeau met with Ana Maria Gordon, the only surviving Canadian passenger from the ship, and her family members, and spoke about the need to fight anti-semitism.
        Trudeau, a Liberal, has made a number of apologies for Canada’s historic failings.
        Last week the prime minister visited hundreds of indigenous people in British Columbia to say sorry for the hanging of six chiefs 150 years ago.
        In May 2016, six months after taking office, he stood in parliament to apologize to the descendents of hundreds of passengers of the Komagata Maru, a Japanese vessel carrying Sikh, Muslim and Hindu migrants who were refused entry into Canada under 1914 immigration laws.
    (Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Greg Mitchell)

    11/7/2018 Brazil’s Temer invites Bolsonaro to G-20 summit in November
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro smiles during a meeting with President of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court Dias Toffoli (not pictured), in Brasilia, Brazil November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Wednesday that he has invited President-elect Jair Bolsonaro to accompany him to the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires as part of the transition to the new government.
        Bolsonaro, who takes office on Jan. 1, said after his first meeting with Temer that they discussed cooperating on maintaining policies that need to “continue flowing” for the good of the country.    The summit is set for Nov. 30 to Dec. 1.
    (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

    11/7/2018 GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter retains Calif. seat by OAN Newsroom
        Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter has held on to his seat in California, edging out Democrat candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar.
        Hunter clinched victory in the Golden State’s 50th District after winning over about 54-percent of voters.
    Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., center-left, greets campaign workers at a call center on Tuesday Nov. 6, 2018, in Santee, Calif.
    Hunter faces Democratic candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar in the race for Southern California’s 50th district. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
        Hunter faced controversy throughout his campaign as he faces charges of misusing campaign funds.    However, his Democrat opponent was marred in controversy after it was revealed his grandfather was involved in the terror attack on the 1972 Olympics.
        “Two months later, Mr. Najjar tried to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Goldamair — if you tell me that this guy is not going to pass on military information to this guy, my answer is don’t bet your life on it,” stated Hunter on the controversy plaguing his opponent.
        The California congressman and Marine veteran supports prohibiting abortion, protecting gun rights and improving border security.

    11/7/2018 New Attorney General announced to replace Sessions by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump names Matthew Whitaker as the new acting Attorney General soon after the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions.
    WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 29: (L-R) Department of Justice Chief of Staff Matt Whitaker, the FBI’s Kristi Johnson
    and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions participate in a round table event with the Joint Interagency Task Force – South (JIATF-S)
    foreign liaison officers and at the Department of Justice Kennedy building August 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla)
        The President declared Whitaker, Sessions now-former Chief of Staff, as interim AG and adds he will, “serve the country well.”
        A permanent replacement will be named at a later date, according to President Trump.
        The announcement Wednesday came amid months of speculation around the President’s frequent hinting of Sessions’ firing, due to his performance as head of the Department of Justice.

    11/8/2018 With eye on chancellery, Merkel protege wants new era for Germany by Paul Carrel
    Chancellor Angela Merkel's protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, addresses a news conference to promote her candidacy to
    succeed the German leader as chief of their conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Pitching to succeed Angela Merkel as Christian Democrat (CDU) leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer promised on Wednesday a new chapter for Germany in which “people feel at home here” after a period of political turmoil marked by the rise of the far right.
        Should she secure the CDU leadership, Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, would be in pole position to become chancellor too.    She is seen as Merkel’s heir, but she makes her case as polls show Germany’s long-time leader’s centrist cause is falling out of favor with voters.
        Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is the conservative party’s general secretary, lags businessman Friedrich Merz, 62, in the race, polls show.    Merkel said last week she would vacate the CDU leadership at a party congress in December, heralding the end of a 13-year era in which she has dominated European politics.
        Kramp-Karrenbauer could probably cohabit as party leader with Merkel as chancellor, which she wants to remain until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021.
        But according to a poll for Bild newspaper on Wednesday, two thirds of voters want Merkel to step down.    A separate poll for Funke newspapers showed Merz as voters’ favorite for chancellor, with 36 percent support.    Kramp-Karrenbauer was close behind on 33 percent.
        For Kramp-Karrenbauer, the challenge is to define her own profile distinct from Merkel’s, while remaining loyal to the chancellor’s legacy.
        “This is the end of the era,” Kramp-Karrenbauer, whom German media nicknamed “AKK” after her initials, told reporters in Berlin.    “We have to thank Angela Merkel for a great deal."
        “My experience is … that one always stands on the shoulders of one’s predecessor,” she added, stressing the need for political stability in uncertain times.
        “We need to work out a way for people here to feel at home – people who have lived here a long time and people who have arrived more recently,” she added, with reference to the upheaval caused by Germany’s migrant crisis in 2015.
        She laid out the challenges of delivering prosperity and social cohesion, without going into detail.
        It could prove harder for Merkel to remain chancellor with Merz as CDU leader, as he lost out to her in a power struggle in 2002 and has since pursued a successful business career.
    GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE
        Kramp-Karrenbauer’s advantage over the other two candidates, Merz and Health Minister Jens Spahn, is that she has won an election – albeit in the small western state of Saarland – and served as state premier there.
        She is on the left of the CDU on economic policy, being a strong supporter of the minimum wage.    Before the 2013 national election she suggested the top rate of tax be raised to 53 percent.
        But she is conservative on social issues, opposing advertising for abortions, and caused controversy in 2015 by saying allowing same-sex marriages could open the door to incest and polygamy.
        Vowing “not to pursue an election campaign against others,” Kramp-Karrenbauer delivered a message of party cohesion and said that if she won the leadership she would seek to work with Merz and Spahn, who lags the other two candidates in polls.
        Merz is chairman of the German arm of the U.S. hedge fund BlackRock, whose Munich offices prosecutors searched on Tuesday as part of Germany’s largest post-war fraud investigation, a person with knowledge of the matter said.    BlackRock says it is fully cooperating with the investigation covering the period 2007-2011.
        Merz joined BlackRock in 2016 and has condemned illicit dividend stripping.
        His role at the world’s biggest fund manager may sit uncomfortably with some voters in socially-minded Germany, though his right-wing pitch could also draw back some CDU voters from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
        In last year’s national election, the anti-immigration AfD benefited from unease about the arrival of more than 1 million asylum seekers since 2015.
        Kramp-Karrenbauer, meanwhile, looks more likely to be able to form a coalition with the rising force in German politics – the Greens, now the second-strongest party.
    (Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers, Michelle Martin and Thomas Escritt; editing by David Stamp and John Stonestreet)

    11/8/2018 Brazil’s Bolsonaro faces first fiscal setback as judges’ pay rises by Mateus Maia
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro (L) and Brazil's President Michel Temer greet each other during a session
    at the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        BRASÍLIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro faced the first setback in his plans to reduce the country’s massive deficit on Wednesday, as the Senate approved a 16 percent pay rise for the judiciary against his wishes.
        The far-right politician was elected last month on a wave of anger over corruption and economic recession, which he and many voters blamed on the leftist Workers Party’s long reign in power.
        Bolsonaro, who takes the reins on Jan.1, has begun naming key cabinet posts and laying out his vision for government, but, like other leaders before him, has found making changes in Brazil may not be an easy task.
        He told reporters that it was “not the moment” to approve pay hikes.    But the Senate went ahead and passed a bill raising judges’ salaries, which serve as a benchmark for other public sector pay.    This will add an estimated 4 billion reais ($1 billion) to next year’s deficit.
        Bolsonaro’s campaign pledges to merge the agriculture and environment ministries have also gone awry.
        As he named Congresswoman Tereza Cristina, the leader of Brazil’s farm caucus, to be his agriculture minister on Wednesday, he ditched his initial plan to merge the two portfolios.
        The plan had faced opposition from environmentalists, who said it would lead deforestation to explode, and from the farm sector that feared it would strain trade relationships.
        Cristina is an agronomist from the major farm state of Mato Grosso do Sul.    She is the first woman to be named as a minister by Bolsonaro, who has a history of making misogynistic remarks.
        Bolsonaro, who has said he wants to reduce the number of ministries, said on Wednesday he planned to merge the labor ministry with another, without providing details.
    SECURITY PRIORITY
        On his second day back in Brasilia as president-elect, Bolsonaro met with incumbent President Michel Temer to discuss prospects for what many say are urgently needed economic reforms.
        Bolsonaro said this week he would discuss with Temer the need to push through a pension overhaul this year to bring the deficit under control.
        At a news conference after the meeting, Temer said he had invited Bolsonaro to accompany him to the G20 summit from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires, as part of the government transition.
        Bolsonaro also promised on Wednesday to prioritize a solution for Brazil’s public security problems, a central plank in the former army captain’s platform that emphasizes law and order.
        Augusto Heleno, the head of a group of retired army generals who backed Bolsonaro’s presidential bid, will take the top security position in the new cabinet, a spokesman for the transition team said on Wednesday.    Heleno had previously been announced as the next defense minister.
        Bolsonaro told reporters that the chief executive of state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Ivan Monteiro, was not expected to stay in the new administration.
        But GloboNews TV channel later reported that Bolsonaro would keep Monteiro, who took the helm of the world’s most indebted listed oil company in June.    Monteiro said Tuesday he was open to staying if invited.
        Petrobras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
        Bolsonaro said he and his economic guru Paulo Guedes had not discussed the fate of central bank chief Ilan Goldfajn.
        His foreign minister will be a career diplomat, he said.
    (Reporting by Ricardo Brito, Lissandra Paraguassú, Jake Spring, Anthony Boadle and Marcela Ayres in Brasilia and Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro; Editing James Dalgleish and Rosalba O’Brien)

    11/8/2018 Chile sends 176 Haitian migrants home on criticized ‘humanitarian flight’ by Aislinn Laing and Natalia A. Ramos Miranda
    A Haitian citizen gestures as she walks to board a 'humanitarian flight' to return to her country
    as part of Chilean government program at a military base in Santiago, Chile, November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
        (Reuters) – Chile returned a planeload of Haitian immigrants to their native country on Wednesday in the first in a series of “humanitarian flights” criticized by migrant groups as “forced deportations.”
        At a Santiago sports center, 176 people gathered to board coaches for the airport and a Chilean air force flight destined for the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
        A total of 1,087 people have signed up for the flights back to Haiti, the Chilean interior ministry said in a statement.
        Around 150,000 Haitians have immigrated to Chile in the past two years, it said.
        The initiative is one of several measures by the center-right government of President Sebastian Pinera to cut migrant numbers.
        It requires those leaving to sign a declaration that they will not return for nine years, and asks they take any immediate family with them.
        The government said the policy was aimed at those who had struggled to find work in one of Latin America’s richest economies, in some cases having been lured by people traffickers with false promises.
        But the policy has generated controversy among some migrant groups, rights campaigners and academics.    Haiti is still one of the world’s poorest countries, blighted by natural disasters, political upheaval and poor security.
        The National Platform of Haitian Organisations in Chile, which represents 30 separate refugee groups, said on Wednesday that the flights represented “an enforced deportation of people” and accused Chile’s government of adopting “racist” policies.
        Jose Tomas Vicuna, director of Chile’s Jesuit Centre for Migrants, said the need for such flights should pain all Chileans.    “176 people leave with significant emotional baggage from what they have experienced in Chile,” he wrote on Twitter.
        Chile’s interior ministry rejected allegations of racism and deportation, saying “assisted voluntary returns” are supported by the United Nations.
        Subsecretary Rodrigo Ubilla told reporters at the airport on Wednesday that migrants from Colombia were requesting a similar service.
        “These people formally made this request because they have not been able to achieve their dream of finding a new life in our country,” he said.
        At the sports center, returnees told Reuters they had encountered joblessness, hunger and racism in Chile.
        Jean Baptiste Brignol, 38, said he had a visa, but could not find work.    “The bosses of the companies here don’t want Haitians working for them.    They don’t like the skin color,” he said.    “President Pinera took pity on us and we are grateful.”
    (Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

    11/8/2018 Oil down $0.54 to $61.67, DOW up 545 to 26,180

    11/8/2018 Oil rises after record Chinese imports but threat of oversupply grows by Amanda Cooper
    FILE PHOTO - A general view of the Zueitina oil terminal is seen in Zueitina,
    west of Benghazi April 7, 2014. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil rose on Thursday, recovering modestly from this week’s three-week lows, after record Chinese crude imports soothed some concern that demand in the world’s largest commodity buyer may be flagging just as global supply is rising.
        Record U.S. crude production and signals from Iraq, Abu Dhabi and Indonesia that output will grow more quickly than expected in 2019 pushed the price of Brent oil to its lowest since mid-August earlier in the week.
        Brent crude futures rose 71 cents to $72.78 a barrel by 1007 GMT, while U.S. crude futures gained 55 cents to $62.22.
        “Crude oil prices are being supported by a jump in October Chinese crude oil imports … thirst for the black stuff has increased amongst domestic teapot refiners,” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said.
        China’s crude imports rose 32 percent in October compared with a year earlier to 9.61 million barrels per day (bpd), customs data showed on Thursday.
        “Crude oil imports rose … as uncertainty around tariffs on U.S. imports and sanctions on Iran eased,” ANZ bank said.
        Tempering some of the enthusiasm was data showing U.S. output reached a new record high of 11.6 million bpd, and a forecast that it would grow far more quickly next year than many previously expected.
        The United States has now surpassed Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer and the Energy Information Administration said this week it expects output to top 12 million bpd by the middle of 2019, thanks to shale oil.
        Production has not just risen in the United States, but also in many other countries, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Brazil, and threatens to overtake demand next year.
        Even with U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil in place, the perception among investors is that there is more than enough supply to meet demand, as reflected by the front-month January Brent futures contract trading at a discount to February.
        This price structure, known as contango, materializes when traders and investors believe supply to be greater than demand and therefore have more incentive to store oil, rather than sell it, thereby creating an even larger pool of unsold crude.
        “OPEC and Russia may use cuts to support $70 per barrel,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
    (Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Dale Hudson)

    11/8/2018 Midterm results give Dow 545-point boost by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        If the big rally on Wall Street after the midterm elections is any guide, gridlock is good for stocks.
        U.S. equities jumped sharply higher Wednesday after the midterm elections set the stage for a newly divided Congress, an outcome that eased fears about a big change in policy that could hurt corporate profitability.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied more than 545 points, or 2.1 percent, to 26,180, boosting its gain for the year to 5.9 percent and leaving it just 2.4 percent shy of its October record high.    The rally was broad, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rising 2.1 percent and the technologydominated Nasdaq composite gaining 2.6 percent.
        Wall Street woke up to a partisan power split in Congress and a likely period of legislative gridlock after the Democrats regained control of the House, ending two years of Republican control of both branches of Congress under Republican President Donald Trump.    The GOP retained its majority in the Senate.
        The vote result, however, was widely expected by investors.    The new Capitol Hill alignment that will take effect in January isn’t viewed as a major game-changer for the economy or markets, largely because the split Congress makes it unlikely that legislation would undo parts of President Trump’s agenda – such as large tax cuts and deregulation of business.
        Investors also avoided the mostfeared Wall Street outcome, a socalled “blue wave,” or Democratic sweep of both chambers of Congress.    That could have put the president’s economic policies under assault and boosted the odds of a Democratic House pushing for Trump’s impeachment.
        “Everything played out according to script,” Stephen Innes, head of Asia trading at Oanda, told USA TODAY.    “The Trump agenda is not in serious jeopardy.”
        Still, the House will likely make things tough on Trump and move to block his agenda, adds Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com “House Democrats will turn up the pressure on President Trump through investigations and oversight,” Hamrick said.
        Legislative gridlock has historically been good for financial markets.    In fact, in years with a Republican president and a Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-run House in place, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has posted average gains of 10.8 percent, according to data from Strategas Research Partners.
        “A split Congress means that gridlock is more likely, and that’s been fine for markets in the past,” says Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones.
        In the past, after the uncertainty around the midterm elections has been eliminated after the vote, stocks have performed well, posting higher returns a year after every midterm election since World War II.

    11/8/2018 TRUMP FORCES SESSIONS OUT - Attorney general had endured president’s wrath by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday after a yearlong public shaming campaign that raised questions about whether the president improperly interfered with the Justice Department’s inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
        Trump, who requested Sessions’ resignation, named Matthew Whitaker to serve as interim attorney general.
        Whitaker was Sessions’ chief of staff and had been considered for a variety of jobs in the Trump administration, including the No. 2 post at Justice or as White House counsel.
        In his new role, Whitaker also will oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, prompting fears among Democratic lawmakers that Trump was seeking to derail the probe as it nears an end.
        “Since the day I was honored to be sworn in as attorney general of the United States, I came to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country,” Sessions said in a seven-paragraph letter.    “I have done so to the best of my ability to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice.”
        Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had been overseeing Mueller’s investigation until Whitaker’s appointment, was at the White House on Wednesday afternoon for a meeting, though he remained in his job.    He was among those in an entourage of Justice leaders who accompanied Sessions as he exited the department for the last time Wednesday night.
        In a statement later Wednesday, Whitaker called his appointment a “true honor.”
        “I am committed to leading a fair department with the highest ethical standards, that upholds the rule of law, and seeks justice for all Americans,” Whitaker said.
        He described Sessions as “a dedicated public servant.”
        “It has been a privilege to work under his leadership,” Whitaker said.    “He is a man of integrity who has served this nation well.”
        The departure of Sessions, one of Trump’s most vocal and earliest supporters during the 2016 campaign, was expected for weeks.
        Laser-focused on Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump savaged him in interviews, tweets and news conferences as “beleaguered,” often expressing “disappointment” in his attorney general.
        “I don’t have an attorney general.    It’s very sad,” Trump said in a September interview with Hill.TV.    “I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this.”
        Sessions’ recusal in March 2017 for failing to disclose election-year meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak – and Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 – prompted the appointment of Mueller, a former FBI director, as the Justice Department’s special counsel to direct the wide-ranging Russia inquiry.
        Mueller’s appointment and the inquiry’s expansion to include a deep examination of the Trump family’s finances and possible obstruction of justice stoked the president’s attacks on the attorney general.
        “I think you have to ask the question of who benefits from Sessions’ removal,” said Jimmy Gurule, who was an assistant attorney general under President George H.W. Bush.    “And the answer is President Trump.”
        Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush, credited Sessions with “maintaining unusual equanimity and dignity under fire” while dutifully carrying out Trump’s agenda on a range of issues, including immigration and violent crime enforcement.
        “He’s done all this under enormous pressure, and we know what that is,” Mukasey told USA TODAY, referring to unrelenting criticism from the president.    “I can’t imagine how he’s been able to do this.”
        Mukasey, a Sessions confidant whose portrait hangs in the attorney general’s fifth-floor conference room, characterized the atmosphere created by Trump’s public attacks as akin to a “psychodrama.”
        Rather than walk away in the face of Trump’s attacks, Mukasey said, Sessions remained at the helm of the sprawling agency “for the welfare of the department.”
        “For him to have done that is incredible,” Mukasey said.
        In July 2017, Trump told The New York Times he would never have appointed the former Alabama senator had he known Sessions would disqualify himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.    He repeated the line in a Rose Garden news conference the following week.    “If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and I would have, quite simply, picked somebody else,” Trump said.
    Jeff Sessions was an early Donald Trump supporter. AP

    11/8/2018 2 indicted congressmen win their House races - Both Republicans lead Trump-friendly districts by Bill Theobald, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – The justice system may not have spoken yet but the voters did Tuesday, re-electing two House Republicans – Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York – despite the fact that both face criminal charges.
        Hunter easily defeated Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar despite facing a 60-count indictment claiming that he and his wife, Margaret, who also was charged, used his campaign account as a personal slush fund to finance an extravagant lifestyle.
        The Hunters were indicted in August.    Duncan Hunter claimed then that the charges were politically motivated and he compared himself to President Donald Trump as another Republican being mistreated by the Justice Department.
        He won in a solidly Republican suburban San Diego district that Trump won by 15 percentage points in 2016.
        Collins was indicted in August on charges of insider trading.    While serving on the board of directors of a drug company, he is accused of tipping off others that a key drug the company was developing had failed in testing.
        Collins, the first sitting member of Congress to be indicted since 2005, defeated Democrat Nate McMurray.    Trump had carried the western New York district by 24 percentage points.

    11/8/2018 UK PM May dives into flurry of diplomacy in bid to clinch Brexit deal
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May stands at the door of
    10 Downing Street in London, Britain, October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May steps up attempts to court European support for a draft Brexit deal on Thursday as negotiations on securing a smooth divorce from the world’s biggest trading bloc enter their final stages.
        Less than five months before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, a deal is 95 percent done.    But officials have repeatedly cautioned they are still haggling over the fate of the land border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
        The EU wants to see a breakthrough within a week if leaders are to endorse any Brexit deal in November, official and diplomatic sources told Reuters.    An EU summit tentatively scheduled for Nov. 17-18 is no longer on the cards.
        After May discussed Brexit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Donald Tusk earlier this week, British ministers were shown the text of a deal which is 95 percent agreed.
        May will meet other EU leaders on Thursday in France and Belgium at commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.    She is scheduled to have lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron and dinner with other leaders of the NATO military alliance in Brussels.
        The deal – or the lack of one – will shape Britain’s prosperity for generations to come and have long-term consequences for the European Union’s global clout.
        Both sides need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the fifth largest global economy.    The other 27 members of the EU combined have about five times the economic might of Britain.
    DEAL OR NO DEAL?
        Ever since the shock 2016 Brexit referendum sent sterling to its biggest one-day fall in decades, the pound has been see-sawing on differing perceptions of whether a deal will be done.
        May told her cabinet on Tuesday that more time was needed to clear the final hurdle standing between her and a deal: the plan to ensure no hard border emerges on the island of Ireland.
        Some of her senior ministers, such as Brexiteer Michael Gove, want to see the verdict of British government lawyers on how a post-Brexit plan for Northern Ireland’s border might work.    A Northern Irish political party, the DUP, which props up her minority government, wants the advice to be published in full.
        There is only a slim chance that an agreement between British and EU negotiators can be reached in time to hold a summit of leaders in November to sign off the agreement, according to one British official.
        May wants a deal – both on a withdrawal agreement and a framework for future ties – before year-end as she must get the deal approved by the British parliament.    The EU holds a regular summit on Dec. 13-14.
        “We are not there yet.    The clock is ticking.    The choices need to be made now on the UK side,” EU negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters on Wednesday.    “There are still important issues outstanding.”
        If May fails to clinch a Brexit deal with the EU, or parliament votes down her deal, then Britain would face leaving without a divorce deal, and thus without a transition period.
        Many business chiefs and investors fear such a “no-deal” Brexit would weaken the West, panic financial markets and block the arteries of trade.
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Peter Graff)

    11/8/2018 China pledges $150 million aid to El Salvador as relationship deepens
    FILE PHOTO: El Salvador's President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Chinese President Xi Jinping
    attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
        SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – China will give El Salvador $150 million to spur development of social and technological projects, the Salvadoran president said on Wednesday, the latest sign of deepening ties between the countries that has alarmed the United States.
        Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is returning from his first trip to China since the countries established diplomatic ties in August.    Speaking on local television, Ceren said he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit and agreed to 13 joint projects, without providing details.
        The donation marks China’s latest gambit to make inroads in Central America, a campaign that has drawn the ire of the United States.
        Earlier this year, El Salvador cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China, following the Dominican Republic and Panama.    The United States promptly recalled its ambassadors in the region.
        “This historic meeting between the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of El Salvador has produced excellent results,” Ceren said.    “This confirms that the establishment of diplomatic relations with China is my government’s most important decision in foreign policy.”
        Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the two countries had agreed to a series of cooperation projects, including in infrastructure and education, when the two presidents met in China last week.
        “The friendly cooperation between China and El Salvador is developing smoothly and rapidly,” Hua told a daily news briefing.
        “China is willing to provide what help it can for El Salvador’s economic and social development.    The relevant help will be focused on people’s pressing welfare needs in El Salvador,” she added.
        The date when the funds will be received has not been set, a spokesman for the Salvadoran government said.
        China will also donate three thousand tons of rice to support Salvadorans who are reeling from a drought in July and floods in October, Ceren said.
        The White House warned in August that China was luring countries with incentives that “facilitate economic dependence and domination, not partnership.”
        Self-ruled Taiwan has formal relations with a dwindling number of countries, almost all of them small and less developed nations in Central America and the Pacific.
    (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Julia Love; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

    11/8/2018 German trade surplus narrows as U.S. trade friction bites
    FILE PHOTO: Aerial view of containers at a loading terminal
    in the port of Hamburg, Germany August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German exports unexpectedly fell by more than imports in September, narrowing the trade surplus as trade friction with the United States slows the traditional growth engine in Europe’s largest economy.
        The Federal Statistics Office said on Thursday that seasonally adjusted exports fell by 0.8 percent on the month in September, with imports down 0.4 percent.
        A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.3 percent rise in exports and a 0.8 percent increase in imports.    Germany’s trade surplus narrowed to 17.6 billion euros ($20.09 billion) from a revised 18.2 billion euros in August.
        “A combination of slowing world trade and temporary factors like the new emissions norms for autos hit the German export sector over the summer months,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski wrote in a research note.
        The Federal Statistics Office will publish preliminary gross domestic product growth data for the third quarter next Wednesday.
        Trade disputes abroad and political tensions at home are both leaving their mark on a still exports-dependent economy which is now in its ninth year of expansion.
        Household spending has become an important growth driver for Germany as exports have weakened.    Consumers are reaping the benefits of record employment levels, rising real wages, increased job security and cheap credit due to the euro zone’s expansive monetary policy.
        Nonetheless, several economic institutes said last week the German economy probably shrank in the third quarter after posting quarterly growth rates of 0.4 percent in the January-March period and 0.5 percent in the second quarter.
        However, data released on Tuesday showed industrial orders rose unexpectedly in September, driven by bulk orders and higher demand from domestic and other euro zone clients, suggesting the economy ended the third quarter on a solid footing.
    (Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Michelle Martin)

    11/8/2018 President Trump expected to sign executive order on asylum system soon by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week on asylum reform.
        According to an administration official, the president plans to sign the order as soon as tomorrow.
        The move would limit the ability of migrants seeking asylum at the border.
    Alcides Padilla, from Honduras, wakes up at the Jesus Martinez stadium in Mexico City, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018.
    Central American migrants on Wednesday continued to straggle in for a rest stop at a Mexico City stadium, where about 4,500 continue to
    weigh offers to stay in Mexico against the desire of many to reach the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        This comes as the president has accused migrants of using loopholes in the asylum system to gain entry into the United States.
        Some officials say the order will help immigration officials process asylum claims in a safer and more efficient manner.
        The administration has reportedly considered a fast-track regulation paired with a presidential proclamation to block asylum seekers.

    11/8/2018 Trump administration moves to curb migrants’ asylum claims by Yeganeh Torbati and Kristina Cooke
    FILE PHOTO: Border police look on as a group of Central Americans and Cubans hoping to apply for asylum wait at the border on an
    international bridge between Mexico and the U.S., in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
        WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The Trump administration unveiled new rules on Thursday to sharply limit migrant asylum claims by barring individuals who cross the U.S. southern border illegally from seeking asylum.
        Immigrant advocates denounced the move, saying it violated existing U.S. law that allows people fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries to apply for asylum regardless of whether they enter illegally or not.
        The regulations released on Thursday, in conjunction with an order expected to be signed by President Donald Trump, would effectively ban migrants who cross the U.S. border with Mexico illegally from qualifying for asylum.
        Once the plan goes into full effect, migrants entering at the U.S. southern border would only be eligible for asylum if they report at official ports of entry, officials said.
        “What we are attempting to do is trying to funnel … asylum claims through the ports of entry where we are better resourced, have better capabilities and better manpower and staffing to actually handle those claims in an expeditious and efficient manner,” a senior administration official told reporters in a news briefing on Thursday, on condition of anonymity.
        The Trump administration has already made it more difficult for migrants to qualify for asylum in the United States.    Administration officials have said existing U.S. asylum rules encourage illegal immigration and bog down legitimate claims.
        In June, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued an appellate decision that sharply narrowed the circumstances under which immigrants can use violence at home as grounds for U.S. asylum.
        Sessions, who resigned at Trump’s request this week, also instructed immigration judges and asylum officers to view illegal border-crossing as a “serious adverse factor” in deciding a case and to consider whether applicants could have escaped danger by relocating within their own countries.
        Trump made his hard-line policies toward immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, sending thousands of U.S. troops to help secure the southern border and repeatedly drawing attention to a caravan of Central American migrants trekking through Mexico toward the United States.
        Currently, U.S. asylum rules do not bar people who enter the country without authorization, and the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs the U.S. immigration system, specifically allows people who arrive in the United States, whether or not they do so at a designated port of entry, to apply for asylum.
        The administration’s plan, which invokes the same authority Trump used to justify his travel ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority nations, is likely to be quickly challenged in court.
        The move would largely affect migrants from Central America’s Northern Triangle – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – who cross the U.S. border with Mexico to flee violence and poverty in their home countries.
        “The vast majority of aliens who enter illegally today come from the Northern Triangle countries,” the regulation’s text says.    “i>Channeling those aliens to ports of entry would encourage these aliens to first avail themselves of offers of asylum from Mexico.”
        Immigrant advocates denounced the administration’s move as unlawful, and said the plan to funnel migrants to ports of entry was just a way to cut asylum claims overall.
        “Congress has directly spoken to this question as to whether individuals can be rendered ineligible for asylum if they cross between ports of entry and has specifically said people are eligible regardless of where they cross,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
        “Ports of entry … are overcrowded,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES, a Texas-based immigrant defense group.    “Asylum-seekers have been left to camp out for days and weeks on bridges at the border, when they should be guaranteed a right to enter the country for a fair hearing.”
    (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Kristina Cooke; editing by Peter Cooney and Tom Brown)

    11/8/2018 Florida Gubernatorial, Senate Races Still Too Close To Officially Call by OAN Newsroom
    A man casts his vote at Miami Beach Fire Station No. 3 on Tuesday,
    Nov. 6, 2018, in Miami-Dade County, Fla. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)
        Florida’s highly contested Senate and gubernatorial races are still too close to be officially called.
        The state’s gubernatorial race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum will now have a machine recount.,br>     Although Gillum conceded on Tuesday, his campaign said it has become clear that there are more uncounted ballots than originally reported and the team is monitoring the situation closely.
        In the state’s Senate race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson there will be a lengthier manual recount.
        Scott declared victory Tuesday, but nelson has not conceded.

    11/8/2018 Bernie Sanders blames ‘white voters’, ‘racism’ for Democrat losses in Fla. and Ga. by OAN Newsroom
        Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is going after “white voters” over the outcomes of gubernatorial elections in Florida and Georgia.
        In an interview Thursday, Sanders claimed White Americans are “uncomfortable” voting for black candidates.    The senator said Florida candidate Andrew Gillum and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams faced — what he called — “blatant racism” during their campaigns.
        Sanders’ remarks comes despite many candidates of color having been elected across the country.
    United States Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., thanks supporters after winning re-election during a Democratic election night rally party in Burlington, Vt., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
        On the other hand, some volunteers for Brian Kemp’s campaign said the election was about stances on key issues.
        “The one positive feedback that we keep getting from voters over and over and over making these calls is what a great direction Georgia has been in,” said Julianne Thompson, a Georgia volunteer.    “We have a booming economy, job growth, safe streets and people are excited about that and they want to keep that going in the state of Georgia…they feel Brian Kemp is the right person to do that.”
        Sanders expressed hope more candidates that align with his views will be voted into office during the next cycle.

    11/8/2018 President Trump to push partial gov’t shut down if Democrats don’t fund border wall by OAN Newsroom
        The deadline for Congress to decide if they will continue funding the U.S.-Mexico border wall is quickly approaching.
        On Wednesday, President Trump announced that a partial government shut down may be enforced if Congress refuses to provide the remaining funds.
    (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
        60 congressional votes are needed to advance the legislation, which expired back in September.    At that time, lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement funding 75-percent of the government.
        Temporary funds will last until December, allowing some sectors such as Homeland Security to remain in place.
        In January Democrat’s will control the House and most say they are not motivated to meet the president’s wall demands.

    11/8/2018 Mass shooting in Calif. bar leaves at least 12 dead, more than a dozen injured by OAN Newsroom
        At least 12 people and an alleged gunman are dead following a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California.
        The incident began around 11:20 PM local time Wednesday at the Borderline Bar and Grill during a college country night celebration, which was open to students 18-years and older.
        When authorities entered the bar they found the gunman actively shooting.    The suspect then opened fire on authorities and fatally shot Sheriff Sergeant Ron Helus.
        The bodies of 11 victims and the suspect were later discovered inside the bar.    More than a dozen others are also reported to be injured and have been transported to local hospitals.
    People comfort each other as they stand near the scene Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. where a
    gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with hundreds of people on “college night.” (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
        One witness described the incident.
        “I was at the front door and I was talking to my stepdad.    I just started hearing these big pops.    Pop, pop, pop.    There was probably three or four, I hit the ground.    I look up — the security guard is dead.    Well, I don’t want to say he was dead, but he was shot.    He was down.    The gunman was throwing smoke grenades all over the place.    I saw him point to the back of the cash register and he just kept firing.    I ran out the front door.” — John Hedge, witness.
        An investigation into the incident is ongoing, but officials believe it was a planned attack as the suspect allegedly set off smoke devices.
        During a press briefing Thursday, a Ventura County sheriff identified the suspect as 28-year-old Ian Long.    He also revealed Long was a Marine Corp veteran, who may have been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
        The gun used in the shooting was a 45-caliber Glock handgun, which authorities say was purchased legally.
        President Trump has been fully briefed on the shooting.
        In a tweet Thursday morning, he said great bravery was shown by police and the California Highway Patrol was on the scene within three minutes.    He went on to say, “God bless all the victims and their families” and thanked law enforcement.
    Emergency Hotline: (805)-465-6650
    [I lived in Thousand Oaks, CA for 13 years between 1975-1987 and knew everything about that town, but that was then, and I wondered what kind of people were in the bar that set off a young 28 year-old PTSD former marine to do this.]

    11/8/2018 Sgt. Ron Helus among dead in Ventura shooting, was one year from retirement by OAN Newsroom
        More information is coming to light about the sheriff who was killed in the Ventura, California shooting.
        Sergeant Ron Helus was a 29-year-veteran of law enforcement, and was just one year away from retirement.
        Authorities said Helus was on the scene within the first three-minutes of the shooting.    He entered the front door of the Borderline Bar alongside a highway patrol officer before he was shot multiple times.    He later died at a hospital.
        According to a sheriff’s official, Helus was on the phone with his wife right before responding to the incident. He told tell her he loved her and had to go.
        “Ron was a hardworking, dedicated sheriff sergeant, he was totally committed, he gave his all and tonight (Wednesday) — as I told his wife — he died a hero because he went in to save lives, to save other people,” stated Sheriff Geoff Dean of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
        The sergeant is survived by his wife and son.

    11/8/2018 Trump admin. expands exemptions to Obamacare birth control mandate by OAN Newsroom
        Nearly one-year after taking a stand for religious Americans, President Trump has delivered on his promise to weaken Obamacare’s so-called birth control mandate.
        The Department of Health and Human Services issued its final rules on Wednesday, expanding exemptions on the grounds of religious or moral convictions.    This is expected to provide protection to about 200 small businesses and non-profit organizations.
        While this is a step in the right direction, the exemptions do not apply to large companies with stake in the stock market or to government institutions.
        Despite left-wing activists calling this an attack on women, the move does not affect access to free or subsidized contraception for low-income women.
    FILE – In this Aug. 26, 2016, file photo, a one-month dosage of
    hormonal birth control pills is displayed in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
        As President Trump protects access to reproductive health options, he’s also fighting for those who are often over-looked, including the Little Sisters of the Poor.
        The nuns of the Catholic charity have dedicated their lives to serving the poor and elderly, but were steam rolled in court by former President Obama.    That administration wanted to force the nuns to provide contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization measures against their deeply held beliefs.
        “We want to really point out that the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith, they live by a beautiful calling, and we will not let bureaucrats take away that calling or take away their rights.” — President Donald Trump.
        Additionally, the controversial Obama-era rule was also the focus of a landmark Supreme Court ruling back in 2014, where the justices ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby seeking a religious exemption from the mandate.
        The final rules will go into affect in 60 days, but pro-choice groups and left-wing activists are already threatening to take the issue back to court.
    [The antichrist lost one and made their threats but conservatives may have the edge in the Supreme Court.]

    11/8/2018 Conway: President Trump not planning to use resignation of Jeff Sessions to end Mueller probe by OAN Newsroom
        White House adviser Kellyanne Conway is setting the record straight about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation.
        While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Conway explained President Trump is not planning to use the resignation as a way to shut down the Mueller probe.
        She said the investigation into alleged Russia collusion has been winding down for weeks prior to Sessions stepping down.
    Counselor to President Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway, is interviewed on television at the
    White House’s North Lawn in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        The counselor to the president went on to give credit to Sessions for his work at the Department of Justice, including cracking down on opioid abuse as well as the MS-13 gang.
        “This president’s Department of Justice has done a fine job breaking the back of the opioid crisis…prosecuting some doctors, pharmacists and nurses…shutting down the dark web…certainly putting it to the MS-13 gangs and prosecuting many violent criminals, trans-national criminals,” she stated.
        Conway refused to give her opinion on who could be tapped to replace Sessions, adding, its up to the president to make that call.

    11/8/2018 Exclusive: Khashoggi murder further complicates ‘Arab NATO’ plan – U.S. sources by Jonathan Landay and Yara Bayoumy
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
    in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s strategy to contain Iranian power in the Middle East by forging Arab allies into a U.S.-backed security alliance was in trouble even before the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.    Now, three U.S. sources said, the plan faces fresh complications.
        Khashoggi’s murder on Oct. 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has drawn international outrage against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Turkish officials and some U.S. lawmakers accusing the kingdom’s de facto ruler of ordering the killing.
        The Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) aims to bind Sunni Muslim governments in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan in a U.S.-led security, political and economic pact to counter Shi’ite Iran.
        But feuds among Arab allies, especially a Saudi-led economic and political boycott of Qatar, have hampered the founding of the alliance since Riyadh proposed it last year.
        A summit meeting in the United States where Trump and the Arab leaders would sign a preliminary accord on the alliance was expected in January.    But the three U.S. sources and a Gulf diplomat said the meeting now looks uncertain.    It has already been postponed several times, they added.
        Khashoggi’s murder raised “a whole bunch of problems” to be solved before the plan – informally referred to as the “Arab NATO” – can move forward, one U.S. source said.    One issue is how the Americans could have the Saudi crown prince, who goes by the initials MbS, attend the summit without causing widespread outrage.
        “It’s not palatable,” the source said.
        A senior Trump administration official denied on Tuesday that Khashoggi’s death complicated progress on the alliance, saying that MESA “is much larger than one country and one issue.”
        Saudi Arabia has denied MbS’ involvement in Khashoggi’s killing and said an investigation into responsibility was underway.
        Robert Malley, a top Middle East adviser to former President Barack Obama who now heads the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization, said it would be difficult for MbS to attend a January summit “given what happened and how raw the feelings are.”
        “I’m not sure he would want to come to the United States right now,” Malley said.
        Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, the administration’s chief MESA negotiator, said the initiative “is moving forward” but added that the impact of Khashoggi’s death was unclear.
        “I don’t know yet how it will affect the process.    Awaiting final investigation and decisions,” Zinni told Reuters in a recent email.    “I think there may be a wait until the investigation (maybe forensics if a body is found) is complete before a way forward is discussed.”
        The eight potential alliance members did not respond to requests for comment about their commitment to MESA.
    MANY HURDLES
        Even before the fallout from Khashoggi’s killing complicated matters, two classified White House documents seen by Reuters show the administration was grappling for ways to overcome regional feuds and push MESA forward in order to contain Iran as well as to limit Chinese and Russian influence in the region.
        “Our regional partners are increasingly competing and, in the case of the Qatar rift, entering into outright competition to the detriment of American interests and to the benefit of Iran, Russia and China,” National Security Adviser John Bolton wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a letter late summer, before Khashoggi’s death.
        “To arrest these negative trends, we need to change our partners’ strategic calculus,” Bolton wrote in the undated letter, written in response to a June 29 memo about MESA from Pompeo and Mattis.
        Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there has been a debate within the administration about whether Washington can persuade Arab allies to put aside their differences, with Bolton emerging as a key proponent for the plan.
        A fourth U.S. official said the broad goals of MESA are widely shared within the administration, but there are discussions over the best approach for reaching a deal.
        A Defense Department spokeswoman referred questions to the State Department but pointed out previous Mattis comments in support of the alliance.
        A State Department official said the administration continued to “engage with our partners on working toward” the alliance.
    WHITE HOUSE PLAN
        The administration’s plan is aimed at furthering Trump’s “America First” strategy to reduce foreign military engagements and have allies shoulder more of the burden for their own security, while advancing U.S. interests in the Middle East, according to one of the White House documents.
        U.S. interests in the region range from arms sales and striking Islamist extremists in Yemen, Iraq and Syria to ensuring the free flow of oil to global markets in order to keep prices stable.
        One White House document, drafted before Khashoggi’s death, said Trump had warned the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the other members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as Egypt that “the status quo is untenable and that the United States will not continue to invest in Middle East security” if they did not resolve their disputes.
        It did not give details of Trump’s threat or when he made it.
        Washington deploys aircraft, warships and more than 30,000 military personnel at bases in the GCC countries.
        Senior U.S. military officials say they have no intentions to change that posture.
        The strategy paper, titled “The Middle East Strategic Alliance Concept Overview,” calls for a series of short- and medium-term measures requiring “very little, if any, new U.S. resource commitments to the region.”
        The measures include developing regional “operational centers” aimed at integrating forces in areas such as missile defense, ground warfare and other fields, according to the paper and a source familiar with the plan.
        A long-term goal would be a formal treaty alliance and a multilateral free-trade pact negotiated over perhaps five to seven years, the paper said.    It also raised the possibility that the pact could eventually include Iraq, Lebanon and other countries, and formal ties could be forged with Israel and “select European and Asian allies.”
    Without those “end-states,” the paper said, “our regional partners are unlikely to fully commit.”
    (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Stephen Kalin, Katie Paul and Ghaida Ghantous. Editing by Kieran Murray and Paritosh Bansal)

    11/8/2018 U.S. ambassador expects ‘frank’ exchanges in China dialogue on Friday
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador Terry Edward Branstad (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping (R)
    at the Great Hall of the People on September 30, 2017 in Beijing, China. REUTERS/Lintao Zhang/Pool/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to China said that a “frank” exchange of views could be expected in top-level diplomatic and security talks with China on Friday, including on issues such as human rights and the South China Sea.
        Terry Branstad told reporters the United States would seek progress on priority issues, including North Korea, and that there would also be discussions on strategic security and “how we can work together to avoid mistakes or accidents that can happen in the military arena.”
    (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Dan Grebler)

    11/8/2018 U.S. imposes new sanctions on Russia for Crimea, investments
    The Russian flag flies over the Embassy of Russia in Washington, U.S., August 6, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Ukrainians, a Russian officer and nine entities for Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and profiting from the occupation, the U.S. Treasury said.
        One of the entities sanctioned – the Limited Liability Company Southern Project – was linked to Bank Rossiya and Russian businessman Yuri Kovulchuk, the Treasury Department said.
        Kovulchuk, whom the United States government has called “the personal banker” for senior Russian officials, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was previously sanctioned by the United States over the Crimea crisis.
        “Treasury remains committed to targeting Russian-backed entities that seek to profit from Russia’s illegal annexation and occupation of Crimea,” Sigal Mandelker, Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
        The sanctions, bought under a 2017 U.S. law known as the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, aim to further punish Moscow for seizing control of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014 after Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich fled power after months of street protests.
        The takeover began in late February when Russian troops without insignia appeared in various parts of Crimea, mostly outside Ukrainian military bases and government buildings.
        The new sanctions are unacceptable and such attempts to influence Moscow are doomed to fail, TASS news agency reported Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.
        Among those blacklisted is Andriy Sushko, an officer from Russia’s Federal Security Service.        The Treasury Department said he was responsible for the abduction of a Crimean Tatar activist in 2017, who was tortured while being held.
        The sanctions also target companies that the Treasury said benefited from the annexation of Crimea.    Among them is the Mriya Resort and Spa, a hotel investment bankrolled by Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, on the South Shore of Crimea in the city of Yalta, the department said.
        Also blacklisted was the Ministry of State Security of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, the Treasury said.
    (Reporting by Tim Ahmann, Makini Brice and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Tom Brown and Leslie Adler)

    11/8/2018 Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life
    People belonging to a caravan of migrants from El Salvador en route to the United States, board a pick-up truck
    for a hitchhike along the highway to Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala from Moyuta, Guatemala, November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File photo
        TECUN UMAN, Guatemala (Reuters) – Cradling a baby in his arms, the Central American man looks up fearfully as he scrambles away from a wall of Mexican police in riot gear.
        Thousands of migrants, mostly Hondurans fleeing poverty and violence, have been traveling in a caravan toward the United States in recent weeks.    On Oct. 19, some of them rushed through Guatemalan border gates onto a long bridge connecting to Mexico.    But the surge was halted by Mexican federal police.
        Reuters photographer Ueslei Marcelino was on the bridge and captured the picture of the man with the child.
        “The migrants had already broken through the first police barricade on the Guatemalan side of the bridge.    After a while, they moved towards the second barricade on the Mexican side,” said Marcelino.
        “Suddenly women and children formed a line and started to walk towards the police.    There was a bit of pushing and shoving, and then things started to get increasingly chaotic.”
        Eventually, Mexican police pushed the migrants back to the Guatemalan side.
        Many of the migrants spent that night on the bridge, while hundreds of others eventually chose to jump into the Suchiate River below in a bid to reach Mexican soil.    Within a few days, as many as 10,000 migrants had entered Mexico, caravan members said.
        When Reuters photographer Leah Mills saw migrants jumping into the river from the Guatemalan side, she waded in and captured an image of an exhausted-looking man carrying a child.
        “To me this shows how desperate these people are.    They are willing to cross rivers with strong currents, to lose any belongings they had, to struggle through the water with their children.”
        Reuters photographer Adrees Latif saw a human cordon being formed in the river by migrant men, locking arms to make sure no-one was swept away.
        “A family that had made it to the middle of the river was handing their children to other men to help them reach the shore,” he said.
        As a man grabbed the girl in front of him and took her to safety, Latif followed.
        “This photograph begs the question: why would a family leave home and not only risk their own lives but also the lives of their children by doing such extraordinary things?    What propels someone to walk without knowing where they will next break bread or quench their thirst?”
    Photo Essay https://reut.rs/2SWacua
    (Reporting by Ueslei Marcelino, Leah Mills and Adrees Latif; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

    11/8/2018 Venezuelan migrant exodus hits 3 million: U.N.
    FILE PHOTO: Colombian migration officers check the identity documents of people trying to enter Colombia from Venezuela,
    at the Simon Bolivar International bridge in Villa del Rosario, Colombia August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – Three million Venezuelans have fled economic and political crisis in their homeland, most since 2015, the United Nations said on Thursday.
        The exodus, driven by violence, hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines, amounts to around one in 12 of the population.
        It has accelerated in the past six months, said William Spindler of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which appealed for greater international efforts to ease the strain on the country’s neighbors.
        U.N. data in September showed 2.6 million had fled.
        “The main increases continue to be reported in Colombia and Peru,” Spindler said.
        Colombia is sheltering 1 million Venezuelans.    Some 3,000 more arrive each day, and the Bogota government says 4 million could be living there by 2021, costing it nearly $9 billion.
        Oil-rich Venezuela has sunk into crisis under Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has damaged the economy through state interventions while clamping down on political opponents.
        He has dismissed the migration figures as “fake news” meant to justify foreign intervention in Venezuela’s affairs.
        The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR said the exodus was straining several neighboring countries, notably Colombia.
        “Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have largely maintained a commendable open-door policy,” said Eduardo Stein, UNHCR-IOM Joint Special Representative for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela.
        “…However, their reception capacity is severely strained, requiring a more robust and immediate response from the international community.”
        Regional government officials are to meet in Quito, Ecuador from Nov 22-23 to coordinate humanitarian efforts.
    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by John Stonestreet)

    11/9/2018 U.S. accuses China of violating bilateral anti-hacking agreement
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands
    after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has been violating an agreement with the United States aimed at stopping cyber espionage through the hacking of government and corporate data, a senior U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday.
        When asked if China was violating the 2015 agreement between then President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, National Security Agency official Rob Joyce said: “We think they are.”
        But he added that the quantity and number of attacks had dropped “dramatically” since the agreement.
        “While it’s not black and white, (China) met the agreement or they didn’t meet the agreement, it’s clear that they are well beyond the bounds today of the agreement that was forged between our countries,” Joyce said.
        In September 2015, Obama announced he had reached a “common understanding” with China’s Xi on curbing economic cyber espionage, but threatened to impose U.S. sanctions on Chinese hackers who persist in committing cyber crimes.
        The two leaders said they agreed that neither government would knowingly support cyber theft of corporate secrets or business information.
        The agreement, however, stopped short of any promise to refrain from traditional government-to-government cyber spying for intelligence purposes.
        That could include the massive hack of the U.S. federal government’s personnel office this year that compromised the data of more than 20 million people.    U.S. officials have traced that back to China, but have not said whether they believe the Chinese government was responsible.
        The United States and China will hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday, the latest sign of a thaw in the countries’ strained relations amid an ongoing trade row ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina at the end of November.
    (Reporting by Christopher Bing, editing by G Crosse)

    11/9/2018 Acting attorney general faces scrutiny - Trump loyalist has been a critic of Russia probe by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY     WASHINGTON – If President Donald Trump was seeking an attorney general free of potential conflicts with the investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. election, Matthew Whitaker would be an unlikely candidate.
        Known as a Trump loyalist during his yearlong tenure as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Whitaker was promoted Wednesday by President Donald Trump to take his boss’s job after Sessions was forced out.
        He immediately came under scrutiny.
        The former federal prosecutor from Iowa was a vocal surrogate for the Trump administration.    At various times, he publicly called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to rein in Robert Mueller, the Justice Department special counsel leading the Russia investigation.    He has referred to any examination of the Trump family finances as breaching a “red line” of Mueller’s authority.
        In a television appearance in July 2017, he raised the prospect that the Justice Department, rather than firing Mueller outright, could choke off funding for the office, which would lead to the inquiry’s slow death.
        Sessions, a former adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, recused himself from oversight of Mueller’s investigation to avoid potential conflicts of interest, a move that infuriated Trump and set the stage for the attorney general’s eventual departure.
        Despite his criticism of the special counsel, there was no immediate indication that Whitaker intended to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller’s work, a task that until Wednesday was carried out by Rosenstein.
        Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans signaled deep unease with the new leadership at Trump’s Justice Department and the threat it could pose to Mueller’s inquiry.
        Ranking Democrats on congressional committees that oversee Justice operations demanded that administration officials, including Whitaker, preserve all records relating to the Mueller investigation and the firing of Sessions.
        “We remind you that concealing, removing or destroying such records may constitute a crime, may result in the immediate disqualification from holding a position in the federal government and may be punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment under federal law,” lawmakers warned in a statement.
        Similar warnings, issued by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.; Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., were directed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and other national security officials.
        Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whose name was not attached to the document preservation demand, issued a separate statement urging that Mueller’s work be protected in the wake of the Justice Department shakeup.
        “Special counsel Mueller must be allowed to complete his work without interference – regardless who is AG,” Collins said.
        Collins’ remarks were followed by similar comments from Mitt Romney, the Republican senator-elect from Utah, and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
        Whitaker has made no secret of his qualms about the special counsel’s inquiry and other politically charged matters that confronted the department.
        “It is time for Rosenstein ... to order Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel,” Whitaker wrote in a 2017 column for CNN.    “If he doesn’t, then Mueller’s investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition.    This would not only be out of character for a respected figure like Mueller, but also could be damaging to the president of the United States and his family – and by extension, to the country.”
        Around the same time, Trump told The New York Times that Mueller would be venturing beyond his authority by examining issues related to the president’s family finances.
        On CNN last year, a few months before joining the Justice Department, Whitaker raised the prospect of cutting funding to Mueller’s team, allowing the investigation to “grind to a halt.”

    11/9/2018 Trump moves to curb requests for asylum - Critics will challenge bid to deny illegal entrants by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        The Trump administration announced a plan Thursday to dramatically cut back immigrants’ ability to request asylum in the USA, a direct challenge to federal law and international conventions that the president said is necessary to stop an immigrant caravan slowly making its way to the U.S.-Mexican border.
        Immigrants are allowed to request asylum whether they present themselves at ports of entry or sidestep those ports and illegally enter the country.    The rules proposed by the administration would bar those who enter illegally from making an asylum claim and place them into expedited deportation proceedings instead, according to a posting by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security on the Federal Register late Thursday.
        President Donald Trump hinted at such a change in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s midterm elections as part of a broader strategy in which he focused almost exclusively on immigration in an effort to rile up the GOP base.    During a news conference four days before the midterm elections, he said there was “rampant abuse,” of the nation’s asylum system, which saw an increase in claims from 5,000 in 2008 to 97,000 in 2018, mostly fueled by Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.
        “Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in a joint statement.    “Today, we are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate (the new rules).
        Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who led the lawsuit that forced the Trump administration to reunite more than 2,500 immigrant children separated from their parents this summer, said the proposed asylum changes are dubious.
        “The administration’s plan to categorically deny asylum to those who enter between ports of entry is patently unlawful and inconsistent with our nation’s commitment to providing a safe haven to those in danger,” Gelernt said Thursday.    “There will be lawsuits.”
        Several groups have already filed lawsuits in California and the District of Columbia challenging the administration’s actions to limit asylum.    Thursday’s announcement will add to the litigation, which could be decided by a Supreme Court that includes two Trump appointees.
        Asylum is a form of protection granted to people who fear persecution in their home countries based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or their political opinion.    From 2000 to 2016, the United States granted asylum to an average of 26,651 foreigners a year, according to Department of Homeland Security data.
        The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act states that any foreigner who arrives in the USA, “whether or not at a designated port of arrival,” may apply for asylum.    A United Nations treaty signed in 1951 by the United States says “refugees should not be penalized for their illegal entry” because extreme situations sometimes “require refugees to breach immigration rules.”
        To override those rules, the administration used a rationale similar to its argument for its controversial travel ban targeting majority-Muslim countries.    U.S. law allows a president to sign a proclamation suspending entry to people who are deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Trump is likely to sign a presidential proclamation as early as Friday outlining the asylum restrictions, which would kick-start the new rules.
        As the number of immigrants requesting asylum along the southern border increased in recent years, thousands have had to wait on the Mexican side of the border, sometimes sleeping on bridges and streets, to plead their case.    The Mexican government, working with nongovernmental organizations and volunteer groups, created a system by which applicants are signed up and allowed to enter U.S. ports of entry in order.
        Those long waits, after even longer journeys to reach the U.S. border, often drive immigrants to enter the country illegally and request asylum that way. When the last caravan reached the USA in April, 401 presented themselves at ports of entry, as the administration has urged them to do, but 122 quit waiting and entered the country illegally to request asylum, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
        Thursday’s announcement follows several other steps taken by the administration to halt the caravan, which Trump described as an “invasion” of the country.
        The Pentagon mobilized more than 7,000 active-duty military troops, who started laying miles of concertina wire along portions of the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection repositioned its agents from throughout the country to line the southern border to prevent illegal entries.
        During a trip to the border, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said he viewed the oncoming caravan as a “law enforcement situation” and his officers could not speed up the process to interview asylum seekers.
    Contributing: John Fritze in Washington.
    Members of a migrant caravan arrive at the Church of the Assumption in the city of Puebla in southern Mexico. HILDA RIOS/EPA-EFE

    11/9/2018 President Trump issues proclamation denying asylum to people entering U.S. illegally by OAN Newsroom
        The White House recently released the president’s proclamation aimed at addressing the rising trend of mass migration at the southern border.
        The proclamation prevents those who cross the border illegally from claiming asylum, citing concerns over national securityeasing the burden on the already-overloaded asylum and immigration system.
        The rules are designed to funnel those hoping to enter the country as refugees to present themselves at the ports of entry for official processing.
        Prior to his departure for France, the president said a change in immigration law is needed in order to secure the border and called on Democrats for their cooperation.
        “They have to pass new immigration laws, because they’re flooding our country.    We’re not letting them in, but they’re trying to flood our country.    We need the wall, we’re building the wall, but we need it all built at one time and quickly.    It’s very important.    We need Democrats to support our new immigration laws to bring us up to date.    The laws are obsolete and they’re incompetent.    They are the worst laws any country has anywhere in the world.” — President Donald Trump
    President Donald Trump talks with reporters before departing for France
    on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        Border security was one of the president’s main campaign promises, however, the president explained he does not intend to halt immigration as a whole.
        “We need people.    See, the unemployment numbers are at record lows.    We need people in our country but they have to come in legally and they have to have merit.”
        This comes amid a spike in illegal mass immigration, which shows no signs of slowing down.
        In fiscal year 2018, nearly 400,000 people were arrested when entering the country illegally and almost 125,000 were found to be inadmissible at ports of entry.
        The Trump administration said a failure to take action will only further overwhelm the system and encourage more people to cross the border unlawfully.

    11/9/2018 President Trump slams decision by federal judge to block Keystone XL Pipeline by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is speaking out against a federal judge’s decision to block construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline in Montana.
    FILE- This Nov. 6, 2015, file photo shows a sign for TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline
    facilities in Hardisty, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
        While speaking outside the White House Friday morning the president said, “well it was a political decision made by a judge, I think it’s a disgrace, it’s 48,000 jobs, I approved it, it’s ready to start, and I guess they’ll end up going to the Ninth Circuit as usual — we’re slowly putting new judges in the Ninth Circuit, everything goes through the Ninth Circuit.”
        On Thursday U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled a supplemental environmental review must be completed before any further work continues.
        President Trump revived the project, which was blocked by the Obama administration shortly after taking office.
    FILE – In this March 24, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump, flanked by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross,
    left, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is seen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington,
    during the announcing of the approval of a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline, clearing the way for the $8 billion project.
    A federal judge in Montana has blocked construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline to allow more time
    to study the project’s potential environmental impact. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris’ order on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018,
    came as Calgary-based TransCanada was preparing to build the first stages of the oil pipeline in northern Montana. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

    11/9/2018 U.S. judge halts Keystone XL oil pipeline in blow to Trump, Trudeau by Rod Nickel and David Gaffen
    FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between
    Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S.,
    in this photo provided Nov. 18, 2017. REUTERS/Dronebase/File Photo/File Photo
        WINNIPEG, Manitoba/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge in Montana has blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline designed to carry heavy crude oil from Canada to the United States, drawing praise on Friday from environmental groups and a rebuke from President Donald Trump.
        The ruling of a U.S. Court in Montana late on Thursday dealt a setback to TransCanada Corp, whose stock fell 1.7 percent in Toronto.    Shares of companies that would ship oil on the pipeline also slid.
        TransCanada said in a statement it remains committed to building the $8 billion, 1,180 mile (1,900 km) pipeline, but it has also said it is seeking partners and has not taken a final investment decision.
        The ruling drew an angry response from Trump, who approved the pipeline shortly after taking office.
        It also piles pressure on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to assist the country’s ailing oil sector by accelerating crude shipments by rail until pipelines are built.    Clogged pipelines have made discounts on Canadian oil even steeper than they were earlier this year when Scotiabank warned that they may cost the country’s economy C$16 billion.
        U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris wrote that a U.S. State Department environmental analysis of Keystone XL “fell short of a ‘hard look'” at the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on Native American land resources.
        “It was a political decision made by a judge.    I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
        The ruling was a win for environmental groups who sued the U.S. government in 2017 after Trump announced a presidential permit for the project.    Tribal groups and ranchers also have spent more than a decade fighting the planned pipeline.
        “The Trump administration tried to force this dirty pipeline project on the American people, but they can’t ignore the threats it would pose to our clean water, our climate, and our communities,” said the Sierra Club.
        The State Department is reviewing the judge’s order and had no comment due to ongoing litigation, a spokesman said.
        The pipeline would carry heavy crude from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would connect to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast, as well as Gulf export terminals.
        Shares of Canadian oil producers Canadian Natural Resources Ltd and Cenovus Energy lost 2.7 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.
        Canada is the primary source of imported U.S. oil, but congested pipelines in Alberta, where tar-like bitumen is extracted, have forced oil shippers to use costlier rail and trucks.
        Two pipeline projects have been scrapped due to opposition, and the Trans Mountain line project still faces delays even after the Canadian government purchased it this year to move it forward.
        “You have to wonder how long investors will tolerate the delays and whether the Canadian government will intervene again to protect the industry,” said Morningstar analyst Sandy Fielden.
        Ensuring at least one pipeline is built is critical to Trudeau’s plans, with a Canadian election expected next autumn.
        “I am disappointed in the court’s decision and I will be reaching out to TransCanada later on today to show our support to them and understand what the path forward is for them,” Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters in Edmonton, Alberta.
        Alberta has felt the financial pressure, and an industry source said the provincial government last month solicited proposals from companies on ways to move crude faster by rail.    The source said proposals included ideas such as buying rail cars and investing in loading terminals.
        “I’ve never seen (the Alberta government) so active on this front,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because the matter is politically sensitive.    “That is a shift.”
        Alberta Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said the province has sent a proposal to Ottawa to move crude faster by rail that includes making more tank cars available.
        “We’re giving away our resources cheap,” she told reporters.    “We need market access.”
        Neighboring Saskatchewan stands to lose C$500 million in annual royalties if the discount for Canadian crude remains steep, Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bronwyn Eyre said.
        “People have placed quite a lot of hope in that (Keystone) project, so it’s a major setback,” she said in an interview.
        Morris, in his ruling, ordered the government to issue a more thorough environmental analysis before the project proceeds.    He said the analysis failed to fully review the effects of the current oil price on the pipeline’s viability and did not fully model potential spills and offer mitigation measures.
        The ruling likely sets Keystone back by up to one year, said Dan Ripp, president of Bradley Woods Research.
    (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, David Gaffen in New York and Brendan O’Brien; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner in Washington, Julie Gordon in Vancouver and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)

    11/9/2018 Thousand Oaks, Calif. mourns victims of fatal borderline bar mass shooting by OAN Newsroom
        Survivors of the tragic shooting which left 12 people dead at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California have united to remember those who lost their lives in the atrocious attack.
        During the somber day of mourning Thursday, thousands of people attended a vigil for the victims after 28-year-old gunman Ian David Long opened fire at a college night event at the Borderline Bar and Grill before allegedly taking his own life.
        “It was absolutely heartbreaking.    It was awful.    It was terrible to see as they were receiving notification.    It is something that you wish, as an elected official, that would never happen in your city and you would never have to do in your own city.    To have it happen here in Thousand Oaks seems surreal, very, very painful.” — Claudia Bill-de la Pena, Thousand Oaks City Council member.
    People gather to pray for the victims of a mass shooting during a
    candlelight vigil in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
        Throughout the day, hundreds of residents in the community stood in line for hours to attend a blood drive to support the victims.
        Officials said they only expected about 30 people to participate, but nearly 400 people showed up.
        “This is terrible, you see it on the news in other places in this country, it’s never been so close to this area.    The turnout (to give blood), the patriotism we have in these communities it’s quite a turnout, I’m loving it.” — Joey Lodolce, resident of Thousand Oaks.
        Meanwhile, dozens of others attended a procession to honor Sgt. Ron Helus, who tragically lost his life after heroically running towards the gunfire to save others.    Helus was a 29-year law enforcement veteran, who had plans to retire in the near future.
        A GoFundMe account has been setup for the victims and has already raised more than $28,000 of its $50,000 goal in just under 12-hours.

    11/9/2018 U.S. presses China to halt militarization of South China Sea by Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis listen to Chinese Communist Party Office of
    Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi speak as they hold a joint media news conference after participating in a second diplomatic
    and security meeting at the U.S. Department of State, Washington, U.S., November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Standing side by side, top U.S. officials urged their Chinese counterparts on Friday to halt militarization of the disputed South China Sea, drawing a rebuke from the Chinese for sending U.S. warships close to islands claimed by Beijing in the strategic waterway.
        During a round of high-level talks in Washington, the two sides aired in sometimes blunt terms many of their main differences, including a bitter trade dispute, freedom of navigation in Asia-Pacific waters, self-ruled Taiwan, and China’s crackdown on its Muslim minority.
        Two visiting senior Chinese officials also seized the opportunity to warn publicly that a trade war between the world’s two largest economies would end up hurting both sides and to call for keeping channels of communication open to resolve an issue that has unsettled global financial markets.
        Despite the airing of grievances, the talks appeared aimed at controlling the damage to relations that has worsened in recent months and at paving the way for an encounter between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina at the end of November.
        “The United States is not pursuing a Cold War or containment policy with respect to China,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a joint news conference.
        Even as the United States and China confront difficult challenges, “cooperation remains essential on many issues,” he said, citing efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
        The meeting paired Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.    The annual U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue was originally set for Beijing last month but had been called off amid rising tensions.
        Pompeo took aim at China over its continued building of military installations on artificial islands and reefs in the South China Sea, where China insists it has sovereignty despite competing claims from some smaller neighbors.
        “We have continued concerns about China’s activities and militarization in the South China Sea,” Pompeo said following the talks.    “We pressed China to live up to its past commitments in this area.”
        Yang said China was committed to “non-confrontation” but that Beijing had the right to build “necessary defense facilities” on what it considers its own territory and urged Washington to stop sending warships and military planes close to the islands that Beijing claims.
        Mattis made clear that this demand go unheeded by Washington, which insists it is acting under international law to preserve access for it and others to the South China Sea.
    TAIWAN
        Responding sharply to Pompeo’s mention of Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province but which is armed by Washington, Wei said Beijing would defend its claim on the island “at any cost.”
        But Wei and Mattis agreed on the need to lower U.S.-China military tensions to avoid unintended clashes, with the Chinese general saying confrontation “will spell disaster to all.”    Washington has protested to Beijing about recent behavior by its warships that the U.S. Navy considered unsafe.
        While Pompeo spoke little about trade in his public comments, Yang said he hoped the two sides would find a mutually acceptable solution on the issue “before long.”
        China and the United States have slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods, jolting global financial markets, and Trump has threatened to set tariffs on the remainder of China’s $500 billion-plus exports to the United States if the trade dispute cannot be resolved.
        Trump’s administration has also accused China of meddling in U.S. politics ahead of this week’s congressional elections, charges China strongly denies.
        Reflecting growing U.S. concerns about the Chinese cyber threat, a senior U.S. intelligence official on Thursday accused China of violating a 2015 agreement aimed at stopping cyber espionage through the hacking of government and corporate data.
        Pompeo also reiterated U.S. criticism of China’s “repression of religious groups,” citing treatment of Buddhists in Tibet and minority Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region that has drawn condemnation from human rights groups.
        Yang defended China’s policies in Xinjiang as measures against “ethnic separatist activities and violent terrorist crimes” but said it was a Chinese internal affair and foreign governments should not interfere.
    (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by James Dalgleish and Tom Brown)

    11/9/2018 U.S. Army: Troops getting border protection training by OAN Newsroom
        U.S. troops deployed along the Mexico border have started training to prepare for immigration enforcement missions.
        In a statement Thursday, Army Secretary Mark Esper said more than 7,000 active duty troops are involved in exercises assisting Border Patrol agents.    Secretary Esper said the troops take part in logistics, convoying, and aerial support missions.
        The troops have also upgraded the border infrastructure by installing additional fencing and detention facilities.
    Members of the U.S Army place razor wire for a temporary encampment for the
    troops near the U.S.-Mexico International bridge, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Donna, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
        Military officials said planning is underway to deter the approaching migrant caravans.
        “We’re working hand in hand with CBP in order to determine the right amount of soldiers at the right places at the right time,” explained Sgt. Maj. Faith Laughter, U.S. Army Public Affairs.    “So, at different point of entry as depicted by CBP, we’re doing some barrier emplacement and then also at these locations we have military police officers and they’re providing full protection to our soldiers.”
        The Pentagon said 1,300 troops have been deployed to California, 1,500 troops have been deployed to Arizona, and 3,000 have been deployed to Texas.
        The operation is expected to last until mid-December.

    11/9/2018 Ariz. GOP groups file lawsuit over mail-in ballot counting in tight Senate race by OAN Newsroom
        Republicans are filing a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s mail-in ballot counting procedures as the state’s tight Senate race remains undecided.
        The suit filed Wednesday by four county GOP parties is alleging the state’s recorders and secretary of state failed to follow a consistent signature verification process.    This approach is blamed for delaying a final vote tally.
    In this Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2018 photo, Maricopa County Elections official Anita Aguilar instructs
    election volunteers on how to feed a ballot into a machine during a training session in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
        The groups are seeking to stop the verification process when polls close and are asking a judge to stop counting ballots that arrive after.
        A hearing on the matter is set for Friday morning.
        Meanwhile, Democrat Kyrsten Synema maintains a narrow lead over Republican Martha McSally in a bid to replace outgoing GOP Senator Jeff Flake.

    11/9/2018 President Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Abe discuss North Korea, bilateral trade by OAN Newsroom
        According to a Japanese media, President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a phone call to discuss trade and North Korea.    However, little is known about the content of that conversation.
        Earlier this week, President Trump detailed Japan’s relationship with the U.S. on trade and explained what needs to change.
    Cargo containers are seen stacked in Tokyo. (AP/Photo)
        “Well, we’re dealing with Japan right now on trade, Japan has…it’s a great country, you have a great Prime Minister, who just had a very successful election…he’s a very good friend of mine, he’s one of the people I’m closest with…but I tell him all the time that Japan does not treat the United States fairly on trade,” said the president.    “They send in millions of cars at a very low tax…we have close to a hundred billion dollar trade deficit with Japan, and Japan has treated us very unfairly.”
        The phone call comes just days before Vice President Mike Pence is set to visit Japan before traveling to Papua New Guinea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

    11/9/2018 Trump, arriving in Paris, lashes out at Macron over defense remarks
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he departs
    the White House en route to Paris from Washington, U.S., November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, saying it was “very insulting” for him to suggest Europe should create its own army to protect itself from potential adversaries.
        Arriving in Paris for a World War One Armistice Day centenary celebration, Trump fired off a note on Twitter saying Macron had just “suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia.”
        “Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly,” Trump added, returning to his repeated demand that European nations do more to help fund the Western alliance.
        Macron said on French radio on Tuesday that Europe needed a real army to reduce reliance on the United States for defense in the face of a resurgent Russia.
        “We won’t protect Europeans if we don’t decide to have a real European army,” Macron said.
        “Faced with Russia, which is near our borders and has shown it could be threatening – I want to build a real security dialogue with Russia, which is a country I respect, a European country – but we must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own without relying only on the United States,” he added.
        The European Commission executive later echoed Macron’s call for a European military capability.    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is a long-time supporter of the idea the European Union should have more common defense capability.
        The Commission’s chief spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, said the EU was working to collaborate on defense procurement and research as well as developing EU military peacekeeping capabilities.
        “I don’t think that this defense identity will start with an EU army,” Schinas said on Tuesday.
        “At some point in time, probably down at the end of this process, we may see something that people already describe as an EU army or an EU pooling of resources to make this EU defense identity more visible and more meaningful,” Schinas said.
    (Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Tim Ahmann and David Alexander; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

    11/9/2018 France’s Macron to meet Merkel on November 18 over eurozone reform
    French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands after talking
    to the media before a meeting at the Pharo Palace in Marseille, France, September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Nov. 18 to discuss implementation of the so-called Meseberg eurozone reform proposal agreed in June, the Elysee Palace said on Friday.
        Macron will speak to the German lower-house.
        French officials have expressed irritation with Germany’s reluctance to resolve pending issues over the monetary union’s governance.     Earlier on Friday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Germany had to decide in the coming weeks whether to move forward with French proposals on the integration of the bloc. (Reporting by Michel Rose and Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    11/9/2018 Fla. Gov. Scott: Democrats trying to use voter fraud to steal election by OAN Newsroom
        Law enforcement agents are cracking down on election officials in Florida, following allegations of voter fraud in two Democrat strongholds.
        [Comments: Democrats are chanting "Every vote must count."    What the means in the state of Florida is twofold.    First, it means heavily populated Democratic Party counties, such as Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade, are not required to adhere to Florida election law.    Second, it means every vote, legal or illegal, will be counted up to the point the Democrats wins.    We've seen this for years in Florida.
        They should arrest Snipes from Broward Co. and Bucher from Palm Beach those two criminal's, Why don't we have voting Standards.    We are turning 3rd world while Hillary and Soros sit back and laugh with their power and millions/billions.]

    11/9/2018 REPORTS: Soros indirectly funding caravans through abuse of UN credit card program by OAN Newsroom
        New reports are revealing the channels of indirect funding for the recent migrant caravans, which point to billionaire George Soros.
        One America’s Kristian Rouz looks into that matter.

    11/9/2018 Fla. Judge Rules In Rick Scott’s Favor by OAN Newsroom
        A Florida state judge orders Republicans be granted immediate access to requested information about ballots in Broward County.
        State Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips ruled in Governor Rick Scott’s favor over his lawsuit, saying there has been a violation of Florida constitution by not turning over requested records.
    Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott smiles as he speaks to supporters at
    an election watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Naples, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
        Phillips ordered Broward County supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes to allow the immediate inspection of the requested records by Friday night.
        In the lawsuit, Scott claims Broward County officials are hiding critical information about the number of votes cast and counted.

    11/9/2018 Pres. Trump: Very Insulting For Macron To Suggest Europe Needs Protection From U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is firing back at his French counterpart, after he suggested Europe should build a military to protect itself from the U.S.
        The president and the first lady arrived in Paris Friday, to take part in Armistice Day celebrations on Sunday.    He’s expected to meet with leader Emmanuel Macron Saturday, to discuss a range of issues including trade.
        But the talks may be tense after the president took to Twitter and called it ‘very insulting’ for Macron to suggest a military may be needed to protect Europe from the U.S., China and Russia.
        Trump tweeted - President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia.    Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!
        He added instead of building a military, Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO costs noting the U.S. pays far more than any other member.

    11/10/2018 Oil down $0.48 to $60.19, DOW down 202 to 25,989

    11/10/2018 ACLU goes to court to challenge Trump’s new asylum curbs
        The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a court injunction to block President Donald Trump’s new restrictions on asylum, arguing in a lawsuit filed Friday that the policy violates federal immigration law.
        Trump signed a proclamation Friday denying asylum to immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally, rather than through a port of entry – a move aimed at a caravan of Central American migrants heading toward the U.S.

    11/10/2018 US judge blocks construction permit for Keystone XL pipeline
        In a setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge has blocked a permit for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada and ordered officials to complete an environmental review.    Environmentalists and tribal groups cheered the ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana.    President Donald Trump called it “a political decision” and “a disgrace.”
        The 1,184-mile pipeline would begin in Alberta and shuttle as much as 830,000 barrels a day of crude through a half dozen states to the Gulf Coast.

    11/10/2018 Caravan may travel to San Diego – Texas Lawmaker by OAN Newsroom
        A Texas democrat lawmakers say the incoming migrant caravan may be headed towards California.
        Representative Henry Cuellar said more than six-thousand migrants have departed Mexico City, and moving in the direction of Tijuana near San Diego while speaking to Homeland Security officials.
        This comes after President Trump signed a proclamation denying asylum to people entering the U.S. illegally.
        The representative says the migrants can “come in through a system of merit,” and added “we have everything worked out…so we need support from the democrats.”
        The Caravan is expected to reach the Mexico-California border within two weeks.

    11/10/2018 Thousands rally in Turin in favor of Italy-France rail link
    People take part in a demonstration to support the high-speed train line
    TAV in Turin, Italy, November 10, 2018. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca
        ROME (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people rallied in northern Italy on Saturday in support of an ambitious Franco-Italian rail link, known as TAV, and against the decision of the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement to reconsider the project.
        The 270-km (167-mile) high-speed line is due to link the French city of Lyon with Turin in northern Italy at an estimated cost of 26 billion euros ($30.2 billion).
        The plan has been beset by disapproval and protests, both regional and national, and in July Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star and industry minister, called for a review, putting his group at odds with coalition partner the League.
        Around 30,000 people gathered in one of Turin’s main squares for what was the biggest pro-TAV demonstration so far, signaling the plan’s economic importance in one of Italy’s most industrialized regions.
        “It’s yes, to economic development, to jobs, tourism and culture and all that is important to the city,” said Adele Olivero, one of the organizers of the rally, which gathered citizens, labor unions, parties as well as TAV workers.
        Regional Governor Sergio Chiamparino called for a quick response from the government: “Turin and (the region) of Piedmont want the TAV, and they want a link with Europe, without barriers,” he said.
        Chiara Appendino, 5-Star mayor of the city, said she accepted the arguments put forward by the protestors and that she was ready to “open a constructive dialogue.”     Work has already started on the project but Italy’s Infrastructure Minister said he wanted to re-negotiate the terms with France.    If Italy backs out at this point, it could face large penalties from both Paris and Brussels.
        The 5-Star has long supported the cause of residents of the alpine valleys who have protested against TAV.
        Meanwhile the League, whose support is mainly rooted in the regions of the north, has defended the project, saying it will help develop the Italian economy.
        5-Star, afraid to lose a large slice of its electoral support, is keen to stop works on TAV, one of its biggest election promises, particularly after having to grant approval last month to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, which it had highly contested and had pledged to stop.
    (Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Clelia Oziel)

    11/10/2018 Trump, Macron agree on defense after ‘insulting’ European army spat by Steve Holland and Luke Baker
    U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One as they arrive at
    Orly Airport near Paris to attend commemoration ceremonies for Armistice Day, 100 years after
    the end of the First World War, France, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron agreed on Saturday on the need for more European defense spending, papering over an earlier Trump tweet that had described Macron’s call for a European army as “very insulting.”
        Meeting for talks at the Elysee a day before commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, Macron welcomed Trump under rainy Parisian skies with a firm handshake.    But there appeared to be less immediate warmth in the greeting between the two than in the past.
        Seated on gilded chairs in the ornate presidential palace, Macron placed his hand on Trump’s knee and referred to him as “my friend,” while Trump kept more distance, although he also talked up common ground on an issue that had caused friction.
        “We want a strong Europe, it’s very important to us, and whichever way we can do it the best and more efficient would be something we both want,” said Trump.
        “We want to help Europe but it has to be fair.    Right now the burden sharing has been largely on the United States.”     Macron echoed those sentiments, saying he wanted Europe to bear a greater share of the defense costs within NATO, a point he has made repeatedly since taking office, alongside his ambitions for Europe to have its own military capability.
        “That’s why I do believe my proposals for European defense are totally consistent with that,” Macron said in English.
        Fresh off U.S. congressional elections that saw his Republican Party’s power eroded, Trump’s visit is aimed at bolstering the U.S.-European alliance at a symbolic time, with the world marking the centenary of World War One’s armistice.
        But in a tweet prior to landing in Paris, Trump took a dim view of comments Macron made in a Europe 1 radio interview this week in which he appeared to cast the United States as a threat.
        Discussing the growing dangers from cyber-hacking, meddling in electoral processes and the U.S. decision to withdraw from a missile treaty, Macron said Europe needed to protect itself against China, Russia “and even the United States.”
        Later in the interview he spoke about the need for a European army, saying:
        “Faced by Russia, which is on our borders and which has shown that it can be threatening… we need to have a Europe that can better defend itself by itself, without depending solely on the United States.”
        Trump, who has pushed NATO allies to pay more for common defense and not rely on the United States, complained.    “Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly,” Trump said on Twitter.
        The Elysee said the misunderstanding, which it said had been caused by “exaggerated” U.S. press reports, was cleared up during more than an hour of talks it described as “substantial” and “very constructive.”
        “We had a great discussion and we are aligned,” the Elysee quoted Trump as saying during the meeting, which covered trade, defense, Syria and the fallout from the murder in Istanbul last month of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
    SOLEMN COMMEMORATION
        After a lunch with Macron and their wives, Melania and Brigitte, Trump was scheduled to visit an American cemetery at Belleau Wood, east of Paris. But he canceled the trip due to the weather.    White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star general, and General Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will attend the ceremony instead, the White House said.
        On Sunday, after a solemn commemoration at the Arc de Triomphe to honor the armistice centenary, Trump is scheduled to visit an American cemetery at Suresnes, on the western outskirts of the capital, where he will make formal remarks.
        His trip comes just days after congressional elections delivered results that will complicate his next two years.    While Republicans slightly expanded their majority in the U.S. Senate, they lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Democrats who may use their newfound power to launch investigations into Trump and stymie his agenda.
        While the talks with Trump covered trade and foreign policy, it was not clear if they touched on European concerns about Trump’s plans to withdraw the United States from the 1980s Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement.
        Macron told Europe 1 radio that the “main victim” of the U.S. withdrawal from the INF accord was Europe and its security.
        The French president, who tried but failed earlier this year to talk Trump out of withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has also voiced worries about the impact of sanctions on European companies doing business with Iran.
        On Sunday, Trump may also chat briefly with Russian President Vladimir Putin when both are among the 70 world leaders set to gather at the Arc de Triomphe.    Trump and Putin are expected to have formal talks later this month when both attend a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.
    (Reporting by Steve Holland and Luke Baker; Additional reporting by Michel Rose, Mathieu Rosemain and Richard Lough; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

    11/10/2018 Fla. Races Headed For Recounts As Voter Tally Deadline Passes by OAN Newsroom
        Florida’s secretary of state orders recounts for three closely contested midterm races.
        Secretary of State Ken Dizner called for machine recounts in the governor’s, Senate and agricultural commissioners race Saturday, after all counties submitted their results.
        Current figures show GOP Senate candidate Rick Scott remains ahead of incumbent Bill Nelson by less than a quarter of a percentage point.
        The race for governor is still separated by less than half a percentage point.
    Employees at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office count ballots from the Mid-term election, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
        Under state law, a manual or hand recount will be required in the Senate and agricultural commissioner’s races, while a machine recount will be conducted in the governor’s race.
        Counties now have until next Thursday to complete machine recounts, while hand recounts will show up in the official results later this month.

    11/11/2018 Democrats gear up for slew of Trump probes - Request for tax returns likely to spark court fight by Nicole Gaudiano , USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Democrats who will take charge of the House in January are planning an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to investigating whether President Donald Trump is trying to undermine a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the lawmaker poised to lead a key oversight committee told USA TODAY.
        Anticipating subpoenas and multiple investigations, Trump warned on Wednesday that such probes will create a “warlike” atmosphere in Washington and suggested he would retaliate by investigating Democrats.
        But Rep. Elijah Cummings, who will lead the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Tuesday’s election results, flipping control of the House, were a mandate from voters to provide a check and balance on the administration.
        “They were sending a message that those who do not want to hold this president accountable need to step aside,” the Maryland Democrat said.
        Cummings and top Democrats on Intelligence and Judiciary committees last week demanded the preservation of documents relevant to the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
        Sessions’ firing could threaten Mueller’s investigation into a host of issues, including whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
        In letters to administration officials, the leading Democrats wrote that committees are conducting investigations parallel to Mueller’s.
        “This is one of these situations where, if we don’t stand up now, our country, our democracy is in deep peril,” Cummings said.
        Thursday night, Cummings participated in one of the nationwide “Nobody is Above the Law” protests, calling for interim Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe. Whitaker has previously opined that the Mueller investigation was going too far.
    Here are some issues Democrats want to pursue:
    • Tax returns:
          Democrats have been calling for the release of Trump’s tax returns since the 2016 presidential campaign.    One of the few members of Congress allowed to request them is the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts is in line to lead.    Asked whether he’ll request the tax returns, he responded, “Yeah, I think we will.”    Neal said he assumes the request will result in a court case.
    • Possible conflicts of interest:
          Democrats are interested in possible violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars a president from accepting payments from foreign governments without consent from Congress.    Among other things, they want to probe the legality of foreign government officials spending money at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.    Trump has not divested himself of his ownership interests and assets.
          Russia: Look for several committees to bite into this borscht.    Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat likely to chair the House Intelligence Committee, said as early as February there’s “ample evidence” the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.    Just before this election, he said Democrats need to “fully assess what areas of inquiry in the Russia investigation still require a full accounting.”
    • Senior administration officials:
          Cummings said he wants to examine the administration’s security clearance process after former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former White House staff secretary Rob Porter and Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner were able to see “highly secret” documents when “it’s at best questionable as to whether or not they had the appropriate clearances.”

    11/11/2018 Central American migrants resume their march toward U.S. border by Hannah McKay
    Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the
    United States, make their way to Queretaro from Mexico City, Mexico November 10, 2018 REUTERS/Go Nakamura
        QUERETARO, Mexico (Reuters) – Hundreds of Central American migrants resumed their march north through Mexico on Saturday, en route to the U.S. border where President Donald Trump has effectively suspended the granting of asylum to migrants who cross illegally.
        Trump’s Friday order, which went into effect on Saturday, means that migrants will have to present themselves at U.S. ports of entry to qualify for asylum and follow other rules unveiled on Thursday that seek to limit asylum claims.
        “It doesn’t matter what rules (Trump’s) government imposes we cannot go back to our countries.    I have a bullet in my arm and another in my shoulder.    If I go back home, it’d be better for me to go with a casket,” said 30 year-old Julio Caesar from Honduras, who declined to give his last name.
        The caravan, made up mostly of Hondurans, started north again on Saturday morning following a rest of four days in Mexico City.
        They carried backpacks, blankets, food, many with children in tow, and took the metro and then walked to the town of Tepotzotlan.    There they were helped onto buses and trucks by authorities, who stopped traffic to ask motorists if they would take the migrants to the city of Queretaro, where a shelter was set up at a stadium.
        Some of the migrants are set to arrive to the border city of Tijuana on Monday, while others later in the week to Reynosa and other border towns, according to migrant shelters.
        “These (U.S.) policies leave migrants even more vulnerable, because they will be stranded in northern Mexico, with human traffickers lurking, because the Mexican government does not have the capacity to help them,” said Oscar Misael Hernandez, researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
        Trump made his hard-line policies toward immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.    He has vowed to deploy troops at the border to stop a caravan of migrants, who say they want to seek asylum in the United States, citing violence in their own countries.
    (Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

    11/11/2018 Venezuela hoping to steeply raise oil output next year
    Oil pumpjacks are seen in Lagunillas, Venezuela May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Isaac Urrutia
        ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Venezuela is hoping to steeply raise oil output next year but will respect any new deal if OPEC agrees to reduce output from December, Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo said on Sunday.
        The south American OPEC nation’s current oil output is 1.5 million barrels per day and it aims to increase that by 1 million bpd “soon,” he told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
        Quevedo was speaking in Abu Dhabi where an oil market monitoring committee was held on Sunday, attended by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia.
        A majority of OPEC and allied oil exporters support a cut in the global supply of crude, Oman Oil Minister Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi said earlier in the Emirati capital.
        “Many of us share this view,” the minister said when asked about the need for a cut.    Asked if it could amount to 500,000 or one million barrels per day, he replied: “I think it is unfair for me to throw numbers now.”
        Saudi Arabia is discussing a proposal to cut oil output by up to 1 million barrels per day by OPEC and its allies, two sources close to the discussions told Reuters on Sunday.
        Venezuela will comply with its debt obligations and considers itself a partner with Chevron Corp. and other companies, Quevedo said, adding the problem is with the American government.
    (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    11/11/2018 Clinton may launch a 2020 bid for the Oval office by OAN Newsroom
        Hillary Clinton appears to be back at it, as reports claim she is bracing for a third presidential run.
    In this July 8,2016, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the African Methodist Episcopal church
    national convention in Philadelphia. Clinton is struggling to make inroads among young Americans who overwhelmingly supported
    Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primary, a worrisome sign as she tries to reassemble the coalition that twice
    propelled Barack Obama into the White House. GenForward is a survey conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of
    Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
        Former-aide for the Clinton family, Mark Penn, claims Hillary is planning another bid for the presidency in 2020.
        Penn says Hillary will not end her political career — despite what he calls her “humiliating loss” to President Trump in 2016.
        The former Clinton confidante alleged Hillary could announce her candidacy during the upcoming presidential primaries.
        Penn added none of the prospective democrat candidates are able to defeat President Trump.

    11/12/2018 UK PM May stares into Brexit abyss as domestic opposition mounts by Guy Faulconbridge and Philip Blenkinsop
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May returns to Downing Street in London, Britain, November 12, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy came under attack from all sides on Monday, increasing the risk that her plan for leaving the EU will be voted down by parliament and thrust the United Kingdom toward a potentially chaotic “no-deal” Brexit.
        Less than five months before Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, negotiators are still haggling over a backup plan for the land border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, if they fail to clinch a deal.
        May’s compromise Brexit plan, which seeks to leave the EU but keep closer trade ties, is facing opposition from Brexiteers, pro-Europeans, the Northern Irish party that props up her government, and even some of her own ministers.
        Asked if there was any chance May’s plan could pass parliament, former education minister Justine Greening, who supported staying in the European Union, said “no.”
        “I think it’s the worst of all worlds,” Greening she told BBC radio.    “It leaves us with less influence, less controls over the rules we have to follow.”
        Sterling plunged to a 1-1/2 week low of $1.2841 as the dollar strengthened broadly and doubts grew over May’s ability to clinch a Brexit deal and get it passed.
        Traders cited a report by the Independent newspaper that May had been forced to cancel an emergency cabinet meeting to approve a draft deal. A government source later said no cabinet meeting had ever been scheduled for Monday.
        The Brexit deal – or the lack of one – will shape Britain’s prosperity for generations to come.
        Economists polled by Reuters last week said there remains a one-in-four chance that London and Brussels will fail to reach a deal on the terms of departure.
    BREXIT EVER?
        Both sides need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the fifth largest global economy.    The other 27 members of the EU combined have about five times the economic might of Britain.
        But May has struggled to untangle nearly 46 years of membership without damaging trade or upsetting the lawmakers who will ultimately decide the fate of any deal she can secure.
        While May has for months faced fierce opposition from Brexit-supporting lawmakers, who say she has betrayed the referendum result by seeking such close ties with the EU, she is now facing increasing pressure from pro-Europeans too.
        Jo Johnson, the younger brother of leading Brexiteer and former foreign minister Boris, resigned from May’s government last Friday, calling in a withering critique for another referendum to prevent her Brexit plans unleashing Britain’s biggest crisis since World War Two.
        If a deal is voted down by parliament, the United Kingdom will face an uncertain future: leaving abruptly without a deal, the collapse of May’s government, an election, or, as some opponents of Brexit hope, a new referendum.
        Brexiteers say leaving without a deal might be damaging in the short term but that in the longer term it would be better than signing up to obey rules from the EU for decades to come.
        It is unlikely that there will be a breakthrough in negotiations this month, with any deal probably pushed back into December, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on Monday.
        “We are waiting for new news from London… We have time, but not so much. For this month, it’s very difficult to make real progress, but before Christmas I’m hoping that it will be possible,” Reynders told reporters before a meeting of national ministers on Brexit in Brussels.
        EU leaders had previously pencilled in a summit for November to sign off on a deal with London as long as there was decisive progress.    However, Brussels and London cannot agree how to guarantee there is no return of border controls on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge in London and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    11/12/2018 Report: Kirstjen Nielsen Ousted From WH by OAN Newsroom
        Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen may have been ousted from the White House, according to a report.
        A Washington Post report claims Nielsen will likely leave the administration in the coming weeks.
        Nielsen has been in the White House for less than a year and has spent her time focusing on a number of issues, including border security.
    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen speaks during the
    daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        This comes just days after President Trump reportedly cancelled Nielsen’s trip to the southern border, where she was supposed to meet with military personnel who are awaiting the incoming migrant caravans.
        The DHS has declined to comment on the report.

    11/12/2018 Nearly 100 illegal immigrants surrender to authorities in Texas by OAN Newsroom
        Nearly 100 migrants surrender to border patrol agents in Texas, after crossing the border illegally.
    In this Wednesday, June 27, 2018 photo, Brooks County Sheriff Deputy Ben Gomez looks over tire tracks left after a bailout on FM
    755, south west of Falfurrias, Texas. Earlier in June, another deputy spotted a vehicle transporting immigrants and gave
    chase. The driver smashed through a ranch gate and drove through pastures and ended when he struck a mesquite tree about
    200 hundred yards from the road. With support from U.S. Border Patrol, the immigrants were caught. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)
        About 93 illegal immigrants were detained last week by Rio Grande Valley Sector agents.
        Officials say the group included families and unaccompanied minors.
        The news comes as thousands of migrants travel in a caravan through Mexico, in an attempt to reach the U.S. and apply for asylum.

    11/12/2018 POLITICO: Voters choose democrats to face Pres. Trump in 2020 – poll by OAN Newsroom
        A new poll grants insight into the candidates registered voters are supporting against President Trump in 2020.
    In this Aug. 27, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump listens during a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto
    about a trade agreement between the United States and Mexico, in the Oval Office of the White House. Trump is making trade policy
    the connective tissue that ties together his “America First” foreign policy and his political strategy for the 2020 presidential election. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        Former Vice President Joe Biden raked in 26-percent support in Politico’s ‘Morning Consult Poll’ which was released on Monday.
        The poll was conducted last week, and surveyed nearly two-thousand individuals who are legally registered to vote around the United States.
        Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) garnered 19-percent, while Texas Democrat Congressman Beto O’Rourke received eight percent of support from survey-takers.
        While none of those three have announced whether they will run for president, their names have been floated as possibilities.
        President Trump has welcomed all challengers, including from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — the poll’s fourth place finisher.
        The President told supporters at a recent MAGA rally, “Elizabeth Warren, she said she’s considering a run for the presidency. Please, please run…” when commenting on her potential 2020 campaign.

    11/12/2018 Voting machine malfunction to put 15K Fla. votes up for recount by OAN Newsroom
        As vote recounts across Florida continue, election officials are pointing to issues with some voting machines.
        According to Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan, a certain type of voting machine wasn’t counting ballots properly.    The official said this will prompt a recount of another 15,000 ballots.
        Democrat Party officials have encouraged the recounts as their Senate and gubernatorial candidates hope to overturn what appears to be a pair of losses.
    An employee at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office prepares
    to sort ballots before being counted, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla. (AP/Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
        Outgoing Florida Governor and Senate candidate Rick Scott demanded that state police impound voting machines over the suspicion of fraud.
        “Their goal is to keep mysteriously finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want, and when that fails they will file a bunch of lawsuits in order to try to overturn the will of the voters…they’re trying to steal this election, they’re still finding ballots,” stated Scott.
        Duval County officials said the recounts could extend by several more days.

    11/12/2018 Broward County judge denies injunction by Gov. Rick Scott over voting machines, records by OAN Newsroom
        As controversy continues to swirl around Florida’s voting process, Governor Rick Scott’s lawsuit for an injunction against Broward County is denied.
        Local media is reporting that the Broward judge will not issue an injunction after Scott filed a motion to impound election equipment and records.    The judge said there’s no evidence to enter a mandatory injunction at this time.
        This comes after Scott’s campaign asked the judge to grant an emergency motion on Sunday.    He has accused Broward election officials of political bias as it relates to voting in this year’s midterm elections.
    Gov. Rick Scott (AP/Photo)
        Meanwhile, an Avis Car Rental employee reportedly discovered a box labeled “provisional ballots” in the back of a returned car at Fort Lauderdale Airport.
        According to Avis, the last person to rent the car was an employee with Broward County.
        Attorney Richard Napoli tweeted out photos of the boxes Sunday and identified Noah Holliman as the last driver, who works at the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office    .
        Several independent journalists were denied entry to the Avis airport location when they went to investigate.
        Media personnel on scene said the Broward Sheriff’s later reported there was a “bomb threat” and the area was locked down, which Broward Sheriff Scott Israel has alleged is a “diversion tactic.”

    11/12/2018 President Trump: Hopefully Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is expressing his opposition to Saudi Arabia and OPEC’s possible intentions to curb oil production.
        In a tweet Monday, the president said he hoped that Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production. He also said oil prices should be much lower based on supply.
        Hopefully, Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production. Oil prices should be much lower based on supply!
    UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei, left, listens to Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Energy and Oil Minister, in the opening ceremony of
    the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition & Conference, ADIPEC, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov.12, 2018. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
        This comes after Saudi Arabia’s Energy and Oil Minister — Khalid Al Falih — announced the country will reduce oil production by 500,000 barrels a day in December.

    11/12/2018 Democrat House committees weighing at least 85 Trump admin. probes by OAN Newsroom
        House Democrat leaders are discussing at least 85 possible investigations into President Trump and his administration.
        When Democrats officially take control of Congress next year, committee leaders are expected to issue subpoenas targeting members of the Trump White House.
    Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        On Sunday, Democrat leader of the House Intelligence Committee — Adam Schiff — reportedly said each committee plans to prioritize what they view as the most pressing topics.    This ranges from the decision to start the Space Force to aiding the Russia probe.
        “I want to make sure that Bob Mueller has the advantage of the evidence that we’ve been able to gather, but equally important that Bob Mueller’s in a position to determine whether people knowingly committed perjury before our committee,” stated Schiff.
        The Democrat leader also said he plans to investigate whether the president is targeting the press, specifically CNN and The Washington Post.
    [It never occurred to all the idiots named above are targeting Donald Trump.]

    11/12/2018 Sen. Lindsey Graham: Macron was ‘playing politics’ during WWI speech on nationalism by OAN Newsroom
        A GOP senator is responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s alleged criticism of President Trump.
        On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham said Macron’s comments about the dangers of nationalism have more to do with Macron trying to score political points at home, where President Trump’s ‘America first’ agenda is unpopular.
        During the WWI ceremony Sunday, Macron claimed nationalism was a cause of the war, which many saw as a reference to President Trump trying to put a stop to multilateralism.
    French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the Paris Peace Forum as part of the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, in Paris,
    Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018. International leaders attended a ceremony in Paris on Sunday at mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. (Gonzalo Fuentes, Pool via AP)
        “No, I think he’s got a political problem at home — Macron does — and probably picking a fight with Trump is good politics,” stated Graham.    “I like the idea of President Trump pushing NATO to pay more, getting out of the intermediate ballistic missile treaty with Russia — made sense to me because Russia’s cheating and the treaty doesn’t cover China and North Korea…I think the main friction is getting out of the Iran deal, which I thought was bad for America and really bad for the world, so, Republican presidents always have a hard time in Europe — I’m not really worried about this at all.”
        While Macron was once seen as President Trump’s closest friend in the EU, their latest public spat shows neither leader is afraid to push back on the other.

    11/13/2018 Oil down $0.26to $59.93, DOW down 602 to 25,387.

    11/13/2018 Tech stocks drag down Wall St. - Oil production a concern as Dow dives 602 points by Janna Herron, USA TODAY
        Stock losses accelerated as markets closed on Monday, pulled down by a broad sell-off in technology companies and revived worries that global economic growth is slowing.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 602 points, or more than 2 percent, to end Monday at 25,387.    The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 1.97 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed down 2.78 percent.
        “We’re still in that downward trend that started at the end of September,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.    “The market is trying to put an appropriate valuation on earnings going forward.    All doubt is about forward-looking earnings.”
        What happened?
        Investors grew concerned after Wells Fargo analysts identified Apple as the unnamed customer that optical communications company Lumentum Holdings said was significantly reducing orders.    The news sent Apple’s stock down 5 percent for the day.    Lumentum shares plunged almost 33 percent.
        Shares in other major tech stocks fell.    Advanced Micro Devices gave up 9.51 percent, while Nvidia fell 7.84 percent.    Micron Technology lost 4.27 percent.
        Banks and consumer-focused companies, and media and communications stocks also took heavy losses.
        Saudi Arabia’s plans to curb its oil production next month and possibly into next year only added to investor uncertainty about a global slowdown.    Other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may also reduce supply next year.
        Crude oil prices initially rose on the news, but fell back after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, “Hopefully, Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production,” and saying prices should be “much lower based on supply!” Crude oil ended down 1.89 percent.
        As concerns mounted, investors turned to utilities and other traditionally safe-haven stocks.    NRG Energy climbed 3.94 percent.
        “It’s a very typical run to the safe assets,” said Ron Weiner, managing director and partner of RDM Financial Group at HighTower Advisors.    “But when you analyze in the clear light of day, these are trades you will want to get out of when market starts behaving a bit more normally.”
    What to expect
        Market watchers are eyeing key data releases this week to help them determine what the Federal Reserve plans to do with interest rates and how China is faring amid trade tensions, Zaccarelli said.The U.S. consumer price index, a gauge of inflation, and the Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations report are due out Wednesday, followed by retail sales on Thursday.    In China, the country’s retail sales and industrial production report are expected on Wednesday.
        “That will tell us what is happening to the Chinese economy and if the trade conflict is having an effect on them, too,” Zaccarelli said.    “If China’s economy decelerates, that’s not good for the global economy.”
    Contributing: The Associated Press
    “We’re still in that downward trend that started at the end of September,” says Chris Zaccarelli of Independent Advisor Alliance. GETTY IMAGES

    11/13/2018 Migrant caravan moving to Mexican city of Guadalajara
        Several thousand Central American migrants marked a month on the road Monday as they hitched rides to the western Mexico city of Guadalajara and toward the U.S. border.
        Most appear intent on taking the Pacific Coast route northward to the border city of Tijuana, still about 1,550 miles away. The migrants have come about 1,200 miles since they started out in Honduras around Oct. 13.

    11/13/2018 Post-Paris, Trump renews complaints regarding NATO by Bart Jansen and David Jackson, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – After taking criticism in Europe for his “America First” foreign policy, President Donald Trump resumed his complaints about NATO and the costs of the military partnership with Europe on Monday.
        “Just returned from France where much was accomplished in my meetings with World Leaders,” Trump tweeted the morning after events marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.    “Never easy bringing up the fact that the U.S. must be treated fairly, which it hasn’t, on both Military and Trade.”
        Trump’s tweets reiterated his complaints about the high cost of providing military protection for countries that sell the USA more goods and services than they buy.
        He called for “FREE and FAIR!” trade.
        Trump has railed repeatedly against the U.S. costs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which calls for a common defense among primarily European countries.
    Trump tweeted.
        Without specifying whom, Trump said he told world leaders “this situation cannot continue.”
        The United States spends the highest share of its economy on NATO, at 3.5 percent, and Luxembourg spends the lowest, at a little more than half of 1 percent.    The 29 members of NATO pledged to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024.    Only five countries meet that goal – the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Latvia    .
        Trump criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for calling for a continental military group independent of the United States.
        Last week, Macron suggested a strictly European defense pact after Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
        In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Macron talked about creating a “true European army,” because “we have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America.”
        At a World War I commemoration Sunday, Macron attacked nationalism.
        “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron said at a gathering of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Trump.    “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying, ‘Our interest first, who cares about the others?’”
        “It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection, or protect themselves.” President Trump
    President Donald Trump returned to Washington on Sunday from France. SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    11/13/2018 Brexit deal possible in 24-48 hours, May’s deputy says by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge
    Britain's Minister for the Cabinet Office David Lidington arrives in Downing Street, London, Britain, November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union are on the cusp of a Brexit deal which could be clinched in the next 24 to 48 hours, Prime Minister Theresa May’s de facto deputy said on Tuesday.
        While officials choreograph the biggest divorce deal in EU history, it remains unclear whether May can get a deal through parliament, where opponents have said she is betraying Brexit by signing up the United Kingdom to EU subjugation.
        “We’re not quite there yet,” Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington told BBC radio.    “We are almost within touching distance now.”
        Asked if he was saying it was possible there could be a deal in the next 24 or 48 hours, he said: “Still possible but not at all definite, I think pretty much sums it up. Cautiously optimistic.”
        Sterling jumped half a percent to as high as $1.2917 on Lidington’s comments.
        The EU wants to get agreement on a draft deal by the end of Wednesday at the latest if there is to be a summit this month to approve it, although few in Brussels seemed to hold out much hope that a breakthrough could come this week.
        Brussels diplomatic sources said the bloc was trying to cajole May into sealing a deal this week and rubber-stamping it later this month, fearing that any delay would increase the chances of rejection by her ministers or parliament.
        Leaving approval until the next scheduled EU summit on Dec. 13-14 would mean British lawmakers would not vote on a deal until after Jan. 7 when they return from holiday.
        “That’s giving the opponents of the deal a lot of time to pull together a campaign to vote it down.    That’s why everyone on our side is pushing so hard for November,” one source said.
        The EU and the United Kingdom need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the fifth largest national economy.
        But May has struggled to untangle nearly 46 years of membership without damaging trade or upsetting the lawmakers who will ultimately decide the fate of any deal she can secure.
    ‘TEMPORARY AND NOT INDEFINITE’
        With under five months until Britain leaves the EU, the so-called Northern Irish backstop is the main outstanding issue.
        It is an insurance policy to avoid a return to controls on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland if a future trading relationship is not agreed in time.
        Asked if the UK could be trapped in a backstop against its will, Lidington said: “The prime minister has said again and again, if the backstop were ever to be used – we don’t want it to be used – … it’s clearly got to be something that would be temporary and not indefinite.”
        But the intricacies of any deal, hammered out in late-night sessions at the European Commission’s modernist Berlaymont building in Brussels, are unlikely to change the growing opposition to May.
        By seeking to leave the EU while preserving the closest possible ties, May’s compromise plan has upset Brexiteers, pro-Europeans, Scottish nationalists, the Northern Irish party that props up her government, and some of her own ministers.
        “No one is fooled by this theater.    Delay after staged-managed delay,” former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said.    “A deal will be reached and it will mean surrender by the UK.”
        Johnson, a prominent Brexit campaigner who resigned from May’s government in July over her strategy, said the deal would turn Britain into a colony of the EU.
        Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said he was confident of progress in talks, though he gave no further details.
        Lidington, who voted to stay in the EU in the 2016 referendum, declined to say whether the proposed deal would make the United Kingdom wealthier or poorer, saying that the people had decided to leave the EU.
        Asked whether Britain would have to start preparing in earnest for a “no-deal” Brexit if an agreement were not clinched by the end of Wednesday, as newspapers have reported, he said: “I’m not going to ascribe days to particular actions.”
    (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by David Stamp)

    11/13/2018 District Attorneys Association approves prison reform proposal by OAN Newsroom
        The National District Attorneys Association expresses support for the proposed prison reform legislation.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with state leaders about prison reform,
    Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        In a letter to the President today, the NDAA said it supports the “First Step Act” — advocated by President Trump and his son-in-law, Adviser Jared Kushner.
        The bill is aimed at reducing the prison population, and improving the efficiency of criminal justice.
        The NDAA represents 2,500 district attorneys who prosecute some 95-percent of all crime in the United States.
        The Association urged changes to the current judicial system to ensure appropriate penalties and reeducation for criminals.

    11/13/2018 Secretary Mattis to visit U.S.-Mexico border by OAN Newsroom
        Defense Secretary James Mattis is set to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border as migrant caravans march closer to the U.S.
        The Pentagon issued a statement Tuesday, saying Mattis will visit McAllen, Texas on Wednesday to meet with service members who were deployed to the area to support the southwest border mission.
        Mattis authorized the deployment of thousands of active duty troops to the southwest border last month to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
        This comes as thousands of Central American migrants arrived in Western Mexico Monday and are headed to Tijuana.
    Central American migrants travel on a truck after hitching a ride in Tepotzotlan, Mexico, as they resume their journey north after
    leaving the temporary shelter in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. The roughly 4,000 migrants plan to proceed
    to the city of Queretaro and then possibly to Guadalajara, Culiacan, Hermosillo and eventually Tijuana on the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        “We’ll have to see, we’ll have to see what the future holds…the first thing that we brief is what is the threat against the border — people who try to violate the border,” said the defense secretary to a reporter.
        When asked about the cost of deploying troops to the border, Mattis said he will update the press as it becomes known.
    [The big question is who is paying for all the 16 wheel trucks to haul all the migrants, as I did not think a bunch of truck drivers decided to use diesel freely to do the "Smokey and the Bandit" routine.]

    11/13/2018 White House defends suspending Acosta amid CNN lawsuit over credentials by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump looks on as a White House aide takes away a microphone from CNN journalist Jim Acosta
    during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        The White House has responded to a lawsuit filed by CNN over the suspension of Jim Acosta’s credentials by claiming the outlet is just continuing to grandstand.
        Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement Tuesday, saying the White House will vigorously defend against the suit.
        She claimed CNN has 50 people who have a hard pass just as Acosta did, and he is no more or less special than anyone else.
        Sanders said Acosta physically refused to surrender a White House microphone, and called his actions inappropriate.
        She added, the White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference if reporters act in that manner.
        This comes after CNN filed a suit Tuesday, asking a court to require the White House to return Acosta’s hard pass.

    11/13/2018 Sen. Rubio says Democrat lawyers are trying to steal election with recount by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-Fla.) speaks in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
        Florida Senator Marco Rubio said election officials are giving Democrat lawyers a chance to the steal the election with the recount.
        In a tweet Tuesday, Rubio blasted Democrat attorneys by saying they’re not trying to make sure every vote is counted.    Instead, he said the lawyers are trying to get as many votes for their clients as possible, while attempting to get ballots for their opponents thrown out.
        “You don’t hire an election lawyer to make sure every vote is counted — election lawyers come down for the purpose of making sure every vote on behalf, or likely to be on behalf, of your candidate is counted and, frankly, to try to disqualify as many voters as possible who are likely or did vote for the other candidate,” stated Rubio.    "And so, elections should not be decided by who hires the best lawyers or the most persuasive lawyers.”
        Rubio went on to criticize Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes by saying she has a history of incompetence and violations.

    11/13/2018 House GOP looks to push its agenda despite facing lame-duck session by OAN Newsroom
        The GOP is expected to push their political agenda through Congress this week before Democrats take the House in January.
        Protecting special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election could be the left’s bargaining chip with Republicans.    Democrats have long-sought a bill to keep Mueller from being removed by President Trump for allegedly going outside of the scope of his investigation.
        In the meantime, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker reportedly promised not to defund his probe, potentially easing fears from Democrats.
        South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsay Graham praised Whitaker in an interview Sunday and wholly supported his overseeing of the investigation.
    Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) (AP/Photo)
        “I think he was appropriately appointed legally, I don’t think he has to recuse himself,” stated Graham.    “I am confident the Mueller investigation will be allowed to come to a good solid conclusion, that there will be no political influence put on Mr. Mueller by Mr. Whitaker to do anything other than Mr. Mueller’s job.”
        Congress successfully passed nearly half of their 12 appropriation bills needed to fund the government through next year, but remain divided on several issues.
        Those disputes include the president’s calls for border wall funding.    This was an essential pillar from his first presidential campaign, which has since been compromised by the left.
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, again, said he would try pass $1.6 billion for the wall the day after midterms despite delay tactics from Democrats.
        “Well we’re certainly going to try to help the President achieve what he’d like to do with regards to the wall and border security, and that’ll obviously have to be done in some sort of bipartisan discussion,” stated McConnell.    “The one thing I thought we all agreed on was border security issue…most Democrats voted for it ten years ago, but we’ve had a challenge on that as well, as evidence by the president’s desire to build a wall and reluctance on the other side to support it.”
        Republicans fought to secure the funding, but faced Democrat opposition in their partisan effort to negotiate amnesty for DACA recipients.
        Congress’ inability to pass legislation with border security financing could force a government shutdown of multiple agencies in December.
        President Trump has signaled he will not sign a spending measure if it doesn’t include his funding demands.

    11/14/2018 U.S. lays barbed wire at border as migrant caravan draws closer by Lizbeth Diaz
    A U.S. Marine helps to make a concertina wire barricade at the U.S. Mexico border in preparation for the arrival of a caravan
    of migrants at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego, California, U.S., November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
        TIJUANA (Reuters) – Hundreds of Central American migrants planning to seek asylum in the United States moved toward the country’s border with Mexico on Tuesday as U.S. military reinforced security measures, laying barbed wire and erecting barricades.
        Some 400 migrants who broke away from the main caravan in Mexico City arrived in the border city of Tijuana on Tuesday by bus, according to a Reuters witness.    Larger groups are expected to arrive in the coming days, human rights organizations said.
        U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he would travel to the border area on Wednesday, his first visit since the military announced that over 7,000 U.S. troops would go to the area as the caravan of mostly Hondurans has made its way through Mexico.
        The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement that it would close lanes at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings from Tijuana to allow the Department of Defense to install barbed wire and position barricades and fencing.
        Tijuana, in the Mexican state of Baja California, is at the westerly end of the border, around 17 miles (38km) from San Diego, California.
        “CBP has been and will continue to prepare for the potential arrival of thousands of people migrating in a caravan heading toward the border of the United States,” Pete Flores, the agency’s director of field operations in San Diego, said in a statement, citing a “potential safety and security risk.”
        The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a firm stance against the caravan, which began its journey north on Oct. 13 and briefly clashed with security forces in the south of Mexico early on its route.
        On Friday, Trump signed a decree that effectively suspended the granting of asylum for those who cross the border illegally, a move that could drastically slow claims at gates of entry.
        But migrants planning to seek asylum in the United States said they were undeterred by the crackdown.
        “I prefer to be in detention in the United States than to return to my country, where I know they are going to kill me for being different,” said Nelvin Mejía, a transgender woman who arrived in Tijuana on Monday with a group of about 70 people seeking asylum.    “Last month, they killed my partner, and I do not want to end up like that.”
        For years, thousands of mainly Central American immigrants have embarked on long journeys through Central America and Mexico to reach the United States.    Many of them die in the attempt or are kidnapped by organized crime groups.
        Several thousand more migrants in at least three caravan groups are making their way through Mexico toward the border.
    (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; writing by Julia Love, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

    11/14/2018 US hardens border at Tijuana to prepare for migrant caravan
        The U.S. government said it was starting work Tuesday to “harden” the border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, to prepare for the arrival of a migrant caravan Customs and Border Protection announced it was closing four lanes at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry in San Diego.    It said the closures were needed “to install and pre-position port hardening infrastructure equipment in preparation for the migrant caravan and the potential safety and security risk that it could cause.”

    11/14/2018 Oil down $4.24 to $55.69, DOW down 101 to 25,286

    11/14/2018 Bolton says Khashoggi audio doesn’t implicate Saudi prince
        White House national security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that an audio recording related to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder does not implicate Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.    “That is not the conclusion that the people who have heard it have come to,” Bolton told reporters in Singapore.
        The New York Times reported Monday that one of Khashoggi’s killers could be heard in the recording saying “tell your boss.”    The Times suggested the “boss” was believed to be the crown prince.

    11/14/2018 Final count delayed, Georgia election turns to the courts
        Georgia’s still undecided race for governor will remain in legal limbo for several more days after a federal court put the brakes on final certification of the vote totals in one of the nation’s hottest midterm matchups.
        U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg late Monday ordered officials to wait until Friday to certify final results in the race between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams.

    11/14/2018 UK Cabinet to meet after Britain, EU reach Brexit deal
        Britain and the European Union have struck a proposed divorce deal to provide for the U.K.’s exit from the bloc.    But the agreement faces hurdles starting Wednesday, when British Prime Minister Theresa May will try to win the approval of her Cabinet.

    11/14/2018 Defense Secretary Mattis visits U.S.-Mexico Border, says up to 7K troops may be deployed by OAN Newsroom
        Secretary of Defense James Mattis is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, and has given an update about ongoing efforts to stop migrants from entering the country.
        While speaking in Texas, Mattis said there are 5,900 troops deployed to the Mexico border and claimed that number could rise to 7,000.
    Members of the U.S. military palce razor wire along the U.S>-Mexico border on the
    McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. (AP/Photo/Eric Gay)
        Before arriving in McAllen, he said the troops’ intentions are to secure the points of entry and not come in direct contact with migrants.
        “At the present I do not anticipate military personnel coming into direct contact with migrants,” stated the defense secretary.    “I would just note my full confidence in General O’Shaughnessy and his NORTHCOM team, the troops who are deployed under Army North are very highly disciplined.”
        Mattis also said there’s no timeline on when troops may leave the border, pointing out the U.S. military works 365 days a year.

    11/14/2018 Fox News comes out in support of CNN’s lawsuit against Trump admin. by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, CNN journalist Jim Acosta> does a standup before a new conference
    with President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        Fox news is coming out in support of CNN over its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
        In a statement Wednesday, Fox News said it supports CNN in its effort to regain Jim Acosta’s press credential.    The network went on to say it will file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court.
        12 other news organizations have also come out in support of the “independent journalist,” including Bloomberg and the Associated Press.
        This comes after CNN filed the suit Tuesday as it looks to restore the suspended hard pass of it’s chief White House correspondent.
        The White House dismissed the lawsuit by calling the measure grandstanding by CNN.    The Trump administration promised to “vigorously” defend against it.

    11/14/2018 Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general is constitutional, According to DOJ by OAN Newsroom
        The Justice Department is assuring the appointment of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is legal.
        The department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo Wednesday, which says President Trump has the power to appoint Whitaker as a temporary replacement for Jeff Sessions under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
    FILE – In this April 24, 2014, file photo, then-Iowa Republican senatorial candidate and former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker
    watches before a live televised debate in Johnston, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
        According to the law, the president’s appointment is constitutional because Whitaker, who was Sessions’ chief of staff, has been a senior leader for more than one year.
        This come as Maryland’s Democrat Attorney General — Brian Frosh — said Rod Rosenstein should fill the spot.
        Frosh is claiming the appointment is unconstitutional amid fears Whitaker could fire the special counsel and end the Mueller probe.

    11/14/2018 Rep. Elijah Cummings wants Big Pharma CEO’s to testify about drug prices by OAN Newsroom
        Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings is seeking to use his party’s newfound power in the House to make Big Pharma CEO’s testify on Capitol Hill.
    Rep. Elijah Cummings (AP/Photo)
        On Tuesday, Cummings said he’s committed to finding out why prescription drugs cost so much in order to bring down prices for patients.
        As the potential new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Cummings will have the power to bring drug-makers in for questioning.
        He plans to push pharmaceutical companies on their claims about the cost of research and development driving drug prices up.
        However, Cummings isn’t the only one tackling prescription drug prices as President Trump has made it a top priority of his administration.

    11/14/2018 GOP willing to work with new Democrat majority in House for tax cuts by OAN Newsroom
        Republican leadership is optimistic about passing a second round of tax cuts for the middle class despite losing control of the House.
    Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), back, discusses tax cuts with another lawmaker. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)
        On Tuesday, Chairman Kevin Brady of the House Ways and Means Committee explained the GOP is working with Democrats to find common ground on tax relief.
        However, negotiations may hit a snag because Republicans are not willing to raise taxes on local businesses in order to pay for the new tax cuts.
        Democrats want the corporate tax rate to be raised by several points and are reportedly planning to use their new House majority to look into the matter.
        On the other hand, Republicans argue the corporate tax cut is responsible for jump-starting the economy.
    [That is what stifled the economy after 8 years of Obama policies and unemployment was so high.]

    11/14/2018 Colombia opens first refugee camp for Venezuelan migrants in capitol by OAN Newsroom
        Colombian authorities are moving Venezuelan refugees to the nation’s first migrant camp, which is causing unrest among residents.
        The camp inside of the nation’s capital of Bogota opened Tuesday.    Before the camp, migrants were living alongside railroads and parks in conditions considered to be a risk to “public health.”
        The camp has sparked protest with neighbors, who claimed they would bring crime and disease.
    Venezuelan migrants speak to the press as they arrive to a new, refugee-style camp set up by the government in
    Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. Officials were initially reluctant to open camps for homeless Venezuelan arrivals,
    but now say they have no choice as the number fleeing their nation’s economic and humanitarian crisis continues to rapidly escalate. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
        Over one million Venezuelan’s are now living in Colombia.    Due to the high volume, authorities said they had no choice other than to offer shelter.
        “The layout of the space is, like I said, there are tents for families, tents for men only, and tents for women only…there are toilets, showers, which are being installed at the moment, and we are resolving the issue of having a space to wash clothing,” explained Cristina Velez, Director of the Integration Secretariat – Bogota.
        According to the United Nations, over two million Venezuelans have fled the country in the last three-years amid an economic crisis led by the socialist regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

    11/14/2018 Sen. McConnell: No plans to advance bill to protect Mueller from Whitaker by OAN Newsroom
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018,
    as Senate Republicans are facing renewed pressure to pass legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Mueller probe should be allowed to wrap-up.
        The Kentucky Republican also said President Trump is unlikely to shut down the Russia probe despite replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Matt Whitaker, who has criticized the probe.    McConnell stressed he is opposed to a legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from Whitaker.
        This comes after congressional Democrats and some Republicans urged such a bill.    However, McConnell dismissed their calls by saying he doesn’t believe Mueller is in danger.
        “As you can imagine, I talk to the President farily often — no indication that the Mueller investigation will not be allowed to finish, and it should be allowed to finish,” stated the senate majority leader.    “I’ve never heard anybody down there say they wanna shut it down, I think it’s in no danger, and so I don’t think any legislation is necessary.”
        McConnell stressed the Republican Senate leadership will not advance any bill to protect Mueller.

    11/14/2018 Brazil’s Bolsonaro names Trump fan top diplomat as Cuba relations sour by Anthony Boadle
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro attends a meeting with governors-elect in Brasilia, Brazil November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro chose an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump’s conservative nationalism as his top diplomat on Wednesday, while escalating tensions with communist Cuba over a medical aid program.
        Bolsonaro’s pick of career diplomat Ernesto Araujo, 51, underscored Brazil’s sharp turn to the right and the reversal of nearly a decade and a half of diplomacy under leftist Workers Party governments that focused on alliances with South American allies and ideological partners – including Cuba.
        “Brazil’s foreign policy should be part of this moment of regeneration that Brazil is living right now,” Bolsonaro, a longstanding Trump admirer, wrote on Twitter.
        In another sign of Brazil’s new foreign policy direction under Bolsonaro, the former army captain announced he would grant asylum to any Cuban national who asks for it.    That came after Cuba said it would pull thousands of its doctors from Brazil after Bolsonaro questioned their training and demanded changes to their contracts.
        Araujo, a career diplomat, is currently head of the foreign ministry’s United States and Canada department.    Last year, he raised eyebrows in the foreign ministry with an article that stated Brazil has a chance to recover its “Western soul” by embracing Trump’s brand of nationalism and pursuing its own interests instead of being tied to blocs of countries.
        The article, entitled “Trump and the West,” won the attention of Bolsonaro, who has promoted the mid-level diplomat to lead Itamaraty, as the foreign ministry is known.
        Araujo shares Bolsonaro’s view of the need to rethink membership of the South American trade bloc Mercosur, which he and others in the president-elect’s camp see as holding back Brazil’s commercial interests.
        Announcing the appointment with Araujo at his side, Bolsonaro said the diplomat’s mission will be to promote trade with all nations without any left-wing ideological bias.
        Araujo said he would make sure Bolsonaro’s election brought a change of course at the foreign ministry that puts Brazil first, “an effective policy based on national interest, a policy for an active, happy and prosperous Brazil.”
        Araujo argued in his article that, unlike European leaders, Trump is saving western Christian civilization from radical Islam and “globalist cultural Marxism” by standing up for national identity, family values and the Christian faith.
        Bolsonaro, who takes office on Jan. 1, is reconsidering some of his campaign foreign policy stances, such as copying Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Accord on climate change and moving Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.    The latter proposal has already soured ties with Arab nations that are valuable markets for Brazilian meat.
        But he has stuck to his criticism of a program that brought 14,000 Cuban doctors to practice in poor and remote parts of Brazil, slamming the “slave labor” terms under which Cuba’s communist-run government gets 75 percent of their salaries.
        Bolsonaro has also insisted that Cuba allow the doctors’ families be allowed to join them in Brazil for the program to continue.
        “Unfortunately, Cuba did not accept,” Bolsonaro said in a Twitter post announcing the end of the program after the Cuban health ministry said it was pulling its doctors out of Brazil due to his criticism.
    (Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Mateus Maia in Brasilia and Marc Frank in Havana; Editing by Dan Grebler)
    [I am glad to see that another contry understands what is wrong when you let the Leftist get control of your country.    I hope those in America are paying attention as he said "saving western Christian civilization from radical Islam and 'globalist cultural Marxism' by standing up for national identity, family values and the Christian faith."].

    11/15/2018 Oil up $0.56 to $56.25, DOW down 206 to 25,081

    11/15/2018 Gas prices plunge in ‘bewildering’ drop by Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY
        Gas prices are plunging as the Thanksgiving holiday travel period approaches.
        A dramatic drop in oil prices over the last several weeks is fueling the decline.
        Gas prices neared a four-year high in October, when they briefly topped $2.90 per gallon, but they since have retreated.
        Ample global supplies of petroleum, which is refined into gasoline, have played a key role in delivering savings for consumers.
        “Thanksgiving gas prices are getting carved up at a time of year when we’re all used to getting the turkey ready,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at fuel-finding app GasBuddy.
        “This is a fairly dramatic turnaround.”
        The national average was $2.68 per gallon on Wednesday, down 7 cents from a week earlier and 22 cents from a month earlier, according to AAA.    Prices are still up 12 cents from a year ago.
    Less than $2 per gallon
        Several dozen stations across Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas were charging less than $2 per gallon as of Wednesday, according to GasBuddy.    That “could be several hundred by Thanksgiving Day,” DeHaan said.
        More than 54 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles for Thanksgiving, according to AAA.
        That’s up 4.8 percent from 2017 and marks a 13-year high.
        DeHaan predicted that national prices could average somewhere in the range of $2.50 to $2.60 by Thanksgiving.
        Oil’s recent collapse is a big reason why.    U.S. crude prices on Wednesday afternoon were trading in the range of $56.40, down about $20 per barrel from their 2018 high set in early October.    Tuesday marked the 12th straight session that oil prices fell, according to JBC Energy.
        “The scale of the sell-off in oil has been bewildering,” Mizuho Securities managing director Paul Sankey said in a research note.
    Ample supplies
        One key factor was the Trump administration’s decision to extend waivers to Iran on certain oil exports despite the reimposition of other sanctions amid a dispute over a nuclear deal.
        That has led to higher-than-expected Iranian petroleum output.
        Meanwhile, strong output by U.S. oil producers and other countries has kept supplies humming.
        Production from Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. is at record levels, according to the International Energy Agency.
        Other factors include declining global demand.    Investors believe the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may cut production in a bid to prop up prices, but anticipating that relief hasn’t helped boost prices.
    A dramatic drop in oil prices is fueling the decline in gas prices. ISTOCK

    11/15/2018 U.S. state spending exceeds $2 trillion in fiscal 2018: report by Laila Kearney
    The U.S. flag flies near the Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. state spending topped $2 trillion for the first time in fiscal 2018, with Medicaid expenditures rising the most along with a significant increase in transportation spending, according to a report released on Thursday.
        Total expenditures grew an estimated 4.8 percent compared to 3.8 percent in fiscal 2017, the National Association of State Budget Officers’ (NASBO) annual state expenditure report said.
        “The fiscal 2018 data presents a slightly improved fiscal situation than the prior two years,” John Hicks, NASBO executive director, said in a phone interview.
        “We’re seeing a slight increase in the growth of spending both from total spending and states’ own funds,” he added.
        The annual report focuses on the seven top state spending categories, which are elementary and secondary education, higher education, public assistance, Medicaid, corrections, transportation and “all other.”
        Each category saw some growth in fiscal 2018, with public assistance rising the least at 0.7 percent and Medicaid, the state and federal healthcare program for the poor, growing the most at 7.3 percent.
        Growth in state spending of federal funds outpaced spending of state-generated revenue, including from general funds, the report found.
        Medicaid continued to account for the bulk of federal dollars flowing to states.    The program made up 29.7 percent of total state expenditures in fiscal 2018, compared to 20.5 percent a decade earlier.
        Elementary and secondary education expenditures, which rose 4.6 percent, remained the largest area of state general fund spending.
        The report also highlighted a 6.5 percent increase in transportation spending, which represents 8 percent of total state expenditures.    The rise indicates a growing focus on infrastructure.
        General fund revenue also grew in fiscal 2018 by 6.2 percent, the highest growth rate since fiscal 2011.    It was unclear how much of that revenue, largely made up of income and sales taxes, was nonrecurring, the report said.
        Looking forward, states expect to see some growth in state revenue collections.    But they also are girding for long-term spending pressures from rising health care costs, pensions and school infrastructure, among other expenses, the report said.br>     Fiscal 2018 ended for most states on June 30.
    (Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

    11/15/2018 Oversupply fears cloud outlook for U.S. crude in 2019 by Devika Krishna Kumar and Jessica Resnick-Ault
    FILE PHOTO: Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the
    Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. oil market is scrambling to adjust to a deep selloff over the last several weeks, with forward prices signaling a supply glut which could upend plans for producers and traders through 2019.
        U.S. crude futures plunged 7 percent on Tuesday, to settle at $55.69, their lowest level this year, down from a four-year high only a month ago.    Tuesday marked a 12th straight session of declines, which is the longest losing streak on record, shaking a market that was bracing for supply shortfalls just a month ago.
        “We were definitely in the bullish narrative for the past three months, and now we’re seeing that narrative shift,” said Michael Cohen, head of energy markets research at Barclays.    “If the narrative gets unwound or undermined, so, too, does the positioning by the market.”
        In the biggest sign of the shift, an increasing number of later-dated futures contracts are trading at a premium to current prices.    That is a signal that the market expects supply to outpace demand next year and into 2020.
        That trend could inhibit producers from drilling and deal a blow to shale companies, which have raked in profits as U.S. production surged to a weekly record of 11.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in early November.
        Already, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is considering a production cut to boost prices.    Adding to concerns, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that supply will outpace demand in 2019.
        “I think there’s a genuine shift,” one trader at a top commodities merchant said.    “Everyone is talking about global oil builds in 2019.”
    (U.S. oil futures curve signals oversupply fears: https://tmsnrt.rs/2QE5y2l)
    (U.S. crude production surges to record: https://tmsnrt.rs/2QOJz8M)
        Many traders saw $100 oil on the horizon just a month ago, but oil is now closer to $50 a barrel.    U.S. production is expected to surpass the 12 million bpd milestone by mid-2019, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts.
        As prices fall and market structure weakens, U.S. shale producers may pare their drilling plans for 2019, said R.T. Dukes, research director for U.S. lower 48 upstream at Wood Mackenzie.    “I think, instead of a big ramp-up into next year, we get flatter activity than what we might have seen otherwise,” he said.
        Still, any changes would take time to alter the trajectory of production, especially as the largest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp , are increasing activity in U.S. shale plays.
        The weakening in 2019 contracts pushes the market’s structure, or curve, more firmly into contango, where forward prices are higher than spot prices.
        Contango is a symptom of an oversupplied oil market or rising levels of inventories.    It makes it more profitable for crude traders to store large volumes of oil for later, rather than sell for immediate use.
        The spread between U.S. crude futures expiring in December 2019 and December 2020 , a popular trade in oil markets, flipped from a premium to a discount of about 42 cents on Tuesday.    It is the first time the spread traded in negative territory since October 2017.
        U.S. crude for delivery in December 2018 plunged to trade as much as $1.43 a barrel below futures for delivery in June 2019 last week, the widest spread on record.    The December 2018 contract dropped to trade as much as $2.10 per barrel below the December 2019 contract last week, the widest since early 2016.
    (Bullish bets on U.S. crude hit more than one-year low: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Pri8ph)
        A change in the market structure has ramifications for investors as well.    When far-dated contracts trade below the spot price, funds and other investors benefit from what is known as “positive roll yield.”
        In that situation, funds holding a contract shift into the next month’s contract before it expires, profiting from buying the cheaper later-dated futures.    But with those contracts now more expensive, rolling the long positions forward is less lucrative and is one reason why traders have pulled back on bullish bets.
    (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
    [Contango: I still think that Trump's is planning for Oil to be low which will force Iran to suffer economically.].

    11/15/2018 Exclusive: U.S. troop levels at Mexico border likely at peak – commander by Phil Stewart
    FILE PHOTO: Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, commander of U.S. Army North 5th Army, visits the
    San Ysidro border crossing with Mexico in San Diego, California, U.S. November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
        BASE CAMP DONNA, Texas (Reuters) – The number of U.S. troops at the border with Mexico may have peaked at about 5,800, the U.S. commander of the mission told Reuters, noting he would start looking next week at whether to begin sending forces home or perhaps shifting some to new border positions.
        The outlook by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan, while not definitive, suggests that the high-profile military mission could soon achieve its goal of helping harden the border ahead of the expected arrival of caravans of Central American migrants in the coming weeks.
        The deployment, which critics have called a pre-election political stunt by President Donald Trump, was initially expected to reach more than 7,000 troops, acting in support of U.S. Customs and Border, or CBP.
        U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authorized the mission through Dec. 15, and while Buchanan did not rule out an extension, he did not think one appeared likely at this point, based on the current tasks assigned to the military.
        “It is a hard date.    And we have no indications that CBP is going to need us to do our work for longer than that,” Buchanan said on Wednesday at Base Camp Donna in Texas, as Mattis toured the site near the Mexico border.
        He acknowledged that there could be new requests, saying: “If we get an extension, we get an extension.    But I’ve got no indications of that so far.”
        Asked whether he thought the troop levels had peaked, Buchanan said: “I do.    We might increase by a hundred here or there, but probably not.”
        Trump’s politically charged decision to send U.S. troops to the border with Mexico came ahead of U.S. congressional elections last week, as Trump sought to strengthen border security as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration.
        Trump’s supporters, including Republicans in Congress, have embraced the deployment.
        But critics say it was designed to drive Republican voters to the polls.    They have scoffed at Trump’s comparison of caravans of Central American migrants, including women and children, fleeing poverty and violence, to an “invasion.”
        Mattis defended the deployment on Wednesday, saying the mission was “absolutely legal,” justified and was improving military readiness.
        Speaking in Washington, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said the troop numbers had largely peaked.
        “We’re pretty much peaked in terms of the number of people that are down there,” Shanahan said.
    ‘RIGHTSIZING’
        Buchanan also said his mission guidelines were clear – to support CBP personnel. He said his work was apolitical.
        “I’m not being directed to do anything unnatural from above me,” said Buchanan, who is commander of U.S. Army North.
        The Pentagon says there are no plans for U.S. forces to interact with migrants and that they have been carrying out support tasks for CBP, like stringing up concertina wire and building temporary housing for themselves and CBP personnel.
        In recent days, up to 1,000 migrants linked to the caravans have arrived in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, with a similar number expected to arrive in the next few days.    Thousands more could arrive in border towns over the coming days as the bulk of the caravans arrive.
        Buchanan estimated that about 5,800 troops were deployed in total, with about 1,500 in California, 1,500 in Arizona and 2,800 in Texas.    He acknowledged he might shift forces east or west along the border if needed.
        Mattis told reporters that U.S. soldiers were making rapid progress erecting barriers along the border and estimated the first, construction phase of the U.S. military effort could be completed within 10 days.
        Buchanan suggested troops would go home once they had fulfilled requests by CBP.
        “At some point in time, I’m not going to keep troops here just to keep them here.    When the work is done, we’re going to start downsizing some capability,” he said.
        Buchanan would need to make any recommendations on redeployment of troops to General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the head of U.S. Northern Command.    O’Shaughnessy would then report to Mattis.
        He suggested a recommendation could be made in the near future.
        “I’m looking as early as next week to start thinking through rightsizing, if we need to change.    Or do I need to shift (troops elsewhere on the border),” Buchanan said, without predicting when changes might occur.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mary Milliken, Peter Cooney and Dan Grebler)

    11/15/2018 Border Patrol arrests members of migrant caravan for illegal entry at Calif.-Mexico border by OAN Newsroom
        Border Patrol have arrested more than a dozen migrants at the California-Mexico border.    According to immigration authorities, two groups of migrants were detained on Wednesday after crossing into the U.S. illegally.
        A smaller group was reportedly arrested by the U.S.-Tijuana border.    Meanwhile, a larger group was taken into custody in the mountains east of Otay Mesa, which is a San Diego community along the Mexican border
        This comes as reports indicate around 1,500 members of the migrant caravan have reached the southern border.
    A Central American migrant sits on top of the border structure separating Mexico, left, and the United States, right,
    as U.S. Border Patrol agents look on, right, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. Migrants in a caravan of Central
    Americans scrambled to reach the U.S. border, catching rides on buses and trucks for hundreds of miles in the last leg of their
    journey Wednesday as the first sizable groups began arriving in the border city of Tijuana. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
        Authorities have since taken measures to fortify the existing fencing and officials are urging anyone wanting to claim asylum to present themselves legally at the ports of entry.
        “As I’ve stated many times before, we’ve spent years securing the border here in San Diego, and we we’re not gonna let groups of people just show up and run us over — we’re ready, and we’ll do our job, make sure everybody’s arrested and prosecuted,” stated Chief Border Patrol Agent Rodney Scott.
        This comes after President Trump threatened to deny the asylum claims of anyone who enters the country illegally.

    11/15/2018 President Trump: The only collusion is that of Democrats with Russia and many others by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump smiles as he speaks about H. R. 5682, the “First Step Act”
    in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018,
    which would reform America’s prison system. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        President Trump is turning the tables by claiming the only players involved in the Russia collusion narrative are Democrats.
        In a series of tweets Thursday, the president accused Hillary Clinton and her campaign of conspiring with Russia to win the 2016 election before asking why the FBI still hasn’t taken the DNC’s hacked server.
        He added, more attention should be brought to the leftist bias of tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter — arguing that’s real collusion.
        Trump tweet: “The only “Collusion” is that of the Democrats with Russia and many others.    Why didn’t the FBI take the Server from the DNC?    They still don’t have it.    Check out how biased Facebook, Google and Twitter are in favor of the Democrats.    That’s the real Collusion!”
        The president then questioned why Robert Mueller appears to be protecting Clinton, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Comey and Andrew McCabe.
        He predicted universities will someday study what Mueller and his “gang of Democrat thugs” have done to destroy people.
        Trump tweet “Universities will someday study what highly conflicted (and NOT Senate approved) Bob Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have done to destroy people.    Why is he protecting Crooked Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Lisa Page & her lover, Peter S, and all of his friends on the other side?”

    11/15/2018 U.S. District Court judge gives Fla. voters more time to resolve ballot issues by OAN Newsroom
    Employees at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office recount ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in Lauderhill, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
        A federal judge is giving Florida voters more time to correct provisional and mail-in ballots as the recount continues.
        On Thursday, the District Court in Tallahassee ruled voters now have until 5:00 PM Saturday to resolve any issues.
        U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker concluded the state’s process made it difficult for changes to be made before the initial deadline.
        As a result, over 4,000 ballots were rejected because signatures did not match those on file.
        Attorneys for Senator Bill Nelson argue the signature-match laws are unconstitutional, while Republican Governor Rick Scott has previously said residents should be concerned about voter fraud.
        “The people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency and the supervisors are failing to give it to us.    Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, and the Broward supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes has a history of acting in absolute bad faith.” — Governor Rick Scott, (R) Fla.
        Florida election officials are set to certify the results on Tuesday, November 20, 2018.

    11/15/2018 Climate change, steel, migration bedevil G20 communique by Gabriel Burin
    FILE PHOTO - Ice on the surface of the southern ocean off the Antarctic coast
    is seen from the window of a U.S. military plane flying from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo Station,
    the biggest U.S. science base in Antarctica, December 7, 2006. REUTERS/Deborah Zabarenko
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Climate change, steel and migration have emerged as sticking points in the final communique that world leaders will issue at the end of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina later this month, an Argentine government official said on Thursday.
        Those issues were the “most complicated” areas of discussion, said Argentina’s Pedro Villagra Delgado, the lead organizer, or “sherpa,” for the summit of leaders from key industrialized and developing economies.
        But he told a press briefing he was optimistic these issues would be resolved in time.
        The G20 communique is a non-binding agreement on key international policy issues and will be presented at the conclusion of the two-day summit, which begins on Nov. 30.
        Villagra Delgado said the United States was resistant to including language that outlined guidelines for climate goals in the document.
        After withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement last year, the United States broke with other G20 member countries who have pledged to end coal usage and take steps to reach the goals outlined in the accord.
        Villagra Delgado also said China disagreed with the rest of the G20 countries on steel, but did not provide further details over the specifics of their disagreement.
        The United States has skirmished with a number of its trading partners – including China – over steel, imposing a 25 percent duty on imports of steel and a tariff of 10 percent on aluminum.
        Other countries objected to including language about immigration in the communique, Villagra Delgado said, but would not elaborate on which countries expressed concern.
        Reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) may also be a topic of discussion at this month’s meeting, Villagra Delgado said, but added that specific issues to be discussed in the G20 sessions were still being worked out.
        U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of the WTO, while China has claimed the 20-year-old organization’s dispute resolution mechanisms are outdated in the current global economy.
    (Reporting by Gabriel Burin, writing by Scott Squires; editing by Ross Colvin)

    11/15/2018 ‘I’m going to see this through’: UK PM May vows to fight for Brexit deal by Elizabeth Piper, Kylie MacLellan and William James
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab gestures during a press briefing
    after a meeting at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to fight for her draft divorce deal with the European Union on Thursday after the resignation of her Brexit secretary and other ministers put her strategy and her job in peril.
        Just over 12 hours after May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the terms of the deal, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey resigned.
        Eurosceptics in May’s Conservative Party said they had submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her leadership.
        May called a news conference at her Downing Street residence to underline her determination to stay the course.    Asked if she would contest any challenge to her position, she replied: “Am I going to see this through?    Yes.”
        However, hostility from government and opposition lawmakers raised the risk that the deal would be rejected in parliament, and that Britain could leave the EU on March 29 without a safety net.
        That prospect pushed the pound down as much as 2 percent to $1.2731, although it recovered slightly after May’s statement.
        The main stock index in Ireland, which is highly dependent on trade with Britain, plunged 3.8 percent.
        The German carmaker BMW, which produces its Mini model in Britain, said that, with the political situation so uncertain, it would continue to prepare for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
    “BEST DEAL FOR BRITAIN”
        Two junior ministers, two ministerial aides and the Conservatives’ vice chairman joined Raab and McVey in quitting.
        May said she understood their unhappiness, but added: “I believe with every fiber of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people" … “I am going to do my job of getting the best deal for Britain.”
        By seeking to preserve the closest possible ties with the EU, May has upset her party’s many advocates of a clean break, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.
        Meanwhile, proponents of closer relations with the EU in her own party and the Labour opposition say the deal squanders the advantages of membership for little gain.
        Both sides say it effectively cedes power to the EU without securing the promised benefits of greater autonomy.
        “It is … mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons.    The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival,” said Conservative Brexit-supporting lawmaker Mark Francois.
        The deal will need the backing of about 320 of parliament’s 650 MPs to pass.
        The ultimate outcome remains uncertain.    Scenarios include May’s deal ultimately winning approval; May losing her job; Britain leaving the bloc with no agreement; or even another referendum.
    “WORSE THAN ANTICIPATED”
        Analysts from U.S. bank Citi said Britain was now likely either to stay in the EU or leave without a deal.
        Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of a Conservative eurosceptic group in parliament, said the draft was “worse than anticipated,” and he had formally requested a vote of no confidence in May.
        At least 14 Conservative lawmakers openly said they had submitted such letters, although others could have done so secretly.    Forty-eight are needed to trigger a challenge.
        But May told parliament: “The choice is clear.    We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexit at all, or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated.”
        Rees-Mogg told journalists the next prime minister should be someone who believed in Brexit.
        But a May ally, former interior minister Amber Rudd, told Sky News: “The problem isn’t the prime minister.    The problem is the challenges she’s got to deliver in trying to pull together this Brexit.    She’s the best person to do it.”
        The Labour Party said the government was “falling apart.”
    “NO ABILITY TO EXIT”
        In parliament, lawmakers from all sides spent three hours mostly attacking the draft, agreed with the EU on Tuesday after more than a year of difficult negotiations.
        “No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement,” Raab said in his resignation letter.
        Others said the so-called “Irish backstop,” to be used if no better way can be found to avoid future checks on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, would tear Britain apart, leaving Northern Ireland all but inside the EU’s single market.
        It was this arrangement, which sees Britain and the EU establishing a single customs territory, but Northern Ireland aligned more closely with the EU, that spurred most criticism.
        The DUP has threatened to pull its support from the minority government if the backstop means the province is treated differently from mainland Britain.
        EU leaders are ready to meet on Nov. 25 to sign off on the divorce deal, or Withdrawal Agreement, but French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe summed up the uncertainty when he said events in London raised concerns about whether it would be ratified.
        “We need to prepare ourselves for a no-deal Brexit,” he said.
        A group of EU states including France also raised objections to what has been agreed so far on fishing between the EU and UK after Brexit, diplomatic sources said.
        Raab, 44, was named Brexit secretary in July after the resignation of his predecessor David Davis, who also quit in protest at May’s strategy.
        At the heart of Raab’s criticism was the belief that the pursuit of a temporary customs union with the EU would be the starting point for talks on the future relationship with the bloc, “severely prejudicing” what Britain could achieve.
        He said he could not support an indefinite backstop arrangement, and that May’s plan threatened the integrity of the United Kingdom.
    (Additional reporting by Sarah Young, Kate Holton, Costas Pitas, David Milliken, Andrew MacAskill, Andy Bruce and Alistair Smout; Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Michael Holden; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

    11/16/2018 Oil up $0.21 to $56.46, DOW up 209 to 25.289

    11/16/2018 Florida recount cements win by DeSantis in governor’s race
        A recount of more than 8 million ballots that ended Thursday confirmed that Republican Ron DeSantis won the election, ending Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s bid to become Florida’s first elected black governor.
        The final tally, which will be certified next week, was 4,075,879 for De-Santis and 4,042,195 for Gillum.    The margin of victory was enough for De-Santis, a former congressman representing Jacksonville, to avoid a hand recount of questionable ballots set aside for further review.

    11/16/2018 Judge delays ruling on CNN reporter’s White House pass
        A federal judge postponed until Friday a decision on whether the White House violated the First Amendment by revoking CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass after a contentious exchange with President Donald Trump.

    11/16/2018 US sanctions 17 Saudis in slaying of Khashoggi - Prosecutor plans to seek death for 5 suspects by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
        The United States sanctioned 17 Saudi nationals Thursday in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
        The announcement came hours after Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said he would seek the death penalty for five suspects among 11 charged in the killing of the Washington Post columnist last month in Istanbul.
        Among those sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department is Saud Al-Qahtani, a former senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
        The sanctions froze the U.S. assets of the 17 Saudis and prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
        The sanctions were brought under the Magnitsky Act, a global anti-corruption and human rights law.    The sanctions won’t directly affect the crown prince.
        “The Saudi officials we are sanctioning were involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Khashoggi,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.    “These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions.    The Government of Saudi Arabia must take appropriate steps to end any targeting of political dissidents or journalists.”
        Saud Al-Mojeb, the kingdom’s public prosecutor, said his office would seek capital punishment for five of the Saudi nationals who confessed to Khashoggi’s murder.    He said the most senior official behind Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 is Ahmad al-Assiri, a former deputy intelligence chief.    Al-Assiri was arrested and fired for ordering Khashoggi’s forced return to Saudi Arabia, an operation Riyadh tried to characterize as a botched rendition by rogue operatives.    Al-Mojeb did not say whether Al-Assiri faces the death penalty.    He said 21 people are in custody and 11 have been indicted in connection with the case.
        Turkey said it has audio evidence that Khashoggi’s murder was sanctioned at the highest level in Saudi Arabia, probably in coordination with the Saudi crown prince, the nation’s de facto ruler and a close U.S. ally.
        Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became the first Western leader to confirm that Turkey shared this evidence with other countries’ intelligence agencies.    President Donald Trump acknowledged its existence but has not said whether he has heard it.    The recording was shared last month with CIA Director Gina Haspel.
        Al-Mojeb said Khashoggi’s murderers drugged and killed the writer inside the consulate before dismembering the body and handing it over for disposal by an unidentified local collaborator.
        After Al-Mojeb’s remarks, Turkey released a statement urging Saudi Arabia to reveal who ordered Khashoggi’s killing.    It called the prosecutor’s comments “unsatisfactory” and insisted that the suspects be extradited to Turkey for trial.
        Khashoggi’s remains are unaccounted for.
    Contributing: Deirdre Shesgreen
    Demonstrators held a vigil for Jamal Khashoggi last month outside the
    Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, where he was killed. ERDEM SAHIN/EPA-EFE

    11/16/2018 U.S. imposes sanctions for Khashoggi killing, Saudis seek death penalty by Patricia Zengerle and Stephen Kalin
    FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
    outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal/File Photo
        WASHINGTON/RIYADH (Reuters) – The United States imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials on Thursday for their role in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor sought the death penalty for five suspects in the murder.
        The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions were the first concrete response by the Trump administration to Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.
        Among those sanctioned were Saud al-Qahtani, who has been removed from his position as a top aide to the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the Saudi Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi and members of a 15-person team Turkey has identified as being involved.
        The measure was unusual for Washington, which rarely imposes sanctions on Saudi nationals.    The sanctions do not target the Riyadh government, an important U.S. security and economic ally.
        It also allows the administration to stop short of action that might affect lucrative U.S. arms deals with Saudi Arabia that President Donald Trump has vowed to preserve.
        The sanctions limit access to the U.S. financial system and freeze people’s assets.    They will be implemented under an act which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption.
        “These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.
        Canada, which had a major diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia this year over human rights, welcomed the U.S. sanctions and said it was weighing similar action.
        The U.S. government did not impose sanctions on Saudi officials over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were from the kingdom.
        A U.S. government commission found no evidence that Saudi Arabia directly funded al Qaeda, which carried out the attacks on New York and Washington.    The panel, however, left open whether individual Saudi officials might have.
    DEATH SENTENCE
        Khashoggi, a royal insider turned critic of Saudi policy, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.    He was a U.S. resident and columnist for The Washington Post and his killing has provoked a political crisis in Saudi Arabia as well as friction with Western allies.
        Some members of the U.S. Congress said that even with the sanctions the administration has not been tough enough, specifically in regard to the Saudi crown prince.
        Democratic Senator Ben Cardin said: “I remain concerned that the administration is enabling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its effort to protect Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from accountability.”
        Later on Thursday, senators from both U.S. parties introduced legislation that, if it became law, would suspend weapon sales to Saudi Arabia as punishment for Khashoggi’s death and for its role in Yemen’s devastating civil war.
        Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance, then offered contradictory explanations including that he was killed in a rogue operation.
        Saudi deputy public prosecutor and spokesman Shalaan al-Shalaan said on Thursday Khashoggi died by lethal injection after a struggle.
        Without naming them, Shalaan said the Saudi prosecutor had requested the death penalty for five people “charged with ordering and committing the crime, and for the appropriate sentences for the other indicted individuals,” He said 11 of 21 suspects have been indicted and will be referred to court.
        Shalaan said Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, knew nothing of the operation, in which Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, removed from the building and handed over to an unidentified “local cooperator.”
        Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the order for the operation came from the highest level of Saudi leadership but probably not King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on his 33-year-old heir.
        Turkey wants the 15-man team that it says killed Khashoggi to be tried there.    Trump has suggested ultimate responsibility lies with the prince.
        Shalaan said Khashoggi was murdered after “negotiations” for his return to the kingdom failed.    When asked why such a large team capable of poisoning and dismembering a body was used for a supposed extraction, Shalaan said the lead negotiator had surveyed the consulate before Khashoggi entered and decided it was unfeasible to remove him, so instead they killed him.
    U.S. SANCTIONS TARGETS
        Among others cited in Thursday’s U.S. Treasury announcement are General Maher Mutreb, an aide to Qahtani who has appeared in photographs with Prince Mohammed on official visits this year to the United States and Europe.
        Absent from the sanctions list were four officials fired last month along with Qahtani: General Ahmed al-Asiri, the deputy head of foreign intelligence, and three other intelligence deputies – General Rashad bin Hamed al-Hamadi, General Abdullah bin Khaleef al-Shaya, and General Mohammed Saleh al-Ramih.
        The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation of why they were not included.
        U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said there could be further U.S. measures.
        “It’s a step in the right direction.    It is an initial investigation finding.    It is important that those steps continue to be taken for a full accountability.    We will continue to work diligently to ascertain the facts,” she told a news briefing.
        Some details provided by the Saudi prosecutor on Thursday again contradicted previous versions, none of which mentioned a drug-induced death and one of which called the killing premeditated based on information provided by Turkey.
        Turkey says it has recordings related to the killing which it shared with Western allies.    One Turkish official told Reuters that officials who heard the recordings, which includeKhashoggi’s killing and conversations leading up to the operation, were horrified but their countries had done nothing.br> (Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan and Asma Al Sharif in Dubai, Marwa Rashad in Riyadh, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, David Brunnstrom, Doina Chiacu and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Mary Milliken, James Dalgleish and Sonya Hepinstall)

    11/16/2018 House power shift muddles trade agenda - Democrats may leverage issue for other priorities by Michael Collins, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Celebrating a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, President Donald Trump admitted at a Rose Garden ceremony in October that he was “not at all confident” the agreement could win approval in Congress.
        He may have less reason for optimism following last week’s midterm elections.
        Voters handed Democrats a majority of seats in the House for the first time in eight years, returning them to power in January and possibly complicating Trump’s trade agenda, especially his efforts to win approval for the new pact with Mexico and Canada.
        “I see it as unlikely that (Democratic leader) Nancy Pelosi is going to say, ‘Thanks for this trade deal, President Trump, we’ll just send it along,’” said Bryan Riley, who follows trade issues for the National Taxpayers Union.
        Congress isn’t expected to vote on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement until sometime next year, when Democrats will be back in charge of the House.
    NAFTA fight ahead
        Though trade deals are usually subject to an up-or-down vote with no amendments, Congress still would have to pass legislation to implement the agreement.    House Democrats could use that legislation as the vehicle to tweak the deal or even hold it up as leverage to extract concessions from the Trump administration on unrelated issues.
        At a minimum, that is likely to slow down the approval process, trade analysts said.
        “Look, it was always going to be hard to get this agreement passed,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican consultant who has worked with private companies to promote free trade.    “Trade agreements are tough even in the calmest of environments, when relations between the White House and Congress are in good working order.    So given that it’s a pretty chaotic time and you have a change in power in Congress, it will be very challenging.”
        Other parts of Trump’s trade agenda, such as his tariffs on Chinese imports, probably won’t receive as much of a pushback from the new House majority, analysts say, because many Democrats agree with the president’s protectionist policies even though they question his approach.    Even Pelosi has said tariffs should be used as a leverage point to negotiate more fair and open trade for U.S. products in China.
        Democrats would like, however, for lawmakers to have a say on tariffs and may pursue legislation giving Congress the right to accept or reject such levies.    Similar legislation went nowhere in the current GOP-controlled Congress.
        The new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, announced at the end of September after months of negotiations, will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a nearly quarter-century old accord that essentially eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the three countries.
        During the recent trade talks, “a lot of corporate lobbyists and congressional Republicans were downright scornful of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s efforts to engage on NAFTA renegotiation with the congressional Democrats and unions that have opposed past trade deals,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens’ Global Trade Watch.
        “Now,” she said, “his approach appears prescient: After this election, only trade deals that can earn Democratic support will get through Congress.”
        The new trade pact includes some policies embraced by Democrats, including stronger labor and environmental provisions.    Yet critics say those provisions don’t go far enough and are filled with too many loopholes.
        What’s more, many Democrats have long opposed NAFTA and aren’t inclined to back the new deal either, said Daniel Griswold, a trade expert at The Mercatus Center, a nonprofit think tank at George Mason University.
    Democratic concerns
        “The administration went a long way to try to address Democratic concerns over NAFTA, but I think those concerns are so deep that the administration wasn’t able to satisfy them,” Griswold said.
        The labor provisions include a requirement that, starting in 2020, at least 30 percent of cars and trucks made in North America must be built by workers earning at least $16 per hour.    But critics complain those provisions are unenforceable, so House Democrats are expected to try to strengthen them through the legislation implementing the new deal.
        Last week’s elections boosted the ranks of House members whose support of any trade deal will be contingent upon such improvements, Wallach said.
        “If trade officials are willing to work with congressional Democrats, unions and other groups on the improvements needed to stop NAFTA’s ongoing job outsourcing and raise wages, there clearly is a policy path to a renegotiated NAFTA that could gain wide support next year,” she said.
        “Of course,” Wallach said, “who knows what lunatic things unrelated to trade that Donald Trump might do in the meantime to derail that prospect.”
        Many business groups, meanwhile, are eager to see the new trade deal in place and hope that the implementing legislation remains a vehicle for getting it done “rather than a vehicle that leads to fights on a whole lot of other issues in Congress,” said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
        “The argument we would make, from the standpoint of Democrats who care about, for example, labor and environment: This is a much better deal than the existing NAFTA,” Yerxa said.    “Whether that’s the standard by which they measure it, we’ll have to see.”
    Analysts say Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is unlikely to merely pass along the Trump administration’s trade deal
    with Mexico and Canada after Democrats control the House. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

    11/16/2018 EU’s Malmstrom urges China to help reform WTO or risk U.S. exit
    FILE PHOTO: European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom attends an
    interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland June 4, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
        PARIS (Reuters) – China must make concessions in negotiating reform of the World Trade Organization or risk seeing the United States turning its back on the current system, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told a conference in Paris on Friday.
        “China has won a lot from the WTO system, and we call on China to show leadership and to engage with us to reform and to update the system, to create a level playing field.    Because otherwise the U.S. will create a level playing field outside the system,” Malmstrom said.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles and Leigh Thomas)

    11/16/2018 State Dept. says press is free in U.S., journalists widely persecuted abroad by OAN Newsroom
        The State Department is warning of the harmful effects of so-called “fake news.”
        In a statement Thursday, department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said “fake news” is a “real thing.”    Nauert said false narratives, biases and misrepresentation of facts presents a huge problem not only in the U.S., but all around the world.
    Heather Nauert, U.S. State Department spokeswoman. (Reuters/File)
        This comes after President Trump blasted several left-leaning media outlets as “fake news.”
        Nauert also refuted mainstream media claims the Trump administration is restricting the work of journalists by saying those allegations are unsubstantiated.
        “In the U.S., journalists are able and allowed to freely practice their profession — we see that each and every day,” she explained.    “Administration officials take issue with incorrect reporting, we’ve had these debates often here — some journalists have been detained, sentenced in other countries, so I think the situation’s entirely different and I would encourage you to keep it into perspective.”
        Nauert reaffirmed her department’s commitment to battling “fake news” by releasing verifiable and fact-accurate information.

    11/16/2018 Judge sides with CNN, orders Trump Admin. to restore Jim Acosta’s press pass by OAN Newsroom
        The White House said it will return Jim Acosta’s hard pass, but is blasting the decision made by the judge.
        In a statement Friday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the court made it clear there is no absolute First amendment right to access the white house.    However, Sanders claimed the White House will further develop rules to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future.
        This comes after federal judge sided with CNN by ordering the White House to temporarily reinstate Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials.
        U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly said the White House was wrong to revoke Acosta’s press pass and must restore his access immediately.
    CNN’s Jim Acosta walks away from the U.S. District Courthouse, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington, after a hearing.
    U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to immediately return Acosta’s credentials.
    He found that Acosta was “irreparably harmed” and dismissed the government’s argument that CNN
    could send another reporter in Acosta’s place to cover the White House. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
        The ruling comes after CNN filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming the constitutional rights of its White House correspondent had been violated.
        One America News filed an amicus brief with the court on the side of the White House’s right to control activity and access at its briefings.
        The White House suspended Acosta’s press pass indefinitely last week after he clashed with the president during a press briefing and placed his hand on a White House intern when she tried to grab his microphone.

    11/16/2018 President Trump responds to Acosta ruling by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump listens to a question during a signing ceremony of the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
    Act,” in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        President Trump has responded to Friday’s ruling to reinstate CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass.
        During a bill signing in the Oval Office, the president said “we have to practice decorum…we want total freedom of the press.”
        He said this White House will be “setting up a certain standard” for press briefings in the future.
        This comes after Press Secretary Sarah Sanders blasted the decision by saying the court made it clear there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House.    She said the administration will develop rules to ensure fair and orderly press conferences.
        Acosta has since received his new hard pass after it was revoked last week.

    11/16/2018 Sen. Kamala Harris compares ICE to KKK while questioning acting ICE chief by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. attends a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
        California Senator Kamala Harris is coming under fire for comparing ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.
        During a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, the Democrat lawmaker asked Ronald Vitello, who’s been nominated to run ICE, whether he sees any parallels between the KKK and ICE.
        The conversation went as follows:
        “The Klan was, what we would call today, a domestic terrorist group,” stated Vitello.
        Harris followed by asking, ”why would we call them a domestic terrorist group?”
        “Because they tried to use fear and force to change political environment,” he responded.
        “Are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ICE is being used to enforce the law and do you see any parallels?” Harris continued.
        “I do not see a parallel between what is constitutionally mandated as it relates to enforcing the law, protecting people’s rights…I see no perception that puts ICE in the same category as the KKK,” Vitello firmly answered.
        RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the Democrat Senator’s comments disgusting, adding, Harris’ spectacle is part of her 2020 audition.
        GOP spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany also echoed a similar sentiment, with others taking to Twitter asking Harris to apologize.
    [My comment: I compare the mob that attacked the Senate during the Kavanaugh hearing as being like the KKK.    ICE actually does something constructive.    And this lady is attempting to move her mob base to run for president?]

    11/16/2018 Violence breaks out between migrants, Mexican residents as caravan arrives by OAN Newsroom
        The government in Mexico’s border city Tijuana is struggling to deal with hundreds of migrants who have arrived in recent days. The people who live there are having to cope with the influx as well, which is leading to conflicts in the streets.
    One America’s Luke Glaze has more on the situation at the border

    11/16/2018 Bipartisan group of senators unveil prison reform bill backed by President Trump by OAN Newsroom
        A bipartisan group of senators have unveiled a prison reform bill, following an endorsement from President Trump.
        The legislation — called the First Step Act — would reduce sentences for some drug and repeat offenses, and revamp sentencing and reeducation practices.
        Lawmakers said they would add four provisions to the existing Fair Sentencing Act, which was passed by the House in a 360-to-59-vote back in May.
        Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley added, the new bill would dramatically overhaul America’s penitentiary system.
        The president has supported the bill as an attempt to reduce prison population and improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system.
    President Donald Trump points to his ear and says “Did I hear the word bipartisan?” as he announces his support for H. R. 5682,
    the “First Step Act” as bipartisan legislation during a speech in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington,
    Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, which would reform America’s prison system. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        “Did I hear the word bipartisan?    Did I hear that word?    That’s a nice word.    Bipartisan agreement on prison reform legislation known as The First Step, and that’s what it is — it’s a first step, but it’s a very big first step.” –President Donald Trump.
        Lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill in the coming days.    The legislation will be brought up on the floor once the bill’s sponsors ensure they have 60 votes to pass their initiative.

    11/16/2018 Dutch PM Rutte: NATO remains cornerstone of European defense
    FILE PHOTO: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte holds a news conference at the European Union leaders
    summit in Brussels, Belgium October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo
        AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday rejected the idea of a European army, as raised in Germany and France.
        “The idea of a European Army goes way too far for the Netherlands,” he said after a cabinet meeting.
        “NATO is and remains the cornerstone of our defense policy.”
    (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

    11/16/2018 Trump says China wants to make trade deal, U.S. may not impose more tariffs
    FILE PHOTO - U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as Department of Homeland Security
    Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (R) looks on at a signing ceremony for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act
    in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S. November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that China wants to make a deal on trade and the United States may not need to impose further tariffs, as the world’s two largest economies continue to work on an agreement to eliminate trade tensions.
    (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

    11/16/2018 S&P, Dow gain; Nasdaq dragged down by Nvidia, Facebook
    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
        (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Dow Industrials rose on Friday after President Donald Trump said the United States may not have to impose further tariffs on Chinese goods, but declines in shares of Nvidia Corp , Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc helped to drag down the Nasdaq.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 123.95 points, or 0.49 percent, to 25,413.22, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 5.94 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,736.14, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 11.16 points, or 0.15 percent, to 7,247.87.
    (Reporting by Sinéad Carew; Editing by Leslie Adler)

    11/16/2018 Fed’s Evans says ‘reasonable’ to raise rates to 3.25 percent
    FILE PHOTO - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans visits
    the online music retailer Sweetwater, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. September 14 2018. REUTERS/Ann Saphir
        (Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Friday said raising interest rates to about 3.25 percent – about half a percentage point higher than his estimate of neutral – “would be a reasonable assumption,” given his outlook for the U.S. economy.
        Speaking with reporters after a talk in Chicago, Evans said he will be looking at data on inflation, wages and the labor market more broadly to see how much farther rates need to rise, and added that for him, an increase in inflation to 2.5 percent would not be a problem as long as it looked likely to be temporary.
        Evans said he sees some risks to the economic outlook, including from a possible global slowdown, but that it does not currently appear to be enough to disrupt the strong economic trajectory.
    (Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler)

    11/16/2018 President Trump close to nominating new U.S. attorney general by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump may be closer to selecting a new head to lead the department of justice.
        The President is expected to meet with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi during his trip to Mar-A-Lago for Thanksgiving next week, according to multiple reports today.
        Bondi, who is term-limited in her current position, was previously floated as a potential pick on the President’s short-list of candidates to replace Jeff Sessions.
        The outgoing state attorney general is a longtime ally of President Trump, recently working alongside him on the opioid crisis and prison reform.
        Bondi was approached in February about whether she would accept the nomination is asked.

    11/16,/2018 Michael Avenatti threatens TMZ for its story on his arrest by OAN Newsroom
        Michael Avenatti is threatening to take legal action against TMZ, following his arrest on domestic violence charges.
    FILE – In this July 27, 2018, file photo Michael Avenatti, talks to the media during a news conference
    in front of the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles. A California judge on Monday, Oct. 22,
    ordered Avenatti to pay $4.85 million to an attorney at his former law firm. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
        Avenatti, in a Tweet Friday, said the TMZ reporter responsible for breaking the story on his arrest “better get their checkbook ready,” claiming the story was malicious and false.
        He went on to say the allegations were “designed to harm him” and his estranged wife Lisa, and he fully plans to “expose” the outlet for defending “garbage like that.”
        Avenatti also blames Gateway Pundit blogger Jacob Whol, suggesting he was somehow behind his arrest, and threatened to go after him.
        In response, Wohl said Avenatti’s criminal threats against him are being reported to law enforcement.
        Avenatti was taken into custody by the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday on suspicion of domestic violence, after an allegedly physical altercation with his estranged wife.
    [The MEETOO Lawyer well I guess what goes around comes aorund.].

    11/16/2018 President Trump confirms he has answered questions for Mueller probe by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump recently confirmed he has finished answering written questions for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.    He made the announcement during the signing of a new cybersecurity bill Friday.
        The president said he personally finished answering the list of questions for Mueller, but has not yet submitted them.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony of the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act,”
    in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        He added, he was easily able to answer the questionnaire himself without the help of his lawyers.
        “I was asked a series of questions — I’ve answered them very easily, very easily,” said President Trump.    “I’m sure they’re tricked up, because you know they like to catch people — ‘Gee was the weather sunny or was it raining…he said it may have been a good day, it was raining therefore he told a lie, her perjured himself’ — okay, so you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people who probably have bad intentions.”
        He went on to say the Mueller probe never should have happened, and called it a “hoax” and a “waste of taxpayer money.”

    11/16/2018 President Trump praises GOP, blasts MSM over results of midterm elections by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is continuing to celebrate the GOP increasing its majority in the Senate, while blasting the mainstream media.
        In a Tweet Friday, the president said people are not being told Republicans will pick up two more seats in the Senate.    He said the eventual 53-to-47 majority is an epic victory and claimed the fake news media only wants to discuss the House.
        However, the president claimed the House results were still better than other sitting presidents.
        Republicans are projected to pick up another Senate seat after Cook Political declared Rick Scott the winner in Florida.
        Meanwhile, special election runoff in Mississippi could give Republicans another seat in the upper chamber.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony of the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act,”
    in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    11/17/2018 Oil unchanged at $56.46, DOW up 124 to 25,413.

    11/17/2018 White House must return CNN reporter’s press pass - Seizure violated Fifth Amendment rights, judge says by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday ordered the White House to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press badge, which had been revoked earlier this month after a contentious exchange at a news conference with President Donald Trump.
        U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, said the White House had violated Acosta’s Fifth Amendment right to due process by suspending his press badge without explanation or a chance for CNN to appeal the decision.
        Kelly said White House officials couldn’t say who made the decision or how.    The judge ordered the government to restore the credential while the rest of the case – which drew support from a slew of other media outlets, including USA TODAY – is argued.
        “This court cannot restore Mr. Acosta’s access to press briefings that have already been held,” Kelly said.
        But Kelly said he hasn’t considered at all yet whether the White House violated anyone's rights.
    [So if you do not believe in FAKE News above proves it because the judge did not say anyones 1st or 5th Amendment was violated, and the judgment was not either, but wanted the WH to make new rules for the Press].
    The case will continue, but CNN’s Jim Acosta is back at the White House. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    11/17/2018 Trump says he has finished answering Mueller’s questions
        President Donald Trump said Friday he has answered questions from special counsel Robert Mueller, but has not yet submitted them to prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
        Trump did not detail the questions or his answers, but again denied any kind of collusion with Russians who sought to influence the presidential election in his favor.
        Trump insisted he did the answers himself.    “They were my answers,” he said.    “I don’t need lawyers to do that.”

    11/17/2018 Pres. Trump tours damage from California wildfires by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump joins California officials as they tour the destruction left in the wake of the deadly wildfires.
        On Saturday, the president arrived in the Northern California town of Paradise, and surveyed the damage caused by the devastating Camp Fire.
    President Donald Trump views damage from wildfires in Paradise, California on November 17, 2018. (Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)
        He was joined by outgoing Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom.
        GOP congressmen Kevin McCarthy and Doug Lamalfa, also joined the president during the assessment.
        The president said the government will take care of the people who have been hurt badly by the fires, and praised first responders and emergency crews working to extinguish the flames throughout the state.
        “To see what’s happened here, nobody would have ever thought this could have happened.    The federal government is behind you.    We’re all behind each other.    I think we can truly say, Jerry, right? Jerry and I have been speaking.    And Gavin and I have now gotten to know each other.    We’re all going to work together.    We’ll do a real job.    But this is very sad to see.    As far as the lives are concerned, nobody knows quite yet.    We’re up to a certain number, but we have a lot of people that aren’t accounted for.    This is the kind of destruction, in fact they’re telling me this is even not as bad as some areas.    Some areas are even beyond this.    They’re just charred.” -President Trump.

    11/17/2018 President Trump blasts the NYT over VP Mike Pence loyalty story by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Nov. 3, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence wave
    to supporters at a rally, in Pensacola, Fla. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced Thursday, Nov. 8,
    that Pence will hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other top officials during his Nov. 12-13 visit. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)
        President Trump is speaking out against the New York Times, after the newspaper published a story about the president’s alleged questioning of Vice President Mike Pence’s loyalty.
        Earlier Saturday, the president said Pence is a trooper, and he could not be happier with him, adding the paper never reached out to him for comment.
        The Time’s report said the president had been questioning Pence’s loyalty so much, that it had reportedly alarmed his advisers.
        The New York Times did a phony story, as usual, about my relationship with @VP Mike Pence.    They made up sources and refused to ask me, the only one that would know, for a quote....
        Trump tweets: "I can’t imagine any President having a better or closer relationship with their Vice President then the two of us. Just more FAKE NEWS, the Enemy of the People!."
        President Trump went on to say he does not question the vice president’s loyalty and said the story was false.
        “No I don’t question his (US Vice President Mike Pence) loyalty at all.    He is 100% loyal.    It was a phony story.    I doubt they (New York Times) had any sources.    A typical New York Times phony story.    Mike Pence is 100%, not even a doubt about it in my mind.” – President Trump.
        Vice President Mike Pence has also responded to the Time’s report, saying he has a very close and strong relationship with President Trump and is honored to serve in the administration.
    [FAKE NEWS IS REAL AS THE PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST AND DEMOCRAT LIBERALS CONTINUE TO ATTACK TRUMP.].

    11/17/2018 Pres. Trump: GOP Rep. Tom Reed may vote Pelosi for House Speakership by OAN Newsroom
    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference
    on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        President Trump cites New York Representative Tom Reed after the Republican voiced support for House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi.
        In a tweet Saturday the president referenced Reed saying he could get “as many votes as she wants” for her to become speaker of the House.
        President Trump continued quoting Reed saying, she has earned the position but there are those in her party who are trying to take it away.
        Trump tweet: "I can get Nancy Pelosi as many votes as she wants in order for her to be Speaker of the House.    She deserves this victory, she has earned it - but there are those in her party who are trying to take it away.    She will win!."
        The remarks come after Reed reportedly met with Pelosi this week — and said he would support her if she agrees to a set of rule reforms.
        “Indicated my willingness indicated my willingness to do that in the sense of but the good news is because we tapped into something here early in this break the gridlock package Steve Scalise on our side has embraced these rural reforms Steny Hoyer has embraced these reforms on the Democratic side so there are now candidates serious candidates for speaker that are going to be on the table that are going to be in a position to get these rules reformed that’s my ultimate goal.” -Rep. Tom Reed.
        This comes as Pelosi said she has secured enough Democrat votes and would refuse any GOP support.
    [This is hilarious is Pelosi the lesser of two evils in the House now.    The Republicans would rather deal with her than the worse case up and coming progressive socialist agenda, or is Reed and Trump just playing a game.].

    11/17/2018 VP Pence: U.S. willing to double tariffs on China if fair trade deal is not made by OAN Newsroom
        Vice President Mike Pence vows the U.S. will not change course on tariffs until China makes concessions to alleviate the trade deficit.
        While speaking at the APEC summit Saturday in Papua New Guinea, Pence warned the U.S. is willing to double its current tariffs on Chinese goods.
        Current duties affect more than $250 billion worth of products, and may be playing a role in China’s slowing economy.
    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attends the APEC CEO Summit 2018 in
    Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018. (Fazry Ismail/Pool Photo via AP)
        Pence’s remarks come after President Trump rejected a list of trade concessions sent by Beijing on Friday, because major issues like intellectual property theft weren’t addressed.
        Despite this Pence is optimistic common ground can be found.
        “China has an honored place in our vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, if it chooses to respect its neighbors’ sovereignty, embrace free, fair, and reciprocal trade, and uphold human rights and freedom.    The American people want nothing more, the Chinese people and the entire Indo-Pacific deserve nothing less.” – Vice President Mike Pence.
        President Trump will be meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jin Ping at the G-20 summit in Argentina later this month.
        The pair are expected to discuss trade, and some analysts even predict a tentative agreement could be reached.

    11/17/2018 Urban ranching: A socialist commune’s response to Venezuela’s crisis by Corina Pons
    Cattle graze in the backyard of a house occupied by the Apacuana commune
    in Caracas, Venezuela November 13, 2018. Picture taken November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello
        CARACAS (Reuters) – A socialist commune has drawn the ire of its neighbors in a wealthy area of Caracas with an unusual response to the hyperinflation and food shortages afflicting Venezuela: turning its backyard into an urban cattle pasture.
        The leaders of the Apacuana commune, devotees of socialist President Nicolas Maduro, drove six hours to purchase 11 450-kilo (992-lb) cows.    They set them to graze behind their 2,000-square meter (21,528 square-foot) home, donated by the state-owned telecommunications company two years ago.
        The government began transferring billions of dollars to a network of more than 70,000 such community groups under the administration of late President Hugo Chavez, who supported the communes as an alternative to a capitalist economic model.    Maduro has called communes “the epicenter of solidarity.”
        Leaders of the commune, who also grow fruits and vegetables, say the arrangement is simply a way to get cheaper meat.    They do not graze the cattle for long, and have already slaughtered several inside their home.
        With Venezuela’s oil-reliant economy in a fifth year of recession and inflation nearing 1 million percent, securing staple goods is a daily struggle for many.
        Just 40 percent of families can afford beef and nearly two-thirds of the population reported losing weight last year, by 11 kilos (24 lb) on average, according to a study by three universities.
        Western economists and the domestic opposition blame Maduro’s heavy-handed policies and economic mismanagement for the crisis.    However, the government and its supporters attribute Venezuela’s struggles to U.S. sanctions and hoarding by businesses trying to undermine socialism.
        “This experience shows the resolve of the people to push back against the economic war,” said commune leader Sulimar Pedrozar, as two cow heads boiled in a pot over a wood fire and a group cleaned out a cow stomach for a soup.
        The group has slaughtered seven cows and sold a small amount of meat to several hundred people at 560 bolivars per kilo, or about $2 at the black market exchange rate.
        That was well above the government-set price of 90 bolivars.    But with supply scarce, many butchers in Caracas sell beef for more than 10 times that amount, or more than half a monthly salary at the official minimum wage.
        In 2016, Maduro launched a “Great Agro-Venezuela Mission” to encourage city-dwellers to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs in their backyards, noting that he and his wife harvested pumpkins on their patio.    Earlier this year, a government minister said people should breed and eat rabbits, arguing they are not just “cute pets.”
        On Thursday evening, several dozen neighbors of the commune gathered to protest the ranch next door, complaining about the foul smell, flies, and health risks.
        “It is the first time in my life I’ve seen cattle being raised in a house,” said Luisa Ferro, a resident of the Los Chorros neighborhood.    “You see stuff like that in the country, but never in a city.”
        Pedro Méndez, a local opposition leader, said he would report the urban ranch to Venezuela’s health ministry, but doubted the government would stop it given Maduro’s support for such communes.
        Pedroza said the commune would continue raising livestock.
        “There is resistance to this idea but those who want to let people die of hunger are crazier,” Pedroza said.
    (Reporting by Corina Pons; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Dan Grebler)

    11/18/2018 Administration denies reaching conclusion on Khashoggi killing
        The Trump administration denied Saturday that it had reached a final determination in the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.
        After President Donald Trump called his CIA chief and top diplomat from Air Force One as he flew to survey wildfire damage in California, the State Department released a statement saying “recent reports indicating that the U.S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate.”
        The Washington Post, quoting an unidentified official, reported that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey.

    11/18/2018 Trump calls CIA assessment of Khashoggi murder premature but possible by Julia Harte and Steve Holland
    FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
    outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal/File Photo
        WASHINGTON/MALIBU, California (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Saturday called a CIA assessment blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi “very premature” and said he will receive a complete report on the case on Tuesday.
        Trump, on a trip to California, said the killing “should never have happened.”    The report on Tuesday will explain who the U.S. government believes killed Khashoggi and what the overall impact of his murder is, Trump said.    It was unclear who is producing the report.
        Trump also said the CIA finding that bin Salman was responsible for the killing was “possible.”
        Trump made the remarks hours after the State Department said the government was still working on determining responsibility for the death of Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Washington Post columnist.
        “Recent reports indicating that the U.S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.    “There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
        Nauert said the State Department will continue to seek facts and work with other countries to hold those involved in the journalist’s killing accountable “while maintaining the important strategic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.”
        Trump discussed the CIA assessment by phone with the agency’s director, Gina Haspel, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while flying to California on Saturday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
        The CIA had briefed other parts of the U.S. government, including Congress, on its assessment, sources told Reuters on Friday, a development that complicates Trump’s efforts to preserve ties with the key U.S. ally.
        A source familiar with the CIA’s assessment said it was based largely on circumstantial evidence relating to the prince’s central role in running the Saudi government.
        The CIA’s finding is the most definitive U.S. assessment to date tying Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler directly to the killing and contradicts Saudi government assertions that Prince Mohammed was not involved.
        Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince, was killed in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he went there to pick up documents he needed for his planned marriage.
        As lawmakers push legislation to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing, both Republican and Democratic senators on Saturday urged Trump to be tough on the crown prince, with whom he has cultivated a deep personal relationship.
        “Everything points to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, MbS, ordering @washingtonpost journalist Jamal #Khashoggi’s killing.    The Trump administration should make a credible determination of responsibility before MbS executes the men who apparently carried out his orders,” tweeted Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Saturday.
        Trump and top administration officials have said Saudi Arabia should be held to account for any involvement in Khashoggi’s death and have imposed sanctions on 17 Saudis for their role in the killing.
        But they have also stressed the importance of Washington’s ties with Riyadh, one of the biggest clients of the U.S. defense industry.    Trump wants to preserve the Saudi arms deals, despite growing opposition in Congress.
        “They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development,” Trump said.    “As president, I have to take a lot of things into consideration.”
        Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted on Saturday that the kingdom plays a key military role for the United States in the Middle East.
        “Saudi Arabia has been an important partner to regional security in the past.    I expect they will be in the future,” he said at a security forum in Halifax, adding Middle Eastern allies including Saudi Arabia are “a stabilizing force in the region.”
        On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said he was seeking the death penalty for five suspects charged in the killing of Khashoggi.
        The prosecutor, Shaalan al-Shaalan, told reporters the crown prince knew nothing of the operation, in which Khashoggi’s body was dismembered and removed from the consulate.    Saudi officials have said a team of 15 Saudi nationals were sent to confront Khashoggi and he was accidentally killed in a chokehold by men who were trying to force him to return to the kingdom.
        Lawmakers critical of Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s killing and its role in Yemen’s civil war are ramping up their efforts to clamp down on the country.
        “Trump must accept (for once) his intelligence experts’ incontrovertible conclusion: Crown Prince MBS is culpable for Khashoggi’s monstrous murder.    This brazen killing must have consequences — sanctions, prosecution, removal of MBS & others, not continued cover-up, enabled by Trump,” tweeted Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal on Saturday.
    (Reporting by Makini Brice, Pete Schroeder and Idrees AliEditing by Mary Milliken, Nick Zieminski and Cynthia Osterman)br>
    11/18/2018 Trump: Sending cleric to Turkey ‘not under consideration’
        President Donald Trump said on Saturday that extraditing a Turkish born Muslim cleric blamed by Turkey for engineering a 2016 military coup attempt is “not under consideration.”
        Fethullah Gulen has lived for nearly 20 years in self-exile at an Islamic retreat in the Pocono Mountains.    He denies the allegations made by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.    The U.S. has told Turkey it must present convincing evidence for any extradition to occur.

    11/18/2018 Most Florida counties done with hand recounts in Senate race
        Officials say most of Florida’s counties have finished their hand recount in the state’s U.S. Senate race.
        State officials ordered a manual recount on Thursday after a machine recount showed that Republican Gov. Rick Scott led incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by about 12,600 votes.
        The totals for Nelson and Scott have changed slightly, but not significantly.    Counties have until noon Sunday to report results to the state.

    11/18/2018 US-led airstrike reportedly kills 40 in militant-held area in Syria
        U.S-led coalition airstrikes on the last pocket held by Islamic State militants in Syria near the Iraqi border killed at least 40 people, mostly women and children, a war monitor and Syrian state media reported Saturday.

    11/18/2018 Feds focus on border security, not processing asylum seekers by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        President Donald Trump has mobilized a historic surge of manpower and equipment to the southern border to respond to the migrant caravan, deploying thousands of active-duty military troops, hundreds of Border Patrol agents, and miles of concertina wire to prevent what Trump has described as a possible “invasion” of the country.
        But none of those efforts will change how quickly U.S. officials can process the thousands of migrants who are trying to legally present themselves at ports of entry to request asylum.    Department of Homeland Security officials say their main focus is on preventing illegal border crossings, and do not plan on overhauling their operations to increase the number of asylum-seekers allowed to enter each day.
        “As we have said repeatedly, being a member of a caravan doesn’t give you any special rights to enter the country,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Katie Waldman said in a statement.    “If they arrive at a Port of Entry, they will have to wait in line in keeping with the lawful processes at our ports of entry.”
        Immigration advocates say that approach represents yet another attack on a group of Central Americans who want nothing more than to exercise their legal right, written into U.S. law and international conventions, to plead their case for asylum.
        Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, a San Diego-based humanitarian group, said the administration is purposefully setting up a crisis in Tijuana, where thousands of people are already waiting to apply for asylum, with the bulk of the caravan — about 5,000 people — still on the way.    The San Ysidro Port of Entry, where most of the caravan members are trying to enter, can only process up to 100 asylum-seekers a day.
        The result is a prolonged waiting game for the migrants, and tensions are already boiling over with local residents in Tijuana’s neighborhoods forcing out migrants who are struggling to find shelter space while they wait for their number to be called.
        “Trump should be using resources to hire and transfer asylum attorneys, judges, and trained staff to facilitate asylum requests, instead of creating a logjam to purposefully forced refugees to wait outside,” said Morones, who was organizing a “medical brigade” of California doctors to visit Tijuana this weekend to care for the migrants.
        DHS officials say that even if they wanted to speed up asylum interviews, it would take widespread coordination among agencies, changes to U.S. law, and far more funding from Congress.
        The system works like this: a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer or a Border Patrol agent conducts the initial intake of an asylum-seeker.    That is followed by an interview conducted by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer to determine if the applicant has a “credible fear” of returning to their home country.    Those approved are transferred to a detention center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the Department of Health and Human Services for minors.    In either case, officials then determine if the asylum applicant will be detained throughout their application process or released into the U.S. to await their court hearing, which could take years because of a massive backlog.    And finally, Department of Justice lawyers oversee the case of each asylum application.
        To increase the number of asylum applicants allowed into the U.S., each of those steps would need to be significantly ramped up, but the administration has not done so.
        U.S. Customs and Border Protection has pulled 573 officers from ports around the country and reassigned them to the border, but CBP Assistant Commissioner Andrew Meehan said processing asylum seekers will be only one part of their duties.    The officers will also safeguard the ports, respond to illegal entries, assist with crowd control, transport migrants to medical facilities, and train other CBP officers.
        “Being a member of a caravan doesn’t give you any special rights to enter the country.” Katie Waldman, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
    U.S. soldiers install barbed wire Nov. 12 on the border with Mexico as seen
    from Colonia Libertad in Tijuana, Mexico. JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/EPA-EFE

    11/18/2018 UK PM May says next seven days critical for Britain
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May holds a news conference at
    Downing Street in London, Britain November 15, 2018. Matt Dunham/Pool via Reuters
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday the next seven days in the Brexit process would be critical for the country’s future.
        “These next seven days are going to be critical, they are about the future of this country,” May told Sky News.
    (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, writing by William James; Editing by Dale Hudson)

    11/18/2018 Central Americans stalled at U.S.-Mexico border, mull work offers by Lizbeth Diaz
    Private security guards stand guard in front of the border fence between
    Mexico and United States, in Tijuana, Mexico November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
        MEXICALI, Mexico (Reuters) – Hundreds of migrants from a caravan of Central Americans were stalled at the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday, where a handful said they welcomed recent Mexican offers of employment in the face of a hostile U.S. reception.
        The Mexican government last week reiterated job offers to the migrants, saying that those who obtained legal status could occupy thousands of vacancies, most of them in the country’s “maquiladoras,” doing factory work.
        Since arriving at the border last week, they have been denied entry through the gates linking Mexico to the United States.
        Dozens of the mostly Hondurans waited in lines to bathe and washed clothes sullied from 2,600 miles of relentless travel.
        Several members of the caravan, which left the crime-wracked city of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Oct. 13, told Reuters they would be willing to stay put in Mexico rather than face rejection across the border.
        “If we had work, we would stay.    This has been very tiring,” said Orbelina Orellana, a 26-year-old Honduran mother of three, waiting at the Alfa and Omega shelter in the city of Mexicali, which borders Calexico, California.
        “I cry a lot to not be able to feed them as I’d like,” Orellana said of her children.    “I just want an opportunity.”
        Briefly stalled by Mexican riot police on a highway crossing between two southern Mexican states late last month, a dozen migrants told Reuters they rejected such offers, preferring to try their luck in the United States.
        But on Saturday, some said that thinking had changed.
        “We had the idea to cross to the United States, but they told us it will be nearly impossible,” said Mayra Gonzalez, 32, traveling with her two children.    “We cannot starve as we wait to find out if they’ll give us asylum.    Better to work, by the grace of God, here in Mexico.”
        In a sharp reversal of longstanding U.S. policy, President Donald Trump’s administration last week began enforcing new rules that curtail asylum rights for anyone who arrives without documents at the U.S. border.
        Trump earlier this month deployed almost 6,000 troops along the long U.S. border with Mexico.
        As they wound north through Mexico, the migrants were helped along by local authorities and residents who offered food, clothing and even free rides on daily treks that averaged 30 miles a day, much of it on foot.
        But that welcome became noticeably frostier as the caravan reached the border.
        In Tijuana, a city long accustomed to a population of migrants in transit, deportees and U.S. pleasure-seekers, a clutch of local residents last week threw rocks at the migrants, telling them to go home.
        But some said the Central Americans could help boost the local economy.
        “We are not against migration,” Ulises Araiza, President of the Association of Human Resources of Industry in Tijuana, told Reuters.
        “We know the situation that these people face in their country.    But we also favor order so as to integrate them into the labor sector, because only in Tijuana do we have a demand in the maquiladora industry for 5,000 people.”
    (Writing by Delphine Schrank, editing by G Crosse)

    11/18/2018 French protesters rail against Macron’s fuel taxes with road blocks by Sarah White and Caroline Pailliez
    Yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher fuel prices, are seen on statues
    on a fountain on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, November 17, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
        PARIS (Reuters) – Thousands of French protesters hit out at higher fuel taxes and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies in demonstrations across motorways on Saturday, sparking major logjams and several accidents, including a fatality at one road blockade.
        Dozens of people were also injured, as drivers tried to get around stoppages, after protestors in a grassroots protest movement dubbed the “yellow vests” took to motorway sliproads, tunnel entrances or airport access roads.
        The demonstrations, coordinated on social media, were born out of a backlash against higher fuel prices, and echo complaints about a perceived squeeze in spending power and mounting dissatisfaction with Macron, who some view as out of touch with ordinary people.
        At a blockade in the southeastern department of Savoie, a driver panicked when protesters surrounded her car and she accelerated, hitting and killing a female demonstrator, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.
        At least 227 people were injured across France, including six seriously, according to the interior ministry, which estimated that nearly 283,000 demonstrators took part in Saturday’s protests.    A policeman also sustained serious injuries.
        By early evening, 73 people had been taken into custody, and some demonstrators were still in place at nightfall.
        Police used tear gas to clear the entrance to a tunnel under the Mont-Blanc mountain in the Alps, and to push back demonstrators near the Elysee Palace in Paris and in the centre of Lyon.
        Protestors chanted “Macron, resign” and some sported slogans such as “give us back our purchasing power” on the back of the yellow high-visibility vests, which have come to symbolise the movement.
        “There are just too many taxes in France,” said Veronique Lestrade, a demonstrator on the outskirts of Paris, who said her family was struggling to make ends meet.
    “HE’S ARROGANT”
        In 18 months in power, Macron has seen off trade unions and street demonstrations as he loosened labour laws and overhauled the heavily indebted state rail operator SNCF in a bid to reboot the economy.
        Derided by political opponents as “the president of the rich” for measures such as the end of a wealth tax, Macron’s popularity has dwindled to new lows of 21 percent.
        Tax hikes on fuel and tobacco as well as an increase to a social welfare levy before other tax cuts came into force have left some voters feeling squeezed.
        The diesel tax increases, designed to encourage drivers to switch to more environmentally-friendly cars, were approved in late 2017 but began to bite when oil prices surged in October, angering some in the provinces who rely on their cars to get to work.
        Ministers announced funds last Wednesday to help motorists on the lowest incomes, even if Macron is standing firm on his fuel policy.
        Prices have eased this month, although protestors on Saturday had other complaints too, as Macron’s next test at the ballot box in European parliamentary elections in May 2019 looms.
        “I happily voted for Macron in 2017, but he’s really making fun of us,” said Dominique Jouvert, 63, a retired civil servant demonstrating in Lyon.    “There’s no discussion to be had with him, no dialogue, he’s arrogant."    “What’s certain is that I won’t vote for him again.”
    (Reporting by Sarah White, Caroline Pailliez, Yves Clarisse, Catherine Lagrange, Reuters TV; Editing by Gareth Jones and Louise Heavens)
    [The above article and the one in Venzulea communes reminds of what life in the U.S. would be like if the policies of Obama and Steve Beshear in Kentucky had continued in the U.S. would be like.    Thank God the Republicans took over.].

    11/18/2018 New Salvadoran migrant caravan forms; hundreds wait at U.S.-Mexico border by Nelson Renteria
    People in a caravan of migrants departing from El Salvador en route to the
    United States sit on a bus, in San Salvador, El Salvador, November 18, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
        SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – At least 150 Salvadorans set off on Sunday from their impoverished Central American country in a U.S.-bound caravan, ignoring their likely rejection at the U.S.-Mexico border where a larger caravan of mostly Hondurans has been stalled for days.
        Guarded by police officers, the men, women and children of the gathering caravan marched through San Salvador’s streets to Guatemala-bound buses, loaded with heavy backpacks, water and the knowledge of an arduous 2,700-mile (4,300-km) trek ahead to the U.S. border.
        The group from El Salvador was at least the fourth caravan to set off since a first, large-scale mobilization in neighboring Honduras, which departed on Oct. 13 from the crime-wracked northern city of San Pedro Sula.
        That caravan quickly grew to thousands as it moved north on daily 30-mile (50-km) treks.    Many of its members were still winding their way on Sunday through Mexico toward the U.S border, where hundreds of early arrivals have been waiting since last week to cross.
        Ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm U.S. congressional elections, President Donald Trump denounced the large caravan as an “invasion” that threatened American national security and sent thousands of active-duty U.S. troops to the border with Mexico.    Trump has not publicly focused on the caravan since the election.
        Inspired by the public spotlight on the larger caravan, Salvadorans organized themselves on social networks and the WhatsApp application to launch the latest effort.
        Among them was Manuel Umana, a 53-year-old farmer from the town of San Pedro Masahuat, who said he decided to join Sunday’s caravan to escape MS-13, a brutal criminal gang that controls large parts of El Salvador and neighboring Honduras.
        “We are already threatened by the gangs where we live,” said Umana, pointing to scars on his face he said gang members had inflicted five years ago.    “We no longer can live with these people.”
        His motives echoed dozens of migrants in the earlier caravans who told Reuters they were abandoning their homes to escape a toxic mixture of violence, corruption and economic insecurity.
        El Salvador and Honduras compete for the highest homicide rates in the world, according to official figures.
        Both countries rank among the poorest in the Americas.
        “It is very dangerous but we have no other alternative.    We are determined to do what we need to do,” said Umana, before leaving with the rest of the caravan from the Salvadoran capital’s central Plaza Salvador del Mundo.
        Far to the north on Sunday, in the city of Tijuana that abuts California, hundreds of people from the larger caravan braced for planned protests from local Mexicans both in favor and against them.
        Just over the northern border, nearly 6,000 U.S. troops in recent days have stretched barbed wire to dissuade illegal entries.
        U.S. immigration authorities, meanwhile, barred passage to dozens of the migrants who in recent days formed orderly lines to enter through the San Ysidro Port of Entry connecting Mexico to San Diego.
    (Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Tijuana; Writing by Delphine Schrank; Editing by Will Dunham)

    11/18/2018 UK PM May: Getting rid of me risks delaying Brexit by Kylie MacLellan and William James
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street
    via the back exit in London, Britain, November 16, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday toppling her would risk delaying Brexit and she would not let talk of a leadership challenge distract her from a critical week of negotiations with Brussels.
        In the days since she unveiled a draft EU divorce deal, May’s premiership has been thrust into crisis.    Several ministers, including her Brexit minister, have resigned and some of her lawmakers are seeking to oust her.
        More than two years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave as planned on March 29, 2019.
        May has vowed to fight on, but with both pro-EU and pro-Brexit lawmakers unhappy with the draft agreement, it is not clear she will be able to win the backing of parliament for it, raising the risk Britain leaves the EU without a deal.
        “These next seven days are going to be critical, they are about the future of this country,” May told Sky News.    “I am not going to be distracted from the important job.”
        “A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier … what it will do is mean that there is a risk that actually we delay the negotiations and that is a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated.”
        To trigger a confidence vote, 48 of her Conservative lawmakers must submit a letter to the chairman of the party’s so-called 1922 committee, Graham Brady.
        More than 20 lawmakers have said publicly that they have done so, but others are thought to have submitted letters confidentially. Brady told BBC Radio on Sunday the 48 threshold had not yet been reached.
        Brady said he thought it was likely May would win any confidence vote, making her immune to another challenge for 12 months under the party’s rules.
        Mark Francois, one lawmaker who has submitted a letter, said he expected some colleagues were taking soundings from local party members over the weekend before making a decision.
    FUTURE RELATIONSHIP
        At the center of concerns over the deal is the Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to avoid a return to border checks between the British province and EU-member Ireland.
        Critics say it would leave Britain bound to the EU in perpetuity and risks dividing the United Kingdom by aligning Northern Ireland more closely with the EU’s customs rules and production standards than mainland Britain.
        The DUP, a small Northern Irish party which props up May’s minority government, has threatened to pull its support if the backstop means the province is treated differently from the rest of the United Kingdom.
        DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said on Sunday it was “time to work for a better deal which does not undermine the integrity of the United Kingdom.”
        May said negotiations were continuing and she intended to go to Brussels and meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.    She said she would also be speaking to other EU leaders ahead of an EU summit to discuss the deal on Nov. 25.
        “We won’t agree the leaving part, the withdrawal agreement, until we have got what we want in the future relationship because these two go together.    The focus this week will be on the future relationship,” she told Sky.    “It is the future relationship that delivers on the Brexit vote.”
        Former foreign minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July over May’s Brexit plans, said it was “either a tragic illusion or an attempt at deception” to think issues with the exit deal could be remedied in the next stage of talks.I have heard it said that this is like a football match, in which we are one-nil down at half-time, but … we can still pull it back and get the Brexit we want,” Johnson wrote in his weekly column for Monday’s Daily Telegraph.
        “We are about to give the EU the right to veto our departure from the customs union.    Why should they let us go?”
        British newspapers reported that five senior pro-Brexit ministers were working to pressure May to change the deal, but May said she saw no alternative plan on the table.
        Former Brexit minister Dominic Raab, who resigned on Thursday in protest at the deal, said he supported May as leader but her deal was “fatally flawed” and she must change course.
        “I still think a deal could be done,” Raab told the BBC.    “The biggest risk of no deal is taking a bad deal to the House of Commons … it is very important to take the action now.”
        Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would vote against May’s deal and the government should go back to Brussels for further negotiations.    He said that was a priority ahead of pushing for a second referendum on the final agreement.
        “It’s an option for the future, but it’s not an option for today, because if we had a referendum tomorrow, what’s it going to be on? What’s the question going to be?” Corbyn told Sky News.
    (Editing by Janet Lawrence and Chris Reese)

    11/18/2018 Trump does not want to hear tape of ‘vicious’ Khashoggi murder
    People protest against the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey
    outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London, Britain, October 26 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not want to listen to an audio recording of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi despite facing mounting pressure to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing.
        Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, and Turkey has given the U.S. government a recording of the murder, but Trump said he would not listen to it “because it’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape.”
        “I don’t want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
        “I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it … It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”
        Trump also said he wants to maintain a close alliance with Saudi Arabia despite Khashoggi’s death and questioned the alleged role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is known as MbS and is the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
        “He told me that he had nothing to do with it,” Trump said, adding that “many people” also said the crown prince had no knowledge of the killing.
        The interview was taped on Friday, hours before government sources said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had briefed the Trump administration on the murder and its belief that MbS ordered it.
        Trump said on Saturday that the CIA assessment was “very premature” and in the interview that aired on Sunday he said it may never be possible to know who ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
        Trump faces intense pressure from senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers to take tougher action against Saudi Arabia.    Some have said Trump should suspend arms sales to the kingdom and drop his support for MbS, but Trump has so far resisted that pressure.
        The administration on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials for their alleged role in the killing, but they did not target the Saudi government.
        Saudi Arabia is a major oil supplier and a close ally of the United States in countering Iranian power in the Middle East.
        Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, said on Sunday he had no doubt about MbS’ involvement in ordering the murder of Khashoggi.
        “They are an important ally but when it comes to the crown prince, he’s irrational, he’s unhinged and I think he’s done a lot of damage to the relationship (between) the United States and Saudi Arabia.    And I have no intention of working with him ever again,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
    (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

    11/18/2018 Macron’s popularity dips as French fuel tax revolt simmers
    A man wearing a yellow vest, a symbol of a French drivers' protest
    against higher fuel prices, attends the demonstration with an image of
    French president Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, France, November 17, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
        PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron’s popularity took a further hit in recent weeks, according to a poll on Sunday, as fuel tax protests rumbled on across France in the latest sign of discontent with the president’s economic reforms.
        Only 25 percent of those questioned in an Ifop poll between Nov. 9 and 17 said they were satisfied with Macron, down from 29 percent in October, according to the survey of almost 2,000 people published in the Journal du Dimanche (JDD).
        Macron, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reshape the economy and overhaul institutions, has brushed off slumping ratings to push through a series of reforms, including a loosening of laws governing hiring and firing.
        His government introduced fuel tax hikes to encourage drivers to embrace less-polluting cars, touching a nerve with voters in rural areas in particular as the extra cost began to bite in October when global oil prices surged.
        Angry motorists and other demonstrators, many accusing Macron of being out of touch with ordinary people, blocked roads across France on Saturday in a grassroots campaign dubbed the “Yellow Vests” that drew nearly 288,000 protesters.
        More than 400 people were injured, 14 of them seriously, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, with some frustrated drivers trying to ram through blockades, and at least 157 people were taken into police custody.
        A woman protester died when she was accidentally hit by a panicked driver at one blockade.
        Some maintained protests on highway slip-roads, tolls and roundabouts on Sunday.
        In another Ifop poll in the JDD on Sunday, 62 percent of those surveyed said the government should prioritize policies to help household incomes even if it meant advancing more slowly on measures to fight climate change.
        Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who said on Sunday he was sensitive to the sense of abandonment expressed by some protesters, stressed that the government would not back down on its fuel tax plans.
        These are set for another hike in January including on diesel, the most commonly used fuel in France.
        “The path we’ve set out on is the right one and we’re going to stick to it,” Philippe told France 2 television.    He said workers would ultimately have less of a tax burden by the end of Macron’s mandate, with some measures already feeding through this year, such as reduced housing tax bills.
        Macron’s popularity has sunk to as low as 21 percent in other polls recently, after a torrid summer marked by a scandal over the violent conduct of his former security adviser and the departure of several ministers.
        In another poll released on Sunday, by OpinionWay, Macron’s approval ratings were unchanged in November from a month earlier at 29 percent.
    (Reporting by Sarah White and Sophie Louet; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans)

    11/18/2018 Peru ex-president Garcia asked for asylum in Uruguay: foreign ministry
    FILE PHOTO: Former Peruvian president Alan Garcia talks to the media as he arrives
    at the National Prosecution office in Lima, Peru March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo/File photo
        LIMA (Reuters) – Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia entered the Uruguayan embassy and applied for asylum, hours after being banned from leaving the country while under investigation for corruption, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
        Garcia entered the embassy and home of the Uruguayan ambassador in a residential Lima neighborhood on Saturday night and requested asylum, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
        Garcia “has requested asylum from that country, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum of 1954, of which Peru and Uruguay are parties,” the Foreign Ministry said.
        The request “should be evaluated by the government of Uruguay,” the foreign ministry added.
        Garcia’s request came hours after a judge ruled on Saturday to prohibit the ex-president from leaving the country for 18 months while under investigation for bribes allegedly received during the construction of an electric train in Lima by Brazilian company Odebrecht.
        Garcia, who mostly resides in Spain, arrived in Lima on Thursday to testify in the case before a prosecutor, who postponed the hearing and requested the former president be barred from leaving.
        The prosecutor in the case, Jose Perez, also accused Garcia of receiving $100,000 for taking part in a conference in Brazil, and said the money likely came from an Odebrecht fund, used to pay out bribes in several Latin American countries.
        The sweeping Odebrecht corruption scandal has implicated dozens of high-ranking officials across Latin America, who have been accused of taking bribe money in exchange for public works contracts.
        Garcia held Peru’s presidency twice, from 1985-1990 and again from 2006-2011.
    (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Scott Squires; Editing by Chris Reese)

    11/19/2018 Prison reform vote might be delayed - Report: McConnell says not enough time for vote by Billy Kobin, Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
        After asking Democrats earlier this week to work more collaboratively with Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly signaled that a bipartisan attempt at criminal justice reform will likely not get a vote by year’s end.
        That puts McConnell potentially at odds with two fellow Republicans important to Kentucky politics — Sen. Rand Paul and President Donald Trump.
        The New York Times reported that McConnell spoke with Trump about the proposed criminal justice overhaul during a private meeting at the White House on Thursday, one day after Trump touted the First Step Act as a bipartisan solution and asked Congress to get the bill to his desk.
        Citing people familiar with the meeting, the Times reported that McConnell told Trump there was not enough time between now and the end of the lame-duck legislative session on Dec. 14 to vote on the measure.
        Robert Steurer, a McConnell spokesman, referred to McConnell’s public comments on the measure in an email to the Courier Journal Saturday.
        McConnell told reporters on Wednesday that if at least 60 senators pledged to vote for the bill, he would be willing to move it forward.
        However, McConnell added that other legislative priorities, such as passing bills related to government funding and farming, could delay a vote.
        “We don’t have a whole lot of time left, but the first step is to finalize what proponents are actually for,” McConnell said Wednesday.    “There have been a lot of different versions floating around.    And then we’ll whip it and see where the vote count is.”
        In an op-ed published by Fox News on Wednesday, McConnell said the midterm elections showed Americans prefer bipartisanship in Congress and asked Democrats, who will control the House beginning in January, to continue “this impressive record of cooperation across the aisle and across the Capitol.”
        Supporters of the First Step Act, which include lawmakers from both parties and civil liberties and law enforcement groups, believe the bill’s passage would represent a major overhaul that reverses some of the tough on-crime federal policies of the 1980s and 1990s and resulting racial discrepancies in the prison system.
        Kelley Paul, wife of Sen. Rand Paul, has been a vocal proponent of the measure along with her husband, who was part of the group of senators and advocates Trump spoke to in support of the First Step Act on Wednesday.
        “I’ll be waiting with a pen,” Trump told the group.
        Appearing on the CBS show “Face The Nation” Sunday morning, Sen. Paul said there is a “real chance” to pass the First Step Act in the Senate and that McConnell had promised a vote in the past if there was enough support.
        “With President Trump being in favor of this criminal justice reform … really it only depends on one senator now.    If Sen. Mitch McConnell from my home state will allow a vote, it gets 65 to 70 votes in the Senate, it will be one of the most popular things to ever pass.”
        The First Step Act, which builds on a measure passed by the House in May, would lower mandatory minimum sentences for some serious drug offenses and provide more funding for anti-recidivism programs meant to help federal prisoners re-enter society, among other provisions.
        The bill would also take a measure that Congress passed in 2010 to reduce the sentencing disparities between crack- and cocaine-related offenses and apply it retroactively to cases before 2010.    The shackling of pregnant inmates and the use of solitary confinement for juveniles in most cases would also be banned.
        Some conservatives, such as Republican Sen. Tom Cotton from Arkansas, have criticized the current proposal for endangering public safety, while some Democrats have questioned whether the Senate proposal goes far enough to address mass incarceration and racial profiling.
        Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., appeared Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and said Cotton “can have his say and we’ll vote him down.”    Graham also urged Trump to tell Republican leaders in Congress to bring the bill to the floor.
        “The Republicans are the problem here, not the Democrats,” Graham said.
        Holly Harris, executive director of the nonprofit Justice Action Network, which supports the First Step Act, told the Courier Journal on Saturday that 70 to 80 senators already support the proposal.
        Harris added that a 2017 survey conducted on behalf of Justice Action Network found 82 percent of Kentuckians believe Kentucky’s justice system needs reforms, echoing support across the country for criminal justice reform.
        “Leader McConnell made a promise to us that if he had 60 votes, he would make time to move our bill,” Harris said.    “I still believe he will keep that promise, especially now with President Trump’s endorsement.    At the end of the day, this would be a signature Kentucky achievement.”
        Jason Pye, vice president of legislative affairs for conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, said his group has helped Kentuckians direct about 8,000 calls and emails in support of the measure to McConnell’s office since Friday.    “I can’t imagine a scenario in which Sen. McConnell goes head to head with President Trump and Sen. Paul, two of the most prominent figures in Kentucky,” Pye told the Courier Journal.
        Delaying a vote on criminal justice reform would not be in McConnell’s best interest, Harris said.
        “If there is any sort of political concern,” Harris said.    “It should be in not supporting this bill.”
        In a statement to the Courier Journal, Paul said McConnell is “nothing if not a smart politician” and that he believes McConnell will allow a vote before the end of 2018.
        “The president is very popular back home, and polling shows that criminal justice reform polls off the charts in Kentucky,” Paul said.    “So I do believe we will get this bill to the president’s desk this year.”
        Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030.
    President Donald Trump has touted the First Step Act as a bipartisan solution. MATT STONE/COURIER JOURNAL
    U.S. Sens. Rand Paul, left, and Mitch McConnell AP/COURIER JOURNAL FILE

    11/19/2018 Blocked from Tijuana, migrants shelter in Mexicali - Officials: Travelers put border city at capacity by Rebecca Plevin, The Desert Sun USA TODAY
        MEXICALI, Mexico – More than 1,000 Central American migrants crowded into shelters in the town of Mexicali on the California-Mexico border this weekend, after Mexican police blocked their buses from proceeding to Tijuana, where an additional 2,400 caravan members have converged.
        The migrants hoped to reunite in Tijuana with the people they had traversed Mexico with over the past month.
        Some said they planned to search for work in Tijuana, one of the country’s largest and fastest growing cities.    Some said they would seek asylum in the United States, while others said they would consider continuing on to Canada or another country that would give them work permits.
        But Mexican federal police prevented the buses from continuing along the highway to Tijuana because Mexico’s westernmost border city – 100 miles away – already is full of migrants, according to Gustavo Pacheco Aguilar, who runs a shelter in Mexicali called Grupo de Ayuda Para el Migrante de Mexicali.
        More migrants were on their way to Mexicali.    About 270 migrants aboard six buses were expected to arrive in Mexicali on Saturday night or Sunday morning, according to federal police.    Some caravan members said they expected 1,800 more people to arrive in coming days; Pacheco Aguilar said he expected as many as 5,000.    Mexicali sits just across the border from the California city of Calexico.
        President Donald Trump has been largely silent on the migrant caravan heading to the border since making it a major campaign issue in the midterm elections.    But on Saturday night he blasted the migrants.
        “Isn’t it ironic that large Caravans of people are marching to our border wanting U.S.A. asylum because they are fearful of being in their country – yet they are proudly waving their country’s flag.    Can this be possible?    Yes, because it is all a BIG CON, and the American taxpayer is paying for it!” he said.
        On Saturday night, an estimated 600 migrants filled the Hotel del Migrante in Mexicali.    Inside, foam mattresses covered in plastic lined the hallways.    In one large room packed with camping tents and mattresses, young men sprawled on the floor, played cards and charged their mobile phones.
        An additional three dozen people slept on foam mattresses along the sidewalk outside the shelter, even though the shelter wasn’t at capacity.
        Some migrants at the shelter said they hoped to catch a bus to Tijuana on Sunday or Monday.    Others, like Jessica Rodas of Honduras, said they planned to walk there – a journey that would require them to walk along La Rumorosa, a notoriously dangerous highway that crosses the Sierra de Juarez Mountains.
        “For this reason, we decided to wait for everyone and go as one group, just as we came here,” Rodas said.
        But first, Rodas’ daughters, 3-yearold Dezelynn and 5-year-old Ana, needed to rest.    They’d been sick and coughing for the entire monthlong journey, she said.    At the shelter, Rodas and her extended family of four other adults and four children shared a room big enough for one bunk bed and three mattresses on the floor.
        Rodas said she had worked in a tortilleria in Tijuana for a few months this summer.    She hoped to return to her job and eventually earn residency in Mexico.
        Marvin Flores of Honduras said he was determined to leave the Mexicali shelter, where he said some people were using drugs and where someone tried to steal his phone, and get to Tijuana.
        “There will be rides or we’ll walk there, like we’ve always done,” Flores said.
        He said he had been deported from the United States earlier in the year, so he was considering remaining in Tijuana to work.    “If there’s an opportunity to go to Canada or another country … I would happily do that,” he said.
    Honduran migrants arrived in the city of Mexicali,
    unable to continue their journey to Tijuana. The migrants are hearing of backlash
    and poor conditions at the Benito Juarez sports complex. OMAR ORNELAS/USA TODAY NETWORK

    11/18/2018 President Trump says catch and release is “obsolete” by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump declares “Catch and Release” an “obsolete” phrase, and instead calls it “Catch and Detain.”
        The President made the statement on Twitter today, adding “illegal immigrants trying to come into the U.S.A are often proudly flying” their "nation’s flag” as they ask for asylum.
        He then asserted those individuals will be turned-away or detained, and urged democrats to approve border security and the security wall.
        This comes as thousands of asylum seekers, that are part of the migrant caravan, camp in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

    11/19/2018 Calif. wildfire evacuees seek refuge in cars, tents after losing homes by OAN Newsroom
        A wave of deadly and destructive wildfires fuel an unprecedented housing crisis in Northern California as thousands more people are forced from their homes.
        While some evacuees have relied on distant friends and relatives for a place to stay, others have pitched tents and camped out of their vehicles with what’s left.
        Several people posted up near the parking lot of a Walmart in Chico after escaping their homes in Paradise, where the state’s largest blaze is raging nearby.
        “Yeah, I lost everything in Paradise, everything.    It’s really terrible.    We stayed in town and helped best we could, but we’ll be fine.    We’re campers.    We can get by good.    We don’t need much.    We just want people to help everybody else that’s here and really need — the young and the old especially.” -Randy Greb, resident of Paradise.
    People sit by their tents at a makeshift encampment outside a Walmart store for people
    displaced by the Camp Fire, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Chico, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
        Cal Fire said the so-called ‘Camp Fire’ is continuing to be contained after killing dozens of people, injuring a number of firefighters, and destroying tens of thousands of structures.
        Volunteers have poured in from surrounding areas to help in any way possible.
        “You give them something like toilet paper and it changes their day, and that’s the reality of this situation…this isn’t the only shelter that’s like this unfortunately, I’ve seen this in a number of times and we just all have to help out in any way we can,” explained Trina Reed of Oakland.
        Officials are working to close the makeshift camp set up outside the supercenter with FEMA, the Red Cross, and other agencies stepping up assistance.
        This comes as California Governor Jerry Brown said President Trump pledged to help the state following his visit to survey wildfire damage.
        “The federal government is behind you, we’re all behind each other…we’re all going to work together,” stated the president.
        President Trump has approved an emergency disaster declaration, which will make federal resources available to affected communities.

    11/19/2018 Socialist Ocasio-Cortez inaccurately names branches of government by OAN Newsroom
    Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., walks to member-elect briefings on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        Democrat socialist and Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under fire for misnaming the three branches of government.
        “If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — uh, rather, all three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House in 2020 — we can’t start working in 2020,” stated Ocasio-Cortez.
        She made those comments during a conference call Sunday.
        Ocasio-Cortez even tried to defend the comments by saying Republicans should stop — in her words — “drooling over every minute of footage of her.”
        The three branches of government are the executive, legislative and judicial.
    [That is very sad that a congress person was voted in that does not even no that, a 2nd grade learning item].

    11/19/2018 House Intel chairman: Fourth bucket of information revealed in DOJ, FBI probe by OAN Newsroom
        House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said a so-called “fourth bucket” of information has been uncovered, shedding light on possible misconduct by the FBI.
        In an interview Sunday, Nunes said the committee’s investigation is nearing completion.    He stressed the need to declassify documents related to the Russia probe, saying it would bring a sense of finality.
        Nunes is claiming the “fourth bucket” shows emails between the two agencies, revealing they knew and withheld information from the FISA court.
    House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes. (AP/Photo)
        House GOP lawmakers have echoed those sentiments by pointing to FISA abuses and blatant anti-Trump bias.
        “There is strong suggestions in some of the text messages, emails and so forth, who was involved that extraordinary measures were used to surveil,” said Representative Mark Meadows of the Freedom Caucus.    “There was a suggestion, there was as many as 5 different people that perhaps came under the surveillance of the DOJ and FBI in the early days of the Trump transition.”
        The House Intelligence Committee has been pushing to subpoena Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to answer questions related to the start of the Mueller probe.

    11/19/2018 APEC summit ends without joint statement amid U.S.-China tensions by OAN Newsroom
        The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ends in disarray as trade tensions between the U.S. and China take center stage.
        For the first time in over two decades, the 21 leaders who took part in APEC chose not to issue a joint statement.
        Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first to signal all was not well at the summit, which is meant to promote Trans-Pacific cooperation.
        “I don’t think it will come as a huge surprise that there are differing visions on particular elements in regard to trade, and those prevented there from being a full consensus on the communique document — that’s why there’s going to be a chair’s consensus,” stated Trudeau.
        Instead, the summit’s chair spoke about the issues the group agreed on, although tensions about trade continued to rise.
        “But APEC leaders continue to focus on the efforts about trying to reduce inequalities, focus on making sure there is economic diversification, and working together so we can remove trade barriers, so that we can drive growth and ensure prosperity for all the people,” said Peter O’Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.
        While tariffs between the U.S. and China have led to conflict in the past year, the summit also showed the U.S. is trying to compete with China as both superpowers pledge more aid to developing countries.
    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a signing ceremony for the
    Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership at APEC Haus in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea,
    Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
        Over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence joined a group of western nations in pledging to provide electricity to the host of the summit – Papua New Guinea.br>     “We trust that this announcement today and the part of the United States of America in this joint announcement is proof that America and our businesses are investing in this region as never before,” said Pence.
        The announcement comes as China has worked to improve infrastructure in developing countries around the world, which is something the west has blasted as bringing those countries debt and giving China too much influence.    However, Chinese officials pushed back on those claims.
        “No country, either in this region or in other regions, has fallen into a so-called debt trap because of its cooperation with China — give me one example,” stated Chinese Foreign Ministrty offcial Wang Xiaolong.
        With both the U.S. and China competing in world trade and world aid, Pence signaled the best way to move forward will come when President Trump and President Xi Jinping speak at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month.
        “There are differences today — they begin with trade practices, with tariffs and quotas and forced technology transfers, the theft of intellectual property, but it goes beyond that to freedom of navigation in the seas and concerns about human rights,” Pence explained.    “All of those issues I know are going to be topics that the president and President Xi discuss at the G20.”
        The vice president said he told President Xi that President Trump and the American people want a positive relationship with China, but there has to be change for that to happen.

    11/19/2018 U.S. briefly shutters border crossing to brace for migrants by Lizbeth Diaz
    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Special Response Team (SRT) officers are seen
    through concertina wire at the San Ysidro Port of Entry after the land border crossing
    was temporarily closed to traffic in Tijuana, Mexico November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
        TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – U.S. officials briefly closed the busiest border crossing from Mexico early on Monday to add concrete barricades and razor wire amid concerns that some of the thousands of Central American migrants at the border could try to rush the crossing.
        Northbound lanes at the San Ysidro crossing from Tijuana to San Diego, California, were closed “to position additional port hardening materials,” a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said.
        A Department of Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a conference call later that U.S. officials had heard reports some migrants were intending to run through border crossings into California.
        Ahead of U.S. congressional elections earlier this month, President Donald Trump denounced the approach of a caravan of migrants as an “invasion” that threatened American national security.    He sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border.
        By dawn on Monday, 15 of 26 vehicle lanes had reopened at the San Ysidro crossing, according to the DHS official.
        It was a rare closing of the station, which is one of the busiest border crossings in the world, with tens of thousands Mexicans heading every day into the United States to work or study.
        “Today was a lost day of work.    I already called my boss to tell her that everything was closed and I did not know what time I would be able to get in,” said Maria Gomez, a Mexican woman who crosses the border every day for work.    “I cannot believe this is happening.”
        Trump had remained mostly silent about the caravan since the Nov. 6 vote, but on Monday he posted a photo on Twitter showing a fence that runs from the beach in Tijuana into the ocean now covered with razor wire.
        About 6,000 Central Americans have reached the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali, according to local officials.    More bands of migrants are making their way toward Tijuana, with around 10,000 expected.
        Hundreds of local residents on Sunday massed at a monument in a wealthy neighborhood of Tijuana to protest the arrival of the migrants, with some carrying signs that said “Mexico first” and “No more migrants.”
        Last month, thousands of Central American migrants began a long journey from Honduras through Mexico toward the United States to seek asylum.
        Other bands of mostly Salvadorans followed, with a small group setting off on Sunday from San Salvador.
    (Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler)

    11/20/2018 Oil up $0.71 to $57.17, DOW down 396 to 25,017

    11/20/2018 In threat to Pelosi, 16 Dems say they’ll back new leadership
        Sixteen maverick Democrats have released a letter saying they’ll vote for “new leadership” when the House picks leaders in January.    That poses a threat to Nancy Pelosi’s effort to become speaker again.
        The California Democrat is favored by most Democrats to lead them, as she has since 2003.    Pelosi seems sure to win her party’s nomination to be speaker when Democrats vote on that after Thanksgiving.
        The letter says Democrats won on “a message of change,” and the legislators say they plan to deliver that.

    11/20/2018 Americans divided on immigrant caravan - Most give migrants a chance; half see a threat by Hasan Dudar, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – More than half of Americans – 54 percent – see the immigrant caravan as some kind of threat, but a majority – 70 percent – say the same immigrants should be able to qualify for asylum in the USA, according to a nationwide poll released Monday.
        Patrick Murray, director of the New Jersey-based Monmouth University Polling Institute, said President Donald Trump may have contributed to the nationwide divide over the immigrant caravan.    The president turned the caravan into a campaign issue in the weeks leading to the midterm elections.
        “Most of the public express some level of concern about the approaching caravan, some of which may be due to unsubstantiated claims that the group includes terrorists,” Murray said in a statement released with the Monmouth University Poll results.    “At the same time, though, most Americans feel that each migrant should be given the opportunity to state their case for entering the United States.”
        Trump called the caravan a potential “invasion” and responded by mobilizing the military to the border.    The immigrants, mostly Central Americans, said they fled their home countries to escape violence, corruption and poverty.
        Trump tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” with the caravan.    He advised a reporter to “go into the middle and search.    You’re gonna find MS-13, you’re gonna find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything.”
        The poll found that 1 in 4 people say the caravan includes terrorists, and 13 percent are unsure but say the claim is likely to be true.    About half of the respondents express doubt about the claim.
        The Monmouth University Poll was taken days after the midterm elections and more than a month after the caravan formed in Central America.    The caravan started Oct. 12 when about 120 immigrants gathered in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, near the Guatemala border, and has since gained thousands of participants, going through Mexico.    In recent days, hundred of immigrants have arrived in Tijuana in hopes of gaining asylum in the USA.
        Views of the caravan were split along partisan lines in the poll.    Most Republicans, 51 percent, say the caravan should be turned back from the nation’s southern border, and 43 percent say the migrants should be afforded the opportunity to enter the USA.    Most Democrats, 89 percent, and independents, 72 percent, say the immigrants deserve to be allowed into the USA.
        Only 21 percent of those living in states that share a border with Mexico – Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas – view the immigrant caravan as a major threat, the poll found.    The regions most worried about a “major threat” from the caravan include the Southeast (35 percent), the Midwest (33 percent) and the mountain Northwest (33 percent).    About 25 percent of those from the Northeast share that opinion.
        Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection suspended northbound traffic at California’s San Ysidro border crossing as immigrants began arriving.
        Murray suggested the poll shows that “few minds were changed by all the campaign rhetoric on this issue, but it certainly helped deepen the nation’s partisan divide.”
        The Monmouth University Poll surveyed 802 adults by telephone Nov. 912.    The margin of error: +/-3.5 percentage points.
    Contributing: Alan Gomez
        “Most Americans feel that each migrant should be given the opportunity to state their case for entering the United States.” Patrick Murray, Monmouth University Polling Institute.
    Members of the third migrant caravan, from El Salvador, arrive at
    the Mexican municipality of Matias Romero on Nov. 9. LUIS VILLALOBOS/EPA-EFE

    11/20/2018 Northern Irish kingmakers send UK PM May a warning over Brexit deal by Alistair Smout and Michael Holden
    Anti-Brexit demonstrators protest outside the Houses of Parliament
    in London, Britain, November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – The Northern Irish kingmakers who prop up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government sent her a stark warning over her draft Brexit divorce deal, pulling support in several parliamentary votes on a finance bill.
        The move breaches the DUP’s deal with May and throws further doubt over whether she has the numbers to approve a draft Brexit deal in parliament.
        Since striking a draft divorce deal with the EU a week ago, some lawmakers in her Conservative Party have tried to trigger a leadership challenge and her Northern Irish allies have said the deal threatens the unity of the United Kingdom.
        May vowed to fight on and has repeatedly cautioned her critics that if they topple her, the United Kingdom will be thrust into a potentially disorderly departure from the EU on March 29 or that Brexit could be put off or canceled.
        But in an ominous sign for her Brexit deal, which must be approved by the British parliament, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) failed to back her minority government in several votes on a finance bill on Monday.
        “We had to do something to show our displeasure,” the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, said.
        The votes, he said, were “designed to send a political message to the government: Look we’ve got an agreement with you but you’ve got to keep your side of the bargain otherwise we don’t feel obliged to keep ours.”
        More than two years after the United Kingdom voted by 52-48 percent to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave as planned on March 29, 2019.
        The EU is due to hold a summit to discuss the draft deal on Nov. 25.    Some eurosceptic ministers in May’s cabinet are reported to want to rewrite parts of it, though EU governments have largely ruled this out.
        British Justice Secretary David Gauke said on Tuesday talks were now moving on to Britain’s future relationship with the EU.
        “The withdrawal agreement is essentially done.    We have had thousands of hours of negotiations with the European Commission and we have reached a deal where there have been compromises on both side,” he told BBC radio.
        “The withdrawal agreement meets our key objectives in terms of the integrity of the United Kingdom which is so important to all of us in government especially the prime minister.”
    NUMBERS
        Many business chiefs and investors fear politics could torpedo an agreement, thrusting the world’s fifth largest economy into a no-deal void that they say would weaken the West, spook financial markets and silt up the arteries of trade.
        May’s deal is opposed by both supporters and opponents of Brexit within her party, the DUP’s 10 lawmakers, the Labour Party and all other parties in parliament.    She needs 320 votes out of the 650-seat parliament to get approval.
        The DUP, whose political ideology is based on defense of Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom, say the deal divides the province from the rest of the United Kingdom.
        Brexit-supporting Conservative lawmakers bluntly warned May last week that they are trying to gather the 48 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote in her leadership.
        Thus far, though, there has been no sign that the threshold has been reached.
        Since she won the top job in the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit referendum, May’s premiership has been characterized by obduracy in the face of frequent crises.
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

    11/20/2018 U.S. considers adding Venezuela to terrorism sponsors list: source by Matt Spetalnick
    FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting with ministers
    at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela November 2, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is considering adding Venezuela to its list of state sponsors of terrorism but no final decision has been made, a person familiar with the deliberations said on Monday.
        Adding Venezuela to the list could limit U.S. economic assistance and impose financial restrictions on a country already suffering from hyperinflation, mass migration and shortages of food and medicine.
        Discussions on the issue have moved forward in recent days with strong lobbying from Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who has long pressed the administration to take a tougher stand against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the source said.
        A time frame for a decision on whether to add Venezuela to the terrorism list had not yet been determined, the source said.
        A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would be a challenge for the Trump administration to provide concrete proof linking the Maduro government to terrorism if it decides to put Venezuela on the list.
        The four countries currently on the list – North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Syria – have been found to “have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”
        Rubio and two other Republican senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in September urging him to name Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism and accusing it of links to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but they offered no proof.
        The Trump administration has levied several rounds of sanctions against Maduro’s Socialist-led government since 2017, accusing it of undermining democracy.    On Nov. 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed a disrupting Venezuela’s gold exports.
        Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
        Maduro, who denies limiting political freedoms, has said he is the victim of an “economic war” led by the United States.
        The Washington Post, which first reported that the Trump administration was considering the designation, said the U.S. State Department had been asking for feedback on the proposed move from various agencies in recent days.
        A State Department spokesperson said it “consistently and on an ongoing basis reviews available information and intelligence, from many sources, on possible state-level involvement in terrorism, evaluating all credible, verified, and corroborated information in its entirety.”
        The White House declined to comment.
        A senior U.S. official told Reuters earlier this month that the Trump administration was “looking at all potential avenues” to pressure Maduro’s government.
        “We believe his presidency to be illegitimate,” the official said, reiterating Washington’s rejection of the outcome of Venezuela’s elections earlier this year.    Maduro won a new six-year term in May but his main rivals disavowed the election and alleged massive irregularities.
        “The regime really understands that the world is getting smaller for them.    And that’s the kind of pressure that is needed to really change minds in the regime.    The sanctions are having an effect,” the official said.
    (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Washington anfd Luc Cohen in Caracas; Editing by Sandra Maler)

    11/20/2018 Trump admin. could designate Venezuela as state sponsor of terrorism by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration is considering whether to add Venezuela to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
        According to U.S. officials cited in the Washington Post on Monday, the country led by President Nicolas Maduro may soon be on the list of countries accused of supporting international acts of terror.    The list currently includes Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea.
        The report said the State Department is currently asking for input from other agencies on the designation as it could affect international aid to the country.    It would also prohibit financial transactions between the U.S. and Venezuela.
        This comes after administration officials reportedly met with the country’s military officials to plan a coup earlier this year.    President Trump has not ruled out military action against Maduro.
        “I just want to see Venezuela straightened out, I want the people to be safe, ” stated President Trump.    “We’re going to take care of Venezuela — what’s happening in Venezuela is a disgrace.”     Meanwhile, Venezuela’s exiled Justice Department officials are calling for Interpol to arrest Maduro.
        In a letter sent on Monday, the top Justice official — who was forced to flee to Florida — claimed the president has engaged in corruption, while the country faces economic collapse.    Along with other exiled officials, he is asking for the agency to issue an international arrest warrant, so Maduro will face 18-years in prison.
        Over the past two-years, Venezuela’s economic collapse has caused two million to seek refuge in nearby countries, fueling the region’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades.    The Trump administration’s sanctions are exasperating the situation.
    Venezuelan migrant Marleny Chirino cooks rice near the main bus terminal in Bogota, Colombia,
    Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. Venezuelan migrants who live in tents near the main bus terminal in Bogota will be moved
    to a new camp next according to Social Secretary Cristina Velez. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
        Colombia built a tent city for migrants last week, but on faced a violent protest over food rations on Monday, which resulted in four arrests.
        “We found some weapons that were turned over voluntarily by people in the camp…four people have been judicially processed, two of them for damages made in public and private property,” explained Jorge Garcia, Security Secretary for Bogota Mayor’s Office.
        While Colombia and neighboring countries try to cope with the influx, they are calling for a coordinated international response to the crisis.

    11/20/2018 Senior House Democrat echoes Trump admin.’s stance on China by OAN Newsroom
        A Senior House Democrat is backing the Trump administration’s hardline stance on China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.
        On Monday, Virginia Congressman Gerry Connelly warned Beijing it will have a serious problem with the U.S. if it continues to refuse a peaceful coexistence.
    Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        Connelly is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and his comments echo similar remarks made by Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend.
        Pence threatened doubling sanctions on China if Beijing keeps cutting access to shipping lanes in the region, and selling loans to poor countries that are unable to pay back what they owe.
        “China has an honored place in our vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, if it chooses to respect its neighbors’ sovereignty, embrace free, fair, and reciprocal trade, and uphold human rights and freedom,” stated Pence.    “The American people want nothing more, the Chinese people and the entire Indo-Pacific deserve nothing less.”
        Other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called the tariffs on China a good first-step toward negotiating a better trade deal with Beijing.

    11/20/2018 Mexico puts on job fair for migrants to stay and work in country by OAN Newsroom
        A job fair is underway in Mexico, giving migrants a second chance to accept Mexico’s offer to stay and work in the country instead of going to the U.S.
        The fair opened just south of the U.S. border in Tijuana Monday, providing work permits and a humanitarian visas to members of the caravan.
        At least five companies took part in the event, mostly offering factory work, with more expected to join over the course of the month-long fair.
        Mexican officials behind the event are hoping their efforts will cool tensions between locals and the migrants, following a string of violent incidents.
    Central American migrants, as part of the Central American caravan trying to reach
    the United States, wait in a line to receive donated dinner downtown in Mexicali, Mexico, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        “This service fair is of course for the extraordinary flow of migrants, but it’s also for Mexicans looking for a job,” stated Franciso Iribe Paniagua, Secretary of Labor for Baja California, Mexico.    “Today we will offer 1000 jobs, mainly in the industrial sector, and we will also inform people about the companies looking for workers in other states of the Mexican Republic.”
        There are more than 2,000 Central American migrants in Tijuana and Mexican officials warn the number could swell to over 10,000 as more of the caravan arrives.

    11/20/2018 Obama-era judge blocks President Trump’s ban on illegal aliens claiming asylum by OAN Newsroom
        The Department of Justice is considering appealing an Obama-appointed judge’s “temporary restraining order” against President Trump’s decision to bar illegal aliens from applying for asylum.
    Mexicans migrants watch as workers place concertina wire on the border structure
    separating Mexico and the United States, where the border meets the Pacific Ocean, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
        Judge Jon Tigar issued the order Monday night, siding with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
        He questioned the legal basis the administration had for stopping asylum claims based off the method a person used for entering the country.
        This comes after President Trump issued a proclamation to stop those caught illegally crossing the border from turning around and asking for asylum.
        The president, instead, demanded migrants respect the rule of law and use official border crossings to begin the necessary paperwork.
    [That democrat judge does not have the authority too do that.].

    11/20/2018 With Carney warning of 1970s-style shock, UK firms ready for no-deal Brexit by Kate Holton and William Schomberg
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May replies to questions after speaking at the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) annual conference in London, Britain, November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
        LONDON (Reuters) – Companies began triggering plans to keep operating if Britain leaves the European Union without an agreement, a “no deal” scenario the Bank of England said could plunge the economy into a crisis not seen since the 1970s.
        With less than five months before Britain leaves the bloc, Prime Minister Theresa May is struggling to persuade parliament to back a draft divorce deal agreed with Brussels last week.
        She won the backing of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who warned that a no-deal Brexit could hit the economy in a way not seen since the oil crisis that pushed many western nations into recession just after Britain had joined what is now the EU in 1973.
        But the warnings and a charm offensive launched by May to court public opinion have done little so far to win over her critics, who are trying to force her to change tack over Brexit, Britain’s biggest policy shift in more than 40 years.
        Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s minority Conservative government, again said it would vote against her deal in parliament.
        “All of our efforts are directed along with a large number of Conservative MPs from both the remain camp and the leave camp as well as opposition parties to defeat this deal and force a rethink,” the DUP’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told Sky News when asked if his party would bring down May’s government.
        But the party’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, softened the tone, by leaving open the possibility of the party continuing to support May’s government on domestic issues.
        The prime minister was banking on opposition to what is a draft divorce deal fading after an attempt to unseat her by pro-Brexit Conservatives seemed to be fizzling out.    As an olive branch to those Brexit campaigners, her spokesman signaled May was open to looking at their proposed technological solutions to keep the border open on the island of Ireland.
        For now, it was business as usual for May.    She will meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss an agreement on future ties before EU leaders are due to rubber-stamp the divorce deal on Sunday.
        She will also host Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Thursday.
        But one eurosceptic lawmaker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, stood firm, saying May had taken a “deliberate decision not to deliver a proper Brexit” and that her opponents were adhering to the mantra that “patience is a virtue” in their attempt to oust her.
    STARK CHOICE
        May has warned lawmakers they have a simple choice: back her deal or risk ushering in a no deal departure, a delay to Brexit or possibly no Brexit at all.
        Carney, who angered many Brexit campaigners by warning of the hit to economic growth from the decision to leave the EU, was also keen to illustrate the risks if the deal were voted down in parliament.
        “This would be a very unusual situation … It is very rare to see a large negative supply shock in an advanced economy.    You would have to stretch back at least in our analysis until the 1970s to find analogies.”
        Welcoming the transitional period in the draft deal with the EU, he also said there were limits to what the central bank could do in the event of a Brexit shock to the economy, both in terms of a fall in demand and ensuring lending by banks.
        Earlier, the BoE said it would fulfill a request from parliament’s Treasury Committee to provide analysis of how the draft Brexit divorce deal “will affect the Bank’s ability to deliver its statutory remits for monetary and financial stability, including in a ‘no deal, no transition’ scenario.”
        Doubts over the vote in parliament have pushed companies which have “no deal” contingency plans to start triggering them.
        Electrocomponents , which stocks more than half a million industrial and electronics products, said it would spend 30 million pounds ($39 million) to increase its holding of fast-moving lines in Britain and Europe.    AO World , an online electricals and white goods group, said it might increase stock to mitigate any friction in the supply chain while Compass , the world’s biggest catering firm, said it was looking to build inventory and vary its menus before Brexit next March.
        More than two years after Britons voted by 52-48 percent to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave as planned on March 29, 2019.
        The EU is due to hold a summit to discuss the draft deal on Nov. 25.    Some eurosceptic ministers in May’s cabinet want her to rewrite parts of it, though on Tuesday, Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said the draft text was in fact the text and would not be reopened.
        Britain’s justice secretary, David Gauke, agreed that the withdrawal agreement was “essentially done.”
        “We have had thousands of hours of negotiations with the European Commission and we have reached a deal where there have been compromises on both sides,” he told BBC radio.
        “The withdrawal agreement meets our key objectives in terms of the integrity of the United Kingdom which is so important to all of us in government, especially the prime minister.”
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Elizabeth Piper; Additional reporting by Helen Reid and William James in London, Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; editing by David Stamp, William Maclean)

    11/20/2018 Pompeo says U.S. backs South Korean as head of police agency Interpol
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pauses during a news conference at the
    State Department in Washington, U.S., November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States supported Kim Jong Yang of South Korea to lead the international police agency Interpol, pitting Washington against the Kremlin’s candidate for the job, Alexander Prokopchuk.
        “We strongly endorse Kim Jong Yang, who is serving as its acting president,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.
        “We encourage all nations and organizations that are part of Interpol and that respect the rule of law to choose a leader of credibility and integrity that reflects one of the world’s most critical law enforcement bodies.    We believe Mr. Kim will be just that,” Pompeo said.
        U.S. lawmakers have been lobbying President Donald Trump’s administration to oppose Prokopchuk’s candidacy, charging that Russia has been abusing Interpol, trying to use it to settle scores and harass dissidents by issuing warrants for their arrest.
        Kim was named acting president of Interpol in October after then-President Meng Hongwei disappeared while on a trip to his home country of China.    China later said he was being investigated for bribery and other violations.
        The France-based Interpol later said Meng had resigned as president, and Beijing said he was being expelled from a high-profile but largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament.
        The battle to succeed Meng turned political after Prokopchuk, a former major general in Russia’s Ministry of the Interior, emerged as one of the favorites to get the job, a prospect that alarmed critics of President Vladimir Putin.
        Russian dissident and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Tuesday gave a news conference in London alongside U.S.-born Kremlin critic Bill Browder at which both warned against Prokopchuk’s election, saying it would make it easier for the Kremlin to manipulate Interpol. Moscow has rejected such claims.
    (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Susan Thomas and Marguerita Choy)

    11/20/2018 Turkey says it may seek U.N. inquiry if impasse in cooperation with Saudis
    FILE PHOTO: Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) waves to the media before a meeting
    with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey is not entirely satisfied with the level of cooperation it is receiving from Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and may seek a formal United Nations inquiry over the issue if its liaising with Riyadh comes to an impasse, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.
        Speaking to reporters in Washington after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Cavusoglu said Turkey has shared the latest information on the Khashoggi killing with the United States and repeated Ankara’s stance that the truth had to come out on who gave the orders to kill the journalist.
        “The cooperation with Saudi Arabia (over Khashoggi) is not at a level where we would want it to be,” Cavusoglu told reporters, adding that if liaising with Riyadh came to a standstill, Ankara could seek a formal U.N. inquiry.
        Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Washington Post columnist who was a critic of the Saudi government run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
        After offering numerous contradictory explanations for Khashoggi’s disappearance, Riyadh said last week he had been killed and his body dismembered when “negotiations” to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.    The public prosecutor said it would seek the death penalty for five suspects in the case.
        Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the killing was ordered at the “highest levels” of the Saudi government but has not directly accused Prince Mohammed. Saudi Arabia has denied that the prince ordered Khashoggi’s killing.
        U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to remain a “steadfast partner” of Saudi Arabia, despite saying that the Saudi crown prince may have known about the plan to murder the dissident journalist last month.
        Turkey has also handed to the United States a list of 84 individuals that it wants extradited, Cavusoglu said, over their links with Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt. Gulen denies involvement.
        He added that Ankara had passed on the list following a telephone conversation between Erdogan and Trump.
    (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; editing by James Dalgleish)

    11/21/2018 Oil down $3.77 to $53.43, DOW down 552 to 24,466

    11/21/2018 Stock rout erases 2018 gains for Dow, S&P 500 by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Stock investors bid goodbye to their 2018 gains on Tuesday.    The heavy selling on Wall Street continued, with losses in popular tech stocks spreading to the broader market, a rout that erased the 2018 gains of the Dow and broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
        investors have been dumping shares of U.S. companies for weeks, as worries about the global economy mount due to obstacles ranging from the fallout from the U.S.-China trade dispute to signs of slowing iPhone sales to fears that Federal Reserve interest rate hikes will hurt growth.
        The selling pressure was again focused in the hard-hit technology sector, where shares of the so-called FAANG stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet – were under pressure.    All five stocks, which had been leading the market higher during the bull market, are now down more than 20 percent from their highs in the past year, which puts them in bearmarket territory.    The biggest decliners are Facebook, which has been hounded by data privacy issues, down nearly 40 percent from its recent peak, and Netflix, which is off 37 percent.
        At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average, which was down almost 600 points at its low, was 552 points lower at 24,466 and trading 1 percent below where it finished in 2017.    The S&P 500 finished 1.8 percent lower, pushing it into negative territory for the year.    The large-company stock index, considered a proxy for the health of the broader market, briefly dipped 10 percent below its Sept. 20 high, putting it back in so-called “correction territory.”    It finished the session 9.9 percent below its peak.
        The tech-dominated Nasdaq, which had fallen close to 3 percent earlier and briefly into the red for the year, fell 1.7 percent lower, extending its losses from its late August high to nearly 15 percent.    After Tuesday’s plunge, the Dow is 8.8 percent off its recent high.

    11/21/2018 US sanctions companies in Iran, Russia for shipping oil to Syria
        The U.S. says it has placed a network of Russian and Iranian companies on an international blacklist for shipping oil to Syria in violation of U.S. sanctions.
        Officials say the network helps fuel the Syrian war effort of President Bashar Assad while providing revenue for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

    11/21/2018 Trump standing by Saudi royals despite Khashoggi murder by Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump expressed support for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday even as he conceded that the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, may have been involved in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
        “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said in an eight-paragraph statement laced with exclamation points that opened by declaring, “The world is a very dangerous place!”
        “The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region,” Trump said.
        As he left Tuesday afternoon for Florida, Trump said abandoning Saudi Arabia “would be a terrible mistake” and touted the regime’s promise to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-made weapons.
        “We’re not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said.    Experts, such as Jonathan Caverley with the Naval War College, said Trump exaggerated possible arms sales deals to the regime.
        Critics said Trump’s statement lets the Saudi government off the hook for the brutal killing of an American resident and sends an ominous signal to other dictatorships around the world that they have carte blanche to commit human rights abuses.    They slammed the president for questioning the CIA’s reported conclusion that Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
        “President Trump’s habit of siding with murderous foreign dictators over American intelligence professionals is a stain on our democracy that undermines the American ideal,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.    “Congress must now stand up with bipartisan resolve to condemn the brutal slaying of Jamal Khashoggi and pass legislation to respond to this and other Saudi crimes.”
        The publisher of The Washington Post, Fred Ryan, accused the president of “putting personal relationships and commercial interests above American interest in his desire to continue to do business as usual with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.”
        Trump hinted at the CIA’s assessment of the crown prince’s role in Khashoggi’s murder, but he highlighted the royal family’s denials and its portrayal of Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist – a characterization the journalist’s family flatly denied.
        “Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an ‘enemy of the state’ and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that,” Trump said in the statement.    “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
        The Senate could vote as early as next week on legislation that would force the Trump administration to withdraw all U.S. military support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen.
        It’s not clear whether such a measure could pass, but lawmakers are considering a range of other proposals in response to Khashoggi’s killing.
    Contributing: David Jackson
    “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” President Donald Trump.

    11/21/2018 White House grants law enforcement powers, use of force to troops at border by OAN Newsroom
    Marines look on during work to fortify the border structure that separates Tijuana, Mexico, behind, and San Diego,
    near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in San Diego. On Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018 the White House authorized military
    members to engage in law enforcement roles, including the use of lethal force against illegal immigrants. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
        The White House is authorizing military personnel at the southern border to engage in law enforcement roles and use lethal force against illegal immigrants if necessary.
        The cabinet order signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Tuesday adds crowd control and detention to the duties of troops deployed to the border, who have already been tasked with the protection of Border Patrol and customs agents, as well as fortifying the border.    As of Wednesday there are about 5,900 active duty service members at the border along with about 2,100 National Guard troops.
        Kelly says the move is in response to intelligence indicating migrants at the border in Tijuana may prompt incidents of violence and disorder.
    Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, left, walks next to a section of the border wall fortified with
    razor wire separating Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
        The move comes as reports of a possible planned stampede of migrants across the San Ysidro, Calif. port of entry.
        According to Angels without Borders, an advocacy group for illegal immigrants, the migrants could attempt to rush through port of entry in large numbers.    Reports say the migrants would then blame U.S. forces for the resulting chaos and any related injuries.
        But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said during her visit to the border Tuesday, no one will get into the U.S. illegally.
        “Some critics and media have stated that DHS is overreacting to the presence of a few hundred migrants,” Secretary Nielsen said.    “The reality is that the majority of the caravan that we see is made up of single adult males or teenage males.    In addition we have identified over 500 criminals to include known gang members contained in the flow of the caravan.”
        Mexican authorities have arrested at least 34 migrants on drugs and violence related charges.

    11/21/2018 Pres. Trump applauds lower oil prices, thanks Saudi Arabia by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump waves after speaking to the media before leaving the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018.
    The president thanked Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018 for the lower oil prices. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        Pres. Trump applauds the low oil prices comparing it to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
        On Twitter Wednesday the president thanked Saudi Arabia for the low oil prices, saying a barrel went from $82 to $54 and he wants to continue getting that price lower.    He then said it’s like a big tax cut for America and the world.
        The president’s tweet comes one day after he released a statement reaffirming the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia.

    11/21/2018 Trump admin. to defend executive order on illegal asylum in Supreme Court by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is challenging San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit Court after a district judge temporarily blocked his executive order on immigration.

    11/21/2018 Tijuana overwhelmed with migrant caravans by OAN Newsroom
    Central American migrants get a ride on a truck going from Mexicali to Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018.
    Migrants camped in Tijuana after traveling in a caravan to reach the U.S weighing their options after a U.S. court
    blocked President Donald Trump’s asylum ban for illegal border crossers. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        Pressure is being felt at the southern border as thousands of Central American migrants continue to seek asylum.
    Central American migrants wait to access to the shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
        During a news conference Tuesday, Mexico’s head of immigration said options for the migrant caravan to stay in Mexico should be considered.    His statement comes after Tijuana’s mayor spoke out against the caravans saying the city is overwhelmed and the current influx of migrants is likely to last for another six months.
        The city has arrested at least 34 migrants so far on a range of charges including drug possession, public intoxication and resisting police.
        This comes as Pres. Trump has vowed to appeal a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which blocked his asylum ban for illegal border crossers from taking effect.

    11/21/2018 Democrats, GOP refuse to give concessions ahead of government funding deadline by OAN Newsroom
        A possible government shutdown could happen Republicans and Democrats square-off in the lame-duck session over border security.
        Most funding for the government will run out on December seventh, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are so far refusing to give any concessions.
        Republicans are trying to secure at least five billion dollars for the construction of the president’s border wall, while Democrats are pushing for protections for special counsel Robert Mueller.
    U.S. and California state flags fly behind the border wall, seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018.
    Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from a caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month
    on the road — and with many more months likely ahead of them while they seek asylum in the U.S.
    The federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
        Last week, President Trump reiterated his push for border wall funding.    He said with the migrant caravans arriving at the border, it’s a good time to let a shutdown happen to force Congress to act.
        “I think probably if I was ever going to do a shutdown over border security, when you look at the caravans, when you look at the mess, when you look at the people coming in — this would be a very good time to do a shutdown,” said the president.    “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary, because I think the Democrats will come to their senses.”
        A recent Morning Consult poll found 55-percent of registered voters felt increased border wall funding was not an issue worth shutting down the government.    The same poll also found 47-percent of registered voters felt protections for the Mueller probe were also not important enough to shut down the government.

    11/21/2018 GOP leaders push criminal justice bill by OAN Newsroom
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaking to members of the media at the
    Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        A group of prominent GOP leaders are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to advance a criminal justice reform bill by the end of the year.
        Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Tim Scott made their arguments in a phone call Tuesday.    However, McConnell has said there may not be enough time to vote on the bill during the House’s lame-duck session.
        The Senate bill would have to go back to the House for approval, and Republicans think Democrats will try to kill the bill when they take power in January.
        President Trump has thrown his support behind the bill by saying it’s a necessary first step towards significant reforms.
        “It will provide new incentives for low risk inmates to learn the skills they need to find employment, avoid old habits, and follow the law when they are released from prison,” explained the president.    “These incentives will encourage them to participate in vocational training, education coursework, and in faith-based programs.”
        Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers are opposing the measure.    Senator Tom Cotton believes it would make the laws too lenient on violent sexual offenders.
        New acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has also voiced his reservations to the president.

    11/21/2018 Senate Republicans call for vote on USMCA before end of year by OAN Newsroom
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, speaks to media after a meeting in his office at the
    Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. With McConnell are from left, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Todd Young,
    R-Ind., Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, right. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        The clock is ticking for Republicans to pass President Trump’s trade deal with Canada and Mexico before Democrats officially take control of the House of Representatives.
        In a letter Tuesday a dozen Republican senators requested the White House send Congress the final text of the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement to start the process for a vote.    The group, which includes Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Utah Senator Mike Lee, explained it will be much harder to pass the bill as is with Democrats in power in the lower chamber next year.
        The White House has until November 30 to submit the draft in order for the legislation to be considered by the current Congress.

    11/21/2018 China has made little progress correcting unfair trade policies, says U.S. trade rep. by OAN Newsroom
        America’s top trade official is slamming China for failing to correct the unfair policies that led to the trade war between the two nations.
        In a 53 page progress report released on Tuesday, Robert Lighthizer highlighted Beijing’s refusal to tackle intellectual property theft.
    U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer is pictured. (AP/Photo)
        Lighthizer added, China has made little progress in correcting its “market distorting practices” despite the U.S. putting tariffs on nearly $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.
        The remarks come as the White House considers doubling those tariff to force China to make concessions on trade.
        President Trump is expected to discuss the matter with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit later this month.

    11/21/2018 Exclusive: U.S. weighs sanctions on Cuban officials over role in Venezuela crackdown by Alexandra Ulmer and Matt Spetalnick
    FILE PHOTO: Riot police officers stand in front of a mural depicting Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez
    during a protest against Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro's government, outside the building
    of the Labor Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela October 5, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration is considering imposing sanctions on Cuban military and intelligence officials who it says are helping Venezuela’s socialist government crackdown on dissent, according to a source with knowledge of the deliberations.
        Such sanctions would be the first time Washington has targeted a bloc of foreign officials allied with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.    OPEC member Venezuela is in the grips of a prolonged recession, its economy dogged by hyperinflation and food shortages.
        The White House declined comment in response to Reuters questions about possible Cuba sanctions.    The Cuban and Venezuelan governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
        U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican administration has already imposed sanctions on dozens of Venezuelan officials, and has sought to disrupt the country’s growing gold exports and access to external financing as part of a pressure campaign against Maduro.
        The potential human rights-related sanctions would target Cuban officials, possibly including generals, who Washington accuses of advising Venezuela’s government on how to monitor opponents and put down street protests, the source said.
        The number and identities of the potential targets was unclear.    No final decision has yet been made on whether and when to impose the sanctions.
        The measures would cast a further chill on U.S.-Cuba relations, where Trump has rolled back some of former President Barack Obama’s moves aimed at forging closer ties, and also fuel Maduro’s assertion that Washington is bent on undermining his government for ideological reasons.
        Cuba and Venezuela became close allies under the rule of late Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.    Since a series of bilateral agreements in 2000, the Communist island’s economy depends heavily on Venezuelan crude oil, which Havana compensates for by providing Venezuela with Cuban doctors and other services.
        The United States and Venezuelan opposition politicians have long maintained that Cuban military and intelligence officials advise Maduro’s government and security forces on the crackdown.
        While Maduro often travels to Havana and the Cuban ambassador is a frequent guest at government meetings in Caracas, the extent of Cuba’s influence on and support for Venezuela’s government and military is not publicly known.
        There are questions about how effective measures targeting Cuban officials would be.
        Human rights-related sanctions typically freeze assets, seize property, block travel in the United States and prohibit U.S. business dealings with the targets.    However, given Washington has maintained a six-decade financial and trade embargo on Cuba, few if any Cuban officials are believed to have a sizeable financial presence in the United States.
        In the past, Maduro has blasted sanctions as “imperialist” moves designed to complicate financial transactions, including food imports and bond payments.    He has also derided U.S. sanctions on himself and other Venezuelan officials as ineffective and a badge of honor.
        Maduro’s government has been criticized by Washington, the European Union and Latin American neighbors for overriding Venezuela’s opposition-led Congress, jailing opponents, using excessive force against protesters and failing to allow the entry of foreign humanitarian aid to ease the economic crisis.
    ‘TROIKA OF TYRANNY’
        The Trump administration has in the past floated the idea of sanctions that were not ultimately rolled out, and Washington has stressed it wants to minimize harm to Venezuelan people.
        Asked about possible sanctions on Cuban officials, a senior U.S. government official told Reuters in early November: “We are looking at all the potential avenues to deter those who are really helping the Maduro regime stay afloat and giving them the tools they need for repression.”
        Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton said earlier this month Washington would take a tougher line against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, calling them a “troika of tyranny.”
        “The Venezuelan regime’s repression is of course enabled by the Cuban dictatorship,” Bolton said during a speech in Miami, home to a diaspora of Venezuelans and Cubans who have historically been a bedrock of Republican support in swing state Florida.
        “The United States calls on all nations in the region to face this obvious truth, and let the Cuban regime know that it will be held responsible for continued oppression in Venezuela,” Bolton said.
        Trump’s top Latin America adviser, Mauricio Claver-Carone, is a Cuban-American who was opposed to Obama’s historic opening to Cuba after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two Cold War foes.
        “There is an important Cuba angle to the Venezuela crisis,” said Michael McCarthy, a research fellow at American University who studies Latin America.    “The question is whether a forceful persuasion strategy that goes regional by pressuring Cuba generates constructive engagement or pushback.”
    (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Kieran Murray, Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)

    11/22/2018 Brazil hosts air combat exercises for 14 air forces including USAF by Leonardo Benassatto
    A U.S. Air Force F-16 jet fighter takes off from an airbase during CRUZEX, a multinational
    air exercise hosted by the Brazilian Air Force, in Natal, Brazil November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
        NATAL AIR FORCE BASE, Brazil (Reuters) – The air forces of 14 nations including the United States are taking part this week in air combat exercises and non-conventional warfare training at a base in northern Brazil, the Brazilian Air Force said on Wednesday.
        Some 100 planes are involved in the so-called Southern Cross or CruzEx exercises, including six F-16 from the Texas Air National Guard alongside aircraft from Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Peru and Uruguay.
        They practiced simulated scenarios to prepare for potential events across the world including peacekeeping and stability operations, as well as providing support in humanitarian response operations in the aftermath of natural disasters.
        “The purpose of CruzEx is to increase cooperation and share experiences to be able to act with greater synergy,” said Brazilian Air Force Brigadier Luiz Guilherme Medeiros, director of the air exercises organized in Brazil since 2002.
        There was greater emphasis on non-conventional warfare this year, with troops parachuting from planes and rappelling down ropes from helicopters.
        Venezuela, which took part with F-16s at the last gathering in 2013, did not bring any aircraft this year.
        The Natal Air Force Base, on the northeastern tip of Brazil, played an important role in Brazilian cooperation with the U.S. military during World War II as a refueling station for aircraft flying troops and equipment to Northern Africa.
        In 1943, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt met at the base with Brazilian President Getulio Vargas on his way back from a conference with British leader Winston Churchill in Casablanca.
    (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by David Gregorio)

    11/22/2018 Secy Mattis addresses White House order to protect Border by OAN Newsroom
        Defense Secretary James Mattis speaks out on the presence of troops at the Southern border in the wake of the White House’s authorization of lethal force.
    Defense Secretary Jim Mattis waits outside for Chinese Minister of Defense General Wei Fenghe
    to begin an arrival ceremony at the Pentagon, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        On Wednesday Mattis said President Trump saw ‘the need’ to back up Border Patrol and indicated the military is ‘sizing up’ the additional measures authorized.
        He also estimated more than 5,700 federal troops are committed to the mission on the border right now.
        Mattis asserted the president’s concern for the safety of Border Patrol personnel is valid.
        “You saw were six Mexican policemen were injured according to The New York Times.    I think it’s an accurate report.    This down the Guatemalan border.    So it is not an unreasonable concern on the part of the president that we may have to back up Border Patrol.” – Defense Secretary James Mattis.
        He went on to suggest the crowd control barriers and barbed wire implemented at the border are partly aimed at protecting Border Patrol.

    11/22/2018 House Judiciary Chair Goodlatte issues subpoena for Comey, Lynch by OAN Newsroom
        Former FBI Director James Comey rejects a subpoena from House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte.
        This comes after the chairman issued subpoenas Tuesday, for Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
    Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC),
    chair of the Oversight and Committee. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
        Republicans on the panel want to press the pair about their decision-making in the 2016 presidential race, and are hoping Comey will appear for a deposition on the 29th, and Lynch on December 5th.
        They particularly want to ask Comey why he did not recommend charges against failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her private emails.
        This is the second time Comey has rejected a request to testify behind closed-doors, and House Republicans may try to hold him in contempt.

    11/22/2018 Sen. Grassley: why did Chief Justice Roberts stay silent during criticisms from Obama by OAN Newsroom
        Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley slams Chief Justice John Roberts for breaking with tradition on the Supreme Court, to attack President Trump.
        In a tweet Wednesday, Grassley pointed out how the chief justice stayed silent during the last administration, when Obama rebuked Justice Samuel Alito.
    Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is voicing his concerns during a weeks-long battle over Supreme Court nominee
    Brett Kavanaugh’s voluminous paper trail from his five years in the George W. Bush administration. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
        Grassley’s comments refer back to Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address, where the former president criticized the court’s ruling on Citizens United.    Justice Alito was seen mouthing the words ‘not true’ from the crowd.
        Obama also got into hot water just two years later, for suggesting the Supreme Court was an ‘unelected body,’ that does not have the right to overturn laws passed by Congress.
        Chuck Grassley tweeted: “Chief Justice Roberts rebuked Trump for a comment he made about judge’s decision on asylum I don’t recall the Chief attacking Obama when that Prez rebuked Alito during a State of the Union.”

    11/22/2018 ‘No more camps,’ Colombia tells Venezuelans not to settle in tent city by Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta
    A Venezuelan migrant girl puts clothes to dry in a temporary camp for refugee in
    Bogota, Colombia November 19, 2018. Picture taken November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
        BOGOTA (Reuters) – Francis Montano sits on a cold pavement with her three children, all their worldly possessions stuffed into plastic bags, as she pleads to be let into a new camp for Venezuelan migrants in the Colombian capital, Bogota.
        Behind Montano, smoke snakes from woodfires set amid the bright yellow tents which are now home to hundreds of Venezuelans, erected on a former soccer pitch in a middle-class residential area in the west of the city.
        The penniless migrants, some of the millions who have fled Venezuela’s economic and social crisis, have been here more than a week, forced by city authorities to vacate a makeshift slum of plastic tarps a few miles away.
        The tent city is the first of its kind in Bogota.    While authorities have established camps at the Venezuelan border, they have resisted doing so in Colombia’s interior, wary of encouraging migrants to settle instead of moving to neighboring countries or returning home.
        Its gates are guarded by police and officials from the mayor’s office and only those registered from the old slum are allowed access.
        “We’ll have to sleep on the street again, under a bridge,” said Montano, 22, whose children are all under seven years old.    “I just want a roof for my kids at night.”
        According to the United Nations, an estimated 3 million Venezuelans have fled as their oil-rich country has sunk into crisis under President Nicolas Maduro.    Critics accuse the Socialist leader of ravaging the economy through state interventions while clamping down on political opponents.
        The exodus – driven by violence, hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines – amounts to one in 12 of the population, placing strain on neighboring countries, already struggling with poverty.
        Colombia, which has borne the brunt of the migration crisis, estimates it is sheltering 1 million Venezuelans, with some 3,000 arriving daily.    The government says their total numbers could swell to 4 million by 2021, costing it nearly $9 billion a year.
        Municipal authorities in Bogota say the camp will provide shelter for 422 migrants through Christmas.    Then in mid January, it will be dismantled in the hope jobs and new lodgings have been found.
        For most, that is unlikely.    Residents say they cannot find permanent work, so scrape together a few pesos selling candies at traffic lights.
        Donations of food and clothing are banned because officials do not want migrants to get accustomed to handouts as they did in the makeshift camp.
        “Kind-hearted Bogotanos brought food, blankets and emergency supplies, so they didn’t leave,” said social director of the mayor’s office, Liliana Pulido, adamant the tent city is temporary.
        “There are no more camps.”
        Once the tent city closes in January, those without jobs and lodgings will simply return to the streets, they say.
        “We’re not asking for handouts, just work,” said Carmen Castillo, 29, who shares a tent with five others after traveling 550 km (342 miles) from the border town of Cucuta with her husband and baby son three months ago.
    REQUEST FOR AID
        Colombian President Ivan Duque has asked for international aid to help shoulder the humanitarian crisis, including funding for vaccinations, schooling, water sanitation and housing.
        The United States and European Union have sent tens of millions of dollars but Colombia, which is struggling to recover after a 2016 peace deal ended five decades of conflict with the Marxist FARC rebels, says much more is required.
        And while most Colombians are sympathetic to the Venezuelans’ plight, xenophobia has increased, especially in border areas.    In Bogota, many residents complain about being asked for money and stepping over Venezuelans sleeping rough.
        Migrants say they have been attacked and spat on.
        “Colombians need to be more human, walk in our shoes,” said Castillo.
        Although a vast improvement on the filthy shanty dwellings that lined railway tracks near Bogota’s bus terminal, migrants complain the tent facilities are not adequate.
        The walled camp has just four shower units and 10 toilets for 65 tents.    Migrants grumble they only get sandwiches, apples and fruit juice while frequent rain floods into their tents.
        Scuffles broke out this week over food and 16 residents were expelled from the camp.
        “There are sick people here … Children are underweight,” said Agustin Perez, 52 whose tent houses seven family members and is draped with drying clothes.    “It’s humiliating.”
    His wife, Esnedith Arroyo, 58, disagreed and said she is happy. Conditions and security are much better even without provisions. (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Nick Zieminski)

    11/22/2018 WTO says G20 trade restrictions soar, cover $481 billion of trade by Tom Miles
    FILE PHOTO: Roberto Azevedo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) attends the
    launch of the World Trade Report 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland, October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – Countries belonging to the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies applied 40 new trade restrictive measures between mid-May and mid-October, covering around $481 billion of trade, the World Trade Organization said on Thursday.
        The new restrictions covered six times more trade than in the previous period and were the largest since the WTO started monitoring G20 trade in 2012, it said in a statement.
        “The report’s findings should be of serious concern for G20 governments and the whole international community,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said in the statement.
        “Further escalation remains a real threat.    If we continue along the current course, the economic risks will increase, with potential effects for growth, jobs and consumer prices around the world.”
        The WTO was doing all it could to help de-escalate the situation, he added, but solutions would need political will and leadership from the G20, whose leaders will meet in Argentina next week.
        The monthly number of trade restrictions averaged eight during the period covered by the report, up from six per month in the previous report, which covered mid-October 2017 to mid-May 2018, the WTO statement said.
        “The proliferation of trade-restrictive actions and the uncertainty created by such actions could place economic recovery in jeopardy.    Further escalation would carry potentially large risks for global trade, with knock-on effects for economic growth, jobs and consumer prices around the world,” it said.
    TARIFF HIKES
        Three-quarters of the latest trade restrictions were tariff hikes, many of them retaliation to steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in March.
        But the WTO did not count measures that had been announced and not yet implemented, and one G20 country had asked for its tariff retaliation to be omitted from the monitoring report, which was done for “transparency” purposes, the WTO said.
        G20 countries had also implemented a monthly average of almost seven trade-liberalising measures, such as reducing import tariffs and export duties, in line with the trend since 2012.
        The trade covered by the liberalising measures was worth $216 billion, about two and a half times more than in the previous report.    Two-thirds of that value was attributable to China reducing more than 1,400 tariffs on vehicles, components and other products.
        A further $541 billion of trade, 4 percent of G20 countries’ imports, was covered by expansion of the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement, a liberalising measure that was excluded from the report’s headline numbers.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Stephanie Nebehay, Larry King)

    11/22/2018 Spain looks to boost China trade with Xi Jinping visit
    FILE PHOTO: China's President Xi Jinping waves to the crowd upon his arrival at
    Ninoy Aquino International airport during a state visit in Manila, Philippines, November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo
        MADRID (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Spain next Wednesday for an official visit expected to focus on trade and tourism.
        On Tuesday, trade ministers will meet representatives of major companies including Spanish banks Santander and BBVA , Commercial Bank of China, Spain’s Telefonica , oil company Repsol , China National Building Material Group, China Energy Engineering <3996.HK> and Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL].
        Philippe Le Corre, a China specialist and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, said Spain lagged its neighbor Portugal in attracting Chinese investment and is keen to get more.
        He noted that China Ocean Shipping Company’s 51 percent stake in Spain’s Noatum Port Holdings, which gives it control over the major harbours of Valencia, Bilbao and Barcelona, meant Spain “is definitely part of the ‘maritime silk road'.”
        China has courted southern and eastern European states as countries such as Germany tend to be more critical on human rights and trade issues, Beijing-based diplomats say.
        Neither Spain nor Portugal have signed a letter backed by at least 15 western ambassadors seeking an audience with the top official in China’s restive Xinjiang region to discuss rights concerns, something diplomats see as an apparent sign of their reluctance to confront China on contentious issues.
        Spain has a chronic trade deficit with China, according to Spain’s Institute of Foreign Trade, but in 2017 exports jumped 28 percent to around 6.25 billion euros.
    (Reporting by Carlos Ruano; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Noah Barkin in Berlin, Belen Carreno in Madrid; Writing by Sam Edwards, editing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

    11/22/2018 EU sees global trade tensions dominating G20 summit by Jan Strupczewski
    FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past steel rolls at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in
    Sestao, Spain, November 12, 2018. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Trade tensions between the United States and China are likely to dominate the G20 summit of the world’s 20 biggest economies next week, according to a senior European Union official who said the EU was keen to act as a bridge-builder.
        The United States and China have been imposing tariffs on each others goods in an escalating dispute over market access, forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights and state subsidies to certain sectors that distort competition.
        The European Union, Canada and Japan are also involved because of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products imposed by Washington earlier this year.
        “The success of the G20 summit this year will be measured by its capacity to de-escalate the current trade tensions,” the EU official, involved in preparations for the talks, said.
        The official said the EU shared many of the United States’ concerns over China’s trade practices, but favored a different approach.    While Washington pursued unilateral actions, the EU wants to deal with them in the World Trade Organisation.
        The United States is skeptical, saying the WTO is not equipped to deal with the new trade challenges.
        “The aim of the EU is to really now engage in the reform of the WTO, to provide political impetus through the G20 for the reform and get an update on progress at next year’s G20 summit under the Japanese presidency,” the official said.
        He said G20 leaders would not negotiate the new WTO rules, but should show their ministers and negotiators the topics and direction where change was needed.
        The EU will push for the G20 final communique to uphold previous commitments to keep markets open, fight protectionism and to support the multilateral trading system, the official said, adding the EU also wanted the issue of excess global steel capacity addressed.
        “We (also) want to have the fight against climate change recognized in the declaration as we have done last year,” he said.
        “There is one particular country, the United States, which has a different approach on this.    We will maintain our commitment in order to have a strong paragraph on this and an effective implementation of these agreements.”
    (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
    ["The Beast That Came Up Out Of The Sea" can no longer control its creation as can be seen now.].

    11/22/2018 Pres. Trump hints at visit to Afghanistan by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump hints at a possible visit to Afghanistan after making a Thanksgiving phone call with an Air Force general Thursday, saying you never know what could happen.
    President Donald Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his
    Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        His comments come after he pledged over the weekend to visit U.S. troops in a war zone either in Iraq or Afghanistan.
        The president said he’s had a very busy schedule over the past two years, but will be visiting a war zone soon.
        The U.S. has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan who are supporting a training and advisory mission, as well as counter-terrorism operations.
        “So, we’re winning, your winning and I appreciate very much and General your reputation is an incredible one.    Thank you very much for your job and I’ll see you back when you’re back in the United States or maybe I’ll even see you over the there. You never know what’s going to happen.” -President Trump.
        A White House team is reportedly planning President Trump’s war zone visit, but has not released a date or location.

    11/22/2018 Pres. Trump threatens to shut down border by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump speaks out on the military’s work on the border after a Thanksgiving teleconference with several branches of the armed forces.
        After his call Thursday, the president defended his decision to involve military troops, arguing we need strong protection at our southern border.
        While speaking on the migrant caravans, he warned he is considering closing the entire U.S. border if the group is deemed to be a credible threat.
    FILE – This Nov. 13, 2016, file photo shows a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent passes along a section of border wall
    in Hidalgo, Texas. The U.S. government has awarded a $167 million contract to build 8 miles of border wall in south Texas.
    U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the contract Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. Construction will begin in February. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
        His comments come after he slammed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, after a district judge blocked a White House order to deny asylum to illegal border crossers.
        Meantime, doctors in Tijuana are sounding the alarm over the migrant caravan as many members fall ill, increasing the risk of public health crisis.
        10,000 people are expected to arrive to the border city in the coming weeks to seek asylum at the U.S. border, and after long periods of walking through Central America, many are reportedly suffering from respiratory infections.
        Doctors said migrant children are developing breathing problems.    This comes as the Trump administration puts in place plans to make sure migrants stay in Mexico during the asylum process.

    11/23/2018 Tensions rise at U.S.-Mexico border as migrants, holiday travelers wait to cross by Lizbeth Diaz
    A migrant boy, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the
    United States, looks out from behind the riot shield of a Mexican policeman near the El Chaparral port of entry
    of border crossing between Mexico and the United States in Tijuana, Mexico November 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
        TIJUANA (Reuters) – Hundreds of Central American migrants in Mexico massed on Thursday around a tense U.S. border crossing, where security measures held up long lines of Mexicans headed to Thanksgiving gatherings on the other side of the frontier.
        With few belongings, and many of them with children in tow, the migrants set out for the crossing from the baseball field in the Mexican border city of Tijuana where they have been camped out.    Around 6,000 migrants who have trekked across Mexico in a caravan in recent weeks are now crammed into the field.
        They arrived at the Chaparral border crossing, opposite San Diego, California, and said they would wait there until they could request asylum, in spite of growing U.S. measures to tighten the border.
        “We are already desperate, last night it rained and we all got wet. There is no room left.    We are all sick.    My children have a cold … and nobody has come to give us help,” said David, a Honduran who only provided his first name.
        Earlier on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had authorized the use of lethal force on the border and warned that the United States could close the whole frontier.
        The San Ysidro vehicular crossing into San Diego, one of the busiest in the world, was briefly shuttered in the afternoon by U.S. officials as they performed a security exercise.
        Tens of thousands of Mexicans enter the United States daily to work or study, and many were trying to get to Thanksgiving celebrations.    Mariana del Campo, a retired professor, had hoped to make it across before the closing, but was stuck in the line.
        “What’s happening on the border is maddening,” she said as she waited in her car.    “I don’t know how long we can put up with this.    Someone is going to get tired or explode.”
        Also stuck in her car waiting to cross for Thanksgiving was 54-year-old Aurora Diaz, who said her U.S.-based daughter was reluctant to visit Mexico in case Trump closed the border.
    U.S. OR BUST
        Tensions were palpable at the pedestrian crossing where the Central Americans had gathered.    Mexican police and soldiers stood guard while a helicopter buzzed over the U.S side.
        Edgar Corzo, an official from Mexico’s human rights commission, spoke into a megaphone to the crowd, telling them they could request assistance in Mexico.
        But migrants arrived with blankets and prepared to bed down for the night outside the border station.    Some of the children cried and complained of the cold.
        Authorities in Tijuana said the migrants are facing up to a six-month wait to be able to get an appointment to plead their case for asylum with U.S. authorities.
        Earlier this week, U.S. officials briefly closed the main border crossing in Tijuana, putting up concrete barricades and razor wire after reports that migrants could try to rush the crossing.
        “I want President Trump to know that we’re peaceful people, we don’t have weapons, we haven’t come to do evil,” said a man who declined to give his name, holding a white flag on a wooden stick that read “Peace, God is with us.”    “We want to work, we want them to help us for the love of God,” he added.
    (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Writing by Michael O’Boyle, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
    [This caravan of 10,000 should have gone and attcked Maduros place than to take on the U.S. Army.].

    11/23/208 Oil prices hit 2018 low, even as OPEC plans to cut output by Amanda Cooper
    FILE PHOTO: A pump jack on a lease owned by Parsley Energy operates at sunset
    in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas U.S. August 23, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Friday to their lowest this year, on course for their biggest one-month decline since late 2014 when OPEC opted to pump as much crude as it could to gain market share and sent prices on a near-unbroken two-year slide.
        Global supply, led by the United States, is growing more quickly than demand and to ward off a build-up of unused fuel such as the one that emerged in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to start withholding output after a meeting planned for Dec. 6.
        But this has done little so far to prop up the price.    The value of a barrel of oil has dropped by 17 percent so far in November, in a seven-week streak of losses.
        Brent crude oil futures fell 80 cents on the day to $61.89 a barrel by 0947 GMT, having hit a session low of $61.52, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost $1.04 to trade at $53.23 a barrel.
        “The question is now how much longer bears are able to keep firing.    Are they going to run out of ammunition shortly or they have ample supply of bullets?” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said.
        “It is reasonable to compare the current economic and supply/demand picture with the one four years ago.
        After all, it was in November and December 2014 when oil prices fell more or less to the same level where they are now    ,” he said.
        Volatility as a result has spiked to its highest since late 2016, as investors have rushed to buy protection against further steep price declines.
        Volatility, a measure of investor demand for a particular option, has jumped above 60 percent for very bearish near-term sell options, double what it was two weeks ago.
    GRAPHIC: Oil price volatility has surged – https://tmsnrt.rs/2PO4r3S
        Global oil supply has surged this year.    The International Energy Agency expects non-OPEC output alone to rise by 2.3 million bpd this year, up from its forecast six months ago of 1.8 million bpd.
        Demand next year meanwhile is expected to grow at a rate of 1.3 million bpd, compared with a forecast of 1.5 million bpd six months ago.
        Adjusting to lower demand, top crude exporter Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it may reduce supply as it pushes OPEC to agree to a joint output cut of 1.4 million bpd.
        “Oil fundamentals have weakened since Brent peaked at $85/bbl, justifying much of the recent price decline, in our view.    However, this opens up a relatively favorable risk/reward outlook around the OPEC meeting,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note.
    GRAPHIC: Global crude oil supply & demand balance – https://tmsnrt.rs/2PKtzIy
    (Reporting by Amanda Cooper, additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

    11/23/2018 Pres. Trump: GOP and Dems must unite to pass border security package by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is urging Republicans and Democrats to come together to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
        In a tweet Friday, he called for a bipartisan effort to push a border security package, which would include legislation to fund the border wall.
    President Donald Trump answers questions from members of the media as he leaves
    the White House, Saturday Nov. 17, 2018, in Washington, en route to see fire damage in California. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        The president also said “after 40 years of talks, it’s finally time for action to fix the border once and for all.”
        His comments come after he threatened to shutdown the southwest border, if Mexico doesn’t do its part to stop the migrants from illegally crossing into the U.S.

    11/23/2018 Ocasio-Cortez slams critics on social media, attacks Pres. Trump by OAN Newsroom
        Far-left Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lashes out at her critics.
    Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens during a news conference
    with members of the Progressive Caucus in Washington, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        Ocasio-cortez dismissed claims she’s unfamiliar with the three branches of government, and accused critics of stalking her on social media, editing clips from her live-streams, and stirring up controversy.
        However, she didn’t provide any evidence to back-up those comments.    The New York representative-elect drew scrutiny, after her remarks raised concerns of her competence and fitness for office.
        Amid the criticism, Ocasio-Cortez also attempted to shift the focus away from her, by attacking President Trump. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweet: “Cognitive dissonance is Republican commentators stalking, doctoring, + editing my casual livestreams out of context in order to sow doubt in my intelligence, all while blindly supporting a man who thinks our greatest defense against forest fires is: A Rake.”
    [Nothing was out of context, you talk a lot and say nothing that is relative to America's well being, just denouncing with no valid solutions which is the usual Democrat today.]

    11/23/2018 Brazil fills over 90 percent of doctor vacancies as Cubans head home
    FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro attends a meeting with
    governors-elect in Brasilia, Brazil November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – As Cuban doctors in Brazil begin to head home amid a diplomatic spat between Havana and the South American country’s far-right president-elect, Brazil’s health ministry said on Friday that it had filled nearly all of the resulting vacancies.
        The first of thousands of Cuban doctors left Brazil on Thursday after criticism by incoming President Jair Bolsonaro prompted Cuba’s government to sever a cooperation agreement, leaving millions of Brazilians without medical care.
        Many of the Cuban doctors worked in poor, rural parts of Brazil, where few Brazilian physicians want to be.
        The health ministry said in a statement that it had managed in three days to get 92 percent of the Brazilian doctors needed to replace the departing Cubans, signing up 25,901 physicians.    More than 17,500 had been enlisted, while almost 8,000 had already been allocated to specific municipalities, the statement said.
        The health ministry said earlier in the day that a web portal to handle inscriptions, open until Dec. 7, had suffered cyber attacks, which had caused some problems, but the site was now stable.
        Bolsonaro has said the Cuban doctors were being used as “slave labor” because Havana took 75 percent of their salaries.    He said the program, which began in 2013, could continue only if they got full pay and were allowed to bring their families.
        Bolsonaro, an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, was elected last month by Brazilians fed up with rising crime and rampant corruption that reached new highs during almost a decade-and-a-half of leftist governments with close ties to Cuba.
        Cuba has a respected health service and generates major export earnings by sending more than 50,000 health workers to over 60 countries.    Even though they received only a fraction of their salaries, the money was good for the doctors by Cuban standards.
    (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Dan Grebler and Susan Thomas)

    11/23/2018 Britain’s opposition Labour Party plots overthrow of capitalism by Andrew MacAskill and William James
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, poses for a photograph during
    an interview, following a Reuters Newsmaker event in London, Britain November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – The British Labour Party’s would-be finance minister, John McDonnell, has a message for the world: he is deadly serious about overthrowing capitalism and building a socialist society.
        McDonnell, 67, who describes Karl Marx as one of his main influences, has been at the vanguard of a left-wing revival in Britain’s main opposition party under fellow socialist Jeremy Corbyn.    He has promised sweeping nationalization, higher public spending and an overhaul of the banking system.
        Asked about his entry in the Who’s Who directory of influential people which lists his passion for “generally fermenting the overthrow of capitalism,” McDonnell said it was a joke about beer-making, but he agrees with the principle.
        “I believe it.    I am serious in my intent.    I want to transform this economy,” McDonnell told Reuters in an interview.    “That means evolving into a system which can achieve that equality, that democracy, that fairness, and tackles the major challenges that we are facing.”
        With Prime Minister Theresa May’s grip on power looking ever more vulnerable as she faces the most perilous crisis of her premiership struggling to win backing for her Brexit deal, Labour are increasingly confident that they will be the next guardians of the world’s fifth-largest economy.
        McDonnell’s gambit is that the social discontent in Britain which fueled the shock 2016 Brexit vote runs much deeper, and that voters who feel left behind by decades of unchecked capitalism and wounded by years of public spending cuts will rally to his call.
        “(It was) like everyone’s grievance went into one vote,” McDonnell said.
        The polls show that is only part of the picture: voters are tired of economic austerity and unhappy with May’s Brexit negotiations, but Labour are only marginally ahead of the ruling Conservative Party.    Some commentators have suggested they should be polling better against a government in disarray.
        Nevertheless, the combination of an unsated appetite for change and a Brexit-inspired political crisis which has trashed the centrist orthodoxy of British politics, has left Labour confident they will soon win power.
        McDonnell said his ambition is create the most radical government in modern British history even as the country is grappling with its exit from the European Union, the most complex negotiations in Europe since the end of World War Two.
    COLLISION COURSE
        Labour’s economic agenda has put the party on a collision course with business.    But that has not fazed the party’s leadership, which says that Britain’s economic model is broken and requires radical reform.
        The pillars of McDonnell’s economic approach are public ownership and giving power back to the people, or what he describes as being “in and against the state.”
        McDonnell has outlined a program of nationalizing the railways, energy and water companies and the postal service, raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy.
        This would be combined with increased spending on education, skills training, and health care, and harnessing the financial sector to help fund a huge infrastructure investment.
        At his party’s annual conference two months ago, McDonnell did little to conceal the scale of his ambition.
        Businesses were stunned by his plan to force all large companies to hand over a tenth of their equity to their workforce.
        Under the proposal every company with more than 250 staff would hand over 1 percent a year of equity over 10 years.
        Executives were particularly taken back because McDonnell has repeatedly told them over the last year that he had “nothing up my sleeve” in terms of unwelcome new policies.
    BETTER SALESMAN
        McDonnell’s world view is shaped by his upbringing, he was born in the blue-collar city of Liverpool.    His father was a docker, his mother was a cleaner at a department store, who also spent time on the biscuit counter.
        As a young man, McDonnell briefly considered becoming a priest before attending night school to gain qualifications that allowed him to go on to study politics at university.
        The challenge for McDonnell, as the next potential finance minister, is to walk the line between being radical for the party’s supporters and reassuring for business.
        Allies who have watched his progression from the obscure fringes of Tony Blair’s centrist Labour Party to the heart of decision-making say he has evolved as a better salesman, capable of promoting his policies without scaring mainstream voters.
        “He’s now in a position of leadership where he’s realized he has to compromise and he has to make the policies saleable,” said Austin Mitchell a former Labour member of parliament and fellow socialist campaigner.
        McDonnell has worked hard to improve his relationship with big companies.    Yet despite a shared interest in close ties with the EU and higher infrastructure spending, business remains wary over taxation and demands for greater state intervention.
        Business executives who recently met McDonnell said he came across as affable and pragmatic, and the party’s manifesto last year was more modest than many expected.
        Others think his courting of business is a ruse.    Only a few years ago he endorsed “insurrection” as a way of changing the government and praised a worker for spitting in her boss’s tea.
        “We are not sure whether we can trust him,” said one senior finance executive, who recently met him.    “He can be charming.    But we have a nagging doubt that he is going shaft us.”
        But Labour’s plans are striking a chord with many Britons who have endured stagnant wage growth and are increasingly uneasy about the deregulation and privatizations over the last three decades.
        About half of voters back the renationalisation of the railways, electricity and gas companies.    While a poll by the Institute for Public Policy Research found half of Britons think the economy has become less fair over the past decade.
        McDonnell believes that economic climate will allow him to push through an agenda that he wants to be more radical than the Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s post-war government, which created the National Health Service and the modern welfare state, and Margaret Thatcher’s taming the power of the unions.
        He cites the rising levels of homelessness and a report by the United Nations last week that found the government is in a state of denial about the impact of its policies on the poor.
        Even the wealthy “don’t want to step outside their office and as they go to their car step over a homeless person”, McDonnell said.    “So we are looking for change and I think we are reflecting the mood.”
    (Reporting By Andrew MacAskill and William James; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Giles Elgood)

    11/23/2018 Mexico, Canada discuss signing of new North American trade deal
    FILE PHOTO: The flags of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are seen on a lectern before a joint news conference
    on the closing of the seventh round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City, Mexico March 5, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido//File Photo
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on Friday by phone about the Nov. 30 signing at a G20 summit of a new trade deal between Mexico, Canada and the United States, Pena Nieto’s office said in a statement.
        Afterwards, the accord would be sent to the legislatures of the three countries, the statement added, without saying which officials would sign the deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).    Pena Nieto is expected to attend the summit in Buenos Aires.    Nov. 30 is his last day in office.
    (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez)

    11/23/2018 G20, forged in crisis, faces major test next week: Donald Trump by Andreas Rinke, Liangping Gao and Ross Colvin
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump attends a working session at the G-20 summit
    in Hamburg, northern Germany, Saturday, July 8, 2017.REUTERS/Markus Schreiber, Pool
        BERLIN/BEIJING/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – When G20 world leaders met for the first time in 2008 their mission was a desperate one – to rescue the global economy from the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years.    They were successful.
        Ten years on, that picture of unity in the face of economic calamity is in the rear-view mirror.    Leaders of the G20 industrialized nations meeting in Argentina next week are expected to struggle to agree on a joint statement on two of the biggest, and thorniest, global issues on their agenda – trade and climate change.
        Officials in European and Asian capitals helping to prepare for the meeting said they were cautiously optimistic that a communique would be issued when the two-day meeting ends on Dec. 1.
        But many said it would likely be watered down to try to ensure approval from U.S. President Donald Trump, an avowed skeptic of man-made climate change who has adopted protectionist trade policies and a more isolationist foreign policy.
        Recent history suggests those who draft the communique face a tough challenge when they begin their work in earnest in Buenos Aires on Monday.
        Last weekend, officials from countries attending a major Asia-Pacific summit failed to agree on a joint communique for the first time as the United States clashed with China over trade and security.
        In May Trump rejected a statement by fellow leaders of the G7 industrialized economies after a tense gathering ended in acrimony, again over tariffs and trade.
        “It’s a club that is even more difficult to manage than the G7,” said a French diplomatic source.    “Let’s face it.    The issues are difficult, the talks have been difficult since last year.    It will be the case again this year, maybe even tougher.”
        It will be the first time the leaders have met since Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports to force concessions from Beijing on greater access to Chinese markets, forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft.
        China responded with import tariffs on U.S. goods.
        The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned this week that an escalation in the trade war – the U.S. tariff rate on $200 billion in Chinese goods is set to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1 – would impede global economic growth.
        Officials from some G20 countries, anxious to see a swift end to the U.S.-China trade war, are hopeful but not confident that a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of G20 may yield at least a partial ceasefire.
        But in the United States and China there is pessimism.
        Within the White House there is uncertainty over how hard Trump is prepared to push Xi during their talks on trade and other disputes as the president sorts through sometimes conflicting advice from his own top aides, a senior Trump official said.
        “Expectations (on the meeting) are low.    But keeping the personal relationship going is an extremely high priority,” the U.S. official said, referring to Trump and Xi, who have sought to forge a close working relationship despite the tensions between their countries, the world’s two biggest economies.
        China’s main goal at the G20 is to get the United States to refrain from raising the tariffs in January, said Chinese economists and academics.    But Xi would not be bullied into making a bad deal.
        “Even if they are able to reach a small agreement, the leaders of China and the United States cannot reach a fundamental agreement, so there would not be a ceasefire in the trade war,” said Shi Yinhong, the head of the Center for American Studies at Beijing’s elite Renmin University who has advised the Chinese government on diplomacy.
        Trump said on Thursday he was well prepared for his meeting with Xi.
        “It’s not like, ‘Oh gee, I’m going to sit down and study.’    I know every ingredient.    I know every stat.    I know it better than anybody knows it.    And my gut has always been right.    And we’re doing very well.    And I will tell you China very much wants to make a deal.”
        Trump will also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.    The two leaders have not met face to face since a bilateral summit in July in Helsinki that prompted Trump critics to accuse him of cozying up to the Kremlin.
    ‘NO ALTERNATIVE’
        G20 leaders are also expected to discuss reform of the World Trade Organization, but officials said it was unlikely any agreement would be reached.
        The United States is increasingly skeptical of the WTO’s ability to resolve international trade disputes.    The European Union is also pushing to reform the body to make it better able to address modern trade problems.
        European countries are anxious that the final communique refer to the fight against climate change, a senior European Union official said.    Trump has announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, casting doubt on the science underpinning the agreement.
        Despite disagreements on key issues and the United States’ growing skepticism about the usefulness of multilateral bodies, G20 members insist the forum remains an important opportunity for world leaders to meet and exchange views on pressing issues.
        “Its existence itself helps us gather quickly and discuss key issues on a global level when needed,” said a senior G20 official in Asia.
        A senior German official involved in G20 preparations said Germany remained committed to G20 as a place for multilateral and bilateral discussions despite the current tensions.
        “Sometimes you have to be patient.    There is no alternative anyway than to try to work together,” the official said.
    (Reporting by Kylie Maclellan in London, Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom and Roberta Rampton in Washington, Jean-Baptiste Vey in Paris, David Ljunngren in Ottawa, Michael Martin and Gao Liangping in Beijing, Choonsik Yoo in Seoul, Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo, Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Jeffrey Benkoe)

    11/23/2018 Tijuana mayor declares humanitarian crisis as small group breaks away from caravan by OAN Newsroom
        As apparent chaos at the border continues, the mayor of Tijuana is taking steps to try and end the migrant issue.
        He declared an international humanitarian crisis on Thursday, appealing for help over the situation.
        This, as members of the migrant caravan are increasingly pushing to enter the U.S. despite threats from President Trump to shutdown the southern border.
    Honduran migrant Leticia Nunes holds her daughter Mailyn as she stands with a small group of
    other migrants in front of a line of Mexican police in riot gear, when they tried to cross the
    Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        Mexican police in Tijuana said a group of about 150 Central Americans broke off from the larger group and came within 500 feet of the U.S.
        The migrants reportedly approached armed guards while waving white flags to demonstrate they are peacefully seeking asylum.
        In a press conference, the mayor slammed the Mexican federal government for not doing enough to address the situation.
        “I will not compromise the public services of the city.    I’m not going to spend the money of the people of Tijuana, and I’m not going to interfere with Tijuana as we have not done in these two years.” – Juan Manuel Gastelum, mayor of Tijuana.
        His sentiment echoes concerns expressed by President Trump over the inability of the U.S. to handle the large waves of migrants seeking asylum.

    11/23/2018 Senate Russia probe going into 2019 by OAN Newsroom
        The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said his panel will continue investigating Russian interference into 2019.
        North Carolina’s republican senator Richard Burr made the comments Friday, saying the committee plans on holding closed door interviews next year.
    Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., left, and
    Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., update reporters on the status of their inquiry into Russian interference
    in the 2016 U.S. elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. (J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP)
        The ranking Democrat on the panel, Senator Mark Warner agreed with his Republican counter-part, but said he is pushing for more public hearings.
        However, Burr has made it clear the Senate investigation isn’t necessarily about collusion, but more about Russia’s meddling practices in general.
        This as the House Intelligence Committee has already concluded its Russia investigation.
        However the incoming Democrat majority said they plan to re-open that case, when they take power in January

    11/24/2018 Oil down $4.21 to $50.42, DOW down 179 to 24,286

    11/24/2018 Associate of Roger Stone in plea talks with Mueller
        A conservative writer and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone said Friday that he is in plea talks with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
        Jerome Corsi told The Associated Press he has been negotiating a potential plea but declined to comment further.    He said on a YouTube show this month that he expected to be charged with lying to federal investigators, though he said at the time that he was innocent of wrongdoing.
        Mueller’s team questioned Corsi as part of an investigation into Stone’s connections with WikiLeaks.

    1/24/2018 Brexit deal almost done, but Spain holds out over Gibraltar
        Spain pushed Friday for a guarantee of its say over the future of Gibraltar as a condition for backing a divorce agreement between Britain and the European Union as U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May battled to win approval for the deal from skeptical politicians and a Brexit-weary populace.    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – who is due to join other EU leaders at a Brussels summit Sunday – tweeted that Britain and Spain “remain far away” on the issue and “if there are no changes, we will veto Brexit.”

    11/24/2018 Crime menaces migrants on Mexico border as Tijuana declares crisis by Lizbeth Diaz
    Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the
    United States, rest in a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 22, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
        TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – Unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable migrants risk falling victim to crime in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where thousands of Central Americans from caravans may be stuck for months as authorities tighten up asylum rules, advocates say.
        Some 4,600 migrants from the bedraggled caravans whose advance has angered U.S. President Donald Trump are camped out with blankets and little food in an overcrowded stadium in Tijuana, whose mayor has declared a “humanitarian crisis.”
        Trump has sent troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, authorized the use of lethal force and threatened to shut down the frontier entirely if the migrant caravans are not stopped.
        Among the Central Americans, many of whom are Hondurans fleeing violence and poverty in the struggling region, are about 80 minors between the ages of 10 and 17, according to migrants rights groups.
        Josue, a 15-year-old Honduran in Tijuana, said that during a previous attempt to cross into the United States last year he was kidnapped and badly beaten in Mexico by drug traffickers claiming to be from the notorious Zetas gang.
        “I ended up in the hospital, I don’t know how, because I arrived there half-dead,” he said, declining to give his second name.
        Once he was well enough, authorities deported him, he said.
        Reuters was not able to independently corroborate details of his story.    Mexico’s immigration institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the case.
        Tijuana was rated by Mexican think tank Seguridad Justicia y Paz as the fifth most violent city in the world in 2017, with a higher murder rate than the Central American cities from which the migrants are escaping.
        Juan Manuel Gastelum, Tijuana’s mayor, said late on Thursday that the city was facing a humanitarian crisis and that supporting the migrants was costing more than 500,000 pesos ($25,000) a day.    He urged international agencies to help Tijuana.
    WAITING LIST
        Activists fear the Central Americans could be stranded for a long time in the city, where some protests against the presence of the caravan have broken out.
        In May, citing a lack of processing space at the same crossing, U.S. immigration officials stalled a previous caravan that also drew Trump’s anger.    Eventually, they began letting in a trickle of people from the group.
        To manage flows of asylum claimants, Mexican and U.S. authorities have in recent years maintained a waiting list.    Lawyers and human rights group Amnesty International have said such measures slow the process.
        U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement sent to Reuters that the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which connects Tijuana to San Diego in California, could process up to 100 people per day and that it was working with Mexico to manage the flow.
        Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it protects the rights of all foreigners and was “respectful of immigration policy implemented by other countries.”
        Stalled for days, migrants from the caravan have been signing onto the waiting list.    They include gay and transgender teenagers.
        Erika Pinheiro, director of litigation at Al Otro Lado, an immigration legal advocacy group, last week told a Californian court under oath that “LGBT children cannot safely stay in Mexico.    They are at risk of violence and persecution.”
        Tijuana has just one shelter for migrant children, which subsists with the help of civic organizations.
        “Young people are definitely the most vulnerable in this type of movement,” said Mynor Contreras, who runs the local YMCA.    “We’ve never received so many in such a short time.”
        If the children cannot enter the United States, they risk being deported from Mexico.    That can spell big trouble.
        “I don’t want to die,” said 16-year-old Justin, who related how his life was threatened last month for not paying a “war tax” that gangsters charged for his small used-clothing business in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.    “That day I told my mother to give me her blessing and I left,” he said, crying.
    (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Additional reporting by Delphine Schrank and Michael O’Boyle in Mexico City and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Dave Graham and Rosalba O’Brien)

    11/24/2018 French police fire tear gas at fuel price protesters by Dominique Vidalon and Emmanuel Jarry
    Police officers fire a tear gas during protests against higher fuel prices,
    on the Champs-Elysee in Paris, France, November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
        PARIS (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters in Paris who are angry over rising fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, the second weekend of “yellow vest” protests that have caused disruption across France.
        Several hundred protesters had converged on the Champs Elysees where they faced police sent to prevent them from reaching the nearby presidential Elysee Palace.
        Some protesters sang the national anthem while others carried signs with slogans saying “Macron, resignation” and “Macron, thief.”
        For more than a week, protesters clad in the fluorescent yellow jackets that all motorists in France must have in their cars have blocked highways across the country with burning barricades and convoys of slow-moving trucks, obstructing access to fuel depots, shopping centers and some factories.
        They are opposed to taxes Macron introduced last year on diesel and petrol which are designed to encourage people to shift to more environmentally friendly transport.    Alongside the tax, the government has offered incentives to buy green or electric vehicles.
        Security forces are concerned that far-left and far-right extremists may infiltrate the demonstrations, escalating the crowd-control challenges.    Around 30,000 people are expected to protest in Paris alone, Denis Jacob, secretary general of police union Alternative Police, told Reuters.
        “We know there are ultra-right and ultra-left infiltrators.    You can also expect gangs from the suburbs and ‘black-blocks’,” he said, referring to a militant protest force.
        Some 3,000 police officers have been drafted in to work in Paris on Saturday, city hall said, with security forces having to handle a demonstration against sexual violence, a soccer match and a rugby game in the capital on the same day.
        Last Saturday, when nearly 300,000 people took part in the first yellow vest demonstrations countrywide, retailers’ daily revenue fell 35 percent, according to consumer groups.
    PROTESTS SPREAD
        The unrest is a dilemma for Macron who casts himself as a champion against climate change but has been derided as out of touch with common folk and is fighting a slump in popularity.
        Despite calls for calm from the government, the yellow vest protests have spread to French territories abroad, including the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where cars were set on fire.
        The unrest has left two dead and 606 injured in mainland France, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
        While the movement, which has no leader, began as a backlash against higher fuel prices, it has tapped into broader frustration at the sense of a squeeze on household spending power under Macron’s 18-month-old government.
        Since coming to power, Macron has seen off trade union and street demonstrations against his changes to the labor rules, and overhauled the heavily indebted state rail operator.    Foreign investors have largely cheered his pro-business administration.
        But political foes have dismissed him as the “president of the rich” for ending a wealth tax, and voters appear to be growing restless, with the 40-year-old president’s popularity slumped at barely 20 percent.
    (Editing by Keith Weir)

    11/24/2018 Oil plunges nearly 8 percent despite talk of output cut by Jessica Resnick-Ault
    FILE PHOTO: A pump jack on a lease owned by Parsley Energy operates at sunset
    in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas U.S. August 23, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
        BOSTON (Reuters) – Oil prices slumped up to nearly 8 percent to the lowest in more than a year on Friday, posting the seventh consecutive weekly loss, amid intensifying fears of a supply glut even as major producers consider cutting output.
        Oil supply, led by U.S. producers, is growing faster than demand and to prevent a build-up of unused fuel such as the one that emerged in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to start trimming output after a meeting on Dec. 6.
        But this has done little so far to prop up prices, which have dropped more than 20 percent so far in November, in a seven-week streak of losses.    Prices were on course for their biggest one-month decline since late 2014.
        A trade war between the world’s two biggest economies and oil consumers, the United States and China, has weighed upon the market.
        “The market is pricing in an economic slowdown – they are anticipating that the Chinese trade talks are not going to go well,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, referring to expected talks next week between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
        “The market doesn’t believe that OPEC is going to be able to act swiftly enough to offset the coming slowdown in demand,” Flynn said.
        Brent crude futures settled down $3.80 a barrel, or 6.1 percent at $58.80. During the session, the benchmark dropped to $58.41, the lowest since October 2017.
        U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) lost $4.21, or 7.7 percent, to trade at $50.42, also the weakest since October 2017.    In post-settlement trade, the contract continued to fall    .
        For the week, Brent fell 11.3 percent and WTI posted a 10.8 percent decline, the largest one-week drop since January 2016.
        Market fears over weak demand intensified after China reported its lowest gasoline exports in more than a year amid a glut of the fuel in Asia and globally.
        Stockpiles of gasoline have surged across Asia, with inventories in Singapore, the regional refining hub, rising to a three-month high while Japanese stockpiles also climbed last week.    Inventories in the United States are about 7 percent higher than a year ago.
        Crude production has soared as well this year.    The International Energy Agency expects non-OPEC output alone to rise by 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) this year while demand next year was expected to grow 1.3 million bpd.
        Adjusting to lower demand, top crude exporter Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it may reduce supply as it pushes OPEC to agree to a joint output cut of 1.4 million bpd.
        However, Trump has made it clear that he does not want oil prices to rise and many analysts think Saudi Arabia is coming under U.S. pressure to resist calls from other OPEC members for lower crude output.
        If OPEC decides to cut production at its meeting next month, oil prices could recover, analysts say.
        “We expect that OPEC will manage the market in 2019 and assess the probability of an agreement to reduce production at around 2-in-3.    In that scenario, Brent prices likely recover back into the $70s,” Morgan Stanley commodities strategists Martijn Rats and Amy Sergeant wrote in a note to clients.
        If OPEC does not trim production, prices could head much lower, potentially depreciating toward $50 a barrel, argues Lukman Otunuga, Research Analyst at FXTM.
    (Graphic: Global crude oil supply & demand balance – https://tmsnrt.rs/2PKtzIy)
    VOLATILITY SPIKES TO 2-YEAR HIGH
        By the middle of November, commodity trading advisory funds tracked by Credit Suisse prime services had dropped 1.5 percent on the month, owing to the losses in energy futures and the increased volatility.
        Mark Connors, global head of portfolio and risk advisory at Credit Suisse, told Reuters this week that the action among macro and CTA funds reflects a risk-aversion trade, as net long positions have dropped from near five-year highs to roughly even exposure between longs and shorts.
        Hedge funds and other money managers cut their net long positions in Brent by 32,263 contracts to 182,569 in the week ended Nov. 20, according to data provided by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Friday.    That’s the lowest net long position since December 2015.
        Volatility, a measure of investor demand for options, has spiked to its highest since late 2016, above 60 percent, as investors have rushed to buy protection against further steep price declines.
        The decline in oil prices pulled U.S. energy shares lower.    Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp fell more than 3 percent and were the leading decliners on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Oilfield service providers Schlumberger NV and Halliburton Co also fell nearly 3 percent.
    (Graphic: Oil price volatility spikes – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DBYUpH)
    (additional reporting by Christopher Johnson and Amanda Cooper in London, and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Marguerita Choy and Susan Thomas)
    [Trump and Saudia Arabia plan to lower the price of oil per barrel is working since Iran who is not paying attention may not be able to sell their oil to the 8 countries for the amount of money they want because each of them will not buy it from them unless Iran lowers their price per barrel.    Therefore economic war.].

    11/24/2018 N.C. Federal agents detain illegal immigrant hiding out in church by OAN Newsroom
        Federal immigration authorities in North Carolina apprehend a criminal illegal alien who had been evading possible deportation by hiding out in a church.
    (Courtesy: Facebook, Alerta Migratoria NC)
        ICE agents arrested 47 year old Samuel Oliver Bruno on Friday after he arrived at a meeting with immigration officials.
        The Mexican national reportedly first entered the U.S. more than two decades ago and pleaded guilty to using false documents to try and re-enter the country in 2014.
        Bruno had been found residing at a church in Durham for around 11 months in an effort to avoid recapture and possible deportation.
        Additionally, more than two-dozen people who accompanied the illegal immigrant to the appointment were detained for refusing to disperse.
    [I perceive that ICE is doing their job.].

    11/24/2018 Sen. Chuck Schumer’s compliment to SCOTUS judge backfires by OAN Newsroom
        Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sees his attempted compliment of Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts backfire on Twitter.
    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks with reporters following the weekly Democratic policy meetings, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Schumer praised Roberts in a tweet on Friday for pushing back against President Trump’s criticisms of so-called “Obama judges” and “judicial activism.”
        However, social media users were quick to point-out the rest of Schumer’s tweet — where he attacked Roberts for making quote, “highly political” and “partisan decisions.”
        Some users questioned if Schumer realized his criticisms of the Supreme Court actually prove President Trump’s point.

    11/24/2018 Report: Trump admin. reaches deal with incoming Mexico pres. over asylum seekers by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration strikes a tentative agreement regarding asylum seekers with Mexico’s president-elect.
        According to reports on Saturday, President Trump and Mexico’s incoming government have reached a deal which will require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are considered by U.S. courts.
    FILE- In this Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, file photo President Donald Trump speaks to the media before
    leaving the White House in Washington, to travel to Florida. The Trumps are spending the Thanksgiving Day week
    at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
        The agreement would keep asylum seekers out of the country while their cases are being processed and could possibly curb the practice of ‘catch and release.’
        Additionally, U.S. officials reportedly believe the new policy could dissuade migration and the formation of caravans from Central America.

    11/24/2018 Congress must pass several bills in lame duck session by OAN Newsroom
        Congress is tackling several high-priority issues on the docket to avoid a possible December shutdown.
        A new Homeland Security bill in the House is attempting to secure $5 billion for the border wall up from 1.6 billion dollars that was approved in the 2018 fiscal year.
    Conservatives are urging congressional leaders to pass a short-term funding bill
    to keep the federal government running past Dec. 9, but not for the fiscal year.
        Members of Congress are hoping to revamp how federal funding is issued in an effort to streamline disaster funding, following several massive wildfires in California this year.
        Congress is also mulling two bills in the House and Senate, tackling how Congress handles sexual harassment claims.
        Lawmakers will have until December 7th to pass the legislations to avoid a shutdown.

    11/24/2018 Sen. Lindsey Graham calls for December vote on criminal justice reform bill by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Lindsey Graham is backing President Trump’s stance on criminal justice reform, and calling for a vote on legislation soon.
        The South Carolina lawmaker responded to the president’s tweet Friday, in which he called for the Senate to pass criminal justice reform.
    In this Nov. 1, 2017 file photo, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Graham’s shift from
    Never Trump to Team Trump has confused colleagues and caused double-takes across Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        Senator Graham said he agrees with the president, and called on the upper chamber to take up the legislation in December.
        A number of lawmakers have echoed those sentiments, wanting the bill — which has bipartisan support — to get a vote next month.
        Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has hinted the legislation may get a vote next year instead due to scheduling conflicts.

    11/24/2018 Group of Dem lawmakers plan to withhold votes for Nancy Pelosi by OAN Newsroom
        A group of Democrat lawmakers are withholding votes for Nancy Pelosi as next House speaker.
        According to reports Friday, House Democrats are looking to pressure Pelosi into supporting a rules reform package, which would essentially weaken her control in the lower chamber.
        In a statement, lawmakers of the Problem Solves Caucus said they will only vote for a House speaker who will back the gridlock rules changes.
        They went on to say, after meeting with Pelosi last week, they fear Congress will face obstruction efforts of the common sense majority.
    FILE – In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks in during a news conference on
    Capitol Hill in Washington. House Democrats are laying out a vision for their new majority, and one item is noticeably missing
    from the to-do list: President Donald Trump’s impeachment. They’re making plans for spending on public works projects, lowering
    health costs and increasing government oversight. It’s the balance that Pelosi is trying to strike. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
        This follows recent polls, showing several members of the Democrat party are shying away from Pelosi as the next House speaker.
        Meantime, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he will support Representative Nancy Pelosi’s bid to be the next Speaker of the House.
        In a statement Friday, Cuomo said there was “no comparable-tested alternative to Pelosi,” adding she’s a great friend to the state of New York.
        Some congressional Democrats had been pressuring Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge to challenge Pelosi for the job, but Fudge said she will endorse Pelosi.
        House Democrats will choose their nominee next week, and the House will vote on a speaker in January.

    11/24/2018 French police clash violently with protesters on Champs Elysees over petrol costs by Dominique Vidalon and Emmanuel Jarry
    Police officers fire a tear gas during protests against higher fuel prices,
    on the Champs-Elysee in Paris, France, November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
        PARIS (Reuters) – Police firing tear gas and water cannons clashed in Paris on Saturday with thousands of protesters angry over rising car fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, the second weekend of “yellow vest” protests across France.
        As night fell, the famed Champs-Elysees avenue, where fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld switched on the red lights of Christmas just a few days ago, was still aglow with fires lit by protesters.
        President Emmanuel Macron thanked police forces for their ”courage and professionalism” in dealing with demonstrators as calm progressively returned to the Champs Elysees.
        “Shame on those who attacked them … There is no room for this violence in the Republic,” Macron said on Twitter.
        During the clashes a trailer was set on fire and exploded on the Champs Elysees, France’s most famous tourist mile, and a man who tried to attack fire fighters was overpowered by some of the demonstrators themselves.
        On the nearby Avenue de Friedland, police fired special rubber balls to control demonstrators, who carried French flags or slogans, saying “Macron, resignation” and “Macron, thief.”
        Around 8,000 protesters had converged on the Champs Elysees where police tried to prevent them from reaching the president’s Elysee Palace.
        Police detained 130 people in Paris and in protests in other parts of the country.
        Protesters are opposed to taxes Macron introduced last year on diesel and petrol which are designed to encourage people to switch to cleaner forms of transport.    Alongside the tax, the government has offered incentives to buy electric vehicles.
        For more than a week, protesters clad in the fluorescent yellow jackets that all motorists in France must have in their cars have blocked highways across the country with burning barricades and convoys of slow-moving trucks, obstructing access to fuel depots, shopping centers and some factories.
        Interior Minister Christophe Castaner accused far-right leader Marine Le Pen of fanning the protests in the capital.
        “Ultra-right networks were very mobilized on the Champs Elysees,” he said.    There were about 20 people injured on the Champs Elysees, according to police.
    CHALLENGE FOR MACRON
        Last Saturday nearly 300,000 people took part in the first yellow vest demonstrations countrywide.    By early evening on Saturday, more than 106,000 demonstrators were involved in protests across France, according to the ministry
        The unrest is a dilemma for Macron who casts himself as a champion against climate change but has been derided as out of touch with common folk and is fighting a slump in popularity.
        While the movement, which has no leader, began as a backlash against higher fuel prices, it has tapped into broader frustration at the sense of a squeeze on household spending power under Macron’s 18-month-old government.
        Since coming to power, Macron has seen off trade union and street demonstrations against his changes to the labor rules, and overhauled the heavily indebted state rail operator.    Foreign investors have largely cheered his pro-business administration.
    (Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    11/25/2018 EU leaders seal Brexit deal, urge Britons to back May by Gabriela Baczynska and Elizabeth Piper
    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks to the media as he arrives at an extraordinary EU leaders
    summit to finalise and formalise the Brexit agreement in Brussels, Belgium November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders formally agreed a Brexit deal at a Brussels summit on Sunday, urging Britons to back Prime Minister Theresa May’s package, which faces furious opposition in the British parliament.
        The 27 leaders took barely half an hour to rubber-stamp a 600-page treaty setting terms for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union on March 29 and a 26-page declaration outlining a future free trading relationship.    May joined them shortly afterwards for what will be a brief meeting to seal the accord.
        “This is the deal,” European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters on his way in to the meeting, saying he believed May would get it through parliament and ruling out big new concessions.
        “Now it is time for everybody to take responsibility — everybody,” said Michel Barnier, the Frenchman who has ground out the withdrawal treaty over the past 18 months.
        Juncker called it “a sad day,” saying Brexit was a “tragedy” and tough on both sides.
        “I believe that the British government will succeed in securing the backing of the British parliament,” Juncker said, declining to comment on what might happen if May fails.
        “I would vote in favor of this deal because this is the best deal possible for Britain,” he added.
        In a sign of worries ahead, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite tweeted after the deal was endorsed in the summit chamber that the exit process was “far from over.”
        Barnier called the package a basis for close future ties, insisting: “We will remain allies, partners and friends.”
        French President Emmanuel Macron said the Brexit vote showed Europe needed reform.    He stressed that Paris would hold Britain to tight EU regulations, notably on the environment, in return for giving it easy trade access.
        The departure of a nation long skeptical of deeper EU integration was, Macron said, neither a moment for celebration nor mourning, but Britons’ free choice.
    “THIS IS THE MAXIMUM”
        Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country is one of Britain’s closest trading partners, praised May’s handling of the difficult negotiations and said he was confident that she could see the deal through parliament in the coming weeks.
        But he also had a warning for those in May’s Conservative party as well as the Labour opposition who argue that a better deal can still be done before Britain leaves in four months if lawmakers deny her minority government support on Brexit.
        “This is the maximum we can all do,” Rutte said, shaking his head when asked if the EU might make more concessions.
        Saying the EU “hates” Brexit, Rutte said: “Nobody’s winning — we are all losing.”    But, he said, the deal was an acceptable compromise for all that gave May a chance to clinch a solution.
        The biggest question now facing the EU is whether May’s divided minority government can steer the deal, which foresees London following many EU rules to keep easy trade access, through fierce resistance in parliament in the coming weeks from both supporters and opponents of Brexit.
        Lithuanian President Grybauskaite said there were at least four possible outcomes if parliament blocks the package.    She named three – that Britons would hold a second referendum, hold a new election to replace May or return to Brussels to try and renegotiate the package.    A fourth is that Britain will simply crash out of the bloc on March 29 without legal clarity.
        Both sides have been making preparations for such a “no deal” scenario, though the EU insists Britain has more to lose.    The pound has strengthened since the deal came together over the past 10 days, but companies and investors remain nervous.
        The package foresees little changing during a transition period lasting another two to four years.
    BRITISH OPPOSITION
        The Democratic Unionist Party, whose votes from Northern Ireland have helped May to govern since she lost her majority in a snap election last year, said it would try to block a Brexit deal it called “pitiful” – partly because it binds London to many EU rules it will no longer help set and partly as the DUP fears it could weaken the province’s ties to Britain.
        In an open letter to the nation May said she would campaign “heart and soul” to get her Brexit deal through.
        “It will be a deal that is in our national interest – one that works for our whole country and all of our people, whether you voted Leave or Remain,” she said.
        Sunday newspapers said different factions in her own Conservative party were preparing alternative plans to keep Britain closer to the EU should her deal fail as many expect.
        Wrangling over how to keep open troubled Northern Ireland’s land border with the EU without creating barriers with the Irish Republic dogged much of the Brexit talks.    Another relic of the imperial past, Britain’s 300-year-old naval base on Spain’s southern coast, threatened to derail plans at the last minute.
        Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to boycott Sunday’s meeting if he did not get amendments to the deal to ensure Madrid gets a say in Gibraltar’s future ties with the EU.
        After officials wrangled through the night, he announced on Saturday afternoon that he had such written pledges.    Brussels officials said those essentially confirmed what most EU leaders had already understood – that Spain must have a binding say over how any future EU-UK trade pact might affect Gibraltar.
    (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Foo Yun Chee, Philip Blenkinsop, Alastair Macdonald, Peter Maushagen, Jean-Baptiste Vey and Belen Carreno in Brussels; writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Alexander Smith)

    11/25/2018 France braces for economic blow from ‘yellow vest’ protests by Dominique Vidalon
    A barricade lays on the side at the Champs-Elysees avenue in the aftermath of a rally by
    yellow vests protesters against higher fuel prices in Paris, France, November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
        PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will meet retailers and insurers on Monday to assess the economic impact of nationwide protests against rising fuel costs, he said on Sunday.
        Protesters clad in fluorescent jackets, dubbed “yellow vests,” have blocked highways across France since Nov. 17, setting up burning barricades and deploying convoys of slow-moving trucks, often denying access to shopping centers and some factories.
        French retailers have warned that prolonged protests could hit the Christmas shopping season and threaten jobs, while President Emmanuel Macron has shown no sign of backing down on taxes introduced last year on diesel and petrol to encourage people to switch to cleaner forms of transport.
        The unrest reached new heights in Paris on Saturday, when police clashed violently with thousands of demonstrators on the Champs-Elysees.
        “Tomorrow I will bring together at the Economy and Finance Ministry representatives from retailers, merchants, craftsmen, chambers of commerce and employers federation Medef to assess the economic situation, its impact on sales and on our economy and the consequences we must draw,” Le Maire told BFM TV.
        Police detained 101 people in Paris and there 24 people were injured in the clashes on the Champs Elysees.
        “I saw a violence that is not acceptable.    It is urgent to rebuild the nation’s unity and restart a dialogue,” Le Maire said.
        Some yellow vests have called for a third weekend of protests on the Champs Elysees via a Facebook page called “Act 3 Macron resigns!”
    (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by David Goodman)
    [In all the history books in France's past they use to drag the elite in charge to the guillotine.].

    11/25/2018 Rep. Elijah Cummings says he won’t share subpoena powers with Oversight Committee by OAN Newsroom
        The man who’s expected to be the next Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee responds to republicans.
    Rep. Elijah Cummings (AP/Photo)
        In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today, Representative Elijah Cummings announced he will not be giving subpoena powers to the Committee’s ranking minority member, a republican.
        The Maryland democrat previously served as ranking minority member and was not allowed to issue subpoenas.
        However, with his new authority, Cummings says he doesn’t plan to abuse his powers, and added “we’re going to be very careful with issuing subpoenas…” to make sure it’s done with “integrity.”
        Cummings also said he already had a list of dozens of subpoenas he plans on issuing which could focus on a number of topics, including drug prices and voting rights.
    [What about any FISA court supoenas?].

    11/25/2018 Pres. Trump says Clinton Foundation has been selling political influence by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump suggests the Clinton family has been selling political influence for decades.
        The President, in a tweet today, highlighted recent reports which found donations to the Clinton Foundation dropped by 42% last year.
        He also claims it’s evidence the Clinton’s used the foundation to engage in “pay-to-play” politics.
        President Trump also suggested the State Department may have served the interests of the family’s donors when Hillary worked as the Secretary of State.

    11/25/2018 DHS responds to migrant caravan border rush by OAN Newsroom
        Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is responding to the unrest at the southern U.S. border.
    Nielsen says border patrol agents were forced to close the port-of-entry
    in a statement released today, and cited “security concerns” as its reasoning.
        She explains a large number of immigrants attempted to rush the southern border wall.
        After their unsuccessful attempt they allegedly began resorting to violence and throwing projectiles at border agents.
        The Secretary notes the DHS will prosecute to the fullest-extent of the law anyone who destroys federal property, endangers front-line operators, or violates the nation’s sovereignty.
        Further, the military will remain stationed at the border for security.

    11/25/2018 Migrant Caravan tear-gassed at southern U.S. border by OAN Newsroom
        Border security agents tear-gassed caravan immigrants after an attempted rush of a San Diego point-of-entry.
        The gas was deployed in order to prevent illegal crossings into the U.S. after a number of illegal aliens managed to scale a border fence>, according to reports today.
        This comes as President Trump doubled-down on his commitment to not allow any of the members of caravans into the country.
        The migrant onslaught was reportedly spearheaded with women and children in-front followed by fighting-aged males.
        The Mexican Interior Ministry has since released a statement saying it plans on deporting 500 migrants who “violently and illegally attempted to cross the U.S. border.”
    [Why didn't 10,000 migrants get together and take over the resident of Venzsuela president Madura's house intead of the full force of the U.S. Military, which may have helped you do that?].

    11/26/2018 EU approves Brexit agreement; now it’s up to Britain to sign off by John Bacon, USA TODAY
        European Union leaders signed off Sunday on Britain’s exit from the continent’s political and economic bloc, sending the divorce agreement to the U.K. Parliament and a contentious debate over passage.
        The agreement, negotiated over several months, has drawn skepticism from Brexit supporters and foes in England.
        “This is the best deal possible,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned after the vote.    “This is the only deal possible.”
        If Britons thought they could press for a better deal, they would be disappointed, Juncker said.    British Prime Minister Theresa May stressed that the deal returns control of her nation’s borders, money and laws to Parliament.    She urged members of parliament to approve the plan when they vote Dec. 12.
        May pledged to campaign “with my heart and soul to win that vote ... for the good of our United Kingdom and all of our people.”
        “I will take this deal back to the House of Commons confident we have achieved the best deal available and full of optimism about the future of our country,” May said.
        May has declined to announce whether she would resign if her Brexit deal fails.    She won the support of her bitterly divided Cabinet for a draft deal last week after months of stalled talks and setbacks.
        Even the minister who led the negotiations, Dominic Raab, refused to support the deal and resigned last week.    Raab said he could not support the deal “in good conscience” because it “presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom.”
        The deal calls for the U.K. to pay the EU about 39 billion pounds as part of the separation.    It also allows EU citizens and their families to live and work in the U.K. until the end of the transition period in December 2020.    Those who take up residence before that date will be allowed to remain permanently if they stay for five years.
        A transition period for businesses delays some major changes until 2021.    Tariffs and other trade regulations still must be worked out.
        Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who was a driving force behind the successful Brexit referendum in 2016, called the terms of the deal a “historic mistake.”    He said too much power remains in EU hands under terms of the deal and suggested that half the buyout money be withheld pending a free-trade agreement.
        Britain voted to leave the EU 52 percent to 48 percent.    Some polling data indicate that if there were a second Brexit vote a majority would choose to stay in the EU.    May has repeatedly rejected the idea of holding a second vote.
        “Ahead of us is the difficult process of ratification as well as further negotiations,” EU President Donald Tusk said in announcing the deal.    “But regardless of how it will all end, one thing is certain: we will remain friends until the end of days, and one day longer.”
    Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard
        “I will take this deal back to the House of Commons confident we have achieved the best deal available and full of optimism about the future of our country.” Prime Minister Theresa May
    Pro- and anti-Brexit protesters vie for media attention near Parliament in London.
    Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May still faces the threat of a no-confidence vote from Conservative Party lawmakers. ALASTAIR GRANT/AP

    11/26/2018 Judge orders ex-Trump adviser to start sentence by William Cummings, USA TODAY
        A federal judge on Sunday ordered former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos to begin his two-week sentence Monday for lying to the FBI, denying his attorney’s last attempts to postpone his incarceration.
        Papadopoulos’ legal team filed two motions – one on Nov. 16 and another Nov. 21 – in an effort to delay his sentence until another case, which challenges the constitutionality of special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment to investigate Russian election meddling in the 2016 election, has been decided.
        Mueller’s team urged U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss to deny Papadopoulos’ request in a court filing Wednesday.    Moss agreed with Mueller and denied both of Papadopoulos’ motions.    He said the time for Papadopoulos to file an appeal had expired and it was unlikely the case challenging Mueller’s appointment could succeed.
        Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts while working for the Trump campaign in 2016.    In September, he was sentenced to two weeks in prison, a year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine.    Moss ordered Papadopoulos to turn himself in to the Bureau of Prisons on Monday, as outlined in his plea deal.
        Papadopoulos began working as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign in March 2016.    He is the first former Trump aide to be sentenced in connection to Mueller’s investigation.
        According to Mueller’s team, Papadopoulos “lied to the FBI regarding his interactions with a foreign professor whom he understood to have significant ties to the Russian government, as well as a female Russian national.”
        Papadopoulos’ lawyers argued it would be “unjust” for their client to serve his two-week sentence only to have Mueller’s appointment declared unconstitutional in another case.    Moss said Papadopoulos is not a part of that case and that two other judges had “issued thorough and carefully reasoned opinions rejecting the arguments that Papadopoulos now champions.”    Those arguments challenged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s authority to appoint Mueller.
        Moss said the chance that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia “will reach a contrary conclusion is remote.”    The judge pointed out that the time for Papadopoulos to file an appeal expired Sept. 25.
    George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s election campaign, and
    his wife Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, leave federal court after his sentencing in September. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    [This was another cover up for the FISA court issue by the Democrats associated with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign corruption with the FISA issue.]

    11/26/2018 EU court dismisses expats’ action against Brexit talks
    The Union Jack and the European Union flag are seen flying in the British overseas
    territory of Gibraltar, historically claimed by Spain, November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union judges dismissed on Monday as inadmissible a lawsuit brought by British citizens living in the EU against the EU’s decision to start talks with London on the country’s withdrawal from the bloc.
        Thirteen British citizens residing in EU countries asked the General Court in Luxembourg to annul the decision of EU governments authorizing the opening of negotiations on Brexit.
        They said that they were denied a vote in the 2016 referendum that decided on Britain’s withdrawal from the EU even though that move would deprive them of rights as EU citizens.
        “The General Court … dismisses the action as inadmissible since the decision of the Council authorizing the opening of negotiations on Brexit does not produce binding legal effects capable of affecting the interests of the applicants by bringing about a distinct change in their legal position,” the court said in a statement.
    (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

    11/26/2018 Brazilian president-elect adds fifth military man to cabinet by Richard Lough and Michel Rose
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro arrives to a meeting in Brasilia, Brazil November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Monday named retired General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz as his next government minister, adding a fifth military man to his cabinet.
        Right-wing politician Bolsonaro, a former army captain who surged to victory on a pledge to end years of corruption and rising violence, made the announcement in a Twitter post.
        Some Brazilians are concerned that the appointment of Dos Santos Cruz, who led United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti, and other current or former military officials marks a return to a militarized government.
        Bolsonaro takes office on Jan. 1.
        Seeking to defuse those concerns, Bolsonaro, a fan of the 1964-85 military dictatorship, has vowed to adhere to Brazil’s constitution and has moderated some of his more extreme views expressed during his nearly-three decades as a federal congressman.
        Bolsonaro, who has long been a critic of the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, again appeared to tone down his strident views on regional migration, saying that Venezuelans fleeing to Brazil could not be returned to their country “because they are not merchandise.”
        In comments to reporters on the weekend, he also floated the idea of creating a refugee camp for Venezuelans in the northern border state of Roraima, while defending strict checks on who enter “because there are some people we don’t want in Brazil.”
    (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Brad Brooks and Grant McCool)

    11/26/2018 Macron feels diesel tax anger after Paris ‘battle scenes’ by Richard Lough and Michel Rose
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron takes part in a conference at the UCL university in Louvain-La-Neuve,
    on the last day of an official state visit in Belgium, November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/Pool/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron, caught off guard by violent demonstrations against diesel tax hikes, warned his cabinet on Monday that the protests could tarnish France’s image and said the government needed to listen to voter anger.
        The 10 days of unrest, which on Saturday left some Parisian boulevards transformed into battlefields, hit Macron as he sought to counter a sharp decline in popularity, and have again exposed him to charges of being out of touch with voters.
        He has shown no sign, however, of reversing the diesel tax hikes, which he says are needed to help spur a switch to greener energy, though he is now indicating a willingness to soften the blow for motorists on modest incomes.
        Police on Saturday fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who trashed restaurants and shop-fronts and set wheelie bins ablaze on Paris’ upmarket Champs-Elysees boulevard, a tourist magnet.
        “We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of these images of the Champs-Elysees (…) with battle scenes that were broadcast by the media in France and abroad,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.
        After meeting with business associations, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the protests would have a “severe impact” on the economy, though it was too soon to say what the effect on fourth-quarter growth would be.
        Now in their second week, the “yellow vest” protests have blocked roads across the country, impeding access to fuel depots, out-of-town shopping malls and factories.
        “Behind this anger there is obviously something deeper that we must respond to, because this anger, these anxieties have existed for a long time,” Griveaux said.
        Protesters will be looking for concrete answers from Macron when he unveils a new longterm energy strategy on Tuesday.
    GREEN CREDENTIALS
        Macron has stepped up his defense of the diesel tax, aware that the French treasury is hungry for the revenues the levy generates and that unwinding the tax would damage his green credentials.
        He has earmarked 500 million euros to help poorer citizens buy less-polluting vehicles, seeking to answer criticism that his reforms have eaten into household spending.
        The weekend’s violence also exposed tensions within the amorphous “yellow vests” movement, so-called because the protesters don the high-vis jackets which all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles.
        They strove to maintain a united front on Monday, forming a committee tasked with securing a meeting with the president and Griveaux said that would happen if they came forward with concrete proposals.
        There are signs the protests are weakening and becoming less effective.
        Shopping malls saw a 15 percent fall in consumer footfall on Saturday compared with the same day last year, according to the CNCC umbrella group of shopping centers.    The impact was worse last week with a 45 percent decline.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose and Richard Lough, additional reporting by Myriam Rivet; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Ed Osmond)

    11/26/2018 Border Patrol Arrests 69 Migrants While Mexico Deports Others by OAN Newsroom
    A Central American migrant sits on top of the border structure separating Mexico, left, and the United States, right, as U.S.
    Border Patrol agents look on, right, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. Migrants in a caravan of Central
    Americans scrambled to reach the U.S. border, catching rides on buses and trucks for hundreds of miles in the last leg of their
    journey Wednesday as the first sizable groups began arriving in the border city of Tijuana. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
        Border Patrol agents say 69 migrants are under arrest after the migrant caravan attempted to force their way across the U.S. border.
        San Diego Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott confirmed the report in an interview on Monday, adding the majority of those arrested were adult males.
        Scott also said agents only resorted to using tear gas to deter migrants after members began to pelt U.S. officials with rocks.
        In addition to the arrests, the Mexican government is planning to deport as many as 500 migrants they say attempted to enter the U.S. violently and illegally.
        Reports suggest Mexico has already deported roughly 100.

    11/26/2018 Pentagon ramps up San Diego border security by OAN Newsroom
        The Pentagon ramps up security in San Diego amid the ongoing crisis with the Central American caravans.
        The Defense Department said it’s sending 300 U.S. troops from Texas to California in a statement published today.
        The decision comes after hundreds of migrants attempted to rush the San Ysidro port-of-entry on Sunday.
        This brings the total number of deployed military personnel in California to 1,800.

    11/26/2018 California Democrat Party Chair steps down by OAN Newsroom
        The Chairman of the Democrat Party in California is temporarily stepping-down amid sexual misconduct allegations.
        Eric Bauman announced his leave of absence on Monday in the face of allegations by at-least two other men.
        The accusers are former staffers who say they were abused by Bauman, plus an additional witness who claims to have been intimidated by the Chairman.
        The married Bauman became the first openly-gay person to serve as the party chairman when he was elected in 2017.
        His leave of absence comes after the party’s vice-chairman filed paperwork for his removal last Friday.
        Meanwhile, Bauman denies the allegations and is looking forward to putting them behind him.

    11/26/2018 NASA Spacecraft Successfully Lands on Mars by OAN Newsroom
    Engineers celebrate as the InSight lander touch downs on Mars in the mission support area of the space flight operation facility
    at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/(Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
            Another NASA spacecraft is on Mars after engineers successfully land it on Monday after seven months in space.
        Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had just a small window of time available they nicknamed “seven minutes of terror,” in which they had to slow InSight from 12,000 mph to just five mph.
        InSight will stay on Mars permanently to study heat and seismic waves deep below the surface so we can learn more about the Mars’ core.
        NASA officials say InSight’s instruments should be up and running in about two or three months.

    11/26/2018 Roger Stone speaks out about Jerome Corsi by OAN Newsroom
        A long-time associate of Jerome Corsi is speaking out about the recent developments regarding the conservative journalist, and Robert Mueller.
        Former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone told One America News on Monday Corsi is being harassed by the Special Counsel, not for lying — but rather “refusing” to lie to investigators.
        He adds it’s inconceivable someone would be prosecuted for refusing to go along with a false narrative being pushed by Mueller.
        Stone says Corsi investigated the Podesta’s in regard to their money and business ties with Russia.
        However, Stone says he and Corsi only discussed the hacked emails after they were made public.

    11/27/2018 Oil up $1.21 to $51.63, DOW up 354 to 24,640

    11/27/2018 NASA spacecraft lands on Mars after six-month journey
        A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet Monday after a six-month, 300 million-mile journey and a perilous six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
        After waiting in white-knuckle suspense, flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped out of their seats and erupted in screams, applause and laughter as the news came in that the three-legged InSight spacecraft had successfully touched down.

    11/27/2018 Honduran migrant, clutching two small children, flees tear gas by Kim Kyung-Hoon
    Maria Lila Meza Castro (C), a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America
    trying to reach the United States, runs away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza (L)
    and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza (R) in front of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico,
    in Tijuana, Mexico, November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File photo
        TIJUANA (Reuters) – After nearly two weeks of documenting the harrowing journey of a caravan of mostly Central American migrants headed towards the U.S.-Mexican border, I snapped a picture I will never forget.
        In the shot, taken on Sunday, you can see Honduran mother Maria Meza, 35, grabbing the thin arms of her two 5-year-old twin daughters Cheili and Saira as they frantically run from a tear gas canister spewing fumes.
        Cheili is seen in diapers, Saira barefoot, while their mother wears a t-shirt showing the smiling sisters from the Disney hit “Frozen,” a movie I’ve seen many times with my own daughter.
        Mesa’s 13-year-old daughter, Jamie, is behind her mother in the photo, also running away from the approaching gas.
        In the frantic moments after the canisters hit the ground, the acrid smell was everywhere and I could see children crying, their eyes stung by the gas.
        “I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas,” Meza told my Reuters colleagues a day later, adding that she was shocked U.S. border agents would fire the canisters near women and children.
        The U.S. government said the customs officers had fired off the canisters after a group of migrants had attempted to cross the border violently, throwing projectiles at them.
        Meza’s family had made it to the El Chapparal border crossing, which straddles the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego on the U.S. side, after leaving their home in the violent city of San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras two months ago.
        Sunday’s incident happened after a group of migrants in Tijuana rushed at the border fencing.
        Just before the tear gas was fired, I had followed some of the migrants as they approached a section of the border fence recently reinforced with razor-studded coils.    U.S. border agents warily eyed the group from the other side.
        Meza and her children said they had already spent a week at a Tijuana shelter, but they will likely have to wait much longer for a chance to ultimately plead their case.
        She said she hopes to be granted asylum in the United States due to rampant crime back home, and if successful will travel to Louisiana, where the girls’ father lives.
    Photo essay: https://reut.rs/2Q0pnVp
    (Editing by David Alire Garcia and Rosalba O’Brien)
    [Maybe they have learned not to throw stones at Border Agents and try to come into the U.S. illegally.].

    11/27/2018 France’s Macron says violence will not force a reversal on energy policy
    French President Emmanuel Macron attends a "prise d'armes" military ceremony
    at the Invalides in Paris, France, November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
        PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he heard the anger of citizens and their complaints over higher diesel taxes but that he would not cave in to violent fringe groups and change tack on energy policy.
        “I do not confuse citizens and their demands with thugs,” Macron said.    “I will not concede anything to those who want destruction and disorder.”
        His comments follow more than two weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations by so-called “yellow vest” protesters in Paris and in towns and cities around the country.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose and Bate Felix; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Luke Baker)

    11/27/2018 Pres Trump: migrant caravan using children as human shields by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump accuses some migrants of using children as ‘human shields.’
        During a roundtable on Monday the president claimed women and children were pushed to the front lines, when U.S. border patrol agents were forced to resort to tear gas after some migrants began throwing rocks and bottles.
    President Donald Trump calls on a reporter as he speaks to members of the media before
    boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, for a short trip
    to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Mississippi for rallies. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        He added some of the single men in the caravans have attempted to claim children as their own, in hopes of having a better chance of declaring asylum, and referred to them as grabbers.
        “It’s a term that’s used because, as you know, many people, it’s a very violent, horrible thing, but they feel they have an advantage when they’re with a young child, and they call them grabbers.    That’s a term I’ve heard but that’s what they call them, grabbers.    They grab a child because when they have a child they feel a lot safer.” -President Trump
        He also slammed Democrats for criticizing border patrol agents for using tear gas on the pointing out CBP used tear gas and pepper spray during several similar incidents under the Obama administration.

    11/27/2018 Report: federal charges against Julian Assange to remain sealed by OAN Newsroom
        Reports reveal the federal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will remain sealed for the time being.
    FILE – In this May 19, 2017, file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadorian
    embassy in London. Federal prosecutors are fighting a request to unseal an apparent criminal complaint against WikiLeaks founder
    Julian Assange. In papers filed Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors argued that the public has
    no right to know whether a person has been charged until there has been an arrest. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
        On Tuesday a federal judge Leonie Brinkema said she will later rule on whether or not the public has a right to see the documents.
        The judge said the government made a mistake in exposing Assange’s name in the documents.
        The move comes after a recently revealed court filing shows U.S. prosecutors had filed sealed and unknown charges against Assange.
        She also noted no other case in which the government was compelled to unseal the charging document before the defendant’s arrest.
    [If this has anything to do with the goverment using NSA illegal surveillance exposed by Snowden then we know it is incorrect.    As well as the next article.].

    11/27/2018 Court documents reveal Jerome Corsi had prior knowledge of Wikileaks email dump by OAN Newsroom
        New emails show Jerome Corsi was talking about a potential Wikileaks document two weeks before the release of the hacked emails.
        The special counsel is looking at an email sent by Corsi to former-Trump campaign aide Roger Stone, according to court documents revealed today.
        In an email written by Corsi on August 2nd, 2016 he says, “word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” which appears to show premeditated knowledge of the eventual Wikileaks release.
        Stone, on the other hand, has since responded to the claim saying the email fails to prove he, nor Corsi, has knowledge of the Wikileaks archive or the Podesta emails.
        In an interview shortly thereafter, Corsi reiterated his defense to the allegations, saying:
        “Now, why did I think they [the emails] were coming out in October? Well I said to myself, ‘if I had these emails, I’d use them as an October surprise,’ and why did I think they would come out serially, drip-by-drip?    Because Assange is very strategic, he understands the news cycle.”
        The exchange between Corsi and Stone, it’s worth noting, referenced Hillary Clinton’s health.
        However, the information they were talking about was never released or detailed in a Wikileaks document dump.

    11/27/2018 Russian firm indicted by Mueller to ask judge to share ‘sensitive’ info with workers by OAN Newsroom
        A Russian company indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is apparently in possession of information considered to be ‘sensitive’ by the U.S. government, and now wants to share it.
    FILE – In this June 21, 2017, file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference
    in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington. Paul Manafort’s plea deal went up in
    smoke this week. It didn’t even last three months. The former Trump campaign chairman’s cooperation agreement with
    Mueller unraveled after prosecutors say he repeatedly lied to investigators, an allegation Manafort denies. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
        In a motion filed in federal court Tuesday, Concord Management and Consulting revealed it’s intention to ask the court to allow it to share the information with it’s employees.
        The firm did not disclose what data it wants to show to workers but argued the judge’s decision on the matter will ‘significantly affect the defense to how it can proceed.’
        Additionally, the company and special counsel’s office have agreed to file motions and counter-motions through February, pertaining to the matter.

    11/27/2018 DHS: Majority of caravan migrants are not eligible for asylum in U.S. by OAN Newsroom
        Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said a majority of the migrants in the caravans are not eligible for asylum in the U.S.
        Nielsen released the statement Monday following Sunday’s clashes between border authorities and migrants at the Southwest border near San Diego.
    Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen speaks in front of the border wall separating Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego,
    Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, in San Diego. Nielsen says an appeal will be filed as soon as possible on the decision by a judge to
    temporarily bar the Trump administration from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
        She said many of the migrants have refused multiple opportunities to get protection from the UN refugee agency in Mexico.
        Nielsen added, seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum under U.S. laws.
        This comes as DHS confirmed more than 600 of the migrants are convicted criminals, and pose a national security risk to the U.S.

    11/27/2018 Rep. Brady celebrates new tax package by OAN Newsroom
        House Ways and Means Committee chairman is celebrating the release of a new tax package.
        In a statement Tuesday, Congressman Kevin Brady said the package builds on the economic successes we continue to see throughout our country.
    Rep. Kevin Brady is on the verge of one of the hardest assignments handed to any House member in years:
    Shepherding a tax bill through his chamber that will, by necessity, have to gore more than a few oxen. | John Shinkle/POLITICO
        He claims both Republicans and Democrats support it, and he looks forward to the House passing it along to the Senate.
        This comes after his committee unveiled the nearly 300 page legislation late on Monday, which seeks fill in some holes in the tax cuts and jobs act.
        Many of the proposals in the bill are meant to extend existing tax provisions, and bolster savings plans, including for retirement.    That would also include disaster funding.
        House Republicans are expected to vote on the proposal as early as this week.

    11/27/2018 U.K. PM May: talks underway with U.S. about trade agreement in future by OAN Newsroom
        UK Prime Minister Theresa May expresses optimism over a possible trade deal with the U.S. after Brexit.
        Speaking at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair Tuesday May said, a divorce from the EU means Britain will have an independent trade policy.
    British Prime Minister Theresa May walks past the EU flag at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels,
    Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. European Union leaders gathered Sunday to seal an agreement on Britain’s departure from
    the bloc next year, the first time a member country will have left the 28-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
        She adds the UK can negotiate and complete trade deals with countries across the world.    May specifically mentioned the U.S. saying the framework is already getting started for an agreement.
        “And as regards to the United States, we have already been talking to them about the sort of agreement that we could have in the future, we’ve got a working group set up which is working very well, has met several times, continuing to work with the U.S. on this.” -Theresa May, UK prime minister
        This comes after President Trump said May’s new Brexit plan could spell very bad news for the United States trade relationship with the United Kingdom and the European Union.

    11/27/2018 U.S. sanctions Nicaraguan officials over corruption, human rights abuses by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration is following through on its promise to crackdown on Nicaragua’s government over its response to recent protests.
        President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the treasury department to impose sanctions against two top government officials.
    FILE – In this Sept. 5, 2018 file photo, the First Lady and Vice-President of Nicaragua Rosario Murillo
    waves to the crowd during a rally in Managua, Nicaragua. The Trump administration has added on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018,
    the first lady of Nicaragua and one of her senior aides to a sanctions list as it tries to increase pressure on
    President Daniel Ortega’s government for its violent response to a political crisis. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)
        The order specifically hits Nicaragua’s vice president and its national security adviser for corruption and human rights abuses.
        Under the sanctions, the pair will have their assets frozen and are barred from doing business with the U.S.     The White House previously vowed to take action against the government of Daniel Ortega for its handling of anti-government protests.

    11/28/2018 Oil down $0.07 to $51.55, DOW up 108 to 24,749

    11/28/2018 US ‘disappointed’ in China’s trade stance, economic adviser says
        The White House warned Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday against trying to wait out President Donald Trump in the ongoing trade dispute between their countries.
        The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came before the two leaders’ highstakes meeting on Saturday in Argentina at the Group of 20 summit.
        Kudlow said more tariffs will be imposed if the U.S. doesn’t get “satisfactory” responses to its trade positions.

    11/28/2018 Group backed by Abrams sues Georgia over its election process
        A political organization backed by Democrat Stacey Abrams filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the way Georgia’s elections are run, making good on a promise Abrams made as she ended her bid to become the state’s governor.
        State elections officials “grossly mismanaged” the election in a way that deprived some citizens, particularly low-income people and people of color, of their constitutional right to vote, the lawsuit says.    It was filed by Fair Fight Action against interim Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden and state election board members.

    11/28/2018 China, vying with U.S. in Latin America, eyes Argentina nuclear deal by Cassandra Garrison and Matt Spetalnick
    A building with The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) logo
    is seen in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 26, 2018. Picture taken November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
        BUENOS AIRES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Argentina and China are aiming to close a deal within days for the construction of the South American nation’s fourth nuclear power plant, a multi-billion dollar project that would cement Beijing’s deepening influence in a key regional U.S. ally.
        Argentina hopes to announce an agreement on the Chinese-financed construction of the Atucha III nuclear power plant during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit on Sunday following the summit of leaders of G20 industrialized nations in Buenos Aires, Juan Pablo Tripodi, head of Argentina’s national investment agency, told Reuters in an interview.
        The potential deal, reportedly worth up to $8 billion, is emblematic of China’s strengthening of economic, diplomatic and cultural ties with Argentina.    It is part of a wider push by Beijing into Latin America that has alarmed the United States, which views the region as its backyard and is suspicious of China’s motives.
        The focus of this week’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of G20 will be on their two countries’ trade war, but the backdrop will be the competition between the powers for influence in Latin America.
        When Argentina negotiated a $56.3 billion financing deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to rescue its troubled economy earlier this year, Trump voiced his support for the plan and President Mauricio Macri’s leadership.
        But it is China that has emerged as Argentina’s critical trading partner, investor and financier, a Reuters review of trade and investment data shows, with Beijing pumping billions into Argentina’s economy and positioning itself as a reliable lender for its crisis-stricken economy.
        China and Argentina are expected to seal a currency swap deal this weekend that doubles the original amount of the credit line to $18.7 billion.    The deal will make China the biggest non-institutional lender to Argentina.
        China is the main importer of Argentine soybeans, the South American country’s biggest cash crop.    In the last 10 years, it has also emerged as a major financier of Argentine projects, mainly infrastructure, worth a total of about $18 billion, offering low interest rates of between 3 and 4 percent, according to a Reuters review of Chinese state funding data compiled by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based non-profit think-tank.
        The negotiations on Chinese financing of the Atucha III nuclear power plant are a key cause for concern for the U.S. government, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters.
        Atucha III would be one of the biggest projects financed by China in Argentina, according to the Reuters review of Chinese state funding data.
        Argentina’s national newspaper Clarin reported at the weekend that if the deal was signed, China would loan Argentina $6.5 billion to be repaid in 20 years, with eight years of grace and a 4.5 percent annual interest.    Reuters was not able to independently confirm these details.
        “These are infrastructure projects where China is coming in and providing very low interest loans or they are just having Chinese companies do it,” the U.S. official said.    “It’s creating an economic and political dependency on China that’s incredibly dangerous.”
        The message to Macri and other regional leaders is increasingly that “your sovereignty can be lost by being so ensnared in debt, you can lose your sovereignty to the person who holds your debt,” the U.S. official said.
        China’s foreign ministry strongly disputes that view.
        “China’s investment and financing in Latin America are in line with market rules and common international rules and practices, and do not have any political conditions attached,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
        The involvement of Chinese companies in water, power and road projects has helped to drive Argentine economic and social development, it said.
        Defending Argentina’s relationship with China, an Argentine government official told Reuters that Beijing was an important investor and would only become more important in the future.
        However, the official acknowledged the U.S. concerns were not without merit.
        “Overall, I would say it’s a fair warning and it’s something countries should take into consideration.    I think Argentina takes it into consideration very seriously,” the official said.
    RECALIBRATING TIES
        China’s attraction to Argentina can be attributed to three factors: natural resources, weak institutions, and the country’s lack of other financing options, according to Juan Uriburu, an Argentine lawyer who has worked on two major Argentina-China joint ventures.
        “China can afford to have these competitive (interest) rates.    In the meantime, what they create are new markets for Chinese companies abroad, which back home means Chinese companies will be working, making the products, making the locomotives, the cars, the rails, everything,” Uriburu said.
        Tripodi, the Argentine investment agency head, credited Macri’s more business-friendly policies for the uptick in Chinese investment.    Interest from Chinese companies was growing “in an exponential way,” he said.
        As a presidential candidate, Macri pledged to recalibrate Argentina’s relationship with China.    Under his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, Argentina had changed the law to enable Chinese companies to skip the bidding process if they were financing projects, according to Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin American program at Inter-American Dialogue.
        When Macri took office in late 2015, he vowed to review deals the Fernandez government had made with China.
        Atucha III, a railway project and two hydropower dams in Santa Cruz province, which her late husband had governed, were among projects thrown into limbo.
        Cross-cancellation clauses, however, have made it difficult for Macri to terminate the largest projects, said Uriburu.    Macri has instead renegotiated some terms, including bringing down the loan amount for the hydro dams from $4.7 billion to $4 billion.
        In Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro also took a tough stance against China on the campaign trail, portraying it as a predator seeking to dominate key business sectors.    But since winning election Bolsonaro has softened his position, saying China is welcome to invest in Brazil and that trade between the two countries could grow.
    HEARTS AND MINDS
        China’s influence in Argentina extends beyond the numbers.    For example, it has established Confucius institutes, cultural organizations, at Argentina’s largest university, the University of Buenos Aires, and a second college in Buenos Aires province.
        Some U.S. lawmakers have warned that the institutes, which number more than 100 around the world, are an attempt by China to further its political influence, which Beijing denies.
        In one of the most visible examples of Chinese soft power in Argentina, the government held a nationally televised event with the Chinese ambassador earlier this month to showcase armored vehicles and other security equipment that China has donated to help secure the G20 event.
        Argentine security officials told Reuters they would hold a separate event to highlight U.S. aid for the summit, which begins on Friday.
        That has yet to happen.
    (Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Matt Spetalnick. Additional reporting by Lusha Zhang in Beijing and Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Ross Colvin)

    11/27/2018 Pres. Trump: Mueller probe ruining lives, damaging justice system by OAN Newsroom
        The president is once again taking aim at the Mueller investigation, accusing the probe of rampant bias.
    FILE – In this June 21, 2017, file photo, special counsel Robert Mueller departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
        In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the president blasted Mueller’s investigation as “one sided,” saying the special counsel has done “tremendous damage” to our criminal justice system.
        He went on to say the fake news media is painting Mueller as a saint, all the while wasting $30 million worth of government funds on the so-called witch hunt.
        President trump also said “wait until it comes out how horribly and viscously they are treating people.”    He added that so far the probe has done nothing but ruin lives.
        Trump Tweets: “The Phony Witch Hunt continues, but Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other.    Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie.    Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue....”
        “....The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite.    He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other.    Heroes will come of this, and it won’t be Mueller and his...“
        Meanwhile, GOP Senator John Kennedy warns Democrats against tacking on a provision to protect Robert Mueller to the spending bill.
        On Monday, the Louisiana lawmaker said it would be a “grave mistake” for Democrats to try to add a Mueller protection measure to spending legislation.
        Kennedy also suggested if Democrats do so it could ‘very well’ lead to a government shutdown.    Congress must approve a government funding bill by December 7th to avoid another possible shutdown.

    11/28/2018 Navy hospital ship ‘Comfort’ treats Venezuelan migrants in Colombia by OAN Newsroom
        The Pentagon has deployed one of the Navy’s hospital ships to relieve countries swamped with Venezuelan migrants, who have fled the Maduro regime.
        On Tuesday, the USNS Comfort docked off Colombia’s coast and took aboard hundreds of patients as it is set to treat thousands this week.
        Venezuelans and Colombians were able to receive a number of free services from health screenings to surgery.
        Comfort is fully equipped with a pharmacy, blood bank, operating rooms, labs and other medical devices.
    Colombian and Venezuelan patients walk towards a helicopter to be flown from the
    USNS Comfort hospital ship to Riohacha, Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
        The efforts are part of an 11-week humanitarian mission, with more stops planned in neighboring countries.
    “I think it’s people taking care of people.    I’m a father, so I know if someone takes care of my wife or daughter I’m willing to (say) ‘hey, let’s make an impact.’    And I’ll tell you…I’ve been in command here for 18 months and I’ve had all but a dozen people come up to me, either civilian or now in the military, that said that either the Comfort or our sister ship, the Mercy, came to my country when I was 5 or 6 years of age and they came to America, because they wanted to be a part of a country that does great things like this.” — Kevin Buckley, Commanding Officer – USNS Comfort.
        Colombia currently hosts one million refugees, and the government said it could be hosting four million by 2021.

    11/28/2018 President Trump suggests measures to protect domestic car production by OAN Newsroom
    An auto transport truck full of new cars drives out of the General Motors
    Lordstown plant, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, in Lordstown, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
        President Trump is calling on Congress to pass legislation in order to protect the car industry in the United States.
        In a series of tweets Wednesday, the president suggested adding a tariff on imported cars as a way to encourage domestic car production.
        He said the small truck business in the U.S. has been a favorite for many years due to a 25-percent tariff on foreign trucks.
        Trump tweet: “The reason that the small truck business in the U.S. is such a go to favorite is that, for many years, Tariffs of 25% have been put on small trucks coming into our country.    It is called the “chicken tax.”    If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here.....”
        The president also said other countries sending their cars to the U.S. have been taking advantage of the situation for decades.
        He explained his administration has great power on this issue and is currently studying the situation due to General Motor’s recent plans to close some of their plants in the U.S.
        Trump tweet: “.....and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland.    Get smart Congress.    Also, the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades.    The President has great power on this issue - Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!”

    11/28/2018 Senate Majority Leader McConnell details agenda for rest of year by OAN Newsroom
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, speaks to media after a meeting in his office at the Capitol
    in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018. With McConnell are from left, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.,
    Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, right. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently outlined his priorities for the remainder of the year.    In a series of tweets Wednesday, McConnell said the upper chamber is focused on getting more of the president’s team in place, confirming judicial nominees and dealing with other legislative business.
        He also slammed Democrats by claiming they have made the chamber drag its feet, but promised to do what he can to close out the 115th Congress in a strong way.
        McConnell tweet: “The Senate is focused on wrapping up this year’s remaining priorities: getting more of the president’s team in place, confirming well-qualified nominees to our federal courts, and attending to the pressing legislative business the American people expect us to handle.”
        While the Senate has 51 Republicans this term, it will have 53 starting in January.
        Meanwhile, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress is working to create a more confident, prosperous and secure America in the last two weeks of the congressional sessions.
        During a briefing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, the speaker said Republicans are working on wrapping up the farm bill, criminal justice reform and border security.
        Ryan echoed the sentiment of his colleagues by saying now that the election is over, he hopes Democrats can put politics aside and work on securing the border.
        However, the Speaker said the Senate was the real obstacle in getting any border security measures passed.
    House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., returns to Capitol Hill in Washington,
    Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, following a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

    11/28/2018 Hyde-Smith defeats Espy in Miss. special election run-off by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith was named the winner in the special election run-off in Mississippi, further solidifying the Republican majority in the upper chamber.    The race was called Tuesday night after Hyde-Smith dominated her Democrat challenger Mike Espy.
        Hyde-Smith is now the first women ever elected to Congress in Mississippi.    However, Democrats chose not to acknowledge that milestone during her run and, instead, focused on slandering her as a racist in a last-ditch effort to push their candidate through.
    Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith calls on her family members to identify themselves as she celebrates her runoff win
    over Democrat Mike Espy in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Hyde-Smith will now serve the final two years
    of retired Republican Sen. Thad Cochran’s six year term. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
        After the tense and lengthy campaign, Hyde-Smith took a moment to thank everyone who stood by her and voted to support conservative values.
        “It is hard to describe the feelings tonight for me and my family, but tonight in this victory –the reason we won is because Mississippians know me and they know my heart and thank you for stepping up, Mississippi,” she stated.
        This win is a big one for Republicans as it will help the party elect more conservative judges and confirm cabinet positions such as a new attorney general.
        President Trump tweeted at Hyde-Smith following the announcement to say his administration is very proud of her accomplishment.

    11/28/2018 National Governors Association endorses Trump-backed criminal justice reform by OAN Newsroom
        The National Governors Association (NGA) has come out in support of the Trump-backed prison reform bill called the ‘First Step Act.’
    FILE photo – Prisoners line up at the D.C. Jail in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        In a statement Tuesday, the NGA praised the legislation for including many of the key principles the organization has long advocated for.
        This includes boosting rehabilitation efforts to ease prisoners back into the community as well as making changes to the three-strike policy implemented during the Clinton administration.
        More than 30 states have already passed similar reforms, which have been met with lower prison costs and reduced incarceration rates.
        In response, the NGA is calling on Congress to pass the reforms quickly at the federal level.

    11/28/2018 Brazil nixes plans to host U.N. climate conference
    FILE PHOTO: Skyline of Rio De Janeiro is pictured at sunset June 28, 2014. In a project called 'On The Sidelines'
    Reuters photographers share pictures showing their own quirky and creative view of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
        SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil’s government has backed out of its offer to host the United Nations climate conference next year due to budget constraints and a presidential transition, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
        The conference is slated to be held in November next year. Last month, the Foreign Ministry announced Brazil’s offer to host the event in a press release, saying the meeting would work out final details of the Paris climate agreement and for signatory countries to fully implement its demands by 2020.
        Hosting the event would have confirmed Brazil’s “role as a world leader on sustainable development issues, especially in relation to climate change.”
        But in its emailed statement on Wednesday, the ministry said that after it carried out a detailed analysis that focused “on the financial needs associated with the event,” it was decided that the cost would be too much for the country to bear.
        Brazil, which has 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest within its borders, a biome scientists consider one of nature’s best defenses against global warming as it acts as a giant carbon sink, has made significant strides in the past 15 years to curtail destruction of the jungle.
            However, Brazil’s government reported last week that annual deforestation levels had hit their highest level in a decade.
        Critics said the decision to not host the climate conference was related to the election in late October of right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who will take office on Jan. 1.
        “The reversal to host the meeting is likely because of the opposition of the incoming government, which has already declared war on sustainable development on multiple occasions,” the environmental group Observatorio da Clima said in a release on its website.    “It’s not the first and will not be the last awful news from Jair Bolsonaro on this theme.”
        Aides to Bolsonaro did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
        Bolsonaro has antagonized environmentalists by threatening to pull Brazil out of the Paris climate accord, although he also said late in October that he was not set on such a move if elected.
        Bolsonaro, who has called conservation efforts a threat to Brazilian sovereignty, had also sought to combine the environmental and agricultural ministries but later retreated from that proposal as well.
    (Reporting by Brad Brooks and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

    11/28/2018 ‘Unruly’ young boy upstages Pope Francis
    A child that escaped from his mother walks in front Pope Francis during the
    general audience at Paul VI hall at the Vatican, November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi
        VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A young boy upstaged Pope Francis on Wednesday, escaping from his mother and running onto the papal podium at a general audience, tugging on the hand of a Swiss guardsman and playing behind the pontiff’s chair.
        The boy’s mother briefly spoke to the pope as she tried to pull the child away, saying that he was mute.    Pope Francis told her to let him carry on playing.
        “This child cannot speak.    He is mute.    But he can communicate,” the pope told hundreds of pilgrims.    “And he has something that got me thinking: he is free.    Unruly … but he is free,” he added to laughter.
        “Let’s ask the grace (of God) that he may speak.”
        The mother told the pope that the family came from his native Argentina.    As she left the stage, a smiling Francis leaned towards Bishop Georg Ganswein sitting next to him and whispered: “He is Argentinian.    Undisciplined.”
    (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
    [He does not seem to be very busy getting rid of child molesting priests.].

    11/28/2018 Mexico says migrants have right to seek U.S. asylum, rejects closing border by Frank Jack Daniel
    Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray gives a speech to senators during a
    plenary session of Mexico's Senate in Mexico City, Mexico October 9, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Central American migrants have a right to request asylum in the United States and Mexico has repeatedly refused U.S. requests to force them to seek refuge there instead, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Wednesday.
        Videgaray, who leaves office at the weekend, said the incoming Mexican government was also not planning to accept U.S. demands that it give asylum to the migrants, thousands of whom have arrived at the U.S.-Mexican border in caravans in recent weeks.
        He told Mexican network Televisa that accepting the U.S. requests “would declare Mexico a final destination for migrants, invalidating any asylum process in the United States.    We have rejected this.”
        U.S. President Donald Trump threatened this week to “permanently” close the U.S.-Mexican border if Mexico does not deport some 7,000 Central Americans gathered in the border city of Tijuana.
        Videgaray said that closing the border, through which $1.7 billion in bilateral trade passes every day, would be “incredibly negative” for both countries.
        Videgaray said the migrants were welcome to stay in Mexico while they waited to file asylum claims in the United States.
        “What is happening is very different.    They are in Mexico, waiting to file for (U.S.) asylum.    Being in Mexico does not mean they lose their ability, their right to request asylum.”
        Videgaray did not address reports that the incoming government of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was close to an agreement with the United States that would make migrants wait in Mexico even after they had submitted their claim in the United States.
        Under current rules, migrants who ask for U.S. asylum are either detained in the United States or released there to await the final ruling on their application, a process Trump refers to as “catch and release” and that on average takes close to two years.
    (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)
    [Mexico you let them in your country so Asylum them.    We do not Asylum mob invasions.    So tell them to get in line and wait, they have no rights in America.    They are not citizens yet.]

    11/28/2018 Sen. Lee blocks legislation protecting Robert Mueller from being fired by OAN Newsroom
        Republican Senator Mike Lee recently blocked a vote on a bill that would have protected special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.
    Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, gestures while speaking to members of the media after leaving a closed door
    meeting about Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        Senator Lee objected to the legislation Wednesday, claiming it had constitutional issues.
        Under Senate rules, just one senator is needed to block a request for a vote on legislation.
        This comes after Senators Jeff Flake, Chris Coons and Cory Booker took to the Senate floor to try and force a vote on the bill for a second time.
        Flake has previously said he would not vote for judicial nominees until the legislation to protect Mueller was voted on.

    11/28/2018 President Trump’s FERC nominee moves to full Senate for confirmation vote by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In a Jan. 27, 2015 file photo, sunrise colors the sky over PPL Montanas
    Corette power plant in Billings, Mont. (AP Photo/The Gazette, Larry Mayer)
        President Trump’s pick to sit on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is moving forward in the confirmation process.
        The Senate panel tasked with overseeing the nomination of Bernard McNamee decided largely along party lines Tuesday to send his bid to the floor for a full Senate vote.
        West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin was the only Democrat to vote in favor of McNamee, who has been criticized over his support of fossil fuels.
        McNamee currently serves as a senior official at the Department of Energy.
        If confirmed by the Senate, he will replace Commissioner Robert Powelson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s plan to save coal and nuclear energy.

    11/29/2018 Venezuela VP says ‘hurt’ by revelation ex-treasurer took bribes
    National Constituent Assembly (ANC) President Diosdado Cabello attends a rally in
    support of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela October 5, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s socialist party Vice President Diosdado Cabello said on Wednesday all “Chavistas” were “hurt” by revelations that a former national treasurer took more than $1 billion in bribes, but sought to distance the ruling movement from any corruption.
        Cabello is the most senior person in President Nicolas Maduro’s government to comment on Alejandro Andrade’s admission to U.S. prosecutors in documents unsealed last week that he conspired to launder money while running the treasury for four years under late President Hugo Chavez.
        A Florida judge on Tuesday sentenced Andrade to 10 years, the maximum prison term he faced.    He admitted receiving properties, Mercedez Benz vehicles and “champion horses” as part of illicit foreign currency schemes that involved a local television mogul now indicted in U.S. courts.
        “It hurts us personally, of course,” Cabello, who also presides over the all-powerful constituent assembly, said in his weekly television program, accusing Andrade of “betraying” Chavez.    “But I repeat: to be a Chavista, one must fight against corruption, not be corrupt.”
        Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor, proudly refers to himself as a “son” of Chavez and has maintained his left-wing economic policies.
        Andrade, who lives in Florida, must surrender to U.S. prison by Feb. 25, the court ruled.    Venezuela’s chief prosecutor Tarek Saab last week requested his extradition from the United States.
        U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to crack down on the use of the U.S. financial system to launder proceeds from rampant corruption in the crisis-stricken South American country that is suffering from hyperinflation and a fifth year of economic contraction.
        Since 2003, the exchange control system has sold heavily subsidized dollars through state currency agencies or government auctions.    But dollars on the black market have fetched at least double and sometimes 10 times more, allowing the well-connected to buy cut-rate dollars and resell them at a huge profit.
    (Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

    11/29/2018 Oil down $1.27 to $50.29, DOW up 618 to 25,366

    11/29/2018 Oil falls, heading for biggest monthly slide since 2008 by Amanda Cooper
    FILE PHOTO: Oil pumps are seen after sunset outside Vaudoy-en-Brie,
    near Paris, France November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil fell on Thursday, bringing losses for the month so far to 23 percent, marking its largest one-month fall since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
        A seemingly relentless rise in U.S. crude supply, together with Saudi Arabia’s insistence that it will not cut output on its own to stabilize the market, wiped out overnight gains in oil futures.
        Brent crude futures fell 64 cents on the day to $58.12 a barrel, off an earlier session high of $59.51, while U.S. crude futures dropped below $50 for the first time in over a year. The January contract was last down 40 cents at $49.89.
        “I’m surprised and yet not surprised about the move lower this morning,” PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said.
        “I’m surprised because stock markets rallied yesterday, because the dollar weakened and that should provide some sort of support for oil, but at the same time, I’m not surprised because the Saudi energy minister said yesterday they won’t be the only one to cut (output) and even Putin has said he’s happy with oil prices at $60.”
        Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is the world’s second biggest oil producer, said on Wednesday he was in touch with OPEC and ready to continue cooperation on supply if needed, but he was satisfied with an oil price of $60.
        The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers meet in Vienna next week to discuss a new round of supply cuts of 1 million to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) and possibly more to prop up prices.
        U.S. crude inventories have hit their highest in a year after a tenth consecutive weekly increase, and are now only 80 million barrels below March 2017’s record 535 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration.
        “WTI oil is now trading right around the $50 per barrel level, a price last seen well over a year ago, as the current oversupply situation has now manifested itself in 10 consecutive weekly increases in U.S. oil inventories,” said William O’Loughlin, Investment Analyst at Australia’s Rivkin Securities.
        “We have seen huge increases in supply and the demand picture is in question.    However, we might see some movement on global trade issues at the G20 meeting which starts on Friday,” said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking.
        Investors in commodity markets are looking ahead to the meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 nations (G20), the world’s biggest economies, on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, with the U.S.-China trade war a key focus.
    (Additional reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL and Naveen Thukral in SINGAPORE; Editing by Jan Harvey)

    11/29/2018 Baltimore sues administration over Trump immigration policy
        Baltimore on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that “unlawful” efforts altering a State Department policy are restricting visa applicants and deterring law-abiding immigrants from claiming public assistance.
        In its lawsuit, Baltimore asserts the U.S. State Department earlier this year quietly expanded its definition of “public charge” – someone the United States deems likely to be primarily dependent on government aid.
        It says the change is not only frightening legally entitled immigrants from applying for public programs but impeding otherwise eligible immigrants from entering the country.

    11/29/2018 Trump ‘totally’ willing to shut down government by William Cummings, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump would “totally be willing” to shut down the federal government if Congress does not approve $5 billion for construction of a wall along the U.S.Mexican border, he said during an Oval Office interview with Politico.
        The president has pushed congressional leaders to approve the funding for his long-promised wall as the threat of a partial government shutdown looms.
        This year, Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to fund most of the government into 2019, but funding for some agencies is set to expire Dec. 7.
        Trump told Politico that the $5 billion he demands would be only for the wall and that the “number is larger for border security” overall.
        House Republicans backed Trump’s call for $5 billion; the House Appropriations Committee approved the spending in July.    A bipartisan Senate bill earmarked $1.6 billion for the wall.
        Although Republicans still control both the Senate and House, GOP leaders said Democrats will be to blame if a deal on border security is not struck.
        House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., wondered if Democrats are “going to shut down the government because they don’t want to keep America safe?”
        “We need Democrat votes to have a wall,” Trump told The Washington Post, indicating he had a backup plan if the funding fell through.
        “There are other potential ways that I can do it.    You saw what we did with the military, just coming in with the barbed wire and the fencing,” he told the Post.
        Democrats pushed back.    “If there’s any shutdown, it’s on President Trump’s back,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said.
    Contributing: Bart Jansen and Alan Gomez, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.

    11/29/2018 Tear gas: ‘Harsh, terrifying’ and legal to use on civilians by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
        The images of immigrant mothers and their young children choking on tear gas at the U.S.-Mexican border become even more jarring with this realization: The use of this chemical weapon is not allowed in warfare.
        The tactic is perfectly legal when employed on civilians.
        The appropriateness of government officers using tear gas to turn back a group of immigrants who rushed the border south of San Diego on Sunday has come under intense scrutiny.    Although there’s plenty of debate about the suitability – or even effectiveness – of relying on that kind of chemical agent, its legality is not in question.
        The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, signed by almost every nation, banned the use of tear gas on battlefields but allowed it for domestic law enforcement and crowd control.
        The strategy was largely successful in keeping the migrants at bay but drew rebukes from many Democrats – including California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom – horrified at the sight of children and in agony.
        Department of Homeland Security officials defended the use of tear gas as the least harmful way for CBP agents to defend themselves as they were pelted with rocks and bottles.
        “We don’t target women and children,” said Rodney Scott, chief Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector.    “If women and children choose to insert themselves into a violent crowd that is attacking police officers with rocks and bottles, there are going to be unintended consequences.”

    11/29/2018 General behind deadly Haiti raid takes aim at Brazil’s gangs by Gabriel Stargardter
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro talks with retired General Augusto Heleno
    during an event to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of Brazilian Paratrooper Infantry Brigade
    in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil November 24, 2018. Picture taken November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Thirteen years ago, a Brazilian general named Augusto Heleno led hundreds of United Nations troops into a Haitian slum to bring a powerful gangster to heel.
        Over the course of a seven-hour gun battle, the peacekeepers sprayed more than 22,000 bullets into the impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil.    Their target, a warlord known as Dread Wilme, was killed.
        The operation, dubbed “Iron Fist,” was the capstone of Heleno’s mission to restore order in Haiti after its president was ousted by insurgents.    Heleno declared the raid a success.
        But various human rights groups called it a “massacre,” alleging dozens of bystanders were killed in the crossfire, many of them women and children.
        The episode, largely forgotten outside Haiti, may provide a road map for the security strategy of Brazil’s next president, far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro.    He has tapped Heleno to be his top national security advisor and wants the former general and other ex-Haiti hands to tame Brazil’s favelas using methods employed in the slums of Port-au-Prince.
        Brazil suffered a record 64,000 murders last year, the most in the world.    Bolsonaro has promised no mercy for lawbreakers.
        “We are at war.    Haiti was also at war,” Bolsonaro said in a recent TV interview.    “(In Haiti), the rule was, you found an element with a firearm, you shoot, and then you see what happened.    You solve the problem.”
        Haiti looms large in Bolsonaro’s cabinet.
        His proposed defense minister, former Gen. Fernando Azevedo e Silva, served there under Heleno as an operations chief.    Bolsonaro’s incoming infrastructure minister, Tarcisio Freitas, was a senior U.N. military engineer in Haiti, arriving shortly after Heleno left in 2005.    Retired Gen. Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, Brazil’s next government minister, led U.N. troops in the Caribbean nation in 2007.
        Neither Heleno nor Azevedo e Silva responded to requests for comment about the Cite Soleil raid.
        It remains to be seen just how heavy-handed Heleno’s approach might be in Brazil, particularly in crime-ridden Rio de Janeiro state.    But other crackdowns there have not produced lasting results.
        Those efforts include a massive security push in some of the city’s favelas ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games, and a more recent state-wide military intervention launched in February. In Rio state, violent deaths are up 1.3 percent during the first nine months of the latest occupation compared with the same period last year; the number of people killed by security forces jumped more than 40 percent, with about four people slain daily.
        Rio’s current intervention is slated to finish just before Bolsonaro takes office on January 1.    Neither Heleno nor Azevedo e Silva have ruled out extending it.
        In recent weeks, Heleno has expressed support for a radical crime-fighting strategy promoted by Rio state’s incoming right-wing governor, Wilson Witzel.    That plan would put snipers in helicopters to take out favela gangsters.
        Heleno said in a recent radio interview that his rules of engagement in Haiti were similar to those proposed by Witzel, adding that key parts of the Rio military intervention “can serve as a model for the rest of the country.”
        Those views alarm some members of the armed forces, who fear protracted urban warfare could sap troop morale and stoke public resentment against one of Brazil’s most respected institutions.
        And some public safety experts worry Brazil’s new leaders will double down on a failed strategy.
        “Rio is a laboratory which illustrates that these types of policies do not work,” said Ignacio Cano, a Rio de Janeiro State University professor who has written extensively on security issues.
    ‘BULLETS FLEW THROUGH THE WALLS’
        Reuters interviewed more than a dozen people with knowledge of the July 6, 2005 raid, including diplomats, NGO workers, Haitian officials and Cite Soleil residents.    Reuters also reviewed U.N. reports, U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, press articles and Heleno’s own words from the time.    Together, they paint a detailed picture of the pressures weighing on Heleno to get tough in Haiti.
        Brazil assumed military control of the U.N.’s mission to stabilize Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, in mid-2004.
        Heleno, Brazil’s first MINUSTAH military commander, arrived shortly after the ouster and exile of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.    The general was tasked with stabilizing the country to allow for peaceful elections.
        Standing in his way were powerful criminal gangs operating violent kidnapping, carjacking and extortion rackets.    As months passed, the United States, in particular, expressed impatience with Heleno’s progress.
        “MINUSTAH has failed to establish security and stability here,” James B. Foley, then-U.S. ambassador to Haiti, wrote in a June 1, 2005 cable to Washington.    “As much as we may pressure the UN and Brazilians to take the more forceful approach that is needed, I do not believe ultimately they will be up to the task.”
        Five weeks later, Heleno ordered 440 U.N. troops, supported by 41 armored vehicles and helicopters, into Cite Soleil to detain Wilme, whom U.S. cables described as Haiti’s most powerful gangster.
        Heleno’s team initially said Wilme and a few henchman had died, resulting in five or six fatalities tops, according to press accounts.    But reports of civilian injuries and deaths quickly surfaced.
        “We have credible information that U.N. troops, accompanied by Haitian police, killed an undetermined number of unarmed residents of Cite Soleil, including several babies and women,” Renan Hedouville, the head of a local nonprofit, Lawyers Committee for the Respect of Individual Rights, said at the time.
        The then-head of Medecins Sans Frontiers’ mission in Haiti told reporters that its doctors treated 27 people with gunshot wounds, most of them women and children.
        U.S. diplomats also cast doubt on MINUSTAH’s version of events.    A July 26, 2005 cable said “22,000 rounds is a large amount of ammunition to have killed only six people,” and noted some local human rights groups had put the estimated death toll as high as 70.
        A spokesman for Haiti’s current government did not respond to a request for comment about the raid or the Brazilian leadership of MINUSTAH troops.
        But some Cite Soleil residents cannot shake the memory of that day.    Street vendor Anol Pierre said she was at home when the firefight began.
        “I hid under the bed with my children as the bullets flew through the walls,” she said.    “We just prayed to Jesus.    I remember a pregnant woman, with two kids, who died.    Lots of families were victims.”
    NO REGRETS
        Juan Gabriel Valdes, MINUSTAH’s civilian chief in Haiti at the time, said Heleno’s soldiers were permitted by U.N peacekeeping rules to return fire after they came under attack.    MINUSTAH said Cite Soleil remained so volatile that it was impossible to conduct a full investigation to ascertain the death toll.
        Responding to allegations of excessive force, a U.N. Special Rapporteur asked MINUSTAH for clarification on what happened.    The Rapporteur’s report found MINUSTAH’s explanation for its actions “largely satisfactory.”
        Heleno expressed disdain for those who questioned his actions, according to Seth Donnelly, a human rights worker in Haiti at the time.    In a written report about the assault, Donnelly said Heleno told him and his fellow activists that they “only seemed to care about the rights of the ‘outlaws.'”
        Heleno’s views on public security have not softened since leaving Haiti.    In 2008, while still in uniform, he publicly criticized Brazilian policies granting indigenous tribes autonomy over ancestral lands as a threat to national sovereignty.
        When he retired in 2011, Heleno defended Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship as a bulwark against “the communization of the country.”
        In a radio interview earlier this month, Heleno said human rights should be reserved for “righteous humans.”    He said criminal gangs are transforming Brazil into a “narco country” and that aggressive measures must be employed to stop them.
        “It is absurd to treat this as a normal situation,” he said.    “It is an exceptional situation that requires exceptional treatment.” (Additional reporting by Robenson Sanon and Andres Martinez Casares in Port-au-Prince, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Marla Dickerson)

    11/29/2018 Stormy Daniels: Avenatti filed defamation case against President Trump against my wishes by OAN Newsroom
        Michael Avenatti has had some recent run-ins with the law, but the latest statement from one of his high-profile clients could spell trouble for the California lawyer.
        On Wednesday, adult film actress Stormy Daniels said the defamation suit Avenatti filed against President Trump on her behalf was done without her approval.
        In a statement to "The Daily Beast,” Daniels detailed her attorney-client relationship with Avenatti:
        “Michael has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client.    He has spoken on my behalf without my approval.    He filed a defamation case against Donald Trump against my wishes.”
        Daniels went on to say Avenatti refused to disclose how her legal defense fund was being spent, and that he started a new fundraising campaign using her name without her permission.    She also said he made up false statements and attributed them to her.
    Attorney Michael Avenatti. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
        Avenatti responded by saying he sacrificed time and money for Daniel’s case, and has been open with her about all aspects of the case.    He claimed the most recent campaign was a reboot of the previous fundraiser to help pay for Daniel’s additional security and legal costs.
        A judge ultimately ruled against Daniels in the defamation case and ordered her to pay the president’s legal fees.
        If Daniel’s statements are true, Avenatti could be subject to a malpractice suit.    He could face fines and punishment, but he would not be disbarred.
    [As it has been going anyone who has attacked Trump is getting what goes around comes around and neither of the above are considered the norm for today's society.    And the recent events will make a perfect presidental candidate for the left since anything goes with them.].

    11/29/2018 Bill supporting troop withdrawal from Yemen passes Senate vote by OAN Newsroom
        The Senate is advancing a bill to pull U.S. troops out of Yemen.    The bill, which would end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, passed by a vote of 63-to-37 on Wednesday.
        The measure would require President Trump to remove troops “in or affecting Yemen” within 30-days.
        The bill was co-sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders, who said as the world’s superpower it was up to the U.S. to make its own decision on the future of its involvement.
        “i>We have got to make the decision as to what happens in the war in Yemen and our role in that, and that’s what the vote today is about,” stated Sanders.
        Back in March, an earlier version of the bill failed by six votes.
    FILE – In this Feb. 12, 2018, file, photo, Saudi-led coalition backed forces petrol, Mocha, Yemen. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)
        Both the secretary of defense and secretary of state previously said a withdraw would undermine the possibility of future peace talks.
        The White House said it “strongly opposes” the resolution, and suggested President Trump would veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.

    11/29/2018 Federal Reserve chairman to slow rate hikes, ramp up reduction in debt holdings by OAN Newsroom
        Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is softening his stance on interest rate hikes after repeated criticisms from President Trump.
        While speaking at the economic club of New York Wednesday, Powell said higher interest rates are necessary to stave off risks to the U.S economy.
        “My own assessment is that, while risks are above normal in some areas and below normal in others, overall financial stability vulnerabilities are at a moderate level,” he stated.
        However, some Trump administration officials are focusing on how the central bank could help reduce America’s national debt.    Following 10-years of ultra low fed interest rates, U.S. household debt has increased to $13.3 trillion, while the national debt surpassed $20 trillion.
        Some officials believe the Federal Reserve could halt and reverse this accumulation of debt.
        “Interest rates are still low by historical standards, and they remain just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy — that is, neither speeding up nor slowing down growth,” stated Chairman Powell.
    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell addresses the Federal Reserve Board’s
    15th annual College Fed Challenge Finals in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
        Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has reportedly inquired if Powell could decrease the Fed’s holdings of U.S. federal bonds instead of hiking rates.    This could alleviate President Trump’s concerns with both the Fed policies and national debt.
        “I’m not uncomfortable with where debt-to-GDP is now, but that’s something we’ll keep an eye on, and again, it’s something we will review and carefully look at,” said Mnuchin.
        Powell’s remarks suggested interest rates could go up just once next year compared to three hikes this year.
        There is speculation Powell could have listened to Mnuchin’s suggestions and could ramp-up the reductions of the central bank’s holdings of U.S. debt currently at just above four trillion dollars.
        Meanwhile, Powell also reiterated the U..S economy is doing quite well.
        “The unemployment rate is 3.7-percent, a 49-year low, and many other measures of labor market strength are at or near historic bests,” he explained.    “Inflation is near our two-percent target, and the economy is growing at an annual rate of about three-percent, well above most estimates of its longer-run trend.”
        The Fed chair’s remarks might also suggest, now that the U.S. economy is doing better, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio could gradually decrease, falling in line with President Trump’s agenda.

    11/29/2018 Hate crimes in Canada jump 47 percent in 2017 by Anna Mehler Paperny
    FILE PHOTO: People attend a vigil in support of the Muslim community
    in Montreal, Quebec, January 30, 2017. REUTERS/Dario Ayala/File Photo
        TORONTO (Reuters) – Hate crimes in Canada increased 47 percent in 2017, primarily targeting Muslims, Jews and black people, according to figures released by the country’s statistical agency on Thursday.
        The biggest increase was in crimes targeting Muslims, Statistics Canada reported, in a year that saw a deadly mass shooting in a Quebec mosque, followed by a government motion to study Islamophobia that itself sparked anti-Muslim sentiment.
        The spike mirrors an increase in hate crimes south of the border in the United States, where they rose in 2017 for the third consecutive year, according to the FBI.
        “We were shocked by the numbers – and, at the same time, we weren’t,” said Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims.    “This increase didn’t occur in a vacuum.”
        Canada is not immune to rhetoric coming from the United States, said Amira Elghawaby, a board member of the Anti-Hate Network advocacy group.
        “It’s a porous border, not just for people and goods but for ideas.”
        The statistics published Thursday include crimes reported to police that were determined to be motivated by hatred toward an identifiable group.    According to victimization surveys, two-thirds of these crimes go unreported, Statistics Canada said.
        The number of hate crimes targeting Muslims more than doubled, rising to 349 from 139.    The number of hate crimes targeting black people increased by 50 percent, to 321 from 214.    And the number of hate crimes targeting Jewish people increased to 360 from 221.
        It is not yet known whether the upward trend in hate crimes continued through 2018, which saw such high-profile incidents as a Muslim man beaten in front of his family in a parking lot and Jewish teenagers attacked walking down the street.
        “We’re following this closely,” Gardee said.    “And we’ll continue to raise our voice for more coordinated action across the board.”
    (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Tom Brown)

    11/29/2018 Trump coy on China trade deal before meeting Xi by Jeff Mason
    FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags are set up for a meeting during a visit by U.S. Secretary of Transportation
    Elaine Chao at China's Ministry of Transport in Beijing, China April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump sent mixed signals on Thursday about the prospects for a trade deal with China, saying an agreement was close but he was not sure he wanted one, just as he left for Argentina for a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
        “I think we’re very close to doing something with China but I don’t know that I want to do it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to fly to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
        “Because what we have right now is billions and billions of dollars coming into the United States in the form of tariffs or taxes,” he said.
        Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet on Saturday to discuss trade amid increasing tensions between the world’s top two economies.
        Peter Navarro, Trump’s hardline trade adviser, will attend the meeting between the leaders, a U.S. official told Reuters.    Another official said Navarro’s addition was meant to send a message to China about the administration’s resolve on trade.    Navarro has advocated a tough stance against Beijing.
        U.S. companies and consumers are bearing part of the cost of the U.S. tariffs on China by paying higher prices for goods, and investors have cheered when the prospects for a deal have improved.    U.S. stocks fell on Thursday amid uncertainty over the outcome of the talks.
        “I really don’t know but I will tell you that I think China wants to make a deal.    I’m open to making a deal.    But frankly, I like the deal we have right now,” Trump said.
        China, for its part, is hoping for “positive results” in resolving its trade dispute with the United States, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.
        Asked if China was seeking to prevent the imposition of additional U.S. tariffs at the meeting, the ministry’s spokesman, Gao Feng, said economic teams from both nations were in contact to implement a “consensus” reached by Trump and Xi during a phone call this month.
        “I hope that the United States and China could move towards each other and work hard to achieve positive results in the meeting,” Gao said without elaborating.
        The United States has levied additional duties of between 10 percent and 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese goods this year as punishment for what it calls China’s unfair trade practices, with the 10 percent tariffs set to climb to 25 percent next year.
        A Reuters poll on Wednesday showed China’s factories likely struggled to grow for a second straight month in November as cooling demand at home and the threat of higher U.S. tariffs stifled new orders.
        “The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that the essence of Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is about mutual benefit and win-win,” Gao said.
        White House officials said this week Trump was open to making a trade deal with Xi when they meet.
        Trump, whose economic record is likely to be a key factor in his race for re-election in 2020, lashed out at General Motors Co after the company’s recent announcement of U.S. layoffs and plant closures and threatened additional tariffs.
    (https://bit.ly/2SjZrRk) (https://reut.rs/2E4J33Z)
        In a Twitter post on Thursday, Trump said: “Billions of Dollars are pouring into the coffers of the U.S.A. because of the Tariffs being charged to China, and there is a long way to go.    If companies don’t want to pay Tariffs, build in the U.S.A.”
    (Additional reporting by Doina Chaicu in Washington, Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo in Beijing, and Matt Spetalnick in Buenos Aires; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

    11/29/2018 NASA selects nine U.S. companies to vie for moon program funding by Joey Roulette
    Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center
    visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida April 14, 2010. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
        ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday named nine U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp, that will compete for funding under the space agency’s renewed long-term moon program, a private-public undertaking to develop technology that will explore the lunar surface.
        The companies, some which will develop small launch vehicles and robotic rovers over the next 10 years, will vie for a chunk of the $2.6 billion under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
        As soon as 2022, NASA expects to begin construction on a new space station laboratory that will orbit the moon and act as a pit stop for missions to deeper parts of our solar system, such as Mars.
        “When we go to the moon, we want to be one customer of many customers in a robust marketplace between the earth and the moon,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a news briefing on Thursday.
        “Lunar payloads could fly on these contracted missions as early as 2019,” NASA said in an earlier news release.
        In addition to Lockheed Martin, NASA selected Draper, which developed computers for the Apollo missions, Astrobotic Technology Inc, Firefly Aerospace Inc, Moon Express and four others to potentially develop equipment for the program
    . (Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando, Florida; editing by Bill Berkrot)
    [So Trump's Space Force is in effect.].

    11/30/2018 Oil up $1.16 to $51.45, DOW down 28 to 25,339

    11/30/2018 Lawyer Cohen’s lies hid Trump’s ties to Russia - President calls his longtime fixer ‘a weak person’ by Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller offered the most compelling case yet of President Donald Trump’s ties with Russia and the efforts to conceal them when former Trump fixer Michael Cohen acknowledged Thursday that he lied to Congress about the president’s interest in a Moscow development project.
        Across nine pages of detailed court documents, Mueller’s team countered Trump’s oft-repeated claims that he had no business interests in Russia.
        Cohen not only lied when he told the Senate and House Intelligence Committees that all discussions about a Trump Tower development in Moscow had ceased in January 2016, federal prosecutors said, but sought to hide efforts to push the project to advance Trump’s political prospects during the contentious 2016 campaign and limit his possible legal jeopardy.
        “Cohen made the false statement to minimize links between the Moscow project and (Trump) and give the false impression that the Moscow project ended before the Iowa caucus and the very first primary in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations,” Mueller’s team said in court documents Thursday.
        The criminal complaint made public Thursday meticulously separates truth from the fiction Cohen spun for congressional investigators in perhaps his final act as loyal Trump fixer before joining Mueller’s team as a crucial cooperating witness.
        Cohen’s testimony: The Moscow project ended in January 2016 and was not discussed extensively with others in the Trump Organization.
        Fact: The Moscow project was discussed multiple times within the Trump company and did not end in January 2016.
        As late as June 2016 – in the heat of the campaign and as Trump denied any links to Russia – Cohen discussed efforts to obtain Russian approval and briefed Trump and his family members about the project.
        Cohen’s testimony: Cohen never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and never considered asking Trump to travel for the project.
        Fact: Cohen agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and took steps in contemplation of Trump’s possible travel to Moscow.
        In an email exchange May 4, 2016, with a Trump Organization official, according to court documents, Cohen discussed making a trip before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
        Cohen’s testimony: Cohen did not recall any Russian government response or contact about the Moscow project.
        Fact: In January 2016, an aide to Russia President Vladimir Putin responded to Cohen’s request for assistance with the project.    In a 20-minute telephone call with an assistant to Putin’s spokesperson, Cohen “requested assistance in moving the project forward, both in securing the land to build the proposed tower and financing construction.”
        “(The assistant) asked detailed questions and took notes, stating that she would follow up with others in Russia,” prosecutors claimed.
        The disclosure of Cohen’s false statements, delivered to the congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference, took official Washington by surprise Thursday as the president prepared to leave for the G-20 summit in Argentina and a planned, then abruptly canceled, meeting with Putin.
        Peppered with questions about Cohen’s plea deal, which includes an agreement to cooperate with Mueller, Trump repeatedly called his former personal attorney a “liar” and dismissed the Russia project as a wellknown – though failed – enterprise.
        “He’s a weak person,” Trump said of Cohen.    “Even if he was right, it doesn’t matter.    I was running my business. ... I wasn’t trying to hide anything.”
        Despite the disclosures, Trump said before departing Washington that he still intended to meet with Putin, then he canceled the meeting scheduled for Saturday in midflight, blaming clashes between Russia and Ukraine.
        Democrats pounced on the documents, promising reinvigorated investigations of Trump’s Russia dealings when they take over leadership of the House of Representatives.
        Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is poised to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the plea revealed that Cohen and Trump each gave false or misleading statements about the president’s real estate interests in Russia.
        “All these developments make clear the counterintelligence imperative for the House Intelligence Committee, in the new Congress, to continue to probe the Trump Organization’s financial links to Russia and determine whether the Russians sought financial leverage over Trump and his associates, or hold any such leverage today,” Schiff said.
        “The significance of Cohen’s plea is motive. Not Cohen’s motive but Trump’s motive for deferring to Russia over and over again,” said Jens David Ohlin, vice dean of Cornell Law School.    “The motive is money and business deals.”
        Cohen’s guilty plea came amid a flurry of activity.    On Monday, Mueller voided a plea deal with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, for lying repeatedly to investigators.    Manafort has a hearing Friday to get a possible sentencing date for charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for representing a pro-Russia faction in Ukraine.
        Cohen faced a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for lying to Congress, but the plea agreement called for a sentence up to six months and a fine up to $9,500.
        Lanny Davis, an attorney for Cohen, tweeted Thursday that the plea illustrated that Mueller thought Cohen was telling the truth and that Cohen would continue cooperating with Mueller.
        “The significance of Cohen’s plea is motive. ... Trump’s motive for deferring to Russia over and over again.” Jens David Ohlin, Vice dean of Cornell Law School.
    Michael Cohen faces up to six months in prison under a plea agreement. MARY ALTAFFER/AP
    [You can tell that the corruption from the FISA court issue is getting desperate in their witch hunt" to find collusion as Trump has cleared the Swamp of those who were the ones who created the entire event in the first place and I hope that God will make it all back fire on them, and bring out the real criminals to the front.].

    11/30/2018 Iran violating arms export ban in Yemen, Afghanistan, US says
        The Trump administration accused Iran on Thursday of stepping up violations of a U.N. ban on arms exports by sending rockets and other weaponry to rebels in Afghanistan and Yemen.
        In a presentation at a military base in Washington, the administration put on display weapons and fragments of weapons seized in Afghanistan, Bahrain and Yemen that it said are evidence Iran is a “grave and escalating threat” that must be stopped.
        The material shows Iran is determined to send “even more weapons into the hands of even more of its proxies,” said Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran.

    11/30/2018 NASA: Next US moon landing will be by private companies
        America’s next moon landing will be made by private companies – not NASA.
        NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Thursday that nine U.S. companies will compete in delivering experiments to the lunar surface.    Bridenstine said NASA will buy the service and let private industry work out the details on getting there.
        The goal is to get science and technology experiments to the surface of the moon as soon as possible.    The first flight could be next year.

    11/30/2018 World leaders set to convene Argentina summit clouded by disputes by Matt Spetalnick and Eliana Raszewski
    Chinese President Xi Jinping and his spouse Peng Liyuan arrive ahead of the G20 leaders summit
    in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 29, 2018. Picture taken November 29, 2018. G20 Argentine/Handout via REUTERS
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – A summit of the world’s top economies will open on Friday with leaders struggling over fallout from a U.S.-China trade war that has roiled global markets and bracing for the kind of divisive geopolitical drama that President Donald Trump often brings to the international stage.
        The two-day annual gathering will be a major test for the Group of 20 industrialized nations, whose leaders first met in 2008 to help rescue the global economy from the worst financial crisis in seven decades, but which now faces questions over its relevance to deal with the latest round of crises.
        Overhanging the summit in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, is a bitter trade dispute between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, which have imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s imports.
        All eyes will be on a planned meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday to see whether they can find a way to calm the waters and make progress toward resolving differences that threaten the global economy.
        On the eve of the summit, G20 member nations were still racing to reach agreement on major issues including trade, migration and climate change that in past years have been worked out well in advance.    Those divisions have highlighted the fractures in the grouping.
        In fact, Trump’s skepticism that global warming is caused by human activity has even raised questions about whether the countries will be able to reach enough consensus on the issue to include it in the summit’s final communique.
        Further clouding the summit is the escalation of conflict between Russia and Ukraine – a topic that will be on many leaders’ minds when they see Russian President Vladimir Putin.
        There are also questions about how to handle the awkward presence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.    Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler arrived under swirling controversy over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
    TRUMP AND TRADE
        Uncertainty prevailed about how Trump, known for his unpredictability, would behave at what was shaping up as one of the group’s most consequential summits.
        Earlier this month, officials from countries attending a major Asia-Pacific summit failed to agree on a joint statement for the first time as the U.S. delegation, led by Vice President Mike Pence, clashed with China over trade and security.
        In May, Trump rejected a statement by fellow leaders of the G7 industrialized economies after a tense gathering ended in acrimony, again over tariffs and trade.
        Before heading for Buenos Aires on Thursday, Trump said he was open to a trade deal with China, but added, “I don’t know that I want to do it.”
        After initial plans for him to stay away from the summit, Trump’s hardline trade adviser, Peter Navarro, was added to the U.S. delegation at the last minute and is expected to attend the meeting between Trump and Xi, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.    The official said it was meant to send a message to China of U.S. resolve on trade.
        China, for its part, is hoping for “positive results” in resolving the trade dispute with the United States, the Commerce Ministry said on Thursday.
        A slowdown in the global economy will worsen if Trump presses ahead with plans to further increase tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria told Reuters.
        While Trump’s meeting with Xi is all but certain to go ahead, the U.S. president on Thursday abruptly scrapped his planned talks with Putin, citing Russia’s recent seizure of Ukrainian vessels.
        Trump has often voiced a desire for better relations with Putin, and many critics at home slammed him in July for appearing to disregard U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, while giving credence to the Russian president’s assertion that it did not.
        One potential bright spot at the summit could be the signing of a revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact.
        But a day before the three neighbors were due to formalize the agreement on Friday, negotiators were still thrashing out what exactly they will be putting their names to, officials said on Thursday.
        The three countries agreed a deal in principle to govern their trillion dollars of mutual trade after a year and a half of contentious talks concluded with a late-night bargain just an hour before a deadline on Sept. 30.
    (Reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton and Makini Brice in Washington, and Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Cassandra Garrison, Daniel Flynn and Pablo Garibian in Buenos Aires; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Ross Colvin and Leslie Adler)

    11/30/2018 UK PM May says Russia must release Ukrainian vessels and crew
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 in Downing Street in London, Britain, November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Russia must release the Ukrainian boats and sailors it captured on Sunday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday, adding that Britain would continue to push for “appropriate sanctions.”
        Russia opened fire on the three Ukrainian vessels and then seized them and their crew on Sunday near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.    Moscow and Kiev have tried to pin the blame on each other for the incident.
        “This is part of a pattern of Russian behavior.    They should release those ships and sailors, they should de-escalate the situation,” May told reporters on the flight to the G20 summit in Argentina, which Russian President Vladimir Putin is also due to attend.
        “We have always been at the forefront in the EU of calling for sanctions on Russia in relation to its behavior,” she added.    “We will continue to push for what we consider to be appropriate sanctions on Russia.”
        Earlier this week several senior European politicians raised the possibility of new sanctions against Russia to punish it for capturing the boats.
    (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Eric Beech)

    11/30/2018 Law group that helped U.S. probe says Rohingyas victims of genocide by David Brunnstrom
    FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp to mark the
    one-year anniversary of their exodus in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A human rights law group contracted by the State Department to interview refugees as part of an investigation into atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has found that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that genocide was committed – even though the U.S. government stopped short of saying so.
        A report due to be released on Monday by the Washington-based Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG) will also say there was a reasonable basis to conclude that the Myanmar military committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as genocide.
        A U.S. State Department report released in September, which relied on PILPG research, found that Myanmar’s military waged a “well-planned and coordinated” campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya.
        But it stopped short of describing the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity, an issue that U.S. officials said was the subject of fierce internal debate that delayed the report’s rollout for nearly a month.
        A declaration of genocide by the U.S. government, which has only gone as far as labeling the crackdown “ethnic cleansing,” could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar.    This has made some in the Trump administration wary of issuing such an assessment.
        In an advisory on Thursday announcing the planned release of the legal analysis of its investigation, PILPG said it would reveal that “there is a reasonable basis to conclude that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide were committed against the Rohingya population.”
        PILPG based its report on more than 1,000 interviews with Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh.    The group said its mission was conducted in March and April “to provide an accurate accounting of the patterns of abuse and atrocity crimes.”
        The September State Department report was released in low-key fashion nearly a month after U.N. investigators issued a report accusing Myanmar’s military of acting with “genocidal intent” and calling for the country’s commander-in-chief and five generals to be prosecuted under international law.
        State Department officials have said the objective of the U.S. government investigation was not to determine genocide but to “document the facts,” and it would be up to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make a “legal” designation in the future.
        Pompeo has urged Myanmar’s government to investigate abuses against the Rohingya and hold accountable members of its security forces and others who were responsible.
        A top State Department official said in September those responsible could be held accountable for genocide and crimes against humanity.
        The military in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, where Buddhism is the main religion, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.
    (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)

    11/30/2018 Pentagon looks to exoskeletons to build ‘super-soldiers’ by Phil Stewart
    Keith Maxwell, Senior Product Manager of Exoskeleton Technologies at Lockheed Martin, demonstrates an
    Exoskeleton during a Exoskeleton demonstration and discussion, in Washington, U.S., November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Al Drago
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army is investing millions of dollars in experimental exoskeleton technology to make soldiers stronger and more resilient, in what experts say is part of a broader push into advanced gear to equip a new generation of “super-soldiers.”
        The technology is being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp with a license from Canada-based B-TEMIA, which first developed the exoskeletons to help people with mobility difficulties stemming from medical ailments like multiple sclerosis and severe osteoarthritis.
        Worn over a pair of pants, the battery-operated exoskeleton uses a suite of sensors, artificial intelligence and other technology to aid natural movements.
        For the U.S. military, the appeal of such technology is clear: Soldiers now deploy into war zones bogged down by heavy but critical gear like body armor, night-vision goggles and advanced radios.    Altogether, that can weigh anywhere from 90 to 140 pounds (40-64 kg), when the recommended limit is just 50 pounds (23 kg).
        “That means when people do show up to the fight, they’re fatigued,” said Paul Scharre at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), who helped lead a series of studies on exoskeletons and other advanced gear.
        “The fundamental challenge we’re facing with infantry troops is they’re carrying too much weight.”     Lockheed Martin said on Thursday it won a $6.9 million award from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center to research and develop the exoskeleton, called ONYX, under a two-year, sole-source agreement.
        Keith Maxwell, the exoskeleton technologies manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said people in his company’s trials who wore the exoskeletons showed far more endurance.
        “You get to the fight fresh.    You’re not worn out,” Maxwell said.
        Maxwell, who demonstrated a prototype, said each exoskelelton was expected to cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.
        B-TEMIA’s medically focused system, called Keeogo, is sold in Canada for about C$39,000 ($30,000), company spokeswoman Pamela Borges said.
        The United States is not the only country looking at exoskeleton technology.
        Samuel Bendett at the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded U.S. research and development center, said Russia and China were also investing in exoskeleton technologies, “in parallel” to the U.S. advances.
        Russia, in particular, was working on several versions of exoskeletons, including one that it tested recently in Syria, Bendett said.
        The CNAS analysis of the exoskeleton was part of a larger look by the Washington-based think tank at next-generation technologies that can aid soldiers, from better helmets to shield them from blast injuries to the introduction of robotic “teammates” to help resupply them in war zones.
        The CNAS studies can be seen here: https://www.cnas.org/super-soldiers
    (This story has been refiled to remove acronym in paragraph 13)
    ($1 = 1.3279 Canadian dollars)
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney)
    [Reminds me of Lee Majors in "The Six Million Dollar Man" a TV series from 1974-1978.].

    11/30/2018 Interior Secretary: Calif. needs better forest management to limit spread of wildfires by OAN Newsroom
        Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is opening up about his visit to Paradise, California earlier this week, where he surveyed damage from the ‘Camp Fire.’
        One America News caught up with Zinke on Thursday.    He said it’s not acceptable for the state to suffer devastating wildfires each year due to officials mismanaging resources.
        Zinke estimated that the total cost for repairs in Northern California could reach into the billions, with the federal government expected to shoulder some of the cost.
    FILE – In this Nov. 13, 2018, file photo, search and rescue workers search for
    human remains at a trailer park burned out from the Camp fire in Paradise, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
        In response, Zinke has proposed several solutions for curbing the rapid spread of wildfires.
        “It’s time to actively manage our fires, and whether you’re a believer of global warming or not, it doesn’t relieve you the responsibility of managing our fires,” he stated.    “After visiting, once again, a California fire — in this case Paradise — it’s unacceptable to, year after year, have these catastrophic fires, so its time for an active management policy.”
        This comes on the heels of Zinke approving a $449 million grant to California for a conservation project dedicated to expanding the state’s access to clean water.

    11/30/2018 President Trump meets with the leader of Argentina during G20 summit by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump met with the president of Argentina during the first day of the G20 summit.    Argentina’s leader thanked President Trump for his visit and for his support of the South American nation.
        The president has voiced his support for Argentina after the country secured a financing deal through the International Monetary Fund to help turn around its economy.
    Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, right, welcomes President Donald Trump to the start of the
    G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. Leaders from the Group of 20 industrialized nations
    are meeting in Buenos Aires for two days starting today. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
        President Trump said he and the Argentine president will talk about a variety of issues, including trade.
        “We’ve known each other a long while,” he stated.    “We’re going to be talking about lots of good things for Argentina, for the United States, including trade, including military purchases and other things, but we have a lot to talk about, a little bit old times, but 95-percent business, I would say.”
        The president has had a long-standing relationship with Argentina’s leader prior to their time in politics.

    11/30/2018 President Trump signs USMCA by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump has officially signed off on the new USMCA, effectively replacing the defunct NAFTA deal.
        During a speech Friday, the president called the new agreement one of the largest deals to re-balance trade in recent history.    He went on to say the latest deal will promote U.S. exports, bolster domestic manufacturing jobs, and buckle down on intellectual property protections for U.S. products.
        The legislation will also reportedly cut back on auto imports, bringing back 75-percent of auto manufacturing jobs to the U.S. in a bid to restore American dominance in the auto market.
    President Donald Trump, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Neto, left,
    participate in the USMCA signing ceremony, Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        “We’re replacing the horrible job killing NAFTA with a brand new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, which is a good deal for us, a really good deal,” stated President Trump.    “You know, you take a look at the countries that were stealing, you look at what went on in Mexico where our car manufacturers went down there…make 25-percent of our cars now in Mexico — all of that’s not going to happen anymore.”
        Now that the it has been signed, the agreement will head to Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers hope to get it approved before the new Congress takes over in January.

    11/30/2018 DHS: President Trump’s request of $5B is enough to fund 215 miles of border wall by OAN Newsroom
        The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is unveiling a plan to extend portions of the border wall.    In a statement Thursday, the DHS said it would build roughly 215 miles of border wall next year if Congress approves the president’s request for five billion dollars in funding.
        DHS officials stressed the wall will help crack down on the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S. and protect border patrol personnel.
    Migrants stand at the Mexico-U.S. border wall where Mexican federal police stand guard at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana,
    Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, as they try to reach the U.S. The mayor of Tijuana has declared a humanitarian crisis
    in his border city and says that he has asked the United Nations for aid to deal with the approximately
    5,000 Central American migrants who have arrived in the city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
        One America News caught up with the chairwoman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Virginia, Jo-Ann Chase, who commented on the president’s immigration policies.
        “I’ve been a supported of Mr. Trump’s policies 100-percent since day one, but very specifically on immigration because he is the one and only president that is definitely putting it out there effectively as far as — we need to come into this country legally,” stated Chase.    “People from all over the world that want to come here and respect our rules, our laws need to do it legally, and President Trump is following the rule of law.”
        The president has been vocal about the necessity for a border wall since his 2016 campaign, and has even threatened to take action if Congress can not fulfill his agenda.
        “A possible shutdown, if we don’t get the wall money…we’re in negotiations, if we don’t get border security, possible shutdown,” President Trump told reporters.
        Congress needs to strike a deal by December 7, 2018 to avoid a government shutdown.

    11/30/2018 President Trump urges RNC to reelect Ronna McDaniel as chairwoman by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is praising the work of Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
        In a tweet Thursday, the president said McDaniel’s work allowed the GOP to maintain control of the Senate in the recent midterms.
        He also highlighted McDaniel’s fundraising efforts, which brought in more than $250 million in the latest election cycle.
        Trump tweet “As RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel oversaw history defying gains in the Senate and unprecedented fundraising strength.    I have asked her to serve another term for my 2020 re-elect, because there is no one better for the job!”
        RNC members will vote to extend McDaniel’s leadership at the committee’s upcoming meeting.
        President Trump’s endorsement could lead her to a victory as he says McDaniel could help him be reelected in 2020.
    President Donald Trump listens as Chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel,
    right, speaks during a campaign rally Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, in Cape Girardeau, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

    11/30/2018 James Comey files motion to reject subpoena from House Republicans by OAN Newsroom
        Fired FBI Director James Comey is asking a federal court to throw out the subpoena he received to testify about his involvement in the Clinton email probe.
        Comey’s legal team filed a motion Thursday, arguing President Trump has created a false narrative that the FBI was loyal to Hillary Clinton during the investigation.
        They also claimed a closed-door session would allow Republicans to distort and leak his testimony, which is a theory he has voiced since receiving the subpoena.
        “My interest is in making sure that people get a full and fair view of the facts, very hard to do that in the dark, impossible to do it when people are leaving the dark and saying stuff that ain’t true about what happened in the dark, so lets have sunshine,” stated Comey.
    FILE – In this April 30, 2018, file photo, former FBI director James Comey speaks during a stop on his book tour in Washington.
    Comey has challenged in court a subpoena from the House of Representatives. Lawyers for Comey argued in a court filing on Nov. 29,
    2018, that he shouldn’t have to appear for a closed-door interview with lawmakers next week. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
        Despite Comey’s complaints, members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees are adamant that he testify behind closed doors.    They are claiming a public hearing will allow Democrats to stall the process.
        However, some critics are saying Comey is the one trying to halt the process.
        “James Comey is going to court to try to squash the House subpoena.    It is outrageous for somebody who says they want transparency, that he wants to testify before in an open hearing, that he is now trying to squash this subpoena.    This guy, James Comey, is just playing the waiting game — that’s all this is about.    James Comey knows that a Democrat House is taking over in January, six weeks from now, and that’s his game.    His game is to wait it out and not have to testify.” — David Bossie, author of “Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State is Undermining the Presidency.”
        Ranking Democrat Representative Jerry Nadler is expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee come January, leaving the job of protecting the president from Democrat investigations to GOP Representative Doug Collins.

    11/30/2018 EU ministers to finalize watered-down euro zone reform plans by Jan Strupczewski
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron is seen at the Elysee Palace
    in Paris, France, November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union finance ministers will seek final agreement on Monday on deeper euro zone integration which, after a year of negotiations, is likely to turn out much less ambitious than initially planned.
        Championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, the reforms were meant to prepare the 19 euro countries for the next financial crisis and unite the EU around the single currency at a time of growing eurosceptic sentiment across the bloc.
        But the talks ran into many difficulties: Germany did not have a proper government for almost six months, Italy elected a eurosceptic administration and the talks exposed fault lines between the north and the south and even between institutions.
        Even though the integration plans concern only the euro zone, all of the EU’s finance ministers except Britain’s will discuss them on Monday because all might adopt the euro at some point in the future.
        “It will be long, it will be intense,” one senior euro zone official involved in the preparations of the ministerial discussions said.    “It won’t be as high level (in terms of ambition) as some people expected a year ago, but we may exceed a little bit the low expectations right now,” he added.
        The package agreed on Monday will then have to be endorsed by EU leaders on Dec 14.
    STARTING POINT
        The initial ideas included the creation of a large euro zone budget financed by dedicated taxes and national contributions, a euro zone finance minister in charge of it and a euro zone assembly in the European Parliament for democratic control.
        The ESM euro zone bailout fund was to be transformed into a European Monetary Fund with wider powers of monitoring euro zone economies and a key role in a sovereign insolvency mechanism that would manage potential debt restructuring.
        To break the doom-loop between governments and banks that buy large amounts of a single sovereign’s debt and then collapse as the sovereign becomes insolvent, there were to be limits on the concentration one country’s bonds in a bank’s portfolio.
        The banking system was to be strengthened with a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) that would guarantee deposits of up to 100,000 euros ($113,000) in any bank in any euro zone country.
        Finally a euro zone bank resolution fund, created in 2014, was to get emergency loans from the ESM if ran out of money during a major banking crisis.
    LIKELY OUTCOME
        Only some of these ideas survived and many of those that did are a shadow of what they were when proposed in 2017.
        There will be no euro zone caucus in the European Parliament and no finance minister.    The euro zone budget, which France initially saw in the hundreds of billions of euros, may not have a set size at all.
        “It’s gone from an elephant to a mouse.    And the mouse is in a cage,” Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said about the budget, according to the Financieele Dagblad newspaper.
        The ESM will not be transformed into a European Monetary Fund, the very name of which raised objections from the European Central Bank.    After months of haggling with the European Commission over the division of responsibilities, the ESM will get some monitoring duties for euro zone economies focused on debt sustainability, market access and borrowing costs.
        It will likely be able to lend with fewer conditions to fundamentally sound euro zone economies so they can avoid the market stigma of a bailout and in this way help prevent crises.
        It will also likely be the facilitator between investors and a government, should it ever come to debt restructuring, but there is no agreement yet on how much of the debt restructuring process should be pre-defined and how much left to discretion.
        Any discussion on debt, or bond concentration in a bank, is made very difficult by Italy, which has the second highest debt-to-GDP ratio in Europe at more than 130 percent and relies heavily on domestic banks buying its bonds.
        Rome is also causing alarm because its plans to borrow more to pay for promised handouts and tax cuts could potentially trigger another debt crisis like the one that nearly destroyed the euro some years ago.
        This has added to northern European scepticism about pushing forward with EDIS, an idea which senior euro zone officials have described as now being “on life support” because of German worries they would have to guarantee deposits in Italian banks.
        The reform that is likely to be announced with great fanfare will be providing the bank resolution fund with emergency ESM loans of up to around 55 billion euros. But even there, such a backstop would only be provided from 2024, with earlier support an option only if chances of it being called upon are small.
    (Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    11/30/2018 Markets sweat over Mexican president’s ‘true colors’ on inauguration eve by Dave Graham and Rodrigo Campos
    President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador talks about his security plan to the media,
    before he takes office as a Mexican President on December 1, in Mexico City, Mexico November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
        MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) – During Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s successful campaign for the Mexican presidency, his advisers met representatives of dozens of investment funds to allay fears about the leftist’s plans, saying he prized economic stability and wanted to attract foreign capital.
        Initially, it worked.
        When Lopez Obrador won office by a landslide on July 1, the peso and the stock market rose, buoyed by his conciliatory tone. The rally continued when Mexico and the United States reached a deal to rework the NAFTA trade pact in late August.
        But the mood has since changed.
        Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Saturday, began saying in September that Mexico was “bankrupt.”    When he canceled a new $13 billion Mexico City airport on Oct. 29 on the basis of a widely-derided referendum, investors took flight.
        “(Lopez Obrador) behaved quite well from the election in early July until the referendum on the airport.    That was really an indication of his true colors,” said Penny Foley, portfolio manager for emerging markets and international equities groups at TCW Group Inc, which manages $198 billion in total.
        Foley said the referendum prompted TCW to cut its exposure to bonds issued by state oil firm Pemex, on the grounds that under a Lopez Obrador administration the company would be driven more by politics than by profit.
        “We are now slightly underweight Mexico in the dollar fund and neutral in the local currency fund,” she added.
        Lopez Obrador wants to attract investment from home and abroad to fuel economic growth and drive an ambitious infrastructure agenda, including a major rail project linking Cancun to Mexico’s southeast, plus a new oil refinery.
        Decisions such as the airport cancellation have fed investors’ concerns he could push Mexico toward a more authoritarian, arbitrary and partisan form of government.
        Mexico’s S&P/BVM IPC stock index has tumbled 18 percent since the market’s post-election peak on Aug. 28, while the peso has fallen around 8 percent against the dollar.
        In an interview published on Friday, Lopez Obrador said the drop in the Mexican stock index was linked to external factors and that other bourses were falling too.
        “I’d also like to note that we’re not just going to govern for the markets,” he told Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
        Over the same three-month period, the MSCI Emerging Markets index has fallen about 7 percent.
        Bond yields on Mexican 10-year sovereign debt have jumped 121 basis points, a sign investors see it as a riskier bet.
        By contrast, yields on Brazil’s 10-year debt have fallen over 20 basis points since the Oct. 28 presidential election victory of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who has appointed a group of pro-market economists to his team.
        Mexican corporate debt markets have taken note.
        Airport operator GAP, which controls terminals in a dozen cities including Tijuana and Guadalajara, canceled a planned 6 billion peso debt issuance this week.
        “We decided to wait for better conditions,” GAP chief financial officer Saul Villarreal told Reuters.
        Some European businesses are also in wait-and-see mode, said Alberico Peyron, a board member and former head of the Italian chamber of commerce in Mexico.
        There was “no panic so far,” but a few executives had put plans on hold until the picture became clearer, he said, adding: “There are more who are worried than are optimistic.”
        Mexico, Brazil forward price-to-earnings ratios: https://tmsnrt.rs/2rcLAAC
    ‘ERRORS’ MADE
        After 30 years of kicking against the establishment, the veteran Lopez Obrador, a 65-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, claimed the presidency with a promise to clean up government, cut poverty and tame Mexico’s drug cartels.
        Aiming to almost double economic growth to around 4 percent, Lopez Obrador wants to revive Pemex, increase pensions and spur development in the poorer south to contain illegal immigration that has strained ties with U.S. President Donald Trump.
        Lopez Obrador says rooting out corruption will free up billions of dollars, while he intends to save more with pay cuts for civil servants. However, critics say the cuts could affect the quality of officials in his new administration.
        Johannes Hauser, managing director of the German chamber of commerce in Mexico, told Reuters the association’s annual survey of firms, currently underway, was upbeat on Mexico.
        Still, initial results suggested companies were not quite as eager to invest or create new jobs as they were a year ago.    And the airport cancellation had been a shock, he said.
        During their campaign outreach, some of Lopez Obrador’s advisers sought to play down the airport’s importance to markets, while others suggested it was likely to be completed.
        Without providing evidence, Lopez Obrador said the project – which has been under construction since 2015 – was tainted by corruption.    But more than once, Lopez Obrador had raised the possibility of turning its completion into a private concession.
        Incoming Finance Minister Carlos Urzua, whose team sat down with financial heavyweights such as Bank of America, BlackRock, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, told Reuters in April that foreign investors were “not very worried” about the airport.
        Now, the scrapping of the hub has raised the prospect of a messy legal dispute with investors that could cost billions of dollars – as well as cloud interest in new projects.
        Some members of Lopez Obrador’s incoming government privately express deep misgivings about the decision to cancel the airport, which was based on a referendum organized by his own party in which barely 1 percent of the electorate voted.
        They felt the poll, which critics lambasted as opaque and open to abuse, undermined the credibility he had built up over the years he spent campaigning against corruption and vote-rigging.
        Lopez Obrador’s taste for rule by referendum, and changes to laws governing everything from banking to mining and pension funds that have been proposed by his National Regeneration Movement and the party’s allies in Congress, have further curdled sentiment.
        “I’ve moved from being cautiously optimistic after the election, to being quite pessimistic now,” said Andres Rozental, a former deputy foreign minister of Mexico.    “He’s not building on what he got.    He’s destroying little by little what he got.”
        Facing questions about the airport controversy from a panel of prominent Mexican journalists this month, Lopez Obrador was unrepentant about the referendum, saying that “errors” made were blown out of proportion by adversaries trying to hurt him.
        “What I regard as most important in my life is my honesty,” he said.    “We are not creating a dictatorship,” he added, repeating what is a frequent aside in his public pronouncements.
        Nevertheless, Arturo Herrera, an incoming deputy finance minister, conceded this week that the transition had tested the next government, which must present its first budget by mid-December.
        “What we’re all learning is that we need to be extremely careful,” he told Mexican television.
        Mexican peso vs Brazilian real: https://tmsnrt.rs/2AAsN6B
    Mexico and Brazil EMBI global diversified: https://tmsnrt.rs/2E7SD6h
    (Reporting by Dave Graham and Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Noe Torres, Sheky Espejo and Stefanie Eschenbacher in Mexico City; Editing by Frances Kerry and Tom Brown)

    11/30/2018 Champs Elysees braces for return of France’s ‘yellow vest’ protesters by Lucien Libert
    Jason Herbert, a representative of the yellow vest protest movement, leaves after French Prime Minister
    refused to broadcast their meeting at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
        PARIS (Reuters) – Workmen erected metal barriers and plywood boards on the glass-fronted facades of restaurants and boutiques lining the Champs Elysees on Friday ahead of a second demonstration in the French capital by protesters angry at high fuel prices.
        For more than two weeks, the “yellow vests” have blocked roads across France in a spontaneous, popular rebellion against diesel tax hikes and the high cost of living.    It has grown into one of the largest and most stubborn challenges Emmanuel Macron has faced in his 18-month-old presidency.
        A week ago thousands of protesters, who have no leader and have largely organized themselves online, converged on Paris for the first time, turning the Champs Elysees into a battlezone as they clashed with police firing tear gas and water canon.
        For now, the “yellow vests” — who take their name from the high-visibility jackets all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles — enjoy widespread public support.
        “I completely agree with the protesters,” said one shopper on the Champs Elysees who identified herself only as Brigitte.    “It’s regrettable to see measures being taken against possible damage, but I support the movement.”
        When they began, the protests caught Macron off-guard just as he was trying to counter a plunge in popularity, with his approval at barely 20 percent.    His unyielding response has exposed him to charges of being out of touch with common folk.
        The outburst of anti-establishment anger is strongest in rural villages, provincial towns and sprawling city outskirts, and mirrors the disconnect between urban elites and alienated voters that has spurred the rise of populist forces across Europe, in the United States and in Britain’s Brexit vote.
    NO BACKING DOWN
        Meeting French expatriates in Buenos Aires ahead of a G20 summit, Macron said he understood the “legitimate anger, impatience and suffering of people who wanted to live better” but said there would be no about-turn in policy direction.
        “It will fall on me to take additional steps in the weeks and months to come, but they will never be a step backwards,” said the 40-year-old former investment banker.
        The “yellow vests” have also inspired protests next door in Belgium, where on Friday demonstrators hurled rocks at the prime minister’s office.
        France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the Champs Elysees would be closed to traffic, and pedestrians would be funneled through checkpoints. Several thousand police officers will be deployed along the two-kilometer avenue.
    (Reporting by Lucien Libert and Richard Lough; Editing by Luke Baker and Peter Graff)

    11/30/2018 Brussels police battle “yellow vest” protesters by Clement Rossignol and Yves Herman
    Protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a drivers' protest against higher fuel prices,
    vandalised a police van during clashes in central Brussels, Belgium, November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian police fired water cannon and teargas in central Brussels on Friday to drive back protesters inspired by France’s “yellow vest” anti-tax movement who hurled rocks at the prime minister’s office.
        Police made dozens of arrests and protesters destroyed at least two police vans as what started as a peaceful but unauthorized demonstration, lacking clear leadership and largely promoted on social media, descended into violence when people, many masked or hooded, tried to breach police lines.
        For three hours, crowds complaining about fuel prices and a squeeze on living standards had disrupted traffic and walked the streets.    Police said they had arrested about 60 people before the violence, mostly for blocking roads or carrying large fireworks.
        Several hundred people wearing the fluorescent safety vests drivers must carry in their vehicles eventually converged on the office of Prime Minister Charles Michel.    Dozens, many of them masked, threw rocks, firecrackers and road signs at police who doused them with high-pressure water jets and fired gas rounds.
        The disturbances lasted over an hour before riot police surrounded and then arrested some demonstrators while the rest of the crowd dispersed.    Police put the total number of protesters at about 500.
        Three individuals were kept in detention after the protests, police said in a statement, adding that other judicial decisions could be made in the following hours.
        Michel tweeted: “No impunity for unacceptable violence in Brussels.    Those who came to smash and loot must be punished.”
        Protests in Belgium, notably around fuel depots in the French-speaking south, have been inspired by the yellow vest — or “gilet jaune” — actions in France against increases in fuel duty imposed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government as part of efforts to reduce emissions causing global warming.
        “Michel, resign!” people chanted on Friday. Michel, a liberal ally of Macron, voiced sympathy for people’s troubles on Thursday, but added: “Money doesn’t fall from the sky.”
        His center-right coalition faces an election in May.
    (Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams and David Stamp)

    12/1/2018 Oil down $0.52 to $50.93, DOW up 200 to 25,538

    [    My comment: In the past I bought the Courier-Journal papers out of the machines every day and when they came out with an online version I went to that since it was cheaper for me.    I preferred it because I wanted to get information about the state of Kentucky and world news.
        In time I have started noticing that CJ is not giving me unpredjudice news as I am noticing that all the news articles seem to be prejudiced towards the leftist Progressive Socialist Democratic views not only nationally but state also.
        It is sad to me to see that occurring in the United States and the next 4 articles you read will be an example.    If you have been reading my pages you are seeing the views from both sides at least.
        I have been watching One America News on tv and their website https://www.oann.com which is the only way I can get accurate news from the other side.
    Jim A. Cornwell    .].

    12/1/2018 The plot thickens with Cohen guilty plea - Russian saga takes another turn with news - Your Turn by Chris Truax Guest columnist
        Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, lied to two Republican congressional committees, and Donald Trump is OK with that.
        Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress regarding Trump’s involvement in the now infamous efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.    Cohen told Congress last year that the efforts ended in early 2016.    In fact, court documents show, they continued nearly until the Republican convention.
        Cohen originally claimed that the deal died when, in January of 2016, he sent an email about the project to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and never received a response.    Not only did Cohen receive a response, he had a 20-minute phone call with an assistant to Peskov ("Russian official 1”).    The contacts continued and, that May, Cohen was even invited to “Russia’s Davos” along with a possible opportunity to meet either with the prime minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, or with Putin himself.
        Coincidentally, the deal was not actually killed off until June 14, 2016, the day The Washington Post broke the story that the Russians had hacked the Democratic National Committee.    Huh.    Go figure.
        President Trump’s response to all this was typically combative, and that’s a very bad sign for Trump.    We have more than enough data now to conclude that his derision for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe is directly related to it effectiveness.    The better Mueller does his job, the louder are the president’s claims that it’s a waste of money and an “illegal Joseph McCarthy-style witch hunt.”
        And that’s an odd claim coming from Trump, since Roy Cohn, his personal lawyer for many years, was Joe McCarthy’s right-hand man during the infamous McCarthy hearings.
        What can we make of all this?    First, while maybe there isn’t a smoking gun, yet, on the Trump campaign working with the Russians to help Trump win the election, there is now a smoking gun proving that the Russians colluded with Trump and his people to lie to Congress.
        That is because in August 2017, after Cohen told Congress that he had never heard back from Peskov, the press secretary issued a public statement admitting he had received an email from Cohen and backing Cohen’s claim that he never responded: “Since, I repeat again, we do not react to such business topics — this is not our work — we left it unanswered.”
        Second, President Trump was in this whole mess up to his eyeballs.    He made brief remarks to reporters Thursday during which he revealed that he, himself, had killed off the Moscow deal.    “I decided not to do it,” he said.
        This is directly contrary to what Michael Cohen told Congress when he claimed that he had let the deal lapse in January of 2016 without discussing it with Trump, since he could not move it forward.    Who decided to terminate further discussions about the deal with Moscow?    It was Trump in June, not Cohen in January.
        But Trump knew all this perfectly well when Cohen lied to Congress on his behalf in August of 2017.    And yet, he did nothing to correct the record, content to let the lie stand.    Perhaps worse, he was perfectly comfortable with the Russian government’s complicity in reinforcing it.
        Let me make this clear: On Donald Trump’s behalf, Michael Cohen and the Russians lied to two Republican- led congressional committees with the specific intent of derailing the Mueller investigation.    Trump knew all about this and, at a minimum, did absolutely nothing to stop it or to correct the record.    And none of this would ever have come to light were it not for Mueller’s dogged efforts to expose the truth and protect our democratic institutions.
        Is this impeachable?    I don’t know.    As a practical matter, “high crimes and misdemeanors” are whatever Congress decides they are.    But Trump’s cynical lies make the very people he claims to lead look like utter fools.    By endorsing Cohen’s perjury, Trump could not make his contempt for Congress and the Republican majority more clear.
        Hopefully that, if nothing else, will finally make congressional Republicans step up and do their jobs by protecting Mueller’s investigation.    Even lap dogs will bite if you twist their tails.
        Chris Truax, an appellate lawyer in San Diego, is on the legal advisory board of Republicans for the Rule of Law.

    12/1/2018 Trump, Russia deal for decades - Cohen’s guilty plea puts ‘Art of the Deal’ in news by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
        President Donald Trump’s interest in developing luxury real estate in Moscow stretches back decades, according to court documents, his public statements and interviews with Trump.
        Trump’s long-standing ties to Russia are back in the spotlight because his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress in connection with the Justice Department’s special counsel probe into whether Trump or any members of his inner circle colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
        The investigation has been going on for 18 months.
        Cohen, who previously pleaded guilty to tax fraud and other campaign- related financial violations, admitted making false statements to lawmakers about the timing of Trump’s efforts to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow.    The development is potentially significant because Trump has consistently denied any financial ties to Russia.
        Trump called Cohen a “weak person” and accused him of providing false testimony to get a reduced sentence from special counsel Robert Mueller.
        “He’s got himself a big prison sentence.    And he’s trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up this story,” said Trump as he left Washington for a Group of 20 economic summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.    “He’s lying about a project that everybody knew about.    I mean, we were very open about it.”
        Trump tweeted Friday that he “Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia.    Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project.    Witch Hunt!” He defended that effort as “very legal.”     But Trump’s known connections to Russia go back more than 30 years.
        In “The Art of the Deal,” his 1987 book about his business style, Trump wrote about wanting to build “a large luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government.” Trump was invited that year to Moscow by the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the United States to discuss the project.    The deal fell apart because, Trump later told Playboy magazine, Russia “was out of control and the leadership knows it.”    Four years later, the Soviet Union dissolved, and Russians who had been allowed to buy stateowned enterprises amassed enormous fortunes.
        Less than a decade later, Trump announced in a 1996 news conference in Moscow that he intended to invest $250 million in various Russian building projects.    Trump said he would license his name for use on two luxury residential buildings.    “We have tremendous financial commitments from various groups,” Trump said, speaking at the plush Baltschug Hotel in Moscow.    “We’re ready to go anytime we want to go,” he said.    It is not clear what happened to those efforts, but they never materialized.
        In an interview with The New Yorker in 1997, Trump said: “We are actually looking in Moscow right now, and it would be skyscrapers and hotels, not casinos.    Only quality stuff ... I’ll be soon going again to Moscow.    We’re looking at the Moskva Hotel.    We’re also looking at the Rossiya.    That’s a very big project; I think it’s the largest hotel in the world.    And we’re working with the local government, the mayor of Moscow and the mayor’s people.    So far, they’ve been very responsive.”
        At the same time, Trump was selling dozens of condominiums in Trump World Tower in midtown Manhattan to Russians, according to Dolly Lenz, a real estate broker who sold many of the units.    She said many of these Russian buyers sought an audience with Trump because they respected his business acumen and personal style.
        By the early 2000s, Trump was courting wealthy Russian investors to help fund several foreign construction projects from Canada to Panama.    He launched his eponymous Super Premium Vodka brand in Moscow in 2007.    It ceased production four years later.
        Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., traveled to Russia a half-dozen times in 18 months looking for deals around 2008, he told eTurboNews, an online business publication.    While in Moscow, Trump Jr. explained to investors that the Trump Organization had trademarked the Donald Trump name in Russia and planned to build housing and hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi, and sell licenses to other developers.
        “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Trump Jr. said at the time.    “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
        In 2013, Trump brought the Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow, funded by $20 million from Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov.    The venue was Agalarov’s Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow.    Trump took part in a music video with Agalarov’s son, Emin.
        Meanwhile, Tevfik Arif, an ex-Soviet official who co-founded Bayrock Group, a New York-based real estate company, had helped Trump fund Trump SoHo in New York, a 46-story, residential-hotel hybrid building later renamed “The Dominick.”
        “It’s ridiculous that I wouldn’t be investing in Russia,” Trump testified under oath in a 2007 court deposition as his business relationship with Bayrock broke down.
        “Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment,” he added.
        Felix Sater, the other Bayrock founder, is also being scrutinized by Mueller as part of his investigation into alleged 2016 campaign collusion with Russia.
        Sater, according to The New York Times, wrote a series of emails in 2015 to Trump’s lawyer – Cohen – in which he boasted about his ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.    “Our boy can be president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Sater wrote in one of the emails.    “I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this.”    The Times noted that Cohen never replied to the emails and viewed them as “puffery.”    Sater said he was simply expressing “enthusiasm” for the Trump Organization.    Russia-born Sater had spent a year in prison in 1991 for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass at the Rio Grande restaurant and bar in New York.
        A report by BuzzFeed News said that at one point Sater and Cohen hatched a plan to offer Putin a $50 million penthouse in the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow to help sell other apartments.    “In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin,” Sater told BuzzFeed News.
        Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the report when reached by USA TODAY.
        Still, to expand his real estate developments over the years, Trump, his company and partners have repeatedly turned to wealthy Russians and oligarchs from former Soviet republics – several allegedly connected to organized crime, according to a USA TODAY review last year of court cases and government and legal documents.
        At least five close advisers to Trump have admitted wrongdoing or been convicted since his election.
        In “The Art of the Deal,” his 1987 book about his business style, Donald Trump wrote about wanting to build “a large luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government.”
    Donald Trump visits a reception as he checks out sites in Moscow for luxury residential towers on Nov. 5, 1996. IGOR TABAKOV/AP
    Trump associates reportedly discussed giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a Trump Tower suite. GETTY IMAGES

    12/1/2018 White House wants troops to extend stay at border by Bart Jansen and Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is seeking to bolster security along the southern border with Mexico by extending the deployment of military troops to the end of January and adding law enforcement staff from other federal agencies.
        A portion of the 5,800 active-duty military troops stationed along the southern border are expected to stay beyond the initial Dec. 15 deployment, but the Defense Department was still reviewing the request Friday from the Department of Homeland Security.
        DHS formally requested the deployment to be extended to Jan. 31 for “the ongoing threat at the southern border,” according to department spokeswoman Katie Waldman.    The request is for the number of troops to remain at about 4,000, according to The Associated Press.    But Defense Secretary James Mattis hadn’t approved it by late Friday, according to the AP.    Staffers from both departments had been discussing the need for a deployment extension for weeks.
        DHS has also requested that law-enforcement officers working at other departments across the government contribute to border security because President Donald Trump “has made it clear that border security is a top administration priority,” Waldman said.
        “In line with the president’s direction and given the very real threat we face at the border from potential mass migration actions – of course, DHS has reached out for assistance from partners across the federal government to defend our sovereignty, protect our frontline men and women, and secure our border,” Waldman said.    “We appreciate all of the support we have received to date.”
        Trump initially ordered the military deployment in late October when he warned about a possible “invasion” by members of the migrant caravan crossing Mexico from Central America.
        The troops so far have mainly built barriers of concertina wire and Jersey walls around ports of entry and transported Customs and Border Patrol officers where needed.
        “It comes down to logistics issues – how many miles of wire do they need?” Mattis told reporters Thursday.    The areas around the ports are pretty much done, but there could be more work around their flanks, he said.
        Tensions rose on Nov. 20 when White House chief of staff John Kelly authorized the troops to use lethal force, if necessary, to defend themselves or any CBP agents who came under attack by migrants.    That order has been questioned because it followed Trump’s comments suggesting that troops could fire upon migrants if they throw rocks at the troops.
        “I told them to consider it a rifle,” Trump said during a White House speech Nov. 1.    “When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police I say consider it a rifle.”
        About 1,000 migrants clashed Sunday with CBP officers at the San Ysidro port in California.    Advocates for the migrants criticized the use of tear gas in dispersing the crowds.    But Homeland Security officials defended the use of gas as the least intrusive way to deal with migrants throwing rocks and bottles at officers.    No shots were fired.    The port also closed temporarily.
        Mattis said those clashes were with CBP – not the military.
        “As far as the use of force, the Border Patrol is using what they believe is appropriate,” Mattis said.
        The troop deployment has been criticized as a political stunt because Trump announced it while campaigning around the country in the final weeks leading up to the midterm elections.    That led to accusations he was using the troops as a political prop in a bid to energize the Republican base.
        The Pentagon estimated at the time that about 800 troops would go down in a purely support role – stringing concertina wire and helping CBP officials with transportation and logistical help.    But that deployment quickly expanded to more than 5,800 troops deployed throughout the border.
        The lethal force order also calls into question whether the active-duty troop deployment violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally forbids the military from conducting law enforcement duties within the U.S.
        A Congressional Research Service report in April concluded that the military can be deployed domestically, but only if it is limited to “certain types of support” to law enforcement, such as conducting aerial surveillance, operating equipment, sharing intelligence and providing advice.    But the report said the administration would run into legal trouble if it tasked the military with conducting law enforcement activities.

    12/1/2018 US, Canada, Mexico sign trade deal - Odds for passage unclear in 3 nations’ legislatures by Michael Collins, USA TODAY
        BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – President Donald Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada signed a revised trade pact Friday that changes many of the rules governing the free flow of commercial goods across North America.
        The ceremony, held on the first day of the G-20 summit here, brought the three countries a step closer to their goal of improving continental commerce and making it easier for companies to move goods and supplies across their borders.
        “This has been a battle, and battles sometimes make great friendships,” Trump said.    “This is a model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever.”
        But many other steps will be needed before the new agreement takes effect.
        “There’s still a lot of work to do on this deal before we hit the finish line,” said Daniel Ujczo, an international trade attorney in Ohio.
        The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, announced with fanfare by the leaders of all three countries in late September after months of on-again, off-again negotiations, will replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.    That agreement, known as NAFTA, essentially eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the three countries.br>     Trump, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have all lauded the new pact as good for their countries’ economies and for workers. All three took part in Friday morning’s signing ceremony.
        But the agreement still must be ratified by the legislative bodies of all three countries – a process that could take months and could be complicated by the Trump administration’s tariffs on aluminum and steel and by the House Democrats’ return to power in January.
        “We need to remove the tariffs on steel and aluminum between our two countries,” Trudeau said.
        Trudeau, who has had a rocky relationship with Trump, described the agreement as the “new NAFTA.”    Trump, who ran for president on a promise to end that controversial 1994 deal, has instead embraced the acronym “USMCA.”
        Mexico is expected to go first.    Mexico’s incoming president, Andres Manuel López Obrador, will take office Saturday.    The Mexican Senate is expected to ratify the trade pact quickly so the new administration can focus on its domestic agenda.
        In Canada, where the agreement has been met with skepticism by dairy farmers and others, Parliament is unlikely to take up the pact until after it is ratified by the U.S. Congress.
        A vote in Congress probably won’t happen before next March or April and could possibly be delayed as late as next fall, said Ujczo, who works for the law firm of Dickinson Wright and closely followed trade talks of the three countries.
        Trump said the agreement had already been heavily reviewed by lawmakers.    “I don’t expect to have much of a problem,” Trump said.    Later, he took to Twitter to boast about the deal.
        “Just signed one of the most important, and largest, Trade Deals in U.S. and World History,” he wrote.    “The United States, Mexico and Canada worked so well together in crafting this great document.    The terrible NAFTA will soon be gone.    The USMCA will be fantastic for all!”
        The U.S. International Trade Commission will release its report on the trade deal’s impact on the economy early next year, probably in March.    Congress will almost certainly wait for that report before scheduling a vote on the deal, analysts said.
        House Democrats’ return to power in January could slow the ratification process further.    The new agreement includes some policies embraced by Democrats, including stronger labor and environmental provisions.    But critics have complained those provisions don’t go far enough and are filled with too many loopholes.
        Though trade deals are usually subject to an up-or-down vote with no amendments, Congress still would have to pass legislation to implement the agreement.    House Democrats could use that legislation as the vehicle to try to strengthen the labor and environmental provisions or extract concessions from the Trump administration on unrelated issues.
    Contributing: John Fritze
    President Donald Trump, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
    have all lauded the new pact as good for their countries’ economies and for workers. PRESIDENCY OF MEXICO VIA EPE-EFE

    12/1/2018 ‘Yellow vest’ protesters battle riot police in Paris, 81 arrested by Antony Paone and John Irish
    Tear gas floats in the air near the Arc de Triomphe as protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a
    French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, demonstrate in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
        PARIS (Reuters) – French police fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon in battles with “yellow vest” protesters trying to breach security cordons on the Champs Elysees in Paris on Saturday ahead of a third rally against high living costs.
        Police said 81 people had been arrested amid concerns that violent far-right and far-left groups were infiltrating the “yellow vests” movement, a spontaneous grassroots rebellion over the struggle of many in France to make ends meet.
        For more than two weeks, the “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests) have blocked roads in protests across France, posing one of the largest and most sustained challenges Emmanuel Macron has faced in his 18-month-old presidency.
        In Paris, masked and hooded protesters picked up and hurled crowd barriers and other projectiles in running battles with police around the world famous Champs Elysees boulevard.
        Three policemen and seven protesters had been injured, spokeswoman Johanna Primevert said.
        “The thugs are a minority and have no place in these demonstrations,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told LCI television.
        Prime Minister Edouard Philippe canceled a planned speech at a rally for Macron’s party to monitor developments in Paris.
        Several hundred yellow vests sat down under the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the avenue, singing La Marseillaise, France’s national anthem, and chanting, “Macron Resign!.”
        On the facade of the towering 19th-century arch, protesters scrawled in big black letters: “The yellow vests will triumph.”
        After several hours of skirmishes in the morning, security forces appeared to clear the area around the Arc where rioters and peaceful protesters had mingled, pushing them into adjacent streets.
        Along the Champs Elysees, peaceful demonstrators held up a slogan reading, “Macron, stop treating us like idiots!”
    MACRON WON’T BE BOUNCED BY “THUGS”
        Macron said on Tuesday he understood the anger felt by voters outside France’s big cities over the squeeze that fuel prices have put on households, but insisted he would not be bounced into changing policy by “thugs.”
        Police unions said across France there were some 31,000 protesters and 582 road blockages.
        A week ago thousands of protesters, who have no leader and have largely organized themselves online, converged on Paris for the first time, turning the Champs Elysees into a battle zone as they clashed with police firing tear gas and water cannon.
        “What message do the yellow vests want to pass today?    That we set France on fire, or find solutions? I find this (violence) absurd,” Jacline Mouraud, a prominent activist within the yellow vests movement, told BFM television.
        But a retired yellow-vest protester said: “The government is not listening.    Revolution cannot happen without violence.”
        The outburst of anger is strongest on the outskirts of smaller provincial towns and villages, and underlines the gap between metropolitan elites and working class voters that has boosted anti-establishment politics across the Western world.
        The immediate trigger for the protest wave was Macron’s decision to raise tax on diesel fuel in a move to encourage the driving of less-polluting cars.
        The yellow vests take their name from the high-visibility jackets all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles.
        Ahead of Saturday’s protests, workmen erected metal barriers and plywood boards on the glass-fronted facades of restaurants and boutiques lining the Champs Elysees, which was closed to traffic with pedestrians funneled through checkpoints.
        For now, the “yellow vests” enjoy widespread public support.
        When they began, the protests caught Macron off-guard just as he was trying to counter a fall in his popularity rating to 30 percent.    His unyielding response has exposed him to charges of being out of touch with ordinary people.
    (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Celia Mebroukine, Antoine Boddaert, Lucien Libert and Caroline Paillez; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

    12/1/2018 Caravan migrants in Mexico fill new border shelter after rains force exodus by Christine Murray
    Rafael, 33, from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America
    trying to reach the United States, covers himself with a plastic wrap at a temporary shelter
    during heavy rainfall in Tijuana, Mexico, November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
        TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – Hundreds of mostly Central American migrants poured into a new shelter on Friday as bus loads fled a filthy, flooded sports complex on the eve of a presidential inauguration in Mexico that could recast the border crisis with U.S. President Donald Trump.
        Earlier in the day, streams of migrants laden with heavy backpacks, tents and blankets, much of it soaking wet, loaded buses leaving their original migrants shelter within sight of the border.
        Helicopters swooped down nearby a few times and lines of people formed quickly when bottles of water were passed out. Diapers and milk for children were also distributed.
        For those among the at least 6,000 migrants who have descended upon the Mexican border city of Tijuana, just south of San Diego on the U.S. side, the move to a former outdoor concert venue after torrential rains a day earlier reduced the old shelter to a muddy, smelly mess was a welcome relief.
        “Here it’s better,” said Victor Manuel Argeta.
        The 44-year-old native of Usulutan, El Salvador, spoke alongside his wife and two children as he surveyed the limited indoor space while many other caravan migrants set up simple camps in an open square in the middle of the property.
        “It’s dry.    We have a dry blanket.    They gave us mattresses, too,” said Argeta.
        He said he joined the caravan to find better job prospects in the United States.
        Many of the migrants who made the trek to the East Tijuana property, some 7 miles (11 km) from the border, appeared thankful to be out of the muck even if most will sleep on thin mattresses on a cold, hard floor.
        Jorge Alberto Lobo, 21, also from El Salvador, was eager to leave the old shelter as he packed up his few belongings.
        “I have the dream, I think we all had it, to get to the other side, to the United States,” he said, but quickly adding that if he does not make it he will likely stay put in Mexico and look for work.
    ‘RESPECT’
        On Saturday, Mexico’s leftist president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will take the oath of office in the capital as he seeks to make good on campaign promises to alienate poverty and inequality, in part to help stem the flow of Mexico’s own migrants.
        The former mayor of Mexico City has welcomed the caravan migrants in speeches, pledging to offer work visas and even jobs building a major train line he has proposed.
        The day before his inauguration, Lopez Obrador was resting with friends at this ranch in southern Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala, and reaffirmed his support for the migrants.
        “Progressive, democratic governments respect migrants, respect the right all of us have as human beings to search out a better life.    It’s the most important human right,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.
        He made a point of reflecting on the history of migrants north of the border.
        “The United States is a country that became a powerhouse because of the work, effort and intelligence of migrants,” he said.
        Trump, conversely, has dubbed the migrants an invading force that must be stopped, even threatening to shut the U.S. border if Mexico does not deport those gathered in Tijuana.
        To date, Mexican officials have ignored the threat.
    (Reporting by Christine Murray; Editing by David Alire Garcia, Robert Birsel)

    12/1/2018 BRICS slam protectionism as China-U.S. spat overshadows G20 talks by Vladimir Soldatkin and Roberta Rampton
    U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron
    and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wave hands during a family photo at the G20 leaders summit
    in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of major developing economies condemned protectionism at a G20 summit in Argentina on Friday overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to escalate tariffs on China.
        This year’s two-day gathering is a major test for the Group of 20 industrialized nations, whose leaders first met in 2008 to help rescue the global economy from the worst financial crisis in seven decades.
        With a rise in nationalist sentiment in many countries, the G20 – which accounts for two-thirds of the world population – faces questions over its ability to deal with trade tensions, which have roiled global markets.
        Hanging over the summit in Buenos Aires is the trade dispute between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, which have imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of each other’s imports after Trump launched an effort to correct what he views as China’s unfair commercial practices.
        Global financial markets will take their lead next week from the outcome of talks between Trump and Xi over dinner on Saturday, aimed at resolving differences that are weighing on global economic growth.
        Xi and other leaders from the BRICS group of leading emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – issued a statement calling for open international trade and a strengthening of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
        “The spirit and rules of the WTO run counter to unilateral and protectionist measures,” they said.    “We call on all members to oppose such WTO-inconsistent measures, stand by their commitments undertaken in the WTO.”
        Beijing hopes to persuade Trump to abandon plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent in January, from 10 percent at present.
        U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday on hopes that a deal could be reached.
        Trump said there had been some positive signs.
        “We’re working very hard. If we could make a deal that would be good.    I think they want to.    I think we’d like to.    We’ll see,” he said.
        A Chinese foreign ministry official in Buenos Aires said there were signs of increasing consensus ahead of the discussions, although differences remained.
    SEEKING COMMON GROUND
        On the eve of the summit, G20 nations were still trying to reach consensus on wording for the summit’s communique on major issues including trade, migration and climate change, which in past years have been worked out well in advance.
        Officials hammering out the communique, known as “sherpas,” said they expected to work into the night.     “This has been an unprecedentedly long drafting,” said Russia’s sherpa, Svetlana Lukash.    “It’s very complicated,” she said, adding that differences remained on all the key issues.
        Earlier in November, officials from countries attending a major Asia-Pacific summit failed to issue a joint statement for the first time after the U.S. delegation clashed with China over trade and security.
        However, delegates to the Buenos Aires talks said good progress had been made on economic sections of the final communique.    Argentina’s presidency voiced cautious optimism that consensus would be reached, but a White House official said the United States would walk away from any statement that prejudiced U.S. interests.
        Highlighting the deep rifts within the G20, European Council President Donald Tusk said the European Union would extend its economic sanctions on Moscow in December, after Russian ships fired on Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov last week, seizing the boats and sailors.
        “As this is a difficult moment for international cooperation, I would like to appeal to the leaders to use this summit … to seriously discuss real issues such as trade wars, the tragic situation in Syria and Yemen and the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Tusk told a news conference.
        Trump cited Russia’s seizure of the ships as the reason he canceled a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where they had been expected to discuss the U.S. leader’s threat to withdraw from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.
        Moscow said U.S. domestic politics may have been the real reason behind the cancellation after Trump’s former personal lawyer pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Organization skyscraper in the Russian capital.
        A White House spokeswoman denied this and Trump said on Friday the ships’ seizure was the “sole reason” he scratched the meeting.
        A Kremlin spokesman said Putin was ready to continue talks with Trump.
    LONELY SAUDI PRINCE
        The presence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the summit also raised an awkward dilemma for leaders, and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader cut a lonely figure standing at the edge of the G20 family photo.
        Prince Mohammed arrived under swirling controversy over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.    Human Rights Watch asked Argentine prosecutors to investigate him for human rights abuses.
        U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir discussed the importance of making progress in the investigation into Khashoggi’s killing during talks in Buenos Aires on Friday, the U.S. State Department said.
        British Prime Minister Theresa May told the prince that the killers of Khashoggi should be held to account, her office said after the two leaders met.    Saudi Arabia said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder.
        French President Emmanuel Macron told the prince in a separate meeting that Europeans will insist on international experts being part of the investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.
        Oil markets were awaiting a bilateral meeting between Putin and Prince Mohammed on Saturday afternoon for any sign that Russia will participate in a production cut by the OPEC oil cartel next month.
        Putin was the only leader to exchange a warm greeting with the prince, high-fiving him when he entered the main summit room.
    TRUMP AND TRADE
        One bright spot before the summit opened was the signing of a revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
        Signing the agreement alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump said he looked forward to working with the U.S. Congress to complete the terms of the deal and did not anticipate problems.
        The three countries agreed a deal in principle to govern their trillion dollars of mutual trade after a year and a half of contentious talks concluded just an hour before a deadline on Sept. 30.
        Trudeau still had a few barbs on Friday.    He called the deal by its old name NAFTA, prodded Trump over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and said General Motors Co’s decision to cut production and its North American workforce, including in Canada, was a “heavy blow.”
    (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Michael Martina, Matt Spetalnick, Maximilian Heath, Scott Squires, Cassandra Garrison and Kylie Maclellan in Buenos Aires; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Ross Colvin, Frances Kerry and Rosalba O’Brien)

    12/1/2018 President Trump to Focus on Trade in Talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump says he is focused on trade as he meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
        The two spoke on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
    President Donald Trump meets with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 Summit,
    Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        The President said he has a great working relationship with the German leader, and they will work together to resolve a trade imbalance between the U.S. and Germany.
        He also noted that he will be meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday as well.
        Merkel said she hopes their talks bring solutions as many countries are being indirectly affected when Chinese-American economic relations are not “frictionless.”

    12/1/2018 Clashes Break Out as ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Continue in France by OAN Newsroom
        Hundreds are arrested as the “yellow vest” protests continue in France.
        Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters in Paris today and clashes broke out between authorities and demonstrators.
        Over 5,000 people are taking part in the protest in the French capital in order to voice their anger over fuel taxes and the high cost of living.
        More than 35,000 people are taking part in various demonstrations around France, and the movement has received widespread popular support.
        The outrage comes amid low approval ratings for French President Emmanuel Macron as many people feel the government is not listening to the concerns of the population.
        Two people have died since the protest began on November 17th.
    [In the old days they would have put Macron in the guillotine by now.].

    12/1/2018 Mattis condemns Venezuela’s Maduro as a ‘despot’ who has to go by Phil Stewart
    U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis arrives for a meeting with Ho Chi Minh City's
    communist party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, October 16, 2018. REUTERS/Kham/Pool
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Saturday condemned Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro as a despot leading his oil-rich nation to ruin, adding “ultimately this regime is going to have to go” for the situation to improve.
        However, Mattis did not suggest any U.S. role in such a process and told a security forum in California:     “It’s up to the Venezuelan people, it’s up to the regional states in that area to help expedite that and bring that country back to a more prosperous and positive future.”
        More than 3 million Venezuelans have fled the ailing oil-rich nation in recent years, driven out by brutal food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation, and violent crime.
        Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela, denouncing Maduro for quashing human rights and triggering an economic meltdown.
        “This is what happens when you have an irresponsible despot leading a country to ruin.    And I think what we should do is work by, with and through our Latin American allies as we stabilize this situation,” Mattis told the Reagan National Defense Forum.
        He noted that the Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship, was treating Venezuelan refugees on a Latin American tour that included stops in neighboring Colombia.
        “We’re doing our best diplomatically and through humanitarian aid.    But ultimately this regime is going to have to go,” he said.
        The United Nations on Monday pledged $9.2 million in aid for Venezuela, where hunger and preventable disease are soaring due to food and medicine shortages.    Maduro blames the country’s problems on U.S. sanctions and an “economic war” led by political adversaries.
        Government critics celebrated the U.N. pledge as a recognition by Venezuelan authorities that the country faces a humanitarian crisis – something Maduro has denied in the past – and a step toward treating a population starved of basic services.
        But some worry the funds could fuel the corruption of the ruling Socialist Party, which was put on display earlier this month when a former Venezuelan treasurer told U.S. prosecutors he took $1 billion in bribes.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
    [Note this is example of what happens when you let Progressive Socialist run your country and thank God the U.S. stopped it after 8 years of Obama administration, who in 2019 are getting their foot back in the door.].

    12/1/2018 I will be PM to take Britain out of EU, says UK’s May by Kylie MacLellan
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the media during the G20 Leaders Summit
    in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Theresa May said on Saturday she would be the Prime Minister to take Britain out of the European Union and that parliament should back her Brexit deal to ensure certainty for the future.
        May sealed a deal with EU leaders last Sunday that would see Britain leave the bloc on March 29 with continued close ties, but the odds look stacked against her getting it approved by a deeply divided British parliament in a vote on Dec. 11.
        The deal has been criticised by many of May’s Conservative lawmakers, both supporters of a cleaner break with the EU and those who want to keep closer ties.    Opposition parties and a small Northern Irish party which props up May’s minority government have also said they plan to reject the deal.
        Several of her ministers have resigned in protest at the deal, and some of her lawmakers have called for a confidence vote in her leadership, something some believe could happen if she loses the vote in parliament.
        “There is a lot more for me still to do, not least delivering on Brexit and being the prime minister that does take the United Kingdom out of the European Union,” May told a news conference at the G20 Summit in Argentina, when asked what her legacy would be if she is forced to quit.
        “I will be talking with Members of Parliament … and explaining why passing this deal in the vote that will take place in the House of Commons will take us to certainty for the future, and that failure to do that would only lead to uncertainty.”
        May said that during a series of bilateral meetings with world leaders at the summit she had updated them on the Brexit deal and told them it would be a good deal for the global economy as well as international firms which have invested in Britain or that use European bases to supply the UK market.
        “That this deal sets a path for the UK to a brighter future has been affirmed by the discussions I have had on trade over the past two days,” she said.
        “Friends and partners have made clear that they are keen to sign and implement ambitious free trade agreements with us as soon as possible,” she added.
    (Additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison; editing by Stephen Addison)

    12/1/2018 Pentagon chief slams ‘slow learner’ Putin over election meddling by Phil Stewart
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis listens as U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured)
    speaks to the news media while gathering for a briefing from his senior military leaders in the
    Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday of being a “slow learner” who again tried to meddle in U.S. elections in November, adding that he had no trust in the Russian leader.
        The remarks by Mattis at a security forum in California came a day after President Donald Trump held informal talks with Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 industrialized nations meeting in Argentina.    Trump had scrapped a more formal meeting with Putin, citing Russia’s treatment of Ukraine.
        Asked if U.S.-Russian ties had become more strained since he took over the Pentagon last year after Trump became president, Mattis said, “There’s no doubt the relationship has worsened.”
        “(Putin) tried again to muck around in our elections this last month.    And we are seeing a continued effort along those lines,” Mattis said, adding that the United States would take whatever steps were necessary to defend American democracy.
        American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to sow discord and boost Trump’s chances through a campaign of propaganda and hacking aimed at disparaging his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.    A special counsel investigation into Russia’s role in that election and whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow has cast a cloud over his presidency.
        The comments by Mattis were the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow.    Russia has denied meddling.    Trump has said there was no collusion.
        Ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm congressional elections, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials accused Russia of trying to influence the vote.    U.S. prosecutors in October charged a Russian national with playing a financial role in a Kremlin-backed plan to conduct “information warfare” against the United States, including attempts to influence the midterm election. [nL2N1WZ19Q]
    RUSSIA-UKRAINE TENSIONS
        Russian forces opened fire on Ukrainian naval vessels last weekend and seized them and their crew near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.    Mattis said those actions underscored why the international community was increasingly distrustful of Moscow.
        “Mr. Putin is clearly a slow learner.    He is not recognizing that what he is doing is actually creating an animosity against his people,” Mattis said.
        “What we are seeing Putin do with his ripping up of international agreements … we’re dealing with someone that we simply cannot trust,” the Pentagon chief added.
        White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Saturday confirmed Trump’s encounter with Putin in Argentina in a statement, saying, “As is typical at multilateral events, President Trump and the First Lady had a number of informal conversations with world leaders at the dinner last night, including President Putin.”
        Speaking in Buenos Aires, Putin told reporters on Saturday there were no pre-conditions for future bilateral talks with Trump.
        “It is regrettable that we can’t succeed in holding a full-scale meeting, which is long due,” Putin said, adding that issues of strategic stability would be of paramount importance. [nL2N1Y60M7]
        U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday said the Ukraine events were the only reason Trump canceled his planned formal meeting with Putin in Argentina, not developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
        The decision to scrap the meeting with Putin came shortly after Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Thursday to a charge of lying to Congress about a skyscraper project Trump was pursuing in Moscow during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. [nL2N1Y40PO]
        “Ludicrous; Washington parlor game,” Pompeo said in a CNN interview at the G20 meeting when asked whether Trump was motivated to cancel the meeting by Cohen’s guilty plea.
    (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham)

    12/2/2018 Number of missing after California wildfire dwindles to 49
        The number of people listed as missing after Northern California’s catastrophic wildfire has been whittled to 49.
        The figure announced Friday night by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office shows significant progress in accounting for survivors of the deadliest wildfire in state history.    Two weeks ago, the number of people listed as unaccounted for was 1,300.

    12/2/2018 Trump had ‘informal’ chat with Putin at summit dinner
        After avoiding Vladimir Putin for most of the day at the G-20 summit of global leaders, President Donald Trump had an “informal” conversation with the Russian president, the White House said Saturday.
        White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the two spoke at a cultural dinner last night scheduled in Buenos Aires for the leaders and their wives.    The dinner, which took place in the city’s famous Teatro Colón theater, was closed to reporters.
        Sanders did not provide additional detail about the extent of the meeting, or what was discussed.    Trump drew fire for a similar encounter over dinner at the G-20 summit in Hamburg last year when the White House disclosed days later that the two presidents met without any U.S. aides present.

    12/2/2018 France’s Macron denounces violent protest in Paris
        French President Emmanuel Macron denounced violent protesters who attacked police and vandalized a Paris monument, promising they will be “held responsible for their acts.”
        Macron said Saturday that the protests which have left dozens injured and at least 224 arrested “have nothing to do with the peaceful expression of a legitimate anger.”    He said “no causes justifies” attacks on police or pillaging stores and burning buildings.
        Macron said he will hold an emergency government meeting Sunday on the protests.

    12/2/2018 France’s Macron learns the hard way: green taxes carry political risks by Bate Felix
    FILE PHOTO: Protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, stand up in
    front of a police water canon at the Place de l'Etoile near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – When Emmanuel Macron rose to power, he put the environment at the heart of his agenda.
        Eighteen months later, anger over those policies has stoked protests that are a huge challenge for the French president.
        Rioters torched cars and buildings in central Paris on Saturday following two weeks of protests caused partly by higher fuel taxes which Macron says are needed to fight climate change.    Some protesters called for him to resign.
        Macron’s plight illustrates a conundrum: How do political leaders’ introduce policies that will do long-term good for the environment without inflicting extra costs on voters that may damage their chances of re-election?
        It is a question facing leaders across the world as delegates hold talks in the Polish city of Katowice this week to try to produce a “rule book” to flesh out details of the 2015 Paris Agreement on fighting climate change.
        “Clearly, countries where inequalities are the highest are the ones where these kinds of push-backs are mostly likely,” Francois Gemenne, a specialist in environmental geopolitics at SciencesPo university in Paris, said of the political risks.
        Naming Italy, the United States and Britain as countries where environmental moves could risk a voter backlash, he said: “I guess it’s one of the reasons why populist leaders tend to be very skeptical about climate change and environmental measures.”
        The protests in France have inspired a similar movement in neighboring Belgium, where protesters took to the streets on Friday.
        There have also been small-scale protests in Canada over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to impose a federal carbon tax on provinces unwilling to combat climate change.
        What was once widely seen by governments as a win-win transition to cleaner energies now looks more like causing short-term costs with huge social disruption, followed by possible long-run gains.
        Another challenge facing leaders is over how they use the proceeds from policies intended to help the environment: Should money raised from carbon taxes be used directly to combat climate change, or to plug holes in national accounts?
    CARBON TAXES
        Macron said after the latest protests in Paris that he would convene ministers to discuss the crisis on his return from a G20 summit in Argentina.    Prime Minister Edouard Philippe canceled plans to go to Katowice for the climate change summit.
        Macron introduced new carbon taxes to urge motorists to change behavior and protect the environment.
        Macron has watered down some of his campaign pledges on the environment since he took office, and his popular environment minister quit in August over the sluggishness of progress.    But he has shown little willingness to compromise in the face of the protests.
        The fuel tax is accompanied by other measures including incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
        Unveiling a medium-term energy plan for France last week, he held out an olive branch by saying he would review fuel prices each quarter, but said the carbon taxes would stay.
        His goal is for France to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and boost the use of cleaner energies at the same time.    Emissions are currently rising and 75 percent of energy use in France originates from fossil fuels.
        “When we talk about the actions of the nation in response to the challenges of climate change, we have to say that we have done little,” he said.
        Macron has also said he will fight to try to save the Paris climate agreement, which aims to keep global temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, a critical threshold.
        Scientists are increasingly concerned that countries are falling short on their targets and must be more ambitious.    Yet citizens are worried about their immediate lives.
    “POLICIES OF TRANSITION”
        In Canada, addressing the question of how governments use the money raised from carbon taxes, Trudeau’s government has promised to return the money collected from the provinces directly to taxpayers.
        But in France most of the revenue generated will be used to tackle the national budget deficit, increasing anger at Macron, who left-wing opponents call the “president of the rich.”
        Of the 34 billion euros ($38.71 billion) the French government will raise on fuel taxes in 2018, a sum of only 7.2 billion euros is earmarked for environmental measures.
        Simon Dalby, a specialist in the political economy of climate change at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, says carbon taxes should be part of wider measures to alter how people live, including better, greener transport and buildings.
        “It is all about policies for transition to a post-fossil-fuel world, something that needs to be done quickly if the worst of the predicted climate disruptions are to be avoided in the coming decades,” he said.
        Gemenne said the protests in France were unlikely to go away soon, and may emerge in other countries as they take more determined action on emissions.
        The danger, he said, was inaction, or acting too late to prevent global warming.    At the same time, politicians need to be able to show they were acting fairly and equitably.
    (Reporting by Bate Felix, Additional reporting by Michel Rose, Editing by Luke Baker and Timothy Heritage)

    12/2/2018 Macron visits riot-damaged Arc de Triomphe, state of emergency mulled by John Irish
    A vandalized shop is seen on a street the morning after clashes between police and protesters wearing yellow vests,
    a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, in Paris, France, December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
        PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron rushed to the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday after one of France’s most revered monuments was vandalized by rioters, with the government considering a state of emergency after the worst bout of unrest for years.
        Masked, black-clad groups ran amok across central Paris on Saturday, torching dozens of cars and buildings, looting shops, smashing windows and fighting police in the worst unrest the capital has seen since 1968, posing the most formidable challenge Emmanuel Macron has faced in his 18-month-old presidency.
        Macron and key ministers were to meet later on Sunday to consider declaring an emergency to prevent a recurrence of the riots.    The government is open to dialogue but will not change course, spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.
        A popular revolt over fuel tax hikes and high living costs erupted suddenly on Nov. 17 and has spread quickly via social media.    Protesters have blocked roads across France and impeded access to shopping malls, factories and some fuel depots.
        On his return from the G20 summit in Argentina, Macron paid an immediate visit to the Arc de Triomphe, the 19th-century arch that towers over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and avenues nearby where cars had been torched and luxury shops pillaged.
        TV footage showed the interior of the Arc ransacked, a statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, smashed, and graffiti scrawled on the exterior ranging from anti-capitalist slogans to social demands and calls for Macron’s resignation.
        Under heavy security, the French leader spoke with police and firefighters on one of the avenues near the Champs Elysees boulevard, with some bystanders cheering but more jeering him, including yellow-jacketed protesters chanting, “Macron, resign!.”
        Meanwhile, workmen in the upper-crust district of central Paris set about cleaning the defaced Arc, removing charred hulks of cars and replacing the shattered windows of banks, restaurants and luxury boutiques. [L8N1Y70AN]
        “We have to think about measures that can be taken so that these incidents don’t happen again,” Griveaux told Europe 1 radio.
        The protests began as a backlash against Macron’s fuel tax hikes, but have mined a vein of deep dissatisfaction felt towards his liberal economic reforms, which many voters feel favor the wealthy and big business.
        Macron says higher diesel taxes are needed to fight climate change by spurring motorists to drive cleaner cars.
        Authorities were caught off guard by Saturday’s escalation in violence overshadowing the spontaneous protest movement, dubbed the “yellow vests” because many participants are wearing the fluorescent safety jackets kept in all cars in France.
    MACRON CHAIRING EMERGENCY CABINET MEETING
        In Paris, police said they had arrested more than 400 people while 133 were injured, including 23 members of the security forces.    Police fired stun grenades, tear gas and water cannon at protesters at the top of the Champs-Elysees, at the Tuilleries Garden near the Louvre museum, and other sites.
        Disturbances also rocked several cities and towns and across France – from Charleville Mezieres in the northeast to Nantes in the west and Marseille in the south.
        A driver was killed overnight in an accident at a yellow vest blockade in southeastern France after a car collided with a heavy goods vehicle, the third death since the protest began, a gendarmerie official told Reuters.
        Twenty cars, including three police vehicles, were also torched near Narbonne in the southwest, the official said.
        Macron’s crisis session with his prime minister and interior minister will assess how to begin dialogue with the “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests), who lack real structure or leadership.
        When asked about imposing a state of emergency, Griveaux said it would be among the options considered on Sunday.
        “It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence.”
        Griveaux urged the yellow vest movement to disassociate itself from radical groups that had instigated the violence, organize itself and come to the negotiating table.    However, he ruled out a change in government policy.
        “We won’t change course.    It’s the right direction.    We are certain of that,” he said.
        Authorities said violent groups from the far right and far left as well as “thugs” from the suburbs had infiltrated the yellow vests movement in Paris on Saturday, though Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said most of those arrested were regular protesters who had been egged on by fringe groups.
    (Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

    12/2/2018 U.S., China agree trade war ceasefire after Trump, Xi summit by Roberta Rampton and Michael Martina
    FILE PHOTO: Leaders pose for a family photo during the G20 summit in
    Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares/Pool
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – China and the United States agreed to a ceasefire in their bitter trade war on Saturday after high-stakes talks in Argentina between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, including no escalated tariffs on Jan. 1.
        Trump will leave tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports at 10 percent at the beginning of the new year, agreeing to not raise them to 25 percent “at this time,” the White House said in a statement.
        “China will agree to purchase a not yet agreed upon, but very substantial, amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries,” it said.
        “China has agreed to start purchasing agricultural product from our farmers immediately.”
        The two leaders also agreed to immediately start talks on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfers, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft, services and agriculture, the White House said.
        Both countries agreed they will try to have this “transaction” completed within the next 90 days, but if this does not happen then the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent, it added.
        The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the negotiations were conducted in a “friendly and candid atmosphere.”
        “The two presidents agreed that the two sides can and must get bilateral relations right,” Wang told reporters, adding they agreed to further exchanges at appropriate times.
        “Discussion on economic and trade issues was very positive and constructive.    The two heads of state reached consensus to halt the mutual increase of new tariffs,” Wang said.
        “China is willing to increase imports in accordance with the needs of its domestic market and the people’s needs, including marketable products from the United States, to gradually ease the imbalance in two-way trade.”
    “The two sides agreed to mutually open their markets, and as China advances a new round of reforms, the United States’ legitimate concerns can be progressively resolved.”
        The two sides would “step up negotiations” toward full elimination of all additional tariffs, Wang said.
        The announcements came after Trump and Xi sat down with their aides for a working dinner at the end of a two-day gathering of world leaders in Buenos Aires, their dispute having unnerved global financial markets and weighed on the world economy.
        After the 2-1/2 hour meeting, White House chief economist Larry Kudlow told reporters the talks went “very well,” but offered no specifics as he boarded Air Force One headed home to Washington with Trump.
        China’s goal was to persuade Trump to abandon plans to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent in January, from 10 percent at present.    Trump had threatened to do that, and possibly add tariffs on $267 billion of imports, if there was no progress in the talks.
        With the United States and China clashing over commerce, financial markets will take their lead from the results of the talks, widely seen as the most important meeting of U.S. and Chinese leaders in years.
        The encounter came shortly after the Group of 20 industrialized nations backed an overhaul of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which regulates international trade disputes, marking a victory for Trump, a sharp critic of the organization.
        Trump told Xi at the start of their meeting he hoped they would achieve “something great” on trade for both countries.    He struck a positive note as he sat across from Xi, despite the U.S. president’s earlier threats to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports as early as the next year.
        He suggested that the “incredible relationship” he and Xi had established would be “the very primary reason” they could make progress on trade.
        Xi told Trump that only through cooperation could the United States and China serve the interest of peace and prosperity.    Washington and Beijing have also increasingly been at odds over security in the Asia-Pacific region.
        At the same time, Trump again raised with Xi his concern about the synthetic opioid fentanyl being sent from China to the United States, urging the Chinese leader to place it in a “restricted category” of drugs that would criminalize it.
        The White House said Xi, “in a wonderful humanitarian gesture,” had agreed to designate fentanyl a controlled substance.
        Xi also said that he was open to approving the previously unapproved Qualcomm-NXP deal should it again be presented to him, the White House added.
        “This was an amazing and productive meeting with unlimited possibilities for both the United States and China.     It is my great honor to be working with President Xi,” Trump said in the statement.
    WTO REFORMS
        Earlier on Saturday, the leaders of the world’s top economies called for WTO reform in their final summit statement.
        Officials expressed relief that agreement on the communique was reached after negotiators worked through the night to overcome differences over language on climate change.
        The final text recognized trade as an important engine of global growth but made only a passing reference to “the current trade issues” after the U.S. delegation won a battle to keep any mention of protectionism out of the statement.
        Trump has long railed against China’s trade surplus with the United States, and Washington accuses Beijing of not playing fairly on trade.    China calls the United States protectionist and has resisted what it views as attempts to intimidate it.
        The two countries are also at odds over China’s extensive claims in the South China Sea and U.S. warship movements through the highly sensitive Taiwan Strait.
        In addition to tariffs on Chinese goods, Trump has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States this year.    Numerous countries have filed litigation at the WTO to contest the levies.
        The United States is unhappy with what it says is the WTO’s failure to hold China to account for not opening up its economy as envisioned when China joined the body in 2001.    The European Union is also pushing for sweeping changes to how the WTO operates.
        G20 delegates said negotiations on the summit statement proceeded more smoothly than at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders two weeks ago, where disagreement on protectionism and unfair trading practices prevented a consensus.
        European officials said a reference to refugees and migration – a sensitive issue for Trump’s administration – was excised to ensure consensus.
        On climate change, the United States once again marked its differences with the rest of the G20 by reiterating in the statement its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and its commitment to using all kinds of energy sources.
        The other members of the group reaffirmed their commitment to implement the Paris deal and tackle climate change.
        International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said high levels of debt accumulated by emerging market nations was a pressing concern.
        U.S. officials said a call by G20 leaders for the IMF and World Bank to improve monitoring debt levels was aimed at ensuring that developing economies did not become to heavily indebted to China in return for infrastructure projects.
        U.S. officials have warned about China’s increasing influence across swaths of the developing world, including Latin America.    G20 summit host Argentina is expected to sign a series of deals with China on Sunday during a one-day state visit by Xi.
        Apart from trade and climate change, Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian vessels drew condemnation from other G20 members, while the presence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the summit raised an awkward dilemma for leaders.
        Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler arrived amid controversy over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, though Saudi officials have said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder.
        The leader of the OPEC heavyweight had a series of bilateral meetings at the summit, including a closely watched encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Michael Martina, Matt Spetalnick, Maximilian Heath, Scott Squires, Cassandra Garrison, Daniel Flynn and Kylie Maclellan in Buenos Aires; Dave Shepardson and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; writing by Matt Spetalnick and Daniel Flynn; editing by Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell, Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)

    12/2/2018 Macron tells PM to hold talks after worst unrest in Paris for decades by Jean-Baptiste Vey and John Irish
    A vandalized shop is seen on a street the morning after clashes between police
    and protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes,
    in Paris, France, December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron ordered his prime minister on Sunday to hold talks with political leaders and demonstrators, as he sought a way out of nationwide protests after rioters turned central Paris into a battle zone.
        Riot police on Saturday were overwhelmed as protesters ran amok in Paris’s wealthiest neighborhoods, torching dozens of cars, looting boutiques and smashing up luxury private homes and cafes in the worst disturbances the capital has seen since 1968.
        The unrest began as a backlash against fuel tax hikes but has spread.    It poses the most formidable challenge yet to Macron’s presidency, with the escalating violence and depth of public anger against his economic reforms catching the 40-year-old leader off-guard and battling to regain control.
        After a meeting with members of his government on Sunday, the French presidency said in a statement that the president had asked his interior minister to prepare security forces for future protests and his prime minister to hold talks with political party leaders and representatives of the protesters.
        A French presidential source said Macron would not speak to the nation on Sunday despite calls for him to offer immediate concessions to demonstrators, and said the idea of imposing a state of emergency had not been discussed.
        Arriving back from the G20 summit in Argentina, Macron had earlier rushed to the Arc de Triomphe, a revered monument and epicenter of Saturday’s clashes, where protesters had scrawled “Macron resign” and “The yellow vests will triumph.”
        The “yellow vest” rebellion erupted out of nowhere on Nov. 17, with protesters blocking roads across France and impeding access to some shopping malls, fuel depots and airports. Violent groups from the far right and far left as well as youths from the suburbs infiltrated Saturday’s protests, the authorities said.
        Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux had indicated the Macron administration was considering imposing a state of emergency.    The president was open to dialogue, he said, but would not reverse policy reforms.
        “We won’t change course.    We are certain of that,” he told Europe 1 radio.
        As he spoke, workmen in the upper-crust district of central Paris set about cleaning the defaced Arc, removing charred hulks of cars and replacing the shattered windows of banks, restaurants and glitzy boutiques. [L8N1Y70AN]
    MACRON UNYIELDING
        While the protests were initially against Macron’s fuel tax hikes – necessary he says to combat climate change – they have also mined a vein of deep dissatisfaction felt toward his liberal reforms, which many voters feel favor the wealthy and big business.
        Police said they had arrested more than 400 people in Paris on Saturday and that 133 were injured.    Some 10,000 tear gas canisters and stun grenades were fired as well as water canon as security forces fought for control.
        Macron’s plight illustrates a conundrum: How do political leaders’ introduce policies that will do long-term good for the environment without inflicting extra costs on voters that may damage their chances of re-election?
        His unyielding response has exposed him to charges of being out of touch with common folk outside of France’s big cities who worry about the squeeze on household budgets and job security.
        The protests have driven Macron’s popularity to record lows and left him facing a lose-lose situation, said Gael Sliman, president of the Odoxa polling institute said.
        Either Macron caves in to the pressure and is derided by opponents as weak, or he puts down the dissent, Sliman said.
        “In the second scenario, Macron will still come out loser, because what everyone will remember is that he wrestled with the popular classes.    He would be victorious, but at the cost of having crushed them.”
        Before heading into Sunday’s meeting, Macron met under heavy security with police and firefighters near the Champs Elysees boulevard.    Some bystanders cheered, others jeered and called on him to resign.
        So too did Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who both demanded the government unwind its fuel tax hikes.    They called for parliament to be dissolved and snap elections held.
        Such an outcome is unlikely, however. Macron has 3 1/2 years left of his five-year mandate and a strong majority in parliament, albeit with signs of simmering unease on the backbenches over his response to the protests.
        TV footage showed the interior of the Arc ransacked, a statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, smashed, and graffiti scrawled on the exterior ranging from anti-capitalist slogans to social demands and calls for Macron’s resignation.
        On nearby streets, some Parisians worried of a repeat of the violence next weekend.    The yellow vests have already called another demonstration in Paris.
        “The violence is increasing at an exponential rate,” said Claude, a resident in the affluent 16th district.    “The state is losing control, it is scary.    They cannot let this happen.    Maybe the army should intervene.”
    (Reporting by John Irish, Richard Lough, Emmanuel Jarry, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Matthias Blamont, Myriam Rivet, Simon Carraud and Luke Baker; Writing by John Irish and Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Susan Fenton)
    [Will Macron win with a strong hand, or rollover like many EU leaders, if any of them may become the King Of The West?].

    12/2/2018 Far-right party wins seats in Spain’s Andalusia region
    A man walks past ripped posters of Andalusian Regional President and candidate Susana Diaz
    for the Andalusian regional elections in Ronda, Spain December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
        SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) – Spain’s far-right Vox party won 12 seats in an election in Andalusia on Sunday and could end up as a kingmaker in the country’s most populous region, according to preliminary results with almost 98 percent of the vote counted.
        It was the first time the nationalist surge that has swept other European countries had reached Spain, long seen as immune because many still remember the military dictatorship that ended in 1975.     The preliminary official results showed the Socialists, who have ruled the southern region since Spain’s return to democracy, getting most votes, but falling well short of a majority with only 33 of the regional parliament’s 109 seats.
        The vote was the first electoral test for both Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the new leader of the conservative People’s Party, Pablo Casado.
        Votes were widely distributed and it was arithmetically possible that the conservative People’s Party and Ciudadanos could form a majority coalition with Vox’s backing.
        This would rattle national politics, with a series of local, regional and European elections scheduled for May.
        The preliminary results showed the People’s Party getting 26 seats and the centre-right Ciudadanos 21.
        With the far-left Podemos getting only 17 seats, the Socialists would have to seek other allies if they want to keep power in Andalusia.
        French far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted: “Strong and warm congratulations to my friends from @Vox, who tonight in Spain scored a very meaningful result for such a young and dynamic movement.”
        The election took place in a political landscape in which major parties find it harder and harder to secure majorities.    Vox was founded at the end of 2013.
        The next national election is due in 2020 but speculation has been rife for months that Sanchez, who controls fewer than a quarter of seats in the Madrid parliament, could call a snap vote.
        Senior Socialists said before the election in Andalusia that they did not expect it to trigger a general election.
        Andalusia has one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe and is the main arrival point in Spain for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.    The number reaching Spain has grown in the past year as traffic on the main sea route to Europe, from Libya to Italy, has slowed.
    (Reporting by Marcelo del Pozo in Seville, Sam Edwards in Barcelona, Belen Carreno in Madrid; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Sam Edwards; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

    12/2/2018 Mexico’s new president takes aim at violence during first day in office by David Alire Garcia and Miguel Gutierrez
    Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes part in an indigenous ceremony during
    the AMLO Fest at Zocalo square in Mexico City, Mexico December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – On his first full day in office, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended a plan to end lawlessness with a new national guard, an initiative that risks upsetting some supporters who favor a less militarized approach.
        In a Sunday morning speech, Mexico’s first leftist president in decades continued to pivot from an emphasis during the campaign on peaceful reconciliation and even amnesty for some involved in the country’s grueling drug war to a more traditional approach defined by more soldiers and police.
        “We must adjust to a new era,” he said, flanked by generals at a military base in the capital, while emphasizing that his security policy will also respect human rights.
        In the first phase of his plan, a 60,000-strong national guard force made up of army, navy and other federal police will battle crime while a constitutional reform will be pursued to cement the new strategy.
        Lopez Obrador has said the strategy will be put to a public vote, likely in March.
        A second phase will add additional military forces to the effort.
        “The people of Mexico need their armed forces to address this grave problem of insecurity and violence right now,” said Lopez Obrador, often turning toward the uniformed officers assembled behind him to address them directly.
        “We’ve opted for this plan because we trust the armed forces,” he said.
        Over the past dozen years, Mexican security forces have toppled some high-profile drug kingpins but more than 200,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands more disappeared since a military-focused approach was initiated in 2006.
        The last couple years have seen record numbers of murders, including in some of the country’s most fabled tourist destinations like Acapulco and Los Cabos.
        Lopez Obrador’s new security focus has already stirred unease among some human rights activists, who argue the plan ignores past abuses stemming from the “militarization” of public safety.
        “We call on the new government to back a civil security model that can create conditions for a gradual withdrawal of the armed forces in public security work,” a coalition of leading human rights groups said in a statement late last month.
        In addition to the national guard plan, Lopez Obrado has offered a six-year security blueprint that criticizes drug prohibition as both ineffective and arbitrary.    The new president’s allies in Congress have already proposed legislation to decriminalize and regulate the use of marijuana.
        During the campaign, his security aides outlined plans to reduce jail time for some crimes, as well as stiffer controls on weapons.    The strategy leaned heavily on “transitional justice,” which often involves leniency for those who admit guilt, truth commissions to investigate atrocities and the granting of reparations for victims.
        The landslide election winner has not yet detailed how those policies will the implemented.
    (Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Miguel Angel Gutierrez; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

    12/3/2018 G20 sealed landmark deal on WTO reform by ducking ‘taboo words’ by Caroline Stauffer and Nicolás Misculin
    U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. President Donald Trump's
    national security adviser John Bolton and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a working dinner after
    the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Many delegates from the world’s 20 largest economies arrived at a summit in Argentina this week determined to clinch an agreement to reform the global trade system, pushed to a breaking point by tensions between the United States and China.
        To do so, they had to bow to U.S. and Chinese demands to drop some of the pledges that have become hallmarks of the Group of 20 industrialized nations, which represents two-thirds of the global population.
        But they left with a communique committing for the first time to reform the dysfunctional World Trade Organization (WTO), the body supposed to regulate global trade disputes.
        “A number of words that we used to have always in G7 and G20 summit communiques became kind of taboos,” a European official said on Saturday in the midst of the negotiations.    “We have American taboos and Chinese taboos.”     First among those taboos is “protectionism.”    The U.S. administration has become sensitive to criticisms after President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs not only on $250 billion of Chinese goods but also on steel and aluminum imports that hit several of his G20 partners.
        As a result, for the first time since G20 leaders held their inaugural meeting in Washington in 2008, their communique did not contained a pledge to fight protectionism.
        China, meanwhile, steadfastly opposed the inclusion of the usual calls for “fair trade practices,” delegates said.    Beijing rejects criticisms from the United States, Europe and Japan for dumping, industrial subsidies, abuse of intellectual property rights and technology transfers, amongst other practices.
        Even the word “multilateralism” itself has fallen out of favor in a group designed to foster international cooperation.
        Central to getting the United States to sign up to a phrase recognizing the importance of “multilateral trading system” was acknowledging that the system was falling short of its objectives, delegates said.
        The United States is unhappy with what it says is the WTO’s failure to hold Beijing to account for not opening up its economy as envisioned when China joined the body in 2001.
        To force reform at the WTO, Trump’s team has blocked new appointments to the world’s top trade court, which is rapidly running out of judges, meaning it will be unable to issue binding rulings in trade disputes.    He has even threatened to withdraw the United States from the global body.
        “There was an attempt from a lot of the other countries … to get the United States to commit to certain language with regard to the multilateral system,” said one senior U.S. official.
        “We commit to multilateralism where it works … Is it achieving its intended objectives?    In a lot of areas it’s falling short,” said the U.S. official, who asked not to be identified because of the confidential nature of the talks.
        The final statement said the group supports the “necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning,” allowing U.S. officials to claim a victory.
        While there were no details of the proposed reform, many delegates hailed a breakthrough in committing Washington to global solutions.
        “For the first time China and the United States agreed to engage on the WTO,” said one delegate closely involved in drafting the communique.    “Given Trump’s earlier threats, to end up with the G20 saying it would work together on WTO reform is interesting.”
    CHINA WAS KEY
        European Union officials said that a key step in clinching a deal was getting China and major emerging economies to commit to language on trade early this week.
        “The idea was to bring the Chinese into the discussion almost immediately,” said a second European official.    “After APEC, we knew it would be important for the Chinese to feel there was no ganging up on them.”
        At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in mid-November, leaders failed to agree on a joint communique for the first time in the group’s 30-year history.
        After APEC, Washington and Beijing traded accusations of blame but, with global markets increasingly roiled by trade tensions, both sides appeared more ready for compromise in Buenos Aires.
        After the G20 talks ended, Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed over dinner on Saturday to a ceasefire in their trade conflict, calling off higher U.S. tariffs that were to go into effect on Jan. 1.
        “The spirit wasn’t adversarial,” said the delegate closely involved in the G20 drafting, adding that perhaps because of the fallout after APEC, officials at least tried to work things out.
        Delegates worked until 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, the final day of the summit, watering down language on migration and refugees in the face of resistance from the United States and others, European and Argentine officials said.
        And they still had not tackled one of the thorniest issues: climate change.
        “That was what they discussed (Saturday) morning till noon,” an Argentine government spokeswoman said, just hours before the communique was made public.
        In the end, members agreed to disagree. The United States reaffirmed its commitment to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord – as it had at the previous G20 summit in Germany last year – while other members said they would fully implement it.
        Veteran negotiators were phlegmatic about the difficulties in agreeing on a text.
        “There is always at least one overnighter in sessions like these,” said the delegate closely involved in the drafting, adding “sometimes it was tough to find the right word to stick to the middle ground.”
    (Reporting by Caroline Stauffer, Nicolas Misculin, Scott Squires, Roberta Rampton and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Sandra Maler)
    [For a minute there I thought the World Trade Organization, i.e. "The Beast That Came Up Out Of The Sea" was dead but the meeting kept it alive and will doctor it back to health.].

    12/3/2018 Spain PM to stick to pro-Europe agenda for Spain after Andalusia election
    Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a session at Parliament in Madrid, Spain, November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera
        MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez said on Monday his Socialist party will continue to push a European agenda for Spain after a far-right party won seats for the first time since the end of the dictatorship in a regional election in Andalusia.
        “My government will continue to push a regenerative and European agenda for Spain.    The results in Andalusia strengthen our commitment to defend the constitution and democracy from fear,” Sanchez tweeted.
        The Socialists may lose control of the southern region after the centre-right Ciudadanos party on Monday ruled out any coalition with them after an inconclusive election in which far-right Vox won 12 seats in the 109-seat parliament.
    (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Writing by Paul Day; Editing by Jesús Aguado)

    12/3/2018 Comey makes deal over House subpoena, backs off legal fight
        Former FBI Director James Comey has reached a deal to testify privately to the House Judiciary Committee, backing off his legal fight for an open hearing, his attorney said Sunday.
        Comey, whose lawyers went to court to challenge a congressional subpoena, said in a tweet that it was “hard to protect my rights without being in contempt.”
        As part of a deal with legislators, Comey has been told that he is free to speak about the questioning afterward and that a transcript would be released 24 hours after he testifies, his attorney, David Kelley, said.

    12/3/2018 Rep. Schiff suggests Stone may have lied to Congress
        The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee said former Trump adviser Roger Stone’s testimony should be provided to special counsel Robert Mueller “for consideration of whether perjury charges are warranted.”    Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that emails between Stone and an associate, Jerome Corsi, are “inconsistent” with Stone’s testimony before the congressional committee.
    [Schiff is trying to cover his own crimes by trying to find someone to take on his.].

    12/3/2018 Mexico’s new president seeks to use military to stem violence
        Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is using his first full day in office to double down on promises to deploy the military for public security, tackling a key concern: stemming rampant violence and rising murders.
        The plan requires a constitutional reform that would allow the marines and Army to form a National Guard.

    12/3/2018 Trump to formally cancel NAFTA by John Fritze, USA TODAY
        BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – President Donald Trump said late Saturday he will formally terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement soon, a move designed to put pressure on Congress to approve a new deal he signed during the G-20 summit.
        “I'll be terminating it within a relatively short period of time,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington after a twoday meeting in Argentina with the leaders of other major world economies.    “We (will) get rid of NAFTA.    It's been a disaster for the United States."
        Trump signed a new deal here Friday with the president of Mexico and Canada’s prime minister, following through on a campaign promise he made to renegotiate the long controversial NAFTA agreement.    The move will give Congress six months to accept that new agreement or revert to pre-NAFTA trade rules.
        The decision was intended to send a message to Democrats, who will take control of the House of Representatives in January.
        Many have expressed skepticism about the new trade agreement that Trump negotiated.
        The president, who cited the death of former President George H.W. Bush late Friday in canceling a scheduled news conference in Buenos Aires, also told reporters that he would likely sign a short-term agreement to keep the government open past a deadline Friday.
        Work in Congress is likely to be suspended for much of this week for Bush’s funeral.
        "If (lawmakers) come, which they have, to talk about an extension because of President Bush's passing, I would absolutely consider it and probably give it,” Trump said.

    12/3/2018 France must speed up tax cuts, says Finance Minister Le Maire
    French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire attends the questions to the
    government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
        PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on said tax cuts should be accelerated, and by consequence the pace of public spending cuts quickened, to foster greater prosperity for all citizens.
        “We cannot take away with one hand what we are giving to those who are working with our other hand, and therefore as a consequence we have to speed up our tax cut plans,” Le Maire told reporters at a news conference.
        “Less public spending and less taxes, those are the conditions needed to put France back on the right track, those are the conditions for the prosperity of all French people, those are the conditions to get us out of our debt burden,” he added.
    (Reporting by Myriam Rivet; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta/Richard Lough)

    12/3/2018 President Trump says China is cutting tariffs on U.S. made cars after trade truce by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump talks during his bilateral meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping,
    Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        President Trump is touting great progress on trade talks with China, following his meeting with the Chinese president at the G20 summit.
        In a series of tweets Monday, the president said his meeting with President Xi Jinping was an extraordinary one.    He said relations have taken a big leap forward, adding, U.S. farmers will be a very big and very fast beneficiary of the deal after China agreed to purchase more agricultural equipment.
        Trump tweet: “Farmers will be a very BIG and FAST beneficiary of our deal with China.    They intend to start purchasing agricultural product immediately.    We make the finest and cleanest product in the World, and that is what China wants.    Farmers, I LOVE YOU!”
        The president continued by saying his personal relationship with Xi is very strong, and praised him for reaching a massive and positive trade deal.
        President Trump ended by saying he hopes, in the near future, President Xi and Russian President Putin can get together with him to discuss ending the uncontrollable arms race.
        Trump tweet: “I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race.    The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year.    Crazy!”
        The tweets come as the president said China would commit to removing heavy auto tariffs on U.S. made cars.

    12/3/2018 Secretary Mnuchin expresses confidence on trade negotiations with China by OAN Newsroom
        Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expressing optimism a trade agreement with China will soon be reached.
        While speaking outside of the White House Monday, Mnuchin said there’s a specific understanding that the U.S. and China will turn the agreement that the two presidents have made into a real agreement over the next 90-days.He said while some of the areas are going to need to be phased into the deal, a real agreement is on the horizon.
        The treasury secretary also discussed the differences the recent meeting had from previous ones.     “This the first time we exchanged specifics on 142 different structural items,” Mnuchin explained.
        “President Xi laid out for     President Trump very clearly what they’re prepared to do on these issues, and the issues cover everything from purchasing more goods, which we’ve always talked about, but more importantly protecting intellectual property, eliminating forced joint ventures, protecting U.S. technology currency.”
    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin talks with reporters about trade negotiations
    with China, at the White House, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        Tariffs were said to be a major part of the discussions between the U.S. and China, while at the G20 summit — an area that has been a sticking point for negotiations.
        While some have criticized the president for what’s considered an aggressive approach against Beijing, Mnuchin indicated he believes the president’s plan has worked.
        “I think President Trump’s strategy on tariffs were very effective,” he stated.    “I think it created a first time…a real change in the willingness to address certain issues.”
        Mnuchin went on to say while trade is a major talking point in discussions with China, the two sides will also work on a number of global issues together.    That includes the effort to end North Korea’s nuclear program and the issue of fentanyal killing people across the U.S.

    12/3/2018 China made more than $1.2 trillion trade commitments: Mnuchin by David Lawder and Jeff Mason
    U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton,
    U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin attend a working dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping
    after the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has made more than $1.2 trillion in additional trade commitments as part of a deal reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping and Beijing has vowed to take immediate steps on those promises.
        Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to hold off on new tariffs during talks in Argentina on Saturday, declaring a truce following months of escalating tensions on trade and other issues.
        Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday there was a clear shift in tone at Buenos Aires from past discussions with Chinese officials, as Xi offered a clear commitment to open China’s markets to U.S. companies.
        “They put on the table an offer of over $1.2 trillion in additional commitments.    But the details of that still need to be negotiated,” Mnuchin told CNBC.    “This is the first time that we have a commitment from them that this will be a real agreement.”
        National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said he, Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had lunch with China’s vice premier in Argentina and he told them that Beijing would move immediately on the new commitments.
        “The history here with China promises is not very good.    And we know that,” Kudlow said.    “However, I will say this: President Xi has never been this involved."
        “They cannot slow walk this, stall this, meander this. Their word: ‘immediately.’”
        Kudlow told reporters at the White House that Washington would like to see progress quickly on structural issues, including intellectual property theft and technology transfers.    Americans will get majority ownership in companies in China for the first time, which should help address those issues, he said on CNBC.
        The United States agreed not to raise tariffs further on Jan. 1, while China agreed to buy more agricultural products from U.S. farmers immediately.
        The two sides also agreed to negotiate over the next 90 days to resolve issues of concern raised by the United States including intellectual property protection, non-tariff trade barriers and cyber theft.
        The truce boosted global markets on Monday with world stocks up nearly 1 percent.    On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.94 percent at the open and the S&P 500 by 1.10 percent.
        U.S. officials will monitor Chinese progress on enforcing the commitments very closely, Kudlow said.
        Trump has appointed Lighthizer, one of the administration’s most vocal China critics, to oversee the new round of trade talks with China, a White House official and a U.S. official told Reuters on Monday.
        The appointment of Lighthizer may signify a harder line in talks with Beijing and marks a shift from past practices where Mnuchin had a lead role.
        Lighthizer is an experienced trade negotiator who just completed a new agreement with Canada and Mexico.
        “He’s the toughest negotiator we’ve ever at the USTR and he’s going to go chapter and verse and get tariffs down, non-tariff barriers down and end all these structural practices that prevent market access,” White House trade adviser Peter     Navarro told National Public Radio earlier on Monday.
        The White House is stepping up efforts to prod other countries to build more vehicles in the United States.
        Lighthizer and other officials including National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow are set to meet with German automakers on Tuesday, including the chief executives at Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, people briefed on the matter said.
        On Sunday, Trump tweeted that China had agreed to cut import levies on American-made cars.
        Chinese regulators did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s tweet on autos tariffs.    Neither country had mentioned auto tariffs in their official read-outs of the Trump-Xi meeting.
    (Reporting by David Lawder and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by David Lawder and David Shepardson in Washington, Meng Meng and Stella Qiu in Beijing, Andrew Galbraith and David Stanway in Shanghai, and Noah Sin and Anne Marie Roantree in Hong Kong; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill and Susan Thomas)

    12/3/2018 Oil surges 3 percent on trade truce, expected supply cuts by Stephanie Kelly
    FILE PHOTO: A female employee fills the tank of a car at a petrol station
    in Cairo, Egypt, February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
        NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on Monday after the United States and China agreed to a 90-day truce in a trade dispute and Canada’s Alberta province ordered a production cut, while exporter group OPEC looked set to reduce supply.
        Brent crude futures rose $1.82 to $61.28 a barrel, a 3.1 percent gain, by 1:17 p.m. EST (1815 GMT).    U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.84 to $52.77 a barrel, a 3.6 percent gain.
        Both benchmarks surged by more than 5 percent earlier in the session.
        China and the United States agreed during a weekend meeting in Argentina of the Group of 20 leading economies not to impose additional trade tariffs for at least 90 days while they hold talks to resolve existing disputes.
        The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has weighed heavily on global trade and sparked concerns of an economic slowdown.
        Crude oil has not been included in the list of products facing import tariffs, but traders said the positive sentiment was supporting crude markets.
        Oil also received support from an announcement by Alberta that the Western Canadian province will force producers to cut output by 8.7 percent, or 325,000 barrels per day (bpd), to deal with a pipeline bottleneck that has led to crude building up in storage.
        The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Thursday to decide output.    The group, along with non-OPEC member Russia, is expected to announce cuts aimed at reining in a glut that has pulled down crude prices by around a third since October.
        “While a reduction in output appears certain, the market will now be mainly focused on the size of any such reduction,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.    “We feel that a decline of about 1.1-1.2 million barrels per day will be required if fresh price lows are to be precluded.”
        Within OPEC, Qatar said it will leave the producer club in January. Qatar’s oil production is only around 600,000 bpd, but it is the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
        Qatar’s decision to quit OPEC shows the frustration of small producers at the dominant role of a Saudi and Russia-led panel, Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters, adding that any supply cuts should come only from countries that had increased output.
        Outside OPEC, Russian oil output stood at 11.37 million bpd in November, down from a post-Soviet record of 11.41 million bpd it reached in October, Energy Ministry data showed on Sunday.
        Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he had no concrete figures on possible oil output cuts, though his country would continue its contribution to reducing global production.
        Meanwhile, oil producers in the United States continue to churn out record amounts of oil, with crude output at about 11.5 million bpd.
    (Graphic: Top-3 oil producers – https://tmsnrt.rs/2QqtsxJ)
    (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York, Christopher Johnson in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)

    12/3/2018 Comey agrees to closed door interview by OAN Newsroom
        Former FBI Director James Comey will be appearing before the House Judiciary Committee this week.    He dropped his legal fight against the subpoena on Sunday, compelling him to testify behind closed doors.
        Comey said he and the committee had reached an acceptable compromise after agreeing to publish a full transcript of the interview.
        This comes after he had vowed to fight his subpoena, claiming a closed-door hearing would allow the Department of Justice to “twist his words.”
    Former FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill.
        “My interest is in making sure people get a full and fair view of the facts,” stated Comey.    “Very hard to do that in the dark, impossible to do it when people are leaving the dark and saying stuff that ain’t true about what happened in the dark, so let’s have sunshine.”
        In a recent tweet, Comey thanked the judge for giving him a fair hearing and said it was difficult to protect his rights without being in contempt of court.
        James Comey tweet: “Grateful for a fair hearing from judge. Hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which I don’t believe in.    So will sit in the dark, but Republicans agree I’m free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours.    This is the closest I can get to public testimony.”
        Comey said the compromise is the closest he will get to a public testimony.

    12/3/2018 Migrant caravan relocated to new shelter farther from the border by OAN Newsroom
        Mexican officials are shutting down a migrant shelter in Tijuana, and moving members of the caravan further away from the border.
        According to reports Sunday, buses took the migrants 14-miles away from the San Ysidro district.
        The Tijuana city government cited “bad sanitary conditions” as the reason for the relocation.
    A man walks amidst discarded belongings as most Central Americans leave a sports complex shelter that authorities were trying
    to close, in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018. By Saturday afternoon, most of the thousands of migrants who had been camped
    out at the sports complex had agreed to move to the new, more distant shelter.    Others decided to try
    their luck camping in the street near the former shelter or look for their own accommodation.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
        Officials said the migrants were not forced to move, but food and medical services at the original camp would no longer be available.
        Some migrants, however, were reluctant to head to their new facility.
        “The previous place was fine, but they already cut off some services to make us move to another place, which we didn’t accept.    The further we are from the border, the less options we have to do our paperwork.” — Sergio Archaga, Honduran migrant.
        The first shelter was reportedly beyond capacity, had become flooded, and was a hot-bed of infections.

    12/3/2018 Merkel: Meeting between German auto executives, Trump admin. not on trade by OAN Newsroom
        As trade talks continue between the U.S. and EU, Germany’s chancellor has denied that Tuesday’s discussions between German automakers and the Trump administration had anything to do with the issue.
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media during a press conference
    at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
        While speaking Monday, Angela Merkel previewed Tuesday’s meeting and said trade will not be an area that will be focused on.
        This comes as top executives for a number of auto companies prepare to meet with the administration after the president threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of German auto imports.
        “This is not about any trade issues — rather these trade issues are unanimously decided on by the European Commission for all member states, but the German carmakers or the German firms are big employers in the United States of America, so there is definitely reason to talk to the U.S. administration about a number of issues,” stated the German chancellor.
        Merkel said some of those issues include future investments and the future of American employers for German automakers.

    12/3/2018 Sen. Sherrod Brown says he’s unsure about possible 2020 bid for president by OAN Newsroom
        Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown said he’s still uncertain about a possible presidential bid in 2020.    In an interview Sunday, the Ohio senator said he isn’t sure if he’s the best Democrat candidate to challenge President Trump in 2020.
        Senator Brown went on to say he’s enjoyed significant support for his possible presidential run.
    FILE – In this Nov. 6, 2018, file photo, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks to supporters after
    winning re-election during the Democratic election night party in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
        The senator has floated his possible 2020 campaign for weeks now after positioning himself as a “moderate” Democrat seeking to protect the American working class.
        Brown also said if he runs for president, he would campaign on his agenda of “dignity of work.”
        “It’s not just a message that works in the industrial Midwest, the states that we need to beat President Trump, it’s also a message for the X-ray technician in Oakland and a construction worker in Augusta, Maine — it’s the respect and dignity of work matters to this country,” he stated.
        Brown also suggested he could work with both parties to deliver better tax and trade policies as well as health care and consumer protections.

    12/3/2018 Britain’s MI6 spymaster cautions Russia but eyes China’s growing power by Guy Faulconbridge
    FILE PHOTO: MI6 chief Alex Younger speaks at MI6's Vauxhall Cross headquarters in central London,
    in this still image from video, Britain December 8, 2016. Crown Copyright/Handout via REUTERS EDITORIAL USE ONLY/File Photo
        ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) – The chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence service warned the Kremlin on Monday not to underestimate the West after a brazen nerve agent attack on a retired double agent in England stoked fears about Russian covert activity abroad.
        In his second major speech since being named in 2014 to head the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, Alex Younger, ranged across the global threats faced by Britain as it prepares to exit the European Union in less than four months.
        Russia, the only national adversary named in his scripted speech, has a stance of “perpetual confrontation” with the West, said Younger, citing the nerve agent attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in March in the English city of Salisbury.
        Western allies ordered the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War in response to the attack, in which Britain said Russian GRU military intelligence agents had used the Novichok nerve agent against Skripal.
        “The Russian state used a military-grade chemical weapon on UK soil,” Younger told students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where he once studied economics and computer science before joining the British army and then MI6.
        “Our intention is for the Russian state to conclude that, whatever the benefits it thinks it is accruing from this activity, they are not worth the risk,” said Younger.     Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement and accused British intelligence agencies of staging the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
        Skripal, an officer in Russian military intelligence, betrayed dozens of spies to MI6, though he was later pardoned and exchanged in a Cold War-style spy swap.
        The motive of the attack remains unclear, as is the logic of using such an exotic nerve agent, which has overt links to Russia’s Soviet past.
        “I should emphasize that even as the Russian state seeks to destabilize us, we do not seek to destabilize Russia.    We do not seek escalation,” Younger said.
        Younger, 55, also said that Britain’s spies have thwarted multiple Islamic State plots originating overseas.    MI6 continues to work with partner agencies to strengthen “indispensable security ties” in Europe, he said, adding that Britain had helped France and Germany prevent terrorist attacks.
    GO EAST?
        Answering questions from students, Younger said the global balance was tilting towards China as the world’s second largest economy gains significant capital, political clout and technological dominance.
        “Basically, power, money and politics is going east,” he said.    “That’s a new political reality we need to adjust to.”
        He said 5G reliance on Chinese technology was something Britain needed to discuss, though a bigger issue was the likely Chinese future dominance of emerging technologies.
        Younger said he had been struck by President Xi Jinping’s “made in China” ambitions and that Beijing could within decades dominate all of the key emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and genetics.
        “This is something we really need to think about,” Younger said.    “The future of knowledge is in play.”
        A career spy who joined MI6 as the Soviet Union was crumbling, Younger said that while technologies advanced, human intelligence remained crucial.
        “Even in an era of artificial intelligence you need human intelligence, in fact it will become even more important.”br>     In a recruitment pitch, Younger gave some details of his own life, including drinking obscure homemade alcohol in an attempt to penetrate an organization intent on genocide in the Western Balkans in the 1990s.
    (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones)

    12/3/2018 ‘Just the beginning’: Andalusia vote upends Spanish politics by Ingrid Melander and Belén Carreño
    Supporters of Spain's far-right VOX party celebrate results after the
    Andalusian regional elections in Seville, Spain December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Marcelo Del Pozo
        MADRID (Reuters) – Buoyant right-wingers and downcast Socialists agreed on one thing on Monday in Spain: politics will not be the same again after the surprise election in Andalusia’s regional parliament of 12 far-right lawmakers.
        Andalusia kicked off a busy electoral season on Sunday by delivering the Socialists an unexpected blow and handing over to the far-right Vox a regional kingmaker role long unthinkable in a country with memories of military dictatorship still acute.
        With a spate of local, regional and European elections slated for May, parties jostled to take the lead in the changing landscape after the inconclusive outcome in Andalusia, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists could lose control.
        “This is just the beginning,” Pablo Casado, the new, national leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), told a news conference.    “Spain has had enough.”
        Lessons from Andalusia’s vote are that the far-right surge, an increasingly fragmented political scene, and deepening polarization, especially over matters of regional autonomy and immigration, are here to stay, analysts said.
        “What happened on Sunday changes everything,” said Narciso Michavila, head of GAD3 pollsters, who had forecast the election of Vox lawmakers but said the fact that as many as 12 got seats in Andalusia’s assembly was an unexpected game-changer.     A senior Socialist official from Andalusia concurred. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he blamed what he called the government’s “tepidness” on Catalonia for keeping the party’s voters at home in a region that is usually a party stronghold.     Sanchez has said he is open to a referendum on greater autonomy for Catalonia and has promised to lay out detailed plans in parliament on Dec. 12. Catalonian nationalists’ bid for independence is a very divisive issue in Spain. “DECISIVE”
        “What happened here will be decisive for the rest of Spain,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal told a news conference.
        He projected fresh ambitions for a party that so far operated on the fringe of Spain’s politics but benefited from fatigue with mainstream parties, fears for Spain’s unity and about immigration.    Andalusia has borne the brunt of a migrant wave from North Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar.
        Vox’s electoral success on Sunday was the first for the far-right since Spain’s return to democracy in the late 1970s.
        But the anti-immigration party, which opposes giving regions more power in what is already one of Europe’s most decentralised country, can now target wins in more regions and municipalities when Spaniards go back to the polls in May 2019.
        “I am convinced Vox can get people elected in all the municipalities and regions where it will present candidates,” said Pablo Simon, a political science professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University.    “Spain now has a multi-party system with a far right like other European countries.”
        Government officials said the Andalusia election convinced them to stick to their policies rather than change them, and Sanchez insisted he would keep his party on a pro-Europe track.
        An important question will be if, and when, Sanchez, who leads a minority government, could call early general elections, ahead of the 2020 scheduled date.
        Vox Vice-President Victor Gonzalez told Reuters he was in no rush, as he was convinced his party was only starting to grow.
        “If there are elections now we would have less seats than in 2020,” he said.
        There are still many unknowns, not the least of which being who will eventually govern Andalusia, with negotiations just starting. [L8N1Y81FG]
        While a union of the right, with Vox backing the People’s Party and the center-right Ciudadanos, seemed most likely, analysts said, an alliance with the far-right could complicate Ciudadanos’ European ambitions.
    (Additional reporting by Rodrigo de Miguel, Paul Day, Marco Trujillo; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

    12/3/2018 Presenting legal advice, PM May fans flames of Brexit rebellion by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill
    Anti-Brexit demonstrators protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government fought on Monday to defend its Brexit deal by outlining the legal basis for parliament to support its agreement to leave the European Union, but instead seemed to fan the flames of rebellion.
        May faces an uphill struggle to secure parliament’s approval in a vote on Dec. 11, when many Brexit supporters and opponents alike say they will reject her vision for leaving the EU, Britain’s biggest shift in foreign policy in over 40 years.
        She has toured the country and television studios to try to sell her deal, but a move to present her government’s legal advice to parliament seemed to backfire on Monday.
        With several lawmakers doubling down on their criticism of the deal, the opposition Labour Party also said that it and other parties had written to parliament’s speaker asking him to consider launching contempt proceedings against May’s government for failing to release the full legal advice.
        It was a threat that one government source shrugged off as just a “process row.”
        At a rowdy session of parliament, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox outlined the legal advice he had given to the government, including over a “backstop” arrangement to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland if a future UK-EU trading deal is not reached in time.
        “This deal … is the best way I firmly believe of ensuring that we leave the European Union on March 29,” Cox told parliament.    “This is the deal that will ensure that happening in an orderly way with legal certainty.”
        But his words did little to soothe some of the deal’s most caustic critics in parliament, where many Brexit supporters said the so-called backstop for Northern Ireland risked tying Britain into the EU’s customs union indefinitely.
        “The legal summary document is worse than we feared: the backstop customs union is indefinite, the UK would be a rule taker and the European Court (of Justice) is in charge of our destiny, rather than the sovereign UK parliament,” former Brexit minister David Davis said.    “This is not Brexit.”
        May’s Northern Irish allies, the Democratic Unionist Party, which prop up her minority government, went further.
        Deputy DUP leader Nigel Dodds said: “The overall context of this is … a deeply unattractive, unsatisfactory presentation and he (Cox) needs to therefore rather than recommend this agreement, recommend that it is rejected.”
    SHAKY VOTE
        Many lawmakers were also angry over not being shown just a summary, not the full legal advice on May’s Brexit deal which her government had seen.
        The Labour Party and other lawmakers, including the DUP, say that the vote is so important for the future of the country that lawmakers should be able to see any detailed legal warnings concerning parts of the withdrawal agreement.
        “The government has failed to publish the attorney general’s full and final legal advice to the Cabinet, as ordered by parliament,” Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said.
        “We have therefore been left with no option but to write to the speaker of the House of Commons to ask him to launch proceedings of contempt.”
        The proceedings against the government for contempt of parliament could potentially result in one or more ministers being suspended or expelled from the House of Commons.
        The government, in line with usual practice, has resisted publishing its full legal advice on grounds of confidentiality.
        But Monday’s opposition did not bode well for the Dec. 11 vote, which will come at the end of five days of bruising debate starting on Tuesday.
        If she loses, May could call for a second vote. But defeat would increase the chances of Britain leaving without a deal – a possibility that could mean chaos for Britain’s economy and businesses – and put May under fierce pressure to resign.
        Defeat could also make it more likely that Britain holds a second EU referendum, three years after voting narrowly to leave the bloc.
    (Additional reporting by Kate Holton and Elisabeth O’Leary, editing by Mark Heinrich)

    12/3/2018 Britain submits new terms for post-Brexit services trade at WTO
    Demonstrators protest against Brexit outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        GENEVA (Reuters) – Britain has officially notified the World Trade Organization of the proposed terms for its trade in services with other countries after Brexit, an important part of its divorce from the European Union, trade minister Liam Fox said on Monday.
        The procedure is necessary because the United Kingdom has to disentangle its WTO membership from that of the EU.    Fox said the proposed new terms circulated among WTO members would replicate Britain’s current obligations as far as possible.
        “We see this only as a technical exercise that will provide continuity for business and, in future, we will work with other members on an ambitious agenda to liberalize international trade in services even further,” Fox said in a statement.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles)

    12/3/2018 ‘Yellow vest’ protesters knock wind out of French business, economy by Inti Landauro and Myriam Rivet
    FILE PHOTO: Protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against
    higher diesel taxes, stand up in front of a police water canon at the Place de l'Etoile near the
    Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – Three weeks of “yellow vest” protests have hit the French economy hard, with trade in shops, hotels and restaurants falling significantly, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday.
        Speaking after a meeting with industry groups and business federations affected by the protest movement, Le Maire said sector revenues had been hit by between 15 and 50 percent.
        While not providing a precise breakdown, Le Maire said small retailers had seen a fall in revenue of between 20 and 40 percent, and the hotel industry was seeing reservations down 15 to 25 percent.
        Restaurants, depending on their location, had seen takings collapse by between 20 and 50 percent.
        “The impact is severe and ongoing,” Le Maire said, emphasizing it was nationwide, although Paris, after riots and looting in some of its most upmarket districts on Saturday afternoon and evening, was particularly affected.
        The movement began on Nov. 17 as a social-media-planned protest against fuel-tax rises, but has since morphed into an anti-Macron uprising.
        The ministry was not able to say what sort of impact the unrest would have on gross domestic product, but having hoped for a pick-up in the fourth quarter on the back of rising consumer spending, that now appears less likely.
        Holiday season shopping has started poorly, according to industry group Federation du Commerce et de la Distribution, which expects a slump in hirings and a transfer of shopping to e-commerce, mainly on Amazon, a spokeswoman said.
        Amazon was not immediately available to comment but CDiscount, the e-commerce arm of retailer Casino, attributed the record number of visits to its websites partly to “demonstrations or blockades organized outside some shops.”
        Market data aggregator Nielsen said on Monday retail sales had contracted during three days of nationwide protest since Nov. 17, and had struggled to recover in between.    It said supermarket sales had plunged 35 percent on day one on Nov. 17 and 18 percent on day two, Nov. 24.
        Last week, sales were down six to 13 percent Monday through Wednesday, picked up slightly on Thursday and Friday, but then fell eight percent again on the third day of nationwide protests on Saturday, it said.
        During Saturday’s disturbances in Paris, tourists were left shocked, with some saying they would cut short their visit.
    MANY SECTORS AFFECTED
        When they started, the “yellow vests” protests were focused on denouncing a squeeze on household spending brought about by President Emmanuel Macron’s taxes on diesel, which he says are necessary to combat climate change and protect the environment.
        But for the past two weekends there have also been violent demonstrations and clashes with security forces in Paris and other major cities, with protesters calling for Macron to resign.    Some call it a revolution against a president who they see as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.
        Saturday’s protests in Paris turned particularly violent, with protesters from the far-right and far-left mixing with the “yellow vests” and intent on causing as much damage as possible.
        The Arc de Triomphe was defaced and avenues off Paris’s Champs Elysees were the scene of mass-vandalism.     Shops on the Champs Elysees and in the heart of Paris, including the Apple store and Dior and Chanel boutiques, had their windows smashed. Some others were looted.    Prestigious Parisian department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette protectively shut their doors on Saturday afternoon.
        Luxury groups such as SMCP, Hermes and LVMH, which are heavily dependent on foreign tourists visiting Paris during the Christmas season are likely to suffer, said Berenberg analysts in a report.
        The effect may extend through the holiday season.
        Hotel industry group UMIH said some Paris hotels were seeing cancellation rates of 20 percent to 50 percent and reservations down 10 percent to 15 percent.
        “We have received calls from many worried customers and we have reassured them,” said Carlos Conesa, head concierge at the five-star Napoleon Hotel.    “During the protests, the hotel didn’t suffer any damage and most of our guests decided to stay inside and had dinner in our restaurants.”
        While the violence in downtown Paris stunned the country, waves of protests have also targeted road infrastructure, with a another potential impact on the economy.
        Vinci Autoroute, France’s largest toll-road operator, has seen dozens of road blockades and forced openings of barriers since the protests erupted two weeks ago.    Protesters have also damaged infrastructure, a spokesman said.
        French oil major Total has said 75 of its 2,200 petrol stations have run dry as “yellow vests” blockade fuel depots.
        Car manufacturer Peugeot SA said production at a plant in eastern France was disrupted for half a day.    It takes almost two weeks to recover disrupted output, it said.
        Le Maire said both Peugeot and rival Renault had lost vehicle orders.
    (Writing by Luke Baker; Reporting by Inti Landauro, Pascale Denis, Gilles Guillaume, Gwenaelle Barzic and Myriam Rivet; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Mark Potter)

    12/3/2018 France’s Macron hunts for way out of ‘yellow vest’ crisis by Richard Lough and Simon Carraud
    French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party leader Marine Le Pen and
    her companion Louis Aliot talk to journalists as they leave after a meeting with French Prime Minister as the "yellow vest" nationwide protests
    continue, at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
        PARIS (Reuters) – France’s prime minister met with opposition leaders on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron sought a way to defuse nationwide protests over high living costs that led to widespread rioting in Paris at the weekend and are hurting the economy.
        The “yellow vest” revolt caught Macron unawares when it erupted on Nov. 17 and poses a formidable challenge to the 40-year-old as he tries to counter a plunge in popularity over his economic reforms, which are seen as favoring the wealthy.
        Riot police were overrun on Saturday as protesters wrought havoc in Paris’s fanciest neighborhoods, torching dozens of cars, looting boutiques and smashing up luxury private homes and cafes in the worst disturbances the capital has seen since 1968.
        The unrest is hitting the economy: hotel reservations are down, retailers are suffering, unsettling investors, and Total said some of its filling stations were running dry.
        Tourism and transport stocks fell in an otherwise buoyant market.
        Emerging from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s office, opposition leader Laurent Wauquiez of the centre-right Les Republicains said the government failed to understand the depth of public anger.
        “The only outcome from this meeting was word of a debate in parliament,” Wauquiez told reporters.    “What we need are gestures that appease, and these must be born out of the one decision every Frenchman is waiting for: scrapping (fuel) tax hikes.”
    SQUEEZE ON LIVING COSTS
        The “yellow vest” movement, whose supporters cut across age, job profile and geographical region, began online as an impromptu rebellion against higher fuel prices but has morphed into a broader outpouring of anger over the squeeze that living costs are putting on middle-class household budgets.
        The movement’s members come principally from the hard-pressed middle class and blue-collar workers living outside the big cities, but it also has more radical fringe elements. It has no clear leadership, making talks all the more complicated for the government.
        Their core demand is a freeze on further planned fuel tax increases — the next is due in January — and measures to bolster spending power.    But they have also called for Macron to go, and many talk up the idea of revolution.
        The government is struggling for a way to engage.
        “Making a small gesture and then sweeping the problem under the carpet, just as has always been done for the last 30 years, does nothing to solve the deeper, structural problems,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told France Inter radio.
        Public support for the “yellow vests” remains high, with seven in 10 people backing their protest, a Harris Interactive opinion poll conducted after Saturday’s unrest suggested.
    CLIMATE CHANGE
        Macron says the fuel tax increases are part of his effort to combat climate change, wanting to persuade French drivers to exchange diesel-fuelled cars for less polluting models.    He said on Saturday he would not deviate from his policy goals.
        As governments from around the world began a two-week conference in Poland to try to pin down measures to avert the most damaging consequences of global warming, the protests highlighted how costly some of those actions are likely to be.
        Christophe Chalencon, one of around eight semi-official spokespeople for the “yellow vests,” told BFM TV he would not enter talks only to “negotiate over peanuts.”
        The hitherto uncompromising response of Macron, a former investment banker, has only reinforced a view among the hard-pressed middle-class and blue-collar workers that he is part of an urban elite contemptuous of their world.
        The anti-establishment anger spurring the yellow vests on could spell trouble for Macron in next year’s European elections.    These are traditionally fertile ground for the far-right, led by Marine Le Pen, which already leads surveys of voting intentions.
        Saturday’s unrest was the worst in central Paris since a student uprising five decades ago.    At times, riot police appeared overwhelmed.    The Arc de Triomphe, a unifying national monument that houses the tomb of the unknown soldier, was defaced, and a bust of national symbol Marianne was smashed.
    (Reporting by Richard Lough and Simon Carraud; Editing by Luke Baker and Kevin Liffey)

    12/3/2018 Macron postpones visit to Serbia amid ‘yellow vest’ protests
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron accompanies Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
    after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, July 17, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
        BELGRADE/PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron decided on Monday to postpone his trip to Serbia for several weeks as he seeks a way out of the crisis prompted by nationwide anti-tax protests that erupted suddenly three weeks ago.
        The demonstrations against high living costs, dubbed the “yellow vest” movement, led to widespread rioting in Paris at the weekend and are showing signs of damaging the French economy.
        “President Macron has asked to postpone for several weeks his visit to Serbia due to the situation in his country,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters after a phone call with Macron.
        Macron’s office later confirmed the trip would be postponed due to “the incidents that took place in the last protests.”
        Macron was due to arrive in Serbia on Wednesday for a two-day visit to improve relations with Belgrade after a diplomatic faux-pas during the World War One commemorations in Paris last month caused consternation in the former Yugoslav republic.
        Serbia was upset about the seating arrangement at the ceremony, as Serbia’s Vucic was placed outside the official stand by the Arc de Triomphe where leaders such as Donald Trump and Angela Merkel were sitting.
        The French ambassador to Serbia expressed “deep regrets” about what it called a “misstep.”
    (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade and Michel Rose in Paris; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

    12/3/2018 Paris riots hurt French tourism and transport stocks by Helen Reid and Sudip Kar-Gupta
    A view shows a barricade with police forces and protesters wearing yellow vests,
    a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, during clashes as part of a demonstration
    near the Place de l'Etoile in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
        LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – French stocks sensitive to the economy and to tourism fell in an otherwise buoyant market on Monday after the worst riots in decades swept Paris, stirring concerns about the possible damage from visitors steering clear of the capital.
        Supermarket Carrefour and highway operator Vinci were the worst-performing, down 2.1 and 2.6 percent respectively.    Shares in hotel chain Accor and airline Air France fell by 1.6 and 2.7 percent.
        Nationwide protests against fuel taxes and living costs, known as the “yellow vest” movement after fluorescent jackets kept in all vehicles in France, escalated on Saturday as rioters ran amok across central Paris, torching cars and looting shops.
        Investors and traders connected the stock falls to investors’ unease over the potential impact riots could have on the economy and on tourists’ appetite to visit the capital.
        “Accor is falling, and it is fair to say that investors are wondering if there will be cancellations at their hotels,” said Jerome Schupp, a fund manager at Geneva-based firm Prime Partners.
        “It’s not good to see those images of a major capital,” said a trader.    “It could hurt the economy.”
        Highway operator Vinci Autoroutes said the “yellow vest” protests were continuing to have a major impact, although it did not specify any figures in a press release on Monday morning.
        Traders said the earnings conglomerate Vinci gets from its motorway concessions could be hit by the protests, which have blocked toll roads across France.
        Oil major Total said on Monday several dozen of its gasoline stations had run dry as a more than two-week long protest over fuel tax hikes began to impact fuel reserves and distribution.
        The falls came even as France’s top stock index <.FCHI> climbed 1.7 percent, on track for its best day in a month after a truce in the U.S.-China trade war lifted global markets.
    (Reporting by Helen Reid and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ed Osmond)

    12/3/2018 Total says fuel stations running dry due to ‘yellow vest’ protests
    A yellow vest hangs inside a vandalized store front the morning after clashes with protesters wearing yellow vests,
    a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel fuel taxes, in Paris, France, December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
        PARIS (Reuters) – Total on Monday said several dozen of its gasoline stations had run dry as a more than two-week long protest over fuel tax hikes began to impact fuel reserves and distribution.
        A Total spokesman said “yellow vest” protesters — so-called because of the high-visibility jackets they wear and which must be carried in all vehicles in France — were obstructing access to 11 fuel depots.
        As a result of the unrest, some 75 fuel stations out of the company’s 2,200-strong network across the country were empty because they could not receive supplies, the spokesman added.
        Protesters have been blocking roads across France, impeding access to fuel depots, shopping malls and some airports.    On Saturday, rioters transformed upscale Paris neighbourhoods into battle zones.
        In the Morbihan area of Brittany in western France, authorities were considering restricting the volumes that motorists could buy to prevent more fuel stations running out of petrol and diesel, a local official said.
    (Reporting by Bate Felix; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Alison Williams/Sudip Kar-Gupta)

    12/3/2018 Senator Joe Manchin meets with President Trump for talks by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) met with President Trump at the White House to discuss coal miners and other issues critical to the state.
        The two discussed their mutual commitment to securing pension legislation for miners, and a range of bipartisan issues they can work on together next year, as well as infrastructure and immigration.
        Manchin is considered to be one of the most moderate democrats on capitol hill and notably earned a reelection victory in a state President Trump won by more than 40-points in the 2016 election.

    12/3/2018 President Trump commends Roger Stone for vowing not to testify against him by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is responding to former campaign adviser Roger Stone’s vow not to testify against him.
        The president quoted Stone on Twitter Monday, who had just recently made the claim.    He went on to suggest Stone was essentially stating he will not be forced by — what he claims is — a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories.
        The president then said it’s nice to know that some people still have guts.
        Trump tweet: “I will never testify against Trump.”    This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.”    Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”
        Stone is considered to be a potential target in the special counsel’s probe due to his alleged contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
        However, the 66-year-old recently denied having any contact with Assange and asserted he has not been contacted by Mueller or his team.
    Political advisor Roger Stone during an interview in New York City, Feb. 28, 2017. (Photo/Reuters)

    12/4/2018 Oil up $2.02 to $52.95, DOW up 288 to 25,826

    12/4/2018 Wall St. is bullish on Trump trade truce - Dow’s 288-point rise leads market rally by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        Stocks kicked off the week with a rally, boosted by President Donald Trump’s trade truce with China and a de-escalation of tensions that have been weighing on markets for months.
        The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 288 points, or 1.1 percent higher, at 25,826.
        Investors got as good an outcome as they could have expected from this weekend’s meeting between Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.    The U.S. backed off on its threats to boost the level of tariffs already in place on Chinamade goods from 10 to 25 percent on Jan. 1.    Trump also held off on initiating fresh tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese goods during a 90-day ceasefire agreement set to go into effect at the start of 2019.    Beijing agreed to make a “very substantial” purchase of many U.S. goods, including agriculture products.
        The cease-fire in the trade spat is seen as “alleviating a major overhang” for financial markets, although a “permanent truce” has yet to be reached, Julian Emanuel, an equity strategist at BTIG, a global financial services firm with offices in New York, noted in a report.
        “Negotiations over those 90 days will no doubt be rocky, but this is the all-clear signal that nobody is going to walk off a cliff,” noted Donald Luskin, chief investment officer at research firm TrendMacro.
        Stocks have been very volatile since the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index hit its high for the year Sept. 20.    The broad market index is now 4.8 percent off its record closing high.
        Here are three reasons why Wall Street is viewing the 90day negotiation period in a positive light:
    • Good signal for economy: Fears of a global slowdown due to slowing sales, higher prices and product supply chain disruptions caused by tariffs has been a top worry for markets since the tiff between the U.S. and China emerged early this year.    The hope is the 90-day cooling-off period will lead to fairer trade terms, lower tariffs or perhaps the complete elimination of these trade levies, paving the way for fewer obstacles in the world economy.
          “The truce ... has gone some way in calming investor fears over the state of global growth,” Dean Popplewell, vice president of market analysis at currency trading firm Oanda, said via email.
    • Bolsters outlook for U.S. sales to China: Trade tensions and import levies have been a negative for big U.S. companies that do a lot of business in China, such as heavy equipment maker Caterpillar and airplane producer Boeing.
          China’s promise to buy more goods from U.S. companies, including industrial and energyrelated products, as well as to open their markets to foreigners, is seen boosting the sales and profits of companies that get a sizable chunk of their business from China.
          Caterpillar shares rallied 2.4 percent and Boeing’s stock rose nearly 4 percent on Monday following the weekend truce.
          Trump’s tweet late Sunday saying China will remove or reduce the current 40 percent tariff on U.S.-built autos sold in China also provided a lift to U.S. automakers in Monday trading.    Shares of Ford and General Motors were up 2.1 and 1.3 percent, respectively.
    • Positive step for tech companies: U.S. tech companies, many of which assemble their high-tech components and gadgets in China, will get a reprieve.
        Among the biggest beneficiaries, he notes, is Apple, which builds its iPhones in China, and semiconductor companies that make their computer chips there.
        Most important for Apple is that specific new tariffs as high as 25 percent targeting its iPhones and laptops are “now off the table,” Ives says. “That would have been a tough gut punch to absorb” for Apple.
        Apple shares closed 3.6 percent higher.
    The thaw in U.S.-China trade relations has boosted Wall Street investors’ hopes for an eventual deal. JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE

    12/4/2018 U.N. seeks $738 million to help Venezuela’s neighbours handle migrant flood by Stephanie Nebehay
    U. N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief
    Coordinator (OCHA) Mark Lowcock attends a news conference for the launch of the "Global Humanitarian Overview 2019"
    at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Decemer 4, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
        GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking $738 million in 2019 to help neighbouring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have “no prospect for return in the short to medium term.”
        It was the first time that the crisis was included in the U.N. annual global humanitarian appeal which is $21.9 billion for 2019 without Syria.
        Three million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic crisis in the Andean country, most since 2015, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
        “There is one crisis for which we for the first time have a response plan, which is to help the countries neighbouring Venezuela deal with the consequences of large numbers of Venezuelans leaving the country,” U.N. emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock told a Geneva news briefing.
        The majority of Venezuelans have fled to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, led by Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
        “In 2019, an estimated 3.6 million people will be in need of assistance and protection, with no prospects for return in the short to medium term,” the U.N. appeal said.
        Colombia, which has taken in one million Venezuelans, is “bearing the biggest burden of all,” Lowcock said.
        President Nicolas Maduro blames the country’s economic problems on U.S. financial sanctions and an “economic war” led by political adversaries.    Maduro is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.
        The exodus, driven by violence, hyperinflation and major shortages of food and medicine, led to a small U.N. emergency appeal of $9 million announced last week for health and nutrition projects inside Venezuela.
        Lowcock, asked about Venezuelan government acceptance of aid inside the country, said: “I think there is a shared agreement that more U.N. help in those sorts of areas would be a very helpful thing in reducing the suffering of people inside Venezuela."
        “What we have agreed with the government of Venezuela is that we should strengthen our collaborative work and support for example in area of health services and nutrition,” he said.
    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Richard Balmforth)

    12/4/2018 Macron makes U-turn on fuel-tax increases in face of ‘yellow vest’ protests by Simon Carraud and Luke Baker
    FILE PHOTO: Protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against
    higher diesel taxes, stand up in front of a police water canon at the Place de l'Etoile near the
    Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – France’s prime minister on Tuesday suspended planned increases to fuel taxes for six months in response to weeks of sometimes violent protests, the first major U-turn by President Emmanuel Macron’s administration after 18 months in office.
        In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said anyone would have “to be deaf or blind” not to see or hear the anger on the streets over a policy that Macron has defended as critical to combating climate change.
        “The French who have donned yellow vests want taxes to drop, and work to pay.    That’s also what we want.    If I didn’t manage to explain it, if the ruling majority didn’t manage to convince the French, then something must change,” Philippe said in a TV address.
        As well as a six-month delay in introducing the carbon-tax increases, Philippe said the period would be used to discuss other measures to help the working poor who rely on vehicles to get to work and go to the shops.
        Earlier officials had hinted at possible increases to the minimum wage, but Philippe did not make any such commitment.
        He warned citizens, however, that they could not expect better public services and to pay lower taxes, and that therefore compromises needed to be made on both sides.
        The so-called “yellow vest” movement, which started on Nov. 17 as a social-media protest group named for the high-visibility jackets all motorists in France must have in their cars, has focused on denouncing a squeeze on household spending brought about by Macron’s taxes on fuel.
        However, over the past three weeks the protests have evolved into a wider, broadbrush anti-Macron uprising, with many criticizing the president for pursuing policies they say favor the rich and do nothing to help the poor, and some violent fringe groups calling for the president to go.
    (Reporting by Simon Carraud, Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and Richard Lough; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    12/4/2018 Conservatives call for Congress to put $5B toward border wall construction by OAN Newsroom
        Conservatives across the country are calling for Congress to approve additional funding for the border wall.
        More than 100 conservatives from political action groups signed a memo Tuesday, demanding a minimum of five billion dollars for the wall.    They are also calling for an increase in funds for Customs and Border protection as well as funding for more immigration judges.
        Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton was among those who signed the memo.
    Central American migrants planning to surrender to U.S. border guards climb over the U.S. border wall from Playas de Tijuana,
    Mexico, late Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. Thousands of Central American migrants who traveled with recent caravans want to seek asylum
    in the U.S. but face a decision between crossing illegally or waiting months, because the
    U.S. government only processes a limited number of those cases a day at the San Ysidro border crossing. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
        Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Senator Lindsey Graham told One America News a DACA fix could be a good compromise to get Democrats to approve wall funding.
        “Well, I think we’re gonna have an impasse, I think doing wall funding for DACA is a good deal, I hope somebody will start thinking about that,” stated Graham.
        President Trump has also called for a permanent solution to the Obama-era DACA program along with other reforms to the immigration system.

    12/4/2018 Secretary of State Pompeo: President Trump building new world order upheld by U.S. by OAN Newsroom
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during an event at the Concert Noble in Brussels, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018.
    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Brussels to attend a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, Pool)
        Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Trump is building a new world order based on the foundation of American values.
        While speaking at the NATO summit in Brussels Tuesday, Pompeo told his fellow diplomats that the president is not trying to undermine the global alliance, but is, instead, challenging the coalition to achieve worldwide prosperity.
        He also criticized the allies for suggesting the U.S. was acting unilaterally when comes to key countries like Iran and China.    Pompeo said it’s our mission to reassert sovereignty and help our friends assert their sovereignty as well.
        “The first two years of the Trump administration demonstrated that President Trump is not undermining these institutions, nor is he abandoning American leadership.    Quite the opposite.    In the finest traditions of our great democracy, we are rallying the noble nations of the world to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity for all.”
    — Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State.
        The secretary of state ended repeating President Trump’s call for NATO nations to pay their fair share of military aid.

    12/4/2018 UC Berkeley Republican students settle with school over alleged conservative speaker bias by OAN Newsroom
        A public Northern California university is on the losing end of a free-speech lawsuit and has agreed to settle with its own students.
        The newly reached settlement is ordering U.C. Berkeley to repay a $70,000 payment to the Young America’s Foundation, who sued the school for alleged discrimination.
        The agreement is being hailed as a “landmark victory for free expression” by the foundation and by Berkeley College Republicans, which is the group at the center of the suit.
        The suit was brought against Berkeley over policies the organization’s said forced multiple cancellations of conservative guest speaking events.    The plaintiffs initially claimed right-wing events were subjected to “secret” measures by school administrators.
        Campus conservatives planned high-profile events, including lectures from political commentators Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro in April of 2017, which were both shutdown.
        The right-wing organization wrote to Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks the same month to denounce what it called censorship of Republican voices.
        Dirks claimed security issues were to blame for the decision to cancel Coulter’s appearance and cited recent protests over past conservative events.
        “As the home of the free speech movement, we fully support the right of our students to have free speech events,” stated Dirks.    “Ms. Coulter’s announcement without regard to the fact we do not have a protectable venue available on that date is of grave concern.”
    Demonstrators sharing opposing views argue during a rally Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif.
    Demonstrators gathered near the University of California, Berkeley campus amid a strong police presence and
    rallied to show support for free speech and condemn the views of Ann Coulter and her supporters. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
        U.C. Berkeley administrators charged $20,000 in security fees for Shapiro’s lecture, who faced backlash by far-left students opposed to the event.    The price tag was three-times higher than the one given to a liberal student group hosting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
        On top of that, Berkeley scheduled right-wing events during low-traffic hours, which were less likely to draw a large attendance.    In one case, a speaker was set to lecture during a “dead” week when classes weren’t even in session.
        Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions also backed the student’s legal battle and condemned school censorship.    He later highlighted the importance of having an open conversation even if they lead to discomfort between peers.
        “It’s time to stand up to the bullies on campus, and the bullies in our culture,” said Sessions.    “There are radicals out there that have openly and systematically justified actions that would deny Americans their right to speak out against their favorite ideological agenda — we must put an end to such nonsense.”
        Per the settlement, the university will not have to admit to disproportionately disparaging the requests of certain student groups.
        U.C. Berkeley will also publish a fee schedule to improve transparency around the costs associated with hosting guests on campus.
        Lastly, the college is reassessing its definition of a “major event” to avoid showing potential bias toward the views of guest speakers.

    12/4/2018 Mexico’s new president plans to work with U.S., Canada for migration crackdown by OAN Newsroom
        Mexico’s new president — Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — plans to work with the U.S. and Canada to crack down on the immigration crisis facing North America.
        Lopez Obrador gave more details about the three-way plan on Monday, while giving his first news conference as president.
    Migrants walk inside a former concert venue serving as a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
        In exchange for Mexico offering to help cut down on illegal immigration, the U.S. and Canada will invest in the country’s future building projects.
        This comes as Mexico’s border city of Tijuana struggles to deal with the thousands of migrants arriving in recent weeks as part of the caravan.
        “We hope companies and governments from the United States, Canada and Mexico can initiate a plan to push for development from south to north in Central America and North America to confront the migratory phenomenon,” stated the Mexican president.     President Trump tweeted Lopez Obrador on Monday to congratulate him on his inauguration, adding, they will work together for many years to come.
        Trump tweet: “Congratulations to newly inaugurated Mexican President@lopezobrador He had a tremendous political victory with the great support of the Mexican People.    We will work well together for many years to come!”

    12/4/2018 Macron makes U-turn on fuel-tax increases in face of ‘yellow vest’ protests by Simon Carraud and Michel Rose
    French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe attends the questions to the
    government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
        PARIS (Reuters) – France’s prime minister on Tuesday suspended planned increases to fuel taxes for at least six months in response to weeks of sometimes violent protests, the first major U-turn by President Emmanuel Macron’s administration in 18 months in office.
        In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said anyone would have “to be deaf or blind” not to see or hear the roiling anger on the streets over a policy that Macron has defended as critical to combating climate change.
        “The French who have donned yellow vests want taxes to drop, and work to pay.    That’s also what we want.    If I didn’t manage to explain it, if the ruling majority didn’t manage to convince the French, then something must change,” said Philippe.
        “No tax is worth jeopardizing the unity of the nation.”
        Along with the delay to the tax increases that were set for January, Philippe said the time would be used to discuss other measures to help the working poor and squeezed middle-class who rely on vehicles to get to work and go shopping.
        Earlier officials had hinted at a possible increase to the minimum wage, but Philippe made no such commitment.
        He warned citizens, however, that they could not expect better public services and lower taxes.
        “If the events of recent days have shown us one thing, it’s that the French want neither an increase in taxes or new taxes.    If the tax-take falls then spending must fall, because we don’t want to pass our debts on to our children.    And those debts are already sizeable,” he said.
        The measures will cost around 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), but will be offset by corresponding spending cuts, a government source said.
        The so-called “yellow vest” movement, which started on Nov. 17 as a social-media protest group named for the high-visibility jackets all motorists in France carry in their cars, began with the aim of highlighting the squeeze on household spending brought about by Macron’s taxes on fuel.
        However, over the past three weeks the movement has evolved into a wider, broadbrush anti-Macron uprising, with many criticizing the president for pursuing policies they say favor the rich and do nothing to help the poor.
        Despite having no leader and sometimes unclear goals, the movement has drawn people of all ages and backgrounds and tapped into a growing malaise over Macron’s leadership.    Over the past two days, ambulance drivers and students have joined in and launched their own protests.
        Two unions, CGT and FO, called lorry drivers to start a strike from December 9 while several Facebook pages were also urging new rounds of demonstrations for next Saturday.
        After three weeks of rising frustration, there was scant indication Philippe’s measures would placate the “yellow vests<” who themselves are struggling to find a unified position.
        “The French don’t want crumbs, they want a baguette,” ‘yellow vest’ spokesman Benjamin Cauchy told BFM, adding that the movement wanted a cancellation of the taxes.
        Another one, Christophe Chalencon, was more blunt: “We’re being taken for idiots,” he told Reuters, using a stronger expletive.
    GREEN GOALS
        The timing of the tax U-turn is uncomfortable for Macron.    It comes as governments meet in Poland to try to agree measures to avert the most damaging consequences of global warming, an issue Macron has made a central part of his agenda.    His carbon taxes were designed to address the issue.
        But the scale of the protests against his policies made it almost impossible to plow ahead.
        While the “yellow vest” movement was mostly peaceful to begin with, the past two weekends have seen outpourings of violence and rioting in Paris, with extreme far-right and far-left factions joining the demos.
        On Saturday, the Arc de Triomphe national monument was defaced and avenues off the Champs Elysees were damaged.    Cars, buildings and some cafes were torched.
        The unrest is estimated to have cost the economy millions, with large-scale disruption to retailers, wholesalers, the restaurant and hotel trades.    In some areas, manufacturing has been hit in the run up to Christmas.
    CHANGE FRANCE?
        Macron, a 40-year-old former investment banker and economy minister, came to office in mid-2017 promising to overhaul the economy, revitalize growth and draw foreign investment by making the nation a more attractive place to do business.
        In the process he earned the tag “president of the rich” for seeming to do more to court big business and ease the tax burden on the wealthy.    Discontent has steadily risen among blue-collar workers and others who feel he represents an urban “elite.”
        For Macron, who is sharply down in the polls and struggling to regain the initiative, a further risk is how opposition parties leverage the anger and the decision to shift course.
        Ahead of European Parliament elections next May, support for the far-right under Marine Le Pen and the far-left of Jean-Luc Melenchon has been rising. Macron has cast those elections as a battle between his “progressive” ideas and what he sees as their promotion of nationalist or anti-EU agendas.
        Le Pen was quick to point out that the six-month postponement of the fuel-tax increases took the decision beyond the European elections.
    (Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau, Richard Lough, John Irish, Matthias Blamont and Myriam Rivet; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
    [The politicians have kicked the problem 6 months down the road and it will return then with the same issue.].

    12/4/2018 Roger Stone Invokes His 5th Amendment by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Sept. 26, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump associate Roger Stone arrives to testify before the House
    Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says former Trump
    adviser Roger Stone’s testimony should be provided to special counsel Robert Mueller to consider potential perjury charges.
    Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that emails between Stone and an associate,
    Jerome Corsi, are “inconsistent” with Stone’s testimony. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
        Republican political advisor and longtime associate to the president, Roger Stone, is declining an invitation to an interview with Senate Democrats, citing his fifth amendment rights.
        Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released a letter from Stone’s lawyers Tuesday, saying he “respectfully refuses” to speak or share documents requested by the Senate Judiciary Committee.    Stone’s attorney described the request as “unreasonably broad” and characteristic of a “fishing expedition.”
        In April, Stone indicated he would comply with Feinstein’s initial request for documents including any communciations between himself and WikiLeaks founder, Juilian Assange, as well as members of the Trump Campaign.    The request is apart of the lawmakers attempts to decipher any links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.
        Feinstein, however, does not have the power to subpeona Stone in order to force a testimony, a power reserved for Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
        Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be investigating whether any of the president’s associates had prior knowledge to WikiLeaks plans to release private emails from the account of Hilary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
    [Asam Schiff is trying to cover his own ass obviously in this event, and when is someone going to convict John Podesta?].

    12/5/2018 Oil up $0.30 to $53.25, DOW down 799 to 25,027

    12/5/2018 Pessimism returns as Dow drops 799 points by Adam Shell, USA TODAY
        So much for the all-clear sign on Wall Street.
        Just when it looked like the battered bull was healing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered a drop of nearly 800 points Tuesday when the bond market sent an ominous signal: The yield on the two-year U.S. government bond rose above the interest rate paid out by five-year notes.
        Why the pessimism over that obscure- sounding shift?    Historically, when short-term rates rise above longer rates – which is dubbed an “inversion of the yield curve” – it signals an economic slowdown is coming.
        “Investors are questioning whether the Treasury market is telegraphing a more material economic slowdown,” says Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.
        Fears of a coming recession weren’t the only thing worrying investors.    Other fears that drove the Dow down 3.1 percent to 25,027 include:
    • Fading glow of trade cease-fire:
          The optimism following the cease-fire on trade between the U.S. and China over the weekend at the G-20 summit lasted just one trading day.    Now there’s rising skepticism about whether a deal between the world’s two biggest economies can be reached during the 90-day pause.    That’s causing a lot of uncertainty for investors and is exacerbating worries about slowing growth, as tariffs result in higher prices for goods, which hurts sales and earnings of U.S. companies.
          Wall Street says the lack of details following the meeting between President Donald Trump and counterpart Xi Jinping of China raises concerns about the world’s two largest economies being able to reach an agreement that would resolve the fight over tariffs, as well as other disputes.
    • Stocks fall below key price floor:
          The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, which lost 3.2 percent, also fell below a key price level that suggests its long-term trend of rising prices might be coming under assault.    The largecompany stock gauge dipped below its average price over the past 200 days, which prompted jittery investors to sell stocks more aggressively.
    • Fed rate-hike fears:
          Last week, the Dow rallied more than 600 points after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the central bank’s key interest rate was getting closer to a level that it is targeting.    That was interpreted by Wall Street as a sign that the Fed would slow its interest rate hikes next year, rather than just raise borrowing costs on a preset path.
        But the rise of short-term Treasury yields Tuesday above rates paid by longer-term government bonds sparked fresh fears that the Fed’s decision to boost borrowing costs have already caused damage to the economy.
        Still, bond market experts say the key thing to watch is whether the two year Treasury yield climbs above that of the 10-year Treasury note.    On Tuesday, the spread between the two-year and 10-year narrowed to within a tenth of a lpercentage point, its smallest gap since July 2007, Capital Economics says.

    12/5/2018 US coal consumption drops to lowest level since 1979
        A federal report says Americans are using less coal this year than at any time since Jimmy Carter’s presidency.    That’s despite the Trump administration’s efforts to revive the country’s coal industry.
        The U.S. Energy Information Administration projected Tuesday that the country will end 2018 having used less coal than at any time since 1979.

    12/5/2018 Vocal Trump critic and lawyer Avenatti rules out 2020 campaign
        Michael Avenatti, the media-savvy attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels who has alleged a sexual encounter with Donald Trump, announced that he will not run for president in 2020.
        “I do not make this decision lightly – I make it out of respect for my family,” Avenatti said Tuesday.    “But for their concerns, I would run.”
    [Image is everything.].

    12/5/2018 After briefing, senators blame Saudi crown prince for killing
        Key Senate leaders emerged from a briefing Tuesday with CIA Director Gina Haspel convinced that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was complicit in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and that Congress must respond by penalizing the kingdom.
        “He murdered him, no question in my mind,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said of Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the killing.    “The crown prince directed the murder and was kept apprised of the situation all the way through.”

    12/5/2018 US warns Russia it is prepared to abandon key nuclear pact
        The United States on Tuesday warned Russia it has 60 days to start complying with a landmark nuclear missile treaty or Washington will abandon the pact, raising concern about Europe’s future security.
        At NATO talks in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of “cheating at its arms control obligations” under the 1987 Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.    He said in 60 days, Washington would activate a six-month notice period for leaving the pact.

    12/5/2018 Trump mocks Macron again over French fuel tax protests
    FILE PHOTO - French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump
    prepare for a family photo during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
        PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has taken another swipe on Twitter at his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron prompted by Macron’s woes over violent protests against fuel taxes.
        “I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago,” Trump tweeted late on Tuesday.
        “The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters,” said Trump, referring to a global deal on the environment drafted in Paris in late 2015.
        Earlier this week, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe decided to suspend planned increases to fuel taxes for at least six months in response to weeks of sometimes violent protests, marking the first major U-turn by Macron’s administration in 18 months in office.
    (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Paul Tait)

    12/5/2018 Dozens arrested in European operation against organized crime
    FILE PHOTO: A general view of Locri, southern Italy January 11, 2016. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo
        ROME (Reuters) – Dozens of people were arrested in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and South America on Wednesday in an operation against members of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group, officials said.
        Italian police and Eurojust, the European agency that oversees judicial cooperation in crime investigations, said those arrested were suspected of cocaine trafficking, money laundering, bribery and violence.
        Eurojust said police were “currently executing arrests and seizures” but gave no numbers.    Italian police said in their statement that 90 people had been arrested.    The Italian statement also said arrests had been made in South America.
        The operation targeted the ‘Ndrangheta families based in the southern Italian city of Locri in the Calabria region, the heartland of worldwide crime group.
        The ‘Ndrangheta is one of Italy’s three main organized crime groups, along with the Camorra, which is based in the Naples area, and Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, commonly known as the Mafia.
        Wednesday’s operation came a day after Italian police arrested the suspected new head of the Sicilian mafia and 45 other alleged gangsters, dealing a major blow to the mob as it tried to rebuild after years of setbacks.
    (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    12/5/2018 President Trump pressuring OPEC to increase oil production ahead of crucial meeting by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is pressuring OPEC to increase oil production as members of the organization are set to meet in Vienna on Thursday.
        In a tweet on Wednesday, the president warned OPEC against restricting oil flows and said the world does not want to see higher oil prices.
        Trump tweet: “Hopefully OPEC will be keeping oil flows as is, not restricted.    The World does not want to see, or need, higher oil prices!”
        During Thursday’s meeting, OPEC leaders are expected to discuss how to stabilize crude oil production after U.S. prices plunged by 22-percent in November — making it the worst month since the financial crisis in 2008.
        Members have hinted they plan to cut output by 1.3 million barrels a day, which President Trump fears would cause fuel prices to rise.
        The uncertainty over possible production cuts caused oil prices to dip on Wednesday as investors wait on a decision.
        Saudi Arabia has been calling steep cuts in oil output and was expected to raise those demands during the meeting, but pressure from the U.S. may convince Saudi leaders to take a softer tone.
        “I think the likelihood is that they will cut crude production rate, maybe not as dramatically as some people would like, to try and meet a balance between what the U.S. would like and their own personal interests.    The reason the United States is pressuring OPEC in general to maintain high levels of production is the United States generally would like a lower price of oil.    They’d like to see lower gasoline prices at the pumps, because that’s important for votes in the United States.”
    — Spencer Welch, Oil Markets Director – IHS Market
    President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        When President Trump announced his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic, many oil producers ramped-up production over fears of the effects the sanctions would have on trading.
        However, when oil producers realized the sanctions fell far short of what had been expected, fears of oversupply followed.
        Last month OPEC warned that supply is expected to exceed demand through 2019.    This comes as U.S. crude oil is currently trading at $53 a barrel, which is down from a four-year high.

    12/5/2018 President Trump, China both expressing optimism on trade negotiations by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is continuing to voice optimism over trade tensions with China, indicating he believes China will fulfill the promises it has made.
        In a series of tweets Wednesday, the president said there were very strong signals being sent by China after officials returned home from the G20 summit.    President Trump said he believes what President Xi said at their meeting in Argentina, and said all subjects were discussed.
        Trump tweet: “Very strong signals being sent by China once they returned home from their long trip, including stops, from Argentina.    Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting.    ALL subjects discussed!”
        According to trade adviser Larry Kudlow, the president’s confidence in his relationship with President Xi could be one of the leading factors that leads to a trade agreement, “There was real chemistry between the two leaders, real chemistry, and as President Trump’s tweets indicate — only they can get this done,” said Kudlow.    “I think that’s correct, I think we’re going to make great progress.”
        China also appears to be optimistic it can reach an agreement with the U.S. On Wednesday, the country’s commerce ministry said it is confident a deal will be agreed upon, adding, both sides have a clear timetable and road map. The ministry also said the meeting in Argentina was very successful.
    President Donald Trump with China’s President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting at the
    G20 Summit, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed those sentiments shortly after that meeting, indicating progress like this has rarely been seen.
        “This is the first time we’ve had an agreement between the two president’s,” he explained.    “It was very specific, this was a three-hour dinner that went through very, very specific issues that are agreed and now it’s our turn to turn it into a document on the two teams.”
        Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is currently leading talks for the U.S., and has been widely praised by both Mnuchin and Kudlow over his role.    They have claimed he’s the best in the business at what he does.    Lighthizer was a key player in the trade deal agreed to by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

    12/5/2018 President Trump comments on France gas deal by OAN Newsroom
    A demonstrators wearing a yellow vest clenches his fist as protesters open the toll gates
    on a motorway near Aix-en-Provence, southeastern France, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
        President Trump recently gave his perspective on the current unrest in France.    In a tweet Tuesday, the president praised the recent agreement reached with French President Emmanuel Macron and yellow vest protesters.
        Trump tweet: “I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters....”
        This comes as the government agreed to suspend a planned gas tax hike set to go into effect in 2019.
        President Trump said the conclusion is the very same one he reached two years ago. He explained how he believes the Paris Agreement was flawed for raising the cost of energy for responsible countries, while over-looking the biggest violators.
        He concluded by saying he wants a clean environment, but doesn’t want to take care of violators at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.

    12/5/2018 House Democrats to push for universal background checks for guns by OAN Newsroom
    Rep. Mike Thompson, D- Calif. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite/Photo)
        House Democrats are reportedly pushing a bill to require background checks for every gun sale in the country.
        According to reports this week, Congressman Mike Thompson plans to introduce the bill.
        Federal law currently only requires background checks for customers buying from licensed dealers, but not for all online sales or private dealers.
        However, critics are saying background checks do not prevent shootings. Several recent mass shooters passed checks to obtain their firearms.
        Should the bill pass the House, it must still pass the Republican-controlled Senate and be signed by President Trump.

    12/5/2018 France drops fuel tax hike as ‘yellow vest’ anger persists by Michel Rose and Jean-Baptiste Vey
    A protester wearing a yellow vest, the symbol of a French drivers' protest
    against higher diesel fuel prices, holds a flag near burning debris at the approach to the
    A2 Paris-Brussels Motorway, in Fontaine-Notre-Dame, France, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
        PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron’s government is dropping further fuel-tax hikes in next year’s budget in the face of protests across France over living costs, his prime minister said on Wednesday, a day after announcing their suspension for six months.
        The Macron administration is struggling to defuse the anger driving the “yellow vest” protests, as it reels from the worst riots seen in central Paris in five decades last Saturday.
        “The government is ready for dialogue and is showing it because this tax increase has been dropped from the 2019 budget bill,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the lower house of parliament.
        The concession was the latest attempt to quell the worst crisis of Macron’s presidency after announcing the six-month suspension only the day before.
        His government indicated earlier that it could also amend a wealth tax that Macron shrank last year to cover only real estate assets, earning him criticism as the “president of the rich.”
        A Macron aide denied that any eventual revision of the wealth tax would represent a major climb-down by Macron, a pro-business former investment banker, adding that the president remained committed to his reform drive.
        Government spokesman Benjamin Grivet said all tax-related policies needed to be periodically evaluated and, if deemed not to be working, should be changed. He said the wealth tax could be reassessed in the autumn of 2019.
        “If a measure that we have taken, which is costing the public money, turns out not to be working, if it’s not going well, we’re not stupid – we would change it,” Griveaux told RTL radio.
        The unrest over the squeeze on household budgets comes as OECD data showed that France has become the most highly taxed country in the developed world, surpassing even high-tax Denmark.
        Griveaux later told a weekly news conference that Macron had called on all political parties, trade unions and business leaders to press the need for calm.
        Student protests and planned trade union strikes in the energy and port sectors next week nonetheless underscored the risk of contagion.
        And with little sign its concessions are calming protesters’ nerves, the government is also preparing for a new round of possible violence on Saturday.
        “I want to tell the thugs, we will stand up to them and won’t give an inch,” Philippe told lawmakers.
        Security sources said the government was considering using troops currently used on anti-terrorism patrols to protect public buildings.
    U-TURN
        The “yellow vest” movement – so-called because of the high-vis jackets worn by protesters – began with the aim of highlighting the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes but morphed into a broader, sometimes-violent rebellion against 40-year-old Macron.
        His administration’s shift on fuel tax came after rioters ran amok in central Paris, torching cars, looting boutiques vandalizing cafes and private residences and cafes in affluent neighborhoods.
        Philippe earlier said the six-month suspension to the carbon-tax would be used to examine other measures to bolster household spending power.
        It marked the first major U-turn by Macron in his 18-months in office, at a time polls show that barely one in five French people think he is doing a good job.
        Nearly seven out of eight people told pollsters that the measures did not satisfy the movement’s demands, according to an Elabe survey for BFM TV.
        The poll also found that although 82 percent were against the violence seen last Saturday, 72 percent supported the “gilets jaunes” movement.
        U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to mock Macron over the policy shift, which could make it harder for France to meet its CO2 emissions reduction target, a core element of the Paris climate agreement of 2015.
        “I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago,” Trump tweeted late on Tuesday, as U.N. climate talks take place in Poland on how to enforce global action.
        “The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters.”
        Adding to Macron’s difficulties, college students are agitating and the hardline CGT trade union on Wednesday called for strikes in the energy industry and at ports on Dec. 13.
        Meanwhile, Total said a rising number of its filling stations were running dry as a result of “yellow vest” road blocks.
    (Refiles to add dropped word hike to headline, no change to text.)
    (Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Richard Lough, Sophie Louet, Myriam Rivet, Emmanuel Jarry and Leigh Thomas; Writing by Luke baker, Richard Lough and Leigh Thomas; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)

    12/5/2018 Mexico suggests work visas for Central Americans, wants U.S. to do same
    Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news
    conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador proposed on Wednesday offering more work visas for Central Americans and said the United States should do the same, part of a negotiation aimed at stemming the northward flow of migrants.
        Lopez Obrador, who took office on Saturday, said he would discuss immigration with U.S. President Donald Trump in coming days, including increasing investment in southern Mexico and Central America.
        “We are proposing investment in productive projects and in job creation, and not only that, also work visas for Mexico and for the United States,” he told a news conference, saying he would give more details “soon.”
        Mexico and the United States have been in talks about how to manage the large groups moving through Mexico in caravans, with Lopez Obrador pushing for investment to address the poverty and crime that drive thousands of people every year from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
        Lopez Obrador, soon after being elected in July, sent a letter to Trump suggesting they work together to address the root causes of immigration.
        “It is very important to us that we reach an investment agreement between companies and governments, to create jobs in Central America and our country,” he said.
        Lopez Obrador plans major infrastructure projects in the impoverished south of Mexico including his home state of Tabasco. He says those plans, including a refinery and two railways will provide jobs to Mexicans and Central Americans.
        He did not reply when asked if his government was considering a U.S. proposal to return Central American asylum seekers to Mexican territory while U.S. courts processed their cases, saying only that their rights would be respected.
        The arrival of several thousand Central Americans in Mexico’s border city of Tijuana about a month ago prompted Trump to mobilize the U.S. Army to beef up border security, while restricting the number of asylum applications accepted per day.
        While overall illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border is much lower than it was 20 years ago, there are more Central Americans, families and asylum seekers than in the past.
        Some migrants clambered over a tall fence to cross into the United States from Tijuana on Tuesday, hoping to speed their asylum applications by turning themselves over to U.S. Border Patrol officials.
    (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Peter Cooney)

    12/5/2018 Brazil’s Bolsonaro aims to keep low interest rates, inflation
    FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro arrives to a
    meeting in Brasilia, Brazil November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo
        BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he instructed his economic team to maintain low interest rates, keep inflation within targets and do what they can to get the economy running.
        Speaking to reporters, Bolsonaro said he has given the team’s leader, future economy minister Paulo Guedes, carte blanche to do what is needed when his government takes office on Jan 1.    He said reforms of the pension system, which investors are watching closely, will be put to the vote in Congress starting in the first half of 2019.
    (Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassú)
    [Poor guy he is having to recoup from years of Socialist spending and corruption.].

    12/5/2018 Trump told Erdogan he doesn’t want issues in sales of F-35 jets to Turkey: Turkish minister
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks withh Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan
    ahead of the opening ceremony of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit, at the NATO headquarters
    in Brussels, Belgium, July 11, 2018. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
        ANKARA (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan that he didn’t want any problems with the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.
        Speaking to reporters following NATO meetings in Brussels, Cavusoglu said that Turkey saw no issues in procuring the Lockheed Martin jets despite efforts in the U.S. Congress to block the sale.    Trump made the comment to Erdogan during talks at a recent G20 summit, Cavusoglu said.
        The U.S. Senate has demanded a block on the sales of the jets to Turkey unless Trump certifies that Turkey is not threatening NATO, purchasing defense equipment from Russia or detaining U.S. citizens.
    (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan)

    12/6/2018 It’s my deal, no deal or no Brexit at all: UK PM May
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that British lawmakers faced a choice ahead of a vote on her Brexit deal: approving her deal or facing an exit with no deal or even the reversal of Brexit.
        May said she was speaking to lawmakers about giving parliament a bigger role in whether the Northern Irish backstop arrangement would be triggered, though she gave few details.
        May said some in parliament were trying to frustrate Brexit and that she did not think another referendum on Brexit was the right course.
        “There are three options: one is to leave the European Union with a deal… the other two are that we leave without a deal or that we have no Brexit at all,” May told BBC radio.
        “It’s clear that there are those in the House of Commons who want to frustrate Brexit… and overturn the vote of the British people and that’s not right.”
        May repeatedly sidestepped questions on whether she would delay the Dec. 11 vote but did hint at possible concessions on the Northern Irish backstop.
        “There are questions about how decisions are taken as to whether we go into the backstop, because that isn’t an automatic,” she said.    “The question is: do we go into the backstop? Do we extend what I call the implementation period?”
        When asked repeatedly what her “Plan B” would be if her deal was rejected, she did not directly answer the questions.
    (Reporting by James Davey and Sarah Young, writing by Guy Faulconbridge)

    12/6/2018 Northern Irish DUP says would not topple UK government in confidence vote
    FILE PHOTO: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson MP speaks to
    media after the DUP annual party conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
        LONDON (Reuters) – The Northern Irish party that props up Theresa May’s Conservative government would not vote to topple her in a confidence vote even if she loses a key vote on her Brexit deal next week, DUP lawmaker Sammy Wilson said.
        “We would certainly not vote to topple the government because we would have no reason to do so,” he told BBC radio.
        But Wilson said the DUP reserved the right to withdraw support for the government at a future date.
        May wants to secure parliament’s approval in a Dec. 11 vote for her deal to keep close ties with the EU after leaving in March, but opposition is fierce, with Brexit supporters and opponents alike wanting to thwart or derail her plan.
    (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

    12/6/2018 Dept. of Justice ramping up investigation into Podesta Group, Mercury Public Affairs by OAN Newsroom
        The Mueller probe appears to be taking an interesting turn by targeting several high-profile Washington insiders, who have close ties to the Democrat Party.
        On Wednesday, sources close to the matter claimed Department of Justice prosecutors are renewing efforts to investigate the Podesta Group, Mercury Public Affairs, and Obama-era White House counsel Gregory Craig.    They say federal investigators began interviewing potential witnesses and setting up closed-door meetings in recent weeks to get to the bottom of their apparent failure to register as foreign agents.
        Both Craig and the lobbying firms reportedly spent years working on behalf of the Ukrainian government in connection with Paul Manafort allegedly receiving millions of dollars in payments from offshore bank accounts.        While they did not properly report this activity to the U.S. government until recently, Tony Podesta and former Congressman Vin Weber maintain the decision was based off the advice of their lawyers.
    Tony Podesta. (Jacqueline Larma/AP/Photo)
        Mueller dropped the case into the hands of New York authorities back in August, because it fell out of the scope of his Russia investigation.
        The trail then went cold for several months, but appears to have picked back up in the wake of criticism from Republicans about Mueller’s apparent partisan nature for going after Manafort yet not his close Democrat associates.
        “They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty,” President Trump told reporters.    “They should be looking at a lot of things, and a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me.”
        In addition to Podesta’s long history of lobbying for Democrat causes, his brother John ran Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign back in 2016.
        Meanwhile, it remains unclear if charges will be brought against Podesta, Weber, and Craig.    However, this seems to highlight President Trump’s message that this is a political “witch hunt” against his administration and not an investigation for the truth.

    12/6/2018 Rep. Nancy Pelosi says Democrats won’t trade votes on DACA for border wall by OAN Newsroom
        House Speaker designate Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats will not trade votes on a DACA fix for border wall funding.
        During a briefing on Capitol Hill Thursday, the California Democrat told reporters permanent status for the so-called ‘Dreamers’ and border wall funding are two separate issues.
        Pelosi then said she would support a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security for another year to avoid a border wall fight in January.    She then referred to the wall as “immoral.”
    House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, meets with reporters at
    her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        “Most of us, speaking for myself, consider the wall immoral, ineffective, expensive, and the president said he promised it…he also promised Mexico would pay for it, so even if they did, it’s immoral still and they’re not going to pay for it,” she stated.
        Pelosi also added, lawmakers can come to an agreement on border security funding, but a wall remains a different issue.

    12/6/2018 Pregnant teen from migrant caravan gives birth to ‘anchor baby’ after scaling border fence by OAN Newsroom
        Calls to increase border security and build the wall are ramping after an illegal immigrant from the migrant caravan scaled a barrier to give birth in the U.S.
        The planned illegal entry is reigniting anger over so-called ‘anchor babies,’ and shedding light on the need to reform immigration procedures and laws.
        President Trump has called for an end to birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants as well as an end to ‘catch-and-release.’    He believes these changes would help deter illegal aliens from breaking the law and being rewarded.
        The situation is a prime example of the 19-year-old from Honduras, who gave birth in the U.S. last week — calling it her “big reward for her journey.”    The Honduran woman was determined to give birth to her second child in the United States.
        Maryury Elizabeth Serrano-Hernandez traveled thousands of miles from her home country with her husband and their two-year-old son.    She was more than seven-months pregnant when they began their journey.    They arrived in Tijuana late last month., where thousands of other migrants have gathered hoping to cross in the U.S.
        The migrant family told Univision that the situation in Tijuana was getting worse by the day and, while they didn’t want to risk the safety of their son and unborn child, they were tired of waiting.
        The family crossed over the border into San Diego, where they were met by Border Patrol agents, who demanded they return to Tijuana.    After refusing and asking for asylum, the family was taken to the Imperial Beach Station in San Diego County for processing.
        During that time, Maryury began experiencing abdominal pain and was taken to a hospital by Border Patrol agents.    Less than 24-hours after landing in the U.S., she gave birth.
        “I always had faith, I would say he’s going to be born there, because he will be born there,” said Maryury.
        Border Patrol said the family was placed into immigration proceedings and released a few days later.
        Maryury said while the journey was grueling, it all paid off in the end.
        “After everything I went through, in the end, thank God, it was a big reward,” she stated.
        However, the birth is likely to spark a new debate about birthright citizenship, which President Trump has threatened to end with an executive order.
        The Trump administration has also vowed to stop migrants from entering the country illegally, and has sent thousand of troops to patrol the border.    The mission was expected to end this month, but was extended through the end of January by Defense Secretary James Mattis.

    12/6/2018 Senate, House pass stopgap spending bill by OAN Newsroom
        A partial government shutdown will be avoided as the Senate joins the House to pass the stopgap spending bill.
    Central American migrants walk along the U.S. border fence looking for places
    they might be able to cross, in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. D(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
        The Senate and House both approved the resolution Thursday, and it will now head to the president’s desk.
        The resolution would extend the deadline two weeks, keeping the government open until December 21, 2018.    The original deadline was set for Friday.
        This comes as President Trump is set to meet with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on Tuesday to discuss the budget.
        One of the big sticking points is funding for the border wall as President Trump seeks five billion dollars toward its construction.    Meanwhile, Democrats want to set aside under two billion dollars for the structure.

    12/6/2018 Ecuador’s Moreno says Wikileaks’ Assange can leave embassy if he wants
    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy of
    Ecuador in London, Britain, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall
        QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno said on Thursday that there was a “path” for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the South American country’s London embassy, where he has lived for six years under asylum, if he so chooses.
        Assange has claimed that Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum and hand him over to the United States, where prosecutors are preparing to pursue a criminal case against him.    Wikileaks has released thousands of classified U.S. military documents, among other disclosures.
        “There is a path for Mr. Assange to take the decision to exit into near freedom,” Moreno said in a local radio interview.
        He noted that Assange still faces jail time in the United Kingdom for violating bail terms when he sought asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.
        The investigation was later dropped, but Great Britain says he will be arrested if leaves the embassy.
        Moreno said the sentence for skipping bail would be “not long.”    The UK has told Ecuador that his jail time would not exceed six months and that he would not face extradition if he left the embassy.
        Assange insists British authorities will hand him over to the United States.
        “I do not like the presence of Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorean embassy, but we have been respectful of his human rights and with that respect in mind we think that six years is too long for someone to remain nearly incarcerated in an embassy,” Moreno said.
    (Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by David Gregorio)

    12/6/2018 Grassley Accuses Fusion GPS Founder Of Giving ‘Extremely Misleading’ Testimony by US Chuck Ross, Reporter, released on 12/4/2018
    • Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is accusing Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson of giving “extremely misleading if not outright false testimony” to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017.
    • Grassley, the chairman of the committee, said in a letter Monday that he hopes the Justice Department is treating Simpson’s testimony in the same manner as that of Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to lying to Congress.
    • Grassley claims that Simpson may have lied when he denied that he was working for a client to investigate President Donald Trump after the election.
        Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is drawing parallels between the false testimony that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen gave to Congress in 2017 and the “extremely misleading” statements made by the founder of the firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier.
        “I hope that the Justice Department is handling all these instances of false statements to Congress with the same level of seriousness they treated Mr. Cohen’s,” Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wrote Monday in a letter to Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
        Cohen pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 in the special counsel’s investigation to lying to Congress in 2017 about the extent of his attempts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.    Cohen admitted he lied about how long he worked on the project, which was ultimately scuttled in June 2016.
        Grassley accused Glenn Simpson, a co-founder of Fusion GPS, of possibly lying during his Aug. 22, 2017 testimony when he claimed that his firm was not working for a client to investigate President Donald Trump after the 2016 election.
        “So you didn’t do any work on the Trump matter after the election date, that was the end of your work?” Simpson was asked in his deposition.
        “I had no client after the election,” said Simpson.
        “As we now know, that was extremely misleading, if not an outright lie,” Grassley asserted in his letter to Blumenthal.
        Grassley noted that a former Senate staffer named Daniel Jones told the FBI in March 2017 that he hired Fusion GPS and former British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, after the election to continue an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
        Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley attends a committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
        Jones, a former staffer to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, told the FBI that he “had secured the services Steele, his associate [redacted], and Fusion GPS to continue exposing Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.”
        Jones also said that the group “was being funded by 7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California, who provided approximately $50 million.”
        The goal of the group was to pass information to lawmakers, the FBI and the press, Jones told the FBI.
        “Contrary to Mr. Simpson’s denial in the staff interview, according to the FBI and others, Fusion actually did continue Trump dossier work for a new client after the election,” said Grassley.
            Grassley has noted Simpson’s inconsistent testimony in the past, most recently in a letter sent to another Democrat colleague on May 29.
        In his letter to Blumenthal, Grassley rejected the Democrat’s request to interview Donald Trump Jr.
        Blumenthal asserted that the president’s son may have lied in his Sept. 7, 2017 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his work to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.    Blumenthal suggested that Trump Jr.’s testimony was inconsistent with what Cohen disclosed in his plea agreement on Nov. 29 with the special counsel’s office.
        But as Grassley noted, Blumenthal relied on a since-debunked report from NPR on Nov. 30.
        “That was fake news,” wrote Grassley to Blumenthal of the NPR report, which was corrected after the news outlet acknowledged misreading a transcript of Trump Jr.’s testimony.
        In dismissing Blumenthal’s request, Grassley noted that the committee has “actual evidence of misleading testimony,” noting Simpson’s testimony.
        Republican lawmakers have accused Simpson of giving misleading testimony in another congressional interview.
        Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 14, 2017 that he had no contact with Justice Department or the FBI until after the election.    Simpson acknowledged at the time that he met after the election with Bruce Ohr, a top Justice Department official who served as a back channel between the FBI and Steele. (RELATED: Glenn Simpson’s Testimony Conflicted With Bruce Ohr’s)
        But Ohr testified on Aug. 28 that he met with Simpson both before and after the 2016 election — once in August 2016 and once in December 2016.
        Simpson and Fusion GPS have yet to explain the discrepancy in his testimony.
        Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights on Oct. 16 to avoid testifying before the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform Committees.
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    Tags : chuck grassley fusion gps glenn simpson.

    12/6/2018 Nauert to Become Next U.N. Ambassador by OAN Newsroom
    Heather Nauert, a former anchor and correspondent at Fox News Channel, joined the State Department as spokeswoman in April 2017. (Reuters/File)
        President Trump is set to nominate State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert to become the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a senior administration official said Thursday.
        Nauert, 48, previously worked as a host at both Fox News and ABC News before joining the State Department, where she has worked very close under Secretary Mike Pompeo on the road.    She had no government or foreign policy experience prior to joining the Trump Administration.
        If confirmed, she would replace outgoing ambassador, Nikki Haley, who is set to leave the post at the end of the year.
        It is not yet clear who would take over her role as State Department Spokesperson.

    12/7/2018 Oil down $1.76 to $51.49, DOW up 79 to 24,948

    12/7/2018 Window to Mueller case opens - Sagas of Manafort, Cohen set to collide in court today by Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – The window into Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller’s closely held investigation into Russian election interference could become clearer Friday with a simple convergence of the federal court calendar.
        In Washington, prosecutors are due to file papers explaining last week’s collapse of a cooperation agreement with Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman.
        The filing is likely to outline what Mueller’s team characterized as Manafort’s repeated lies and additional “crimes,” leading to a breach of his plea agreement reached in September.    His sentencing is set for March 5.
        In New York, Mueller’s team is scheduled to file a sentencing memorandum for its newest cooperating witness – former Trump lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen – before his sentencing Wednesday on two convictions.
        Cohen pleaded guilty to a series of campaign finance law offenses as part of a plea agreement in August with federal prosecutors in New York.    He reached a separate deal with Mueller’s team last week in which he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about plans for a Trump Tower project in Moscow.
        The sentencing documents will probably reveal the scope of Cohen’s cooperation in both cases, which have included allegations about Trump’s hush money payments to two women alleging extramarital affairs with him and Trump’s efforts to conceal plans for a Moscow tower project even as he denied any Russian business interests during the 2016 campaign.
        “Given his proximity and centrality to Trump’s operation before and after the election, it would be difficult to find any better cooperating witness than Michael Cohen,” former Miami federal prosecutor Kendall Coffey said.    “If (prosecutors) are looking for information about Trump’s business dealings and how they may tie in to Russia, Cohen is likely to know that, and all of us may get an idea of where Mueller is headed in these new filings."
        “In Manafort’s case,” Coffey said, “We are likely to learn of what may have pushed him to commit legal suicide.”
        Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team in September as part of a plea agreement to avoid a second trial on financial fraud charges in the District of Columbia.    In August, a Virginia federal court jury convicted Manafort on eight counts of related financial fraud charges in the first contested prosecution brought by Mueller’s team.
        The filings are scheduled days after Mueller cited the “substantial” cooperation provided by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.    Investigators recommended that he serve no prison time after pleading guilty last year to lying to the FBI in part about his pre-inaugural contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
        Though the 13-page Flynn filing was heavily reacted, Mueller acknowledged that Flynn met with prosecutors 19 times in the past year and cooperated in the Russia inquiry and two other investigations.    The subjects of those additional investigations, one of them a criminal inquiry, were not disclosed.
        The shadow of Mueller’s investigation is likely to reach beyond the courtroom, as former FBI Director James Comey is set to deliver closed-door testimony Friday to House members of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees.    Republican committee leaders pushed for the politically charged meeting to question whether Comey was biased in favor of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in his management of the Clinton email investigation and the early stages of the Russia inquiry.
        Trump fired Comey in May 2017 because of his oversight of the Russia inquiry, a move that spurred Mueller’s appointment.
        Manafort, 69, a former lobbyist and political operative, reached a plea agreement in September in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.    He admitted leading a long-running conspiracy involving his work on behalf of a pro-Russian faction in Ukraine led by the country’s former president Viktor Yanukovych.    He pleaded guilty to obstructing Mueller’s investigation.
        Manafort was convicted in August in federal court in Virginia for bank and tax charges related to the work in Ukraine. He faces sentencing Feb. 8 on those eight counts.    The combined punishments could become a life sentence.
        Manafort was not convicted in Virginia or D.C. of participating in election interference.    But his oversight of the Trump campaign and his participation in key meetings made him a potentially valuable witness to Mueller’s team.
    Robert Mueller

    12/7/2018 Senate approves Trump’s pick for consumer protection agency
        In a 50-49 party-line vote, the Senate approved President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday, ending a six-month battle.
        Kathy Kraninger, a mid-level official in the White House’s budget office, has no experience in financial services and has never run a federal agency before, a criticism that made Democrats hostile to her nomination since day one.
        The bureau, long a target of Republicans, has scaled back its enforcement efforts under acting director Mick Mulvaney.

    12/7/2018 Congress passes brief spending bill, averts shutdown for now
        Congress has voted to give itself two more weeks to pass a federal budget and avoid a government shutdown.    The measure goes to     President Donald Trump, who has said he is open to signing it.    Without the two-week extension, the government would have run out of money at midnight Friday.

    12/7/2018 Former Attorney General Barr a contender to replace Sessions
        William Barr, who was attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, may soon return to the role.
        Barr is a leading candidate to become President Donald Trump’s replacement for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, two administration officials and a person familiar with the discussion told USA TODAY on Thursday.    They said no final decision has been made, but an announcement could come in a matter of days.

    12/7/2018 North Carolina GOP open to new election if fraud found
        The North Carolina Republican Party would support a new election in an unresolved congressional race if an investigation shows that wrongdoing swayed its outcome, Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse said Thursday.
        Unofficial totals have Republican Mark Harris leading Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the 9th House District. But the state elections board refused to certify the results last week because of allegations of “irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities” involving mail-in ballots.

    12/7/2018 Flynn re-emerges as a Mueller key player - Blacked-out documents may speak volumes by Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Among the blacked-out court papers outlining the extensive cooperation Michael Flynn provided to Russia special counsel Robert Mueller is a powerful acknowledgment that President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser assisted not only Mueller’s inquiry but at least two other investigations.
        The subjects of the investigations were not identified, nor did the documents elaborate on Flynn’s specific contributions.
        The court filing, however spare, signals that the retired Army lieutenant general – who had largely faded from the public stage since his guilty plea last year – is likely to play an increasingly larger role as the investigations shadowing the Trump administration grind to a conclusion.
        The sensitive nature of Flynn’s cooperation, prosecutors said, required that the details remain under seal, adding that the “benefit may not be fully realized at this time because the investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing.”
        “The defendant provided first-hand information about the content and context of interactions between the (Trump) transition team and Russian government officials,” the court documents state.
        Mueller’s conclusions, legal analysts said, probably served as a blunt warning to members of the administration who worked closely with the national security adviser and were consulted on his Russian contacts, specifically involving Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
        Flynn’s cooperation was secured last year as part of his guilty plea to lying to the FBI in part about his pre-inaugural contacts with Kislyak related to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration for Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign.
        “The message that this sends, given Flynn’s central role in the transition (to the Trump administration), is that if transition members are not fully lawyered- up yet, they should do so now,” said Ilene Jaroslaw, a former federal prosecutor who once worked closely with Mueller’s top aides in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office.
        “This document, even though it is heavily redacted, speaks louder than any public statement or press conference could ever accomplish.”     Jaroslaw said the number of interviews, though substantial, was not necessarily surprising, given Flynn’s central role as a foreign policy adviser during the campaign and during his brief time as national security adviser.
        Mueller’s team probably needed broad access to Flynn as it sought to corroborate the testimony of other witnesses.    Indeed, in the 17 months since Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation, his prosecutors, including Andrew Weissmann, have established a hard-charging reputation in dealing with cooperating witnesses.
        “You have to remember that Andrew (Weissmann) flipped ‘Sammy The Bull,’” Jaroslaw said, referring to Gambino crime family boss-turned-informant Salvatore Gravano.
        Little is publicly known about Flynn’s role as witness in the two other investigations referenced in the court documents.
        But former Chicago federal prosecutor Greg Deis said Mueller’s reference to them “clearly telegraphs to those who do know about these cases that there are others in the cross hairs.”
        Deis said the documents, in addition to informing Flynn’s sentencing judge about the level of his cooperation, serve as a public appeal for other potential witnesses to come forward.
        Mueller’s recommendation that Flynn serve no prison time, Deis said, sends a message that “there can be a significant upside” to cooperating with the special counsel.
        Deis said that message is particularly timely, given the collapse of Mueller’s cooperation agreement with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
        That prompted Trump to suggest Manafort could be eligible for a pardon.
        Manafort, convicted of financial fraud, repeatedly lied to federal investigators after agreeing to cooperate with Mueller’s team in September, prosecutors said.
        “That (pardon discussion) was likely not lost on the special counsel,” Deis said.
        David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, said the Flynn memo revealed how a witness can benefit if the cooperation is complete and comes early.
        “The message that it sends is that if (cooperation) comes in early, if you accept responsibility for what you’ve done and you’re truthful about what your cooperation is ... you’re going to be rewarded for that,” Weinstein said.
        “The message that this sends, given Flynn’s central role in the transition (to the Trump administration), is that if transition members are not fully lawyered-up yet, they should do so now.” Ilene Jaroslaw, former federal prosecutor.
    Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was interviewed 19 times in the past year. JACK GRUBER/USA TODAY
    A photo from the Russian Foreign Ministry shows President Donald Trump speaking
    with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the White House in 2017. VIA EPA

    12/7/2018 Trump, without evidence, says Arizona ‘bracing’ for surge of immigrants
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said without evidence on Thursday Arizona “is bracing for a massive surge” of immigrants along part of the border that has no protective fence, reiterating his call for Democrats to back funding for his proposed border wall.
        “Arizona, together with our Military and Border Patrol, is bracing for a massive surge at a NON-WALLED area.    WE WILL NOT LET THEM THROUGH,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter, appearing to maintain pressure on lawmakers seeking to approve legislation to keep the government open through to Sept. 30 next year.
        Representatives for the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon did not respond immediately to requests for comments.
        It was unclear if Trump had a specific group of migrants in mind.
        On Wednesday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that border agents in Arizona had apprehended two groups of families from Honduras and Guatemala comprising a total of 124 migrants who had crossed into the United States.
        The U.S. Congress approved a stopgap two-week spending bill on Thursday but lawmakers still need to agree on a longer-term funding measure to fund government agencies until the end of the fiscal year in September.
        Trump, who has made the construction of the wall a foundation of his presidency, has demanded $5 billion this year from Congress for the boundary and has threatened to shut down the government if lawmakers do not accede.
        Democrats have argued the wall would be ineffective at ending illegal migration and stemming the flow of illicit drugs across the border.
    (Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Simon Cameron-Moore)

    12/7/2018 Macron to address France early next week on protests
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron (centre) on a visit to the
    riot-battered neighbourhood around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, December 2, 2018. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will address France on the “yellow vest” movement early next week as the country braces for another wave of violent protests on Saturday over the cost of living.
        “The President will speak early next week.    I think this is what the French people want, they want answers.    The President will send the message to the French that he is listening to their anger (…) and that new solutions have obviously to be found,” Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne told Sud Radio on Friday morning.
        Earlier, National Assembly speaker Richard Ferrand, a close Macron ally had told Reuters the president would address the French people early next week.
        With protesters from the “yellow vest” movement calling on social media for “Act IV” – a fourth weekend of protest – Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday 89,000 police nationwide would deploy to stop a repeat of last Saturday’s mayhem across downtown Paris.
        The protests, named after the high visibility vests French motorists have to carry in their cars, erupted in November over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes.
        Demonstrations swiftly grew into a broad and sometimes violent rebellion against the government, but without formal leaders.
        Their demands are diverse and include lower taxes, higher salaries, cheaper energy costs, better retirement provisions and even Macron’s resignation.
        Economists fear the broad protests may derail the timid economic recovery underway in France.    “The crisis destroys economic value.    It destroys competitiveness and threatens to destroy jobs,” Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud said Friday on BFM Business radio station.
    (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Dominique Vidalon; Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Inti Landauro)

    12/7/2018 Rudy Giuliani slams the special counsel by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this May 29, 2018, file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump,
    waves to people during White House Sports and Fitness Day on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.
    Giuliani, says special counsel Robert Mueller should finish the Russia investigation “without further delay”
    as the president’s legal team responded to the latest interview request. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
        President Trump’s personal attorney is renewing criticism of the integrity of the special counsel’s investigation.
        In an interview Friday Rudy Giuliani said the Mueller team has indicated it believes Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors about the President’s knowledge of a 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
        Giuliani says he became aware of the development after speaking with Manafort’s lawyers.
        The President’s attorney said Manafort did not lie, and slammed federal prosecutors for their handling of the investigation.
        Giuliani says he believes the special counsel is attempting to persuade Manafort to change his story to release him from solitary confinement.

    12/7/2018 President Trump slams former FBI director James Comey by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump sounds off on Former-FBI Director James Comey’s closed door testimony on Capitol Hill.
        The President said Comey was told by DOJ attorneys “not to answer the most important questions” during his hearing in a tweet Friday.
        He adds, “this is total bias and corruption at the highest-levels of the Obama Administration,” and called on lawmakers to force him to answer questions under oath.
        This comes after Comey gave remarks following his testimony, saying he believes this could have been an open forum, but said he will return for another hearing December 17th.
    [Comey was fired, so why does he have a DOJ attorney telling him what not to answer.    Thats because they are covering up again.].

    12/7/2018 White House responds to Mueller filings by OAN Newsroom
    The White House in Washington is seen on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
    Area schools and many government offices in the Washington area are closed for the in anticipation
    of the snow that could blanket the region. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        The White House responds to Friday’s major developments in the special counsel’s investigation, in regards to the filings against Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
        Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the filing in Manafort’s case says “absolutely nothing about President Trump” and even less about collusion.
        She added that “once again, the media is trying to create a story where there isn’t one.”
        Speaking on Cohen’s filing, she says it tells the public “nothing of value that was not already known,” also noting Cohen has repeatedly lied.

    12/7/2018 President Trump promises to defend safe communities, protect law enforcement by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump speaks the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference
    at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        President Trump promised law enforcement that his administration will “protect those who protect us.”
        The president delivered the closing remarks Friday at the Project Safe Neighborhoods conference in Kansas City.
        He also said radical activists have smeared law enforcement for too long, and his administration will not tolerate attacks on those who defend our communities.
        “This initiative brings law enforcement, community groups and local leaders together to get the most violent criminals in the most dangerous areas off the streets and behind bars,” stated President Trump.    “After many years of neglect, we are bringing back this lifesaving program stronger than ever before.”
        Friday’s conference marked the first nationwide conference of Project Safe Neighborhoods, which is sponsored by the Justice Department and focuses on crime reduction strategies.
        President Trump has promised to ask Congress to increase funding for the organization next year.

    12/7/2018 McCabe, Rosenstein v. President Trump by OAN Newsroom
        A new report is claiming current and former Department of Justice officials opened a secret obstruction of justice investigation into President Trump in May of last year.    That’s according to a CNN report released Thursday.
        It claims former FBI Director Andrew McCabe directed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and other FBI officials to open the probe after James Comey was fired.
        Robert Mueller was then appointed as special counsel just days later.
    Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe (LEFT), Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (RIGHT). (Photo/Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
        Since the Mueller probe began, President Trump has blasted the officials involved, who he claims have been dishonest.
        “They are nasty and dishonest.    You notice that nobody looks at them?    Is that deep state or what?    Explain that.    Nobody looks at them, all of the sting.    McCabe, you have the beautiful Lisa Page and her wonderful FBI agent.    How about him?    Did anybody ever hear Strzok?    Did anybody ever hear him testify?    Did you hear this guy?    Can you believe it?    ‘No, I have no bias against the president, I have no bias.’    Did you read what he said?    What a group.    Comey, lies and leaks.    He’s a liar and he’s a leaker…It’s the most incredible thing people have ever seen…we’re going to straighten it out, it’s going to get straightened out.” –President Donald Trump.
        President Trump’s personal attorney — Rudy Giuliani — has since responded to the report by saying “It’s shocking” the FBI would open the investigation, because the president was exercising Article II of the Constitution.    This gives him executive power over the federal government.

    12/7/2018 President Trump picks former Attorney General William Barr to lead Justice Dept. by OAN Newsroom
    This undated photo provided by Time Warner shows William Barr. President Donald Trump says
    he will nominate William Barr, former President George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, to serve in the same role.
    Trump made the announcement while departing the White House for a trip to Missouri Friday. (Time Warner via AP)
        President Trump is nominating former Attorney General William Barr to lead the Justice Department.    He made the announcement while speaking to reporters Friday morning.
        The president called Barr one of the most respected jurists in the country.
        “He was my first choice from day one — respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats,” stated President Trump.
        Barr served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993, and reportedly has the support of several White House officials and senior attorneys.
        If confirmed, he will replace Jeff Sessions, who was dismissed by the president last month.

    12/7/2018 Lawmakers criticize pharmaceutical firms over rising drug prices by OAN Newsroom
        Prescription drug prices are on the rise, and congressional lawmakers are preparing to take on the pharmaceutical industry.
        This past July, President Trump called out prescription drug companies for “planned increases” by saying they were making a “fortune” at the expense of American consumers.
        “In some cases, when medicine cost a few dollars in a foreign country, cost hundreds of dollars in America for the same pill, for the same ingredients, in the same package, made in the same plant and that is unacceptable,” stated the president.
        Soon after his comments, pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Pfizer announced they would not raise the prices on medications for the rest of the year.    However, as 2018 winds down, drug prices are once again hiking up.
        Last month, Pfizer announced it plans to raise drug prices on 10-percent of its portfolio beginning next year.
    FILE – In this June 14, 2011, file photo, various prescription drugs on the automated pharmacy assembly line at Medco Health Solutions in Willingboro, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
        More than a dozen lawmakers sent letters to five pharmaceutical companies asking why after they benefited from the recent tax cuts, they continued to charge high prices.
        The companies responded by saying they used their tax savings in a variety of ways, from boosting employee compensation to investing in U.S. facilities and even making donations.
        As a new Congress comes to D.C., observers are saying reining in drug prices will be a major focus in 2019.
        Just this week, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democrat Senator Ron Wyden introduced legislation, which would give the government more power to make sure drug companies play by the rules of the medicaid program.
        As drug companies raise prices on their products, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are raising awareness to their actions.

    12/7/2018 Fired FBI Director James Comey testifying about Russia probe, Clinton emails, alleged bias by OAN Newsroom
        Fired FBI Director James Comey is on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.
        House Republicans will grill Comey behind closed doors Friday about his role in investigating alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.
        They will also ask him about his decision to not file criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server before she was even interviewed.
        Republicans will also focus on alleged political bias by Obama-era FBI officials and potential FISA court abuses.
    Former FBI Director James Comey, with his attorney, David Kelley, left, arrive to testify under subpoena behind
    closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Comey had refused to testify in private, but reached a deal with House Republicans to release a transcript of the interview within 24-hours.
        Meanwhile, President Trump took to Twitter Friday morning to slam Comey ahead of his hearing.
        The president, again, called Robert Mueller and the entire Russia investigation a “total witch hunt.”
    Trump tweet: “Robert Mueller and Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey are Best Friends, just one of many Mueller Conflicts of Interest.    And bye the way, wasn’t the woman in charge of prosecuting Jerome Corsi (who I do not know) in charge of “legal” at the corrupt Clinton Foundation?    A total Witch Hunt...”     This comes as the special counsel gears up to file documents on key players in the probe.

    12/7/2018 Roger Stone: Rep. Adam Schiff is ‘con man,’ Mueller trying to frame me by OAN Newsroom
    Roger Stone speaks at the American Priority Conference in Washington Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
        Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone is slamming Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff for suggesting he lied while testifying to Congress.,
        While speaking before the American Priority Conference Thursday, Stone said the California representative is a “con man.”
        This comes as Stone is being investigated by the special counsel.    Stone called the investigation a “witch hunt” and suggested Robert Mueller is trying hard to frame him.
        “This has been two and a half years of hell,” he explained.    “Not only I was under surveillance in 2016, but I also know that Mr. Mueller and his strike force have examined every aspect of my life — my personal life, my family life, my social life, my business life, my political life, my sex life.”
        Stone recently invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked to appear before House Democrats.    He said he will only testify if he’s allowed a public hearing.

    12/7/2018 President Trump nominates Heather Nauert as next UN ambassador by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Aug. 9, 2017, file photo, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing
    at the State Department in Washington. President Donald Trump is expected to nominate (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
        The president is nominating State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
        President Trump announced his pick Friday, just before heading to Kansas City.    He said Nauert has done a good job at the State Department and has worked well with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
        “Heather Nauert will be nominated, she’s going to work with Nikki Haley to replace Nikki at the United Nations,” said President Trump.    “She’ll be ambassador to the United Nations, she’s very talented, very smart, very quick and I think she’s going to be respected by all.”
        Nauert will now have to prepare for the Senate confirmation process.

    12/8/2018 Oil up $1.12 to $52.61, DOW down 559 to 24,389

    12/8/2018 Paris in lockdown as France braces for new anti-Macron riots by Michel Rose and Emmanuel Jarry
    A protester wearing a French flag stands in front of French Gendarmes in place on the Champs-Elysees Avenue during
    a national day of protest by the "yellow vests" movement in Paris, France, December 8, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        PARIS (Reuters) – Paris looked like a ghost town early on Saturday, with museums, department stores and the metro closed as riot police braced to meet “yellow vest” protesters in the capital and other French cities in a fourth weekend of confrontation over living costs.
        In what should have been a festive pre-Christmas shopping day, tourists were few and residents were advised to stay at home if at all possible.
        Dozens of streets in central Paris were closed to traffic, while the Eiffel Tower and world-famous museums such as the Musee d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre were closed.
        Many shops were boarded up to avoid looting and street furniture and construction site materials have been removed to prevent them from being used as projectiles.
        “I hope they don’t make it as far as here,” said Anthony, a fruit stall vendor in the residential left bank, who declined to give his surname.    He said 11 other open-air food markets across the city had been closed.
        About 89,000 police were deployed across the country.
        Of these, about 8,000 were deployed in Paris to avoid a repeat of last Saturday’s mayhem when rioters torched cars and looted shops off the famed Champs Elysees boulevard, and defaced the Arc de Triomphe monument with graffiti directed at President Emmanuel Macron.
        By about 0845 GMT police said there were about 1,500 protesters on the Champs Elysees.    There were no reports of violence.
        “We have come here for a peaceful march, not to smash things.    We want equality, we want to live, not survive,” said Guillaume Le Grac, 28, who works in a slaughterhouse in the town of Guingamp in Britanny.
    CHALLENGE TO MACRON
        Protesters, using social media, have billed the weekend as “Act IV” in a dramatic challenge to Macron and his policies.
        The protests, named after the high-visibility safety jackets French motorists have to keep in their cars, erupted in November over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes.
        Demonstrations have since swelled into a broad, sometimes violent rebellion against Macron, a challenge made more difficult to handle since the movement has no formal leader.
        Authorities say the protests have been hijacked by far-right and anarchist elements bent on violence and stirring up social unrest in a direct affront to Macron and the security forces.
        “We have prepared a robust response,” Interior Minister Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told online news site Brut on Saturday.    He called on peaceful protesters not to get mixed up with “hooligans”
        “The troublemakers can only be effective when they disguise themselves as yellow vests.    Violence is never a good way to get what you want. Now is the time for discussion,” he said.
        Macron, whose popularity is at a low ebb according to polls, has been forced into making the first major U-turn of his presidency by abandoning a fuel tax.
        Despite the climbdown, the “yellow vests” continue to demand more concessions from the government, including lower taxes, a higher minimum wage, lower energy costs, better retirement benefits and even Macron’s resignation.
        One of them, Eric Drouet, a truck driver, called on protesters to storm into the Elysee presidential palace.    An Elysee official has said intelligence suggested that some protesters would come to the capital “to vandalize and to kill.”
        Macron, who has not spoken in public since he condemned last Saturday’s disturbances while at the G20 summit in Argentina, will address the nation early next week, his office said.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose, Geert De Clercq, Emmanuel Jarry, Simon Carraud and Sybille de la Hamaide; Writing by Michel Rose and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    12/8/2018 Many U.S.-bound caravan migrants disperse as asylum process stalls by Christine Murray
    FILE PHOTO: A migrant, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying
    to reach the United States, crosses a flooded area next to the border wall as he tries to cross from Mexico to the U.S.,
    in Tijuana, Mexico, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
        TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – Thousands of Central American migrants spent weeks traveling north through Mexico in caravans, walking and hitching rides when possible, only for many to give up hope and turn back when they met resistance at the U.S. border.
        Others hopped the border fence, often directly into the hands of immigration authorities on the U.S. side, while still others dug in at temporary lodgings in Tijuana for the long process of seeking asylum from a reluctant U.S. government.
        As rain poured down on a former music venue in Tijuana that holds a diminished crowd of 2,500 migrants, Jessica, 18, grabbed her feverish 1-year-old daughter and took her inside to a friend while she figured out what to do with her broken tent.
        Jessica had traveled from El Salvador, and said she and her husband were waiting in the Barretal camp for the right moment to try to cross the border illegally.
        “Getting asylum is really difficult,” she said.    “They ask you for a lot of evidence and it’s impossible.    It’s not like they say it is.”
        Other migrants face the same dilemma. Of 6,000 who arrived in Tijuana in the caravans last month, 1,000 have scrambled over border fences, and most of those were detained, the head of Mexico’s civil protection agency David Leon told local media on Wednesday.
        A further 1,000 have accepted voluntary deportation, he said, while others are living on the street outside the municipal sports center where they first arrived, or in smaller shelters.    The director of the Barretal camp, Mario Medina, said he expected hundreds more to arrive within days.
        U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to make it harder to get asylum, but a federal court last month placed a temporary restraining order on his policy that only permitted asylum claims made at official ports of entry.
        Under former President Barack Obama a system dubbed “metering” began, which limits how many can ask for asylum each day in Tijuana.    Lawyers say Trump is using the system more aggressively to stem the flow at the port of entry.
        A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokeswoman said the agency works with Mexico and charities to manage the flow, but denied that people were being prevented from making asylum claims.
        Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, which did not respond to requests for comment, has said in the past it protects migrants rights, while respecting other countries’ immigration policies.
        Looking after the large groups of Central Americans is a challenge for Mexico.    New President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to issue more work visas and on Friday pledged to do more to improve conditions at the Barretal shelter.
        His government is in talks with Washington about an immigration plan, including a U.S. proposal to make asylum seekers stay in Mexico until their claim is decided, a process that can take years.    Some believe that would deter people from seeking refuge.
    NAVIGATING THE LIST
        Despite the wait, more people are adding their names to the semi-formal asylum list.    Created a couple of years ago around the time an influx of Haitians arrived in Tijuana seeking to enter the United States, it has been challenged in a U.S. lawsuit that claims it deliberately delays asylum seekers.
        Migrants put their names in a black-and-white ledger, controlled by around eight migrant volunteers.    Those on the list are given a number and must wait months to pass through for an interview.    The list contains thousands of names from around the world.
        Each day, CBP officials communicate with Mexican immigration officials who then tell the migrants how many can go through, according to volunteers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.    They said between 40 and 100 per day are usually sent.
        At the end of each day, Mexican immigration officials guard the ledger.    Lawyers have cited multiple problems with this system.    For instance, they have said, some people on the list could be Mexicans fleeing the federal government.
        Some migrants expressed distrust of the list.    Honduran Anabell Pineda, 26, said she thought the process was not for her as she left behind a daughter in Honduras.
        “They say, though I don’t know, that asylum is for people that don’t want to go back to their country, and I do want to go back,” she said.
        Pineda, traveling with her son, said that once she gets her paperwork, she plans find a job in Mexico City.
        Pineda has applied for a humanitarian visa that will get her a work permit in Mexico, a better bet than trying to get to the United States, she said.
        “It’s really difficult to cross, because of what happened last time.    I don’t want to put my children in danger,” she said, referring to disturbances in which U.S. officials launched tear gas at migrants last month.
        At a jobs fair set up by the federal Labor Ministry, coordinator Nayla Rangel said more than 3,000 migrants, mainly from the caravan, had job interviews.
        Rangel said there were more than 10,000 jobs open in the state of Baja California, with salaries around 1500 pesos ($74) per week.    For many migrants hoping to send money to families in Central America, that likely would not be enough.
    (Reporting by Christine Murray; Editing by Daniel Flynn, David Gregorio and Tom Brown)

    12/8/2018 Brazil’s Temer announces ‘intervention’ in state bordering Venezuela
    Brazil's President Michel Temer arrives for a breakfast with foreign media at
    Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Brazil December 6, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        SAO PAULO/BRASÍLIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Michel Temer said on Friday he had reached an agreement with Roraima state Governor Suely Campos for a federal “intervention” in the state that borders Venezuela.
        Temer said via Twitter that he and the governor came to the conclusion that a negotiated intervention would be the best solution to “pacify” the situation in Roraima.
        Waves of Venezuelan migrants have been entering the border area in recent months, seeking refuge from poverty and hunger in the neighboring country.    The thousands of refugees are straining public services and the state’s finances.
        On Thursday, police officers and agents in Roraima’s prisons called for a strike protesting delays in salary payments.
        “The situation in Roraima is becoming worse. We have tried ways to rescue the state with resources, but couldn’t find a legal way to do so,” President Temer told journalists after the meeting with the governor and other government officials.
        “That’s why I told the governor that one way to solve the problems for now, particularly the salary situation, would be the federal intervention,” Temer said.
        According to local TV broadcaster Globo, Governor-elect Antonio Denarium, who is from the same party of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, the PSL, would be named by Temer to lead the intervention, which would end on Dec. 31.
        Denarium, and all other governors, as well as Bolsonaro, take office on Jan. 1.
    (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira, Tatiana Ramil and Alexandre Caverni; editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Richard Chang)

    12/8/2018 UK minister Rudd says May’s Brexit deal is best option
    Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary, Amber Rudd, arrives in Downing Street,
    in central London, Britain December 6, 2018. REUTERS/ Toby Melville/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s work and pensions minister Amber Rudd said Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal was the best option and the only plan available for leaving the European Union, although she admitted a plan B might be needed.
        Members of parliament look set to vote down May’s deal on Tuesday, a move which risks hurtling the world’s fifth-largest economy into even deeper uncertainty and leaving open a number of possible outcomes including a disorderly Brexit.
        “The best deal we have is the one the Prime Minister’s put forward,” Rudd told BBC radio on Saturday.    “There is only one plan.”
        May has said lawmakers must back her withdrawal deal or face either a painful ‘no-deal’ exit from the EU or possibly no Brexit at all, but Rudd said a ‘Plan B’ might be required.
        “If it (May’s plan) doesn’t get through anything could happen: people’s vote, Norway plus, any of these options could come forward,” she said.
        Norway is not an EU member but is in the bloc’s single market, which allows for free movement of goods, capital, services and people.    ‘Norway plus’ envisages Britain also staying in the EU’s customs union, which Norway is not in.
        Some pro-EU lawmakers, including in May’s ruling Conservative Party, have also expressed support for a second referendum on EU membership, or ‘a people’s vote’.
        Rudd said that even if May loses Tuesday’s vote she should stay on as prime minister.
        “There is no question of her going,” she said.
    (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Gareth Jones)

    [THE FOLLOWING TWO ARTICLES WERE RELEASED TO EGG ON WHAT THE LEFT THINKS THAT REPRESENTS TRUMP VIOLATIONS].
    12/8/2018 Former Trump lawyer had ‘pattern of deception’ - Prosecutors ask for ‘substantial’ term for Cohen by Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY
        NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors said Friday that President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen should serve “a substantial prison term” for trying to buy the silence of two women who said they had sexual affairs with Trump and tax evasion and lying to banks.
        The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Cohen should serve roughly 42 months in prison for his confessed crimes.
        While noting that Cohen had provided information to law enforcement officials, the prosecution sentencing memo said he presented a “rose-colored view” of his own conduct.
        “The crimes committed by Cohen were more serious than his submission allows and were marked by a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life,” the prosecutors wrote.
        The memo also stressed that Cohen does not have a formal cooperation agreement with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office.    As a result, they argued that he should not get the leniency that “a traditional cooperating witness would receive.”
        Separately, special counsel Robert Mueller credited Cohen for correcting his lies to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — and for going to “significant lengths” to assist Mueller’s investigation of Russiarelated matters that could involve Trump.
        Mueller’s investigative team said it would be “appropriate” if any sentence that Cohen got for the Russia matter ran concurrently with the sentence imposed for the issues investigated by New York federal prosecutors.
        The sentencing recommendations were delivered to U.S. District Judge William Paulley a week after Cohen’s defense team asked the judge to spare the New York City lawyer from serving any time in prison for his crimes in either legal matter.
        Pauley is scheduled to sentence Cohen on Wednesday.
        The prosecution sentencing memos for Cohen are the latest development in the fate of a pugnacious attorney long known as an ardent Trump loyalist and fixer of difficult problems.    The relationship between the two men ruptured as Cohen pleaded guilty this year to campaign finance violations, fraud and lying to Congress while Trump continued to brand Mueller’s investigation as a witch hunt.
        Cohen pleaded guilty in August to violating campaign finance laws by paying hush money at Trump’s direction to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
        Trump has denied the women’s accounts.    The New York prosecutors alleged in August that the payments were made “in order to influence the 2016 presidential election,” and were “coordinated with one or more members” of Trump’s winning campaign, “including through meetings and phone calls about the fact, nature, and timing.”
        In their Friday sentencing memo, the prosecutors stated that Cohen “acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” a reference to Trump.
        Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to charges of tax evasion and making false statements to federally insured banks.    Prosecutors say he lied to banks to obtain improper loans and lied to the government to avoid paying taxes.
        In their sentencing memo, the prosecutors stressed that Cohen failed to report more than $4 million in income to the IRS between tax years 2012 and 2016.    He also hid sources of his income from his accountant and the IRS, the memo said.
        The omission enabled him to duck more than $1.4 million in tax payments, prosecutors wrote.
        Cohen separately hid millions of dollars in debts and made false statements about his net worth and monthly expenses when he applied to banks for loans, prosecutors wrote.
        Cohen corrected the Capitol Hill record by pleading guilty last week to charges that he lied to congressional committees investigating Trump’s dealings with Russia.
        Initially, he told the Senate and House panels last year that planning for a Trump Tower in Moscow, discussions about a possible Trump trip to Russia in connection with the project, and related talks with Russia officials all ended in January 2016.
        That meant the subject was dropped before the Iowa caucuses in February, the first political battlefield in the 2016 presidential race.
        But Cohen said last week that he continued to discuss efforts to win Russian governmental approval for the project within The Trump Organization as late as June 2016.    By then, Trump was the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
        Cohen also said he agreed to travel to Russia for the construction plan, and asked Trump about the possibility of him traveling there, too.
        Cohen also acknowledged that he spoke to Russian officials about plans for the development project, which ultimately was never built.
        In a sentencing memo filed by Cohen’s defense team last week, attorneys Guy Petrillo and Amy Lester provided additional detail about what they characterized as the initial “false summary” about the Moscow project.
        The memo appeared to implicate Trump, referred to as the “client” or “Client-1,” in some of Cohen’s self-confessed crimes.
        “Michael had a lengthy substantive conversation with the personal assistant to a Kremlin official following his outreach in January 2016, engaged in additional communications concerning the project as late as June 2016, and kept Client-1 apprised of these communications,” Petrillo and Lester wrote.
        Cohen and Client-1 “also discussed possible travel to Russia in the summer of 2016, and Michael took steps’ to clear dates for such travel,” they wrote.
        Regarding the hush money, Cohen’s attorneys wrote that he did not personally make payments to buy the silence of “Woman-1,” possibly a reference to McDougal.
        But they wrote that he “participated in payment planning discussions with Client-1 and the Chairman and CEO of Corporation-1.”
        McDougal said The National Enquirer paid her for her story but did not publish it.    The supermarket tabloid is owned by American Media, led by Trump friend David Pecker.
        The attorneys described a similar effort to prevent Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from publicizing her claims about a sexual fling with Trump.
        Cohen paid Daniels “in coordination with and at the direction of Client- 1, and others within” The Trump Organization, they wrote.
        Cohen’s attorneys asked for leniency based on his voluntary cooperation with the investigations by Mueller and federal prosecutors, and with Trump-related investigations by the New York Attorney General’s Office and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
        “He could have fought the government and continued to hold to the party line, positioning himself for a pardon or clemency,” Petrillo and Lester wrote.
        “But, instead — for himself, his family, and his country — he took personal responsibility for his own wrongdoing and contributed, and is prepared to continue to contribute, to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital.”
    Michael Cohen offered a “rose-colored view” of his
    past criminal conduct, prosecutors in New York said. RICHARD DREW AP
    .

    12/8/2018 Repeated lies doom Manafort plea deal - Mueller filing is warning to future witnesses by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, lied to prosecutors repeatedly despite his plea deal to cooperate, according to a filing Friday from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.
        The lies covered Manafort’s interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national also under indictment; a $125,000 wire transfer and his contacts with Trump administration officials, according to the 10-page filing.
        “As summarized above, in his interviews with the special counsel’s office and the FBI, Manafort told multiple discernible lies – these were not instances of mere memory lapses,” according to Mueller’s filing.
        U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson decided Friday to allow Mueller to file some details about the lies under seal.    The accusations about Kilimnik are largely blacked out.
        But even the redacted version stated that Manafort lied about a $125,000 payment made toward a debt incurred by Manafort. The debt and the firms involved aren’t described.
        After signing his plea agreement, Manafort told prosecutors that he had no direct or indirect communications with anyone in the administration while they were in the administration, according to the filing.
        But “the evidence demonstrates that Manafort lied about his contacts,” the filing said.    For example, Manafort authorized a person May 26, 2018, to speak with an administration official on his behalf.    Documents revealed other contacts.
        Terree Bowers, a former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles now in private practice at Arent Fox, said keeping the filing under seal is part of Mueller’s classical investigative approach of starting with subordinates then moving higher up the chain of command.
        “It suggests that the overwhelming majority of the document, if not all of it, is confidential information that they don’t want out at this point in the investigation,” Bowers said.
        Because Manafort has a joint defense agreement with Trump, the move could also limit what is shared with the president, Bowers said.
        “Given the allegations that Manafort’s lawyers have been relaying information to Trump and his lawyers, they have to be somewhat concerned about revealing various legal theories and what they have left to pursue factually,” Bowers said.    “Even the exact areas where they think Manafort has lied would be invaluable for Trump and others to know at this point.”
        Mueller voided the plea agreement Nov. 26 because of how Manafort tried to mislead prosecutors investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.    The shocking move lost Manafort a chance at a shorter prison term, but also cost Mueller a highly placed witness.
        In revealing the collapse of the plea deal, Mueller signaled that he had learned enough during his 18-month investigation to determine that Manafort was lying. The move also served as a warning to other witnesses: Don’t lie.
        Mueller and his team still have the cooperation of Manafort’s top deputy, Rick Gates; Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
        But Manafort was a key figure in the Russia inquiry.    He was Trump’s campaign manager from March until August of 2016, during a crucial part of the campaign when Trump secured the Republican nomination and the GOP held its convention in Cleveland.
        A jury convicted Manafort of eight bank and tax charges in August for representing a pro-Russia faction in Ukraine.
        But he’s also a tainted witness after pleading guilty in September to conspiring to obstruct justice, for urging other witnesses to provide inaccurate accounts to investigators while he was in custody.
    Much of the report about Paul Manafort was kept under seal. SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE

    12/8/2018 House GOP releases Comey transcript lawmakers are asking for a second testimony in near future by OAN Newsroom
        The transcipt from former FBI Director James Comey’s closed-door testimony is released by House Republicans.
        Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the filing Saturday, is Comey’s admission regarding the FISA used to surveil Carter Page.
    Former FBI Director James Comey, with his attorney, David Kelley, right, speaks to reporters
    after a day of testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees,
    on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        The former FBI official said much of the dossier was uncorroborated when it was used to obtain the warrant.
        In fact, Comey said much of the dossier was unverified even when he was fired by President Trump six months later.
        Lawmakers have voiced their displeasure with Comey, saying in his meeting, he failed to answer key questions.
    [The uncorroborated and unverified dossier means there were persons in the Obama administration that need to be brought to justice for abusing the F.I.S.A. court to get illegal surveilance done on an innocent citizen.
    And I hope you notice that the "Fake News" are not printing the above only accusing Trump    .].

    12/8/2018 President Trump on Russia probe: no proof of collusion after 2 years by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump continues to deride Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe as new revelations emerge.     In a tweet Saturday, he said Mueller has failed to prove collusion after “two years and millions of pages of documents.”
    President Donald Trump exits the Marine One helicopter as he returns to the White House,
    Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, in Washington, after speaking at the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        The president went on to suggest, the ongoing investigation has cost more than $30 million.
        This comes after the release of the special counsel’s court filings detailing alleged crimes by Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
        President trump has repeatedly questioned Mueller’s credibility and said his latest findings “totally clear him.”
        Trump tweet: “AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!”

    12/8/2018 Report: Pres. Trump demanding South Korea increase funding for U.S. troops by OAN Newsroom
        The president is reportedly urging South Korea to commit more funding for U.S. troops stationed in the Asian nation.
    U.S. Army soldiers at the June opening ceremony for the new headquarters
    of the U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. PHOTO: AHN YOUNG-JOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
        According to a report from the Wall Street Journal released Friday, the president is seeking to have South Korea pay up to $1.6 billion annually.
        Currently under an agreement between the countries, which expires at the end of the year, South Korea gives the U.S. $830 million annually, in relation to the 28,000 soldiers deployed there.
        The report also suggests South Korean president Moon Jae-In is not inclined to increase funding.
        Representatives from both countries are set to meet next week.

    12/8/2018 Wikileaks requests judge dismiss lawsuit filed by the DNC by OAN Newsroom
        Wikileaks issues its first legal response to a lawsuit filed by the DNC.
        Wikileaks submitted a motion Friday in a Manhattan federal court, asking for the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, citing first amendment rights.
    FILE – In this May 19, 2017 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters from a balcony of the
    Ecuadorian embassy in London. Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno said in a radio interview Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018,
    Britain has provided sufficient guarantees for Assange to leave his government’s embassy in London,
    where the WikiLeaks founder has been living under asylum since 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
        The defense lawyers argue the lawsuit sets a dangerous precedent, because it aims to block the publication of truthful information gathered by whistle blowers.
        This comes after the DNC filed its lawsuit back in April, alleging Wikileaks worked with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.
        Julian Assange denies the allegations, claiming his source is not associated with the Kremlin.
    [When are the criminally perverted Democrat regime going to get over this the Russians did it, and let Assange come back and prove it.].

    12/8/2018 Brussels police arrest hundreds in ‘yellow vest’ riot
    Demonstrators clash with police during the "yellow vests" protest against
    higher fuel prices, in Brussels, Belgium, December 8, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian police detained more than 400 people on Saturday after “yellow vest” protesters inspired by riots in France threw rocks and firecrackers and damaged shops and cars as they tried to reach official buildings in Brussels.
        In the second violence of its kind in the capital in eight days, a crowd which police estimated at around 1,000 faced riot squads who used water cannon and tear gas to keep people away from the European Union headquarters and the nearby Belgian government quarter.    Calm was restored after about five hours.
        The movement in Belgium, inspired by the “gilets jaunes,” or yellow vest, protests in neighboring France over the past month, has given voice to complaints about the cost of living and demanded the removal of Belgium’s center-right coalition government, six months before a national election is due in May.
        French police said more than 30,000 people demonstrated there and more than 30 people were injured in a second successive Saturday of violence in Paris.
        Belgian protesters wearing the fluorescent yellow vests carried by all motorists for emergencies also briefly blocked a motorway near Belgium’s border with France.
    (Reporting by Clement Rossignol and Robin Emmott; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Edmund Blair)
    [There seems to be a revolution of the people of nation of the European Union are wanting changes in the way that things are being run.].

    12/9/2018 Macron prepares response to ‘yellow vest’ protesters as Paris cleans up by Geert De Clercq and Elena Gyldenkerne Massa
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron sits across from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
    at the start of a meeting at the Elysee Palace day after clashes between police and yellow vest protesters,
    in Paris, France, December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/Pool
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will address the country on Monday as he seeks to placate “yellow vest” anti-government protesters who wreaked havoc in Paris this weekend.
        On Sunday, workers in Paris and other cities swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars while the government warned of slower economic growth and the judiciary said it would come down hard on looting and attacks on police.
        On Saturday, protesters, for the fourth weekend in a row, threw stones, torched cars and vandalized shops and restaurants in a protest against Macron’s economic policies.
        The Elysee palace said on Sunday that Macron, elected in May 2017, would address the country on Monday evening at 2000 Paris time (1900 GMT).
        On Monday morning, he will meet with trade unions, employers’ organizations and local elected officials as he tries to formulate a response to an unstructured movement that has taken France by storm and broken through traditional political and trade union communication channels with the government.
        Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said on LCI television Macron would announce “concrete and immediate” measures, but that this would not include boosting the minimum wage.
        “Increasing the minimum wage would destroy jobs.    Many small business cannot afford it and risk going bankrupt,” she said.
        Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux warned against unrealistic expectations.
        “Not all the problems of the yellow vest protesters will be solved by waving a magic wand,” he said.
    “FIGHT TILL EASTER”
        Demonstrators were unimpressed with the government’s overtures, continuing their blockade of traffic roundabouts nationwide and vowing to fight on.
        “I will stay here until Easter, if necessary,” a protester called Didier told BFM television in Frejus, southern France.
        Macron’s last televised address was on Nov 27, when he said he would not be bounced into changing policy by “thugs.”
        Since then, he canceled a planned rise in fuel taxes last Tuesday to try to defuse the situation but the protests have morphed into a broader anti-Macron rebellion.
        The upheaval in the Christmas shopping season has dealt a heavy blow to retailing, tourism and manufacturing as road blocks disrupt supply chains.
        On Saturday, the Eiffel Tower and several museums closed their doors for security reasons, as did top Paris department stores on what should have been a prime shopping weekend.
        The protest movement will have “a severe impact” on the economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said as he toured a heavily looted central Paris neighborhood.
        “We must expect a new slowdown of economic growth at year-end,” he said.
        In mid-November, the central bank had forecast 0.4 percent fourth-quarter growth.    Economists said at that time that the economy would need to grow at 0.8 percent in the final three months to hit the government’s 1.7 percent annual growth forecast.
    “GIVE BACK THE MONEY”
        Authorities said 136,000 people had taken part in protests across France on Saturday, including 10,000 in Paris.    More than 1,709 had been arrested, of which 1,000 were in Paris. More than 100 remained in custody.
        “We cannot let people think they can come to trash everything and then happily go back home without facing judicial sanctions,” Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters.
        Across the city, banks, toy shops, opticians and other retail outlets had boarded up storefronts smashed by protesters.
        “You won’t make it past Christmas, Emmanuel,” read the graffiti on a boarded-up shop near the Champs Elysees.
        Gregory Caray was relieved to see his furniture shop had not been vandalized.
        “You can understand the yellow vests movement.    But this is completely unacceptable.    It has been three weekends in a row now.    Look around you, everything is broken,” he said.
        Named after the fluorescent yellow safety vests French motorists must carry, the protests erupted on Nov. 17, when nearly 300,000 demonstrators nationwide took to the streets to denounce high living costs and Macron’s economic reforms.
        At Place de la Republique, Bertrand Cruzatier watched cleaners scrub out anti-Macron grafitti.
        “I don’t know if Macron’s resignation is necessary, but he must completely change course,” he said.
        Overhead, a banner hanging from the statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, read: “Give back the money.”
    (Rerporting by Geert De Clercq, Elena Gyldenkerne Massa, Ardee Napolitano and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky/Keith Weir/Jane Merriman)

    12/9/2018 Brexit redux? Lessons for the future from May’s deal by Alastair Macdonald
    FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attends a news conference after an extraordinary
    EU leaders summit to finalise and formalise the Brexit agreement in Brussels, Belgium November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The story of how Prime Minister Theresa May reached agreement on how Britain can leave the European Union offers lessons for the future of Brexit, whatever happens when parliament votes on the deal on Tuesday.
        In conversations with nearly a dozen people closely involved on both the British and EU sides of the negotiations over the past two years, Reuters has identified three major themes in the process that will continue to shape a vital economic partnership as officials and diplomats look toward the next phase. UNITY IS STRENGTH
        “We could have run round like headless chickens.    But we were able to vaccinate member states against the British spin machine we always feared.” – senior EU official after Nov. 14 deal.
        British diplomats saw early advantage in negotiating as one country against 27.    But if “divide and rule” was London’s tactic on the continent in its days of empire, the tables were turned.impressive/i>.”
        From Day One, Brussels rallied the 27 other EU nations, warning that any sweetheart deal to protect trade with Britain could spur copycat demands and unravel the bloc.
        Chancellor Angela Merkel notably warned German industry in October 2016 against British “cherry picking” as it would undermine the EU single market that had helped make it rich.
        Where British negotiators under May adviser Oliver Robbins had to cope with a cabinet at war and successive resignations of pro-Brexit ministers, EU leaders delegated broad responsibility to Jean-Claude Juncker’s executive European Commission and its negotiator Michel Barnier, a former French foreign minister.
        Few diplomats dissent from the view that, as British Brexit opponent, former minister and former EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson put it last week, the Union team “played a blinder.”
        Barnier criss-crossed Europe meeting interested parties from Estonian trade unions to Ulster farmers but also worked within an elaborate system of consultation within Brussels to keep all member states, and EU lawmakers, regularly informed and onside.
        By releasing normally confidential negotiating documents, he turned the EU’s inveterate leakiness into a strength, creating a “transparency” that frustrated British efforts to keep offers and demands insulated from the heat of public debate back home.
        With his German and French lieutenants, Sabine Weyand and Stephanie Riso, he won trust from leaders.    That was vital to get their swift approval for a deal which, when negotiators emerged from weeks incommunicado in “the tunnel” of all-night talks and delivery pizza, surprised many in the EU by offering substantial concessions to London on customs to resolve Irish border issues.
        If May manages, on Tuesday or later, to get her deal through parliament, the EU is already preparing to replicate the Barnier model in some form, well aware that talks from April on a future trade pact will test their unity more as all 27 governments seek national goals, from fishing rights to smooth supply chains.
    THE HUNT FOR UNICORNS GOES ON
        “We’re not after a unicorn – just a horse with a shell on its head:” British official on a customs deal, December 2018.
        May’s quest for “frictionless trade” after Brexit ran up against Barnier’s contention that it was impossible to match the fluidity of trade once, as the prime minister had insisted, Britain leaves both the EU single market and the customs union.
        Efforts to keep trade access after leaving were met with “Barnier’s staircase” – a graphic depiction of levels of access at varying prices, dependent on EU obligations.
        But it was the United Kingdom’s geographical status as not quite an island nation that forced future trading relations into the center of the battle over terms for withdrawal – to avoid new troubles in Britain’s province of Northern Ireland through setting up customs posts on the EU-UK land border with Ireland.
        The issue of the “Irish backstop” emerged as the main block on a deal a year ago.    That it took a year to agree and may yet be the issue that breaks the deal in parliament, underlines how far customs terms and triggering the backstop will remain key.
        Also important is that each side interprets the genesis and future of the compromise differently, suggesting trouble ahead.
        Barnier’s first Irish solution was to keep Northern Ireland in an EU customs union.    That outraged May’s key Belfast allies.    She proposed an “all-UK backstop,” keeping a customs pact with the EU until “invisible” hi-tech frontier checks were in place.
        EU negotiators derided such future technology as “magical thinking,” a hunt for the “unicorn,” and they feared May was trying to get easy single market access by the back door.
        That the compromise backstop, complete with heavy demands on Britain to follow EU rules, says new border technology may later replace customs union rules is seen in Brussels as a way for May to avoid admitting a U-turn on customs to British voters.    But for London, that technological solution remains very real.
        Keeping the UK in a customs union is just a “bridge” to a high-tech future, British officials insist, not the future itself.    And if technology is still elusive, they will not, as one EU official urged, “stop hunting the unicorn.”    That, they say, is because automated checks do not mean a perfectly open border, just the appearance of one – not a unicorn but a horse with a seashell on its forehead, as one UK negotiator put it.
    THE CLOCK IS TICKING
        “The clock is ticking:” chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, countless times since May filed for divorce on March 29, 2017.
        Time pressure has played a vital role in the process, from the EU’s push to get May to trigger the two-year countdown by refusing to negotiate with her before she did to the prospect of major disruption in March if London fails to agree a deal now.
        Article 50 of the EU treaty was written to avoid prolonged negotiation on withdrawal.    Brussels will continue to use that pressure – any extension of talks can only be for at most a year and only with unanimous approval of the 27.    And Brussels insists it will be ready for a “no deal” crashing out if needed.
        Barnier particularly used time pressure to refuse to discuss future trading relations until after May settled key elements of the divorce – money, citizens and the Irish backstop.    British officials found that infuriating and note that, in the end, the Irish border problem was only solved by agreeing to a customs deal that meant indeed discussing future trade terms.
        If the deal survives, time pressure will quickly reappear – July 2020 will loom large as a deadline for deciding whether to extend a status-quo transition period to give more time for talks to avoid triggering the backstop.    If negotiations stall, business will find itself hurtling toward a new “cliff edge” of disruptive withdrawal when transition ends at end-2020.
        Expect to hear the French and Germans soon start intoning again – in English for clarity – “The clock is ticking…”
    (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Giles Elgood)

    12/9/2018 Chile declines to sign U.N. pact, says migration not a human right: report by Aislinn Laing
    FILE PHOTO: An Haitian immigrant walks past a banner that reads "All immigrant is my brother. Welcome!",
    outside a church in Santiago, Chile, December 18, 2016. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/File Photo
        SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile has become the latest country to pull out of a controversial United Nations migration pact, its interior ministry indicated, provoking fury among opposition parties who accused Sebastian Pinera’s government of “shameful and authoritarian” behavior.
        Rodrigo Ubilla, Chile’s Interior Ministry subsecretary, told Chilean Sunday paper El Mercurio in an interview that the country’s representatives would not attend the event to adopt the pact early next week in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.
        “Our position is clear,” he said.    “We have said that migration is not a human right.    Countries have a right to determine the entry requirements for foreign citizens.”
        Chile’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation of the policy.
        The migration pact addresses issues such as how to protect people who migrate, integrate them into new countries or return them to their home countries.
        It is non-binding but has met fierce resistance from governments including the United States, Austria, Hungary and Poland who frame it as encouraging migration.
        If confirmed, Chile’s refusal to sign reflects its hardening stance towards migrants whose population has grown fivefold in 30 years amid influxes from Venezuela, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, among other Latin nations.
        Centre-right Pinera’s government came to office in March on a promise to enforce stricter measures.    In recent months, it as put on “repatriation” flights for Haitian migrants wanting to come home, tightened visa controls and deported migrants with criminal records. (https://reut.rs/2QoeFbs)
        Ricardo Lagos Weber, the president of the foreign affairs commission for Chile’s senate, summoned foreign minister Roberto Ampuero to explain the closed-door decision.
        “This is not a great way to find out about a subject of such tremendous importance,” he told El Mercurio.    “I understand that foreign policy is led by the President of the Republic but we could at least discuss it.”
        Hugo Gutierrez, a human rights lawyer and lawmaker for Chile’s Communist Party, wrote on Twitter that Chile was advancing down “the ultraright path of Trump, Netanyahu and Bolsonaro,” referring to the U.S., Israeli and Brazilian presidents.
        Chile’s Progressive Party described the Pinera government decision as “shameful and authoritarian.”
        Amnesty International said it was “alarming.”    “Chile was an active part of this pact’s negotiations and was considered one of the states that favored its implementation,” Ana Piquer, Amnesty’s executive director in Chile, told La Tercera newspaper.    “The last-minute decision not to participate in the Morocco summit seems a step back on its promise of affording rights to migrants.”
    (Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

    12/9/2018 Peruvians head to polls in referendum on anti-corruption reforms by Marco Aquino
    Peru's President Martin Vizcarra votes during a referendum on judicial and
    political reforms in Lima, Peru December 9, 2018. Peruvian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
        Lima (Reuters) – Peruvians began voting on Sunday in a referendum on a raft of political and judicial reforms introduced by the new government of President Martin Vizcarra aimed at stamping out corruption and cronyism in one of Latin America’s most promising economies.
        The proposals were announced in August following a series of corruption scandals involving high-ranking officials and politicians, and were reluctantly approved by a unicameral congress dominated by the opposition.
        The referendum asks Peruvians whether or not they agree with the creation of a second chamber in congress and a ban on the re-election of lawmakers.
        A total of 24.3 million eligible Peruvians are set to vote on whether to approve a bill that regulates the financing of political parties, and the overhaul of the National Council of Magistrates, a seven-member panel that selects and oversees judges and prosecutors, following an influence-trafficking scandal in July.
        Election day began at most polling stations at 8 am local time (1300 GMT) with the polls set to be open for eight hours.    The vote is mandatory in Peru, under penalty of a fine.
        Vizcarra, who took office in March after the resignation of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski amid accusations of corruption, has been accused by the opposition of politicizing the vote, resulting in a lack of enthusiasm among Peruvians weary of politicking and scandal.
        “We are not saying that these reforms will resolve the problems.    This is a preliminary step,” Vizcarra told journalists on Sunday as he voted in the southern region of Moquegua.
        He has backed all the proposed reforms except for creation of a bicameral congress.    Vizcarra said that had been “distorted” by the current congress at the last minute, by removing legislative control from the executive in favor of the new chambers of deputies and senators.
        The last bicameral congress was dissolved by then president Alberto Fujimori in 1992, when he accused parliament of obstructing security and economic reforms.    His detractors said he had done so to frustrate corruption investigations and consolidate his power.
        A poll by Ipsos Peru released on Saturday said that a large majority of Peruvians would vote in what is likely to be seen as a political victory of President Vizcarra against the powerful Conservative opposition led by former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori.
        Keiko Fujimori was detained in October pending investigation into her party’s alleged receiving of cash from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht for its 2011 campaign. [L2N1WQ14A]
    (Reporting by Marco Aquino, writing by Aislinn Laing; editing by Bill Berkrot)

    12/9/2018 President Trump: Administration has accomplished more than other by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump touts the success of his administration and slams the “fake news media” for not reporting on it.
        The President took to Twitter Sunday, saying the Trump Administration has accomplished more than any other in its nearly two-year existence, and is having a “great time” doing it.
        He added this is happening despite the so-called “fake news media,” which he claims has gone totally out of its mind.
        President Trump emphasized that “fake news” is the enemy of the people.

    12/9/2018 Rep. John Curtis comments on trade war with China by OAN Newsroom
        Congressman John Curtis says the trade war with China is escalating despite the ongoing negotiations.
    In this Oct. 8, 2018, photo, tugboats move a container ship to the dockyard of a seaport in Qingdao in eastern
    China’s Shandong province. Customs data on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018 showed China’s trade surplus with the United States widened to a
    record $34.1 billion September as exports to the U.S. market rose by 13 percent over a year earlier despite a worsening tariff war. (Chinatopix via AP)
        Representative Curtis, in an interview earlier Sunday, said the trade tensions have affected the U.S. stock market, as well as agricultural producers and small businesses.
        The Utah republican called on President Trump to strengthen America’s trading relations with other partners to offset China-related risks.
        He urged congress to ratify the USMCA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and added the U.S. must take every possible step to win the trade war with china.

    [Here is what is obviously the information leaked from the left.]
    12/10/2018 Comey details origin of Russia probe - ‘Four Americans’ with Trump ties were focus by Christal Hayes, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – In a closed-door meeting with members of two congressional committees, former FBI Director James Comey was grilled on his handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the beginning days of the Russia investigation.
        While Comey dodged questions pertaining to the ongoing Russia investigation that special counsel Robert Mueller now oversees, he did provide new insight into the origins of the probe, according to a transcript of his Friday appearance that was released Saturday.
        Comey said the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia originated with four Americans who were thought to be potentially helping the Kremlin in its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
        Comey didn’t identify the Americans, explaining to lawmakers the individuals had not been named by the FBI publicly.    But he said they were “four Americans who had some connection to Mr. Trump during the summer of 2016” and were tied to “the Russian interference effort.”
        The former FBI director, who oversaw the probe and was fired by Trump last year, said that the investigation was started toward the end of July 2016 and was not examining the Trump campaign or Trump himself, but rather four Americans.
        Comey said before July 2016, the FBI was examining a broader effort into Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. elections but was not aware of Americans helping in their effort.
        He told lawmakers he was first made aware of the broader Russian effort in June with the hacking and release of emails from the Democratic National Committee.
        He also fought back on criticism about the start of the FBI’s investigation.    Comey argued that the controversial dossier by British spy Christopher Steele was not what spurred the investigation or the crux of what led agents to request a surveillance warrant for Carter Page, who at the time worked as a foreign policy aide on Trump’s campaign.
        Comey said the “basis” for the tart of the FBI’s investigation was “information we’d received about a conversation that a Trump foreign – campaign foreign policy adviser had with an individual in London about stolen emails that the Russians had that would be harmful to Hillary Clinton.”
        Comey added that “it was weeks or months later that the so-called Steele dossier came to our attention.”
        The London meeting was one had by George Papadopoulos, who is one of several connected to Trump’s campaign who have been charged in the ongoing investigation.
        The president, who has railed against the investigation and dubbed it a “witch hunt,” and other Republican lawmakers have used Page’s surveillance warrant to hurl accusations that the government abused surveillance laws in an effort to monitor Trump’s campaign.
        The Republican-led committee interviewed Comey on Friday as part of its investigation into actions by the Justice Department and the FBI in 2016.
    .     The questioning largely centered on well-covered territory from a Justice Department inspector general report, Comey’s own book and interviews and hours of public testimony on Capitol Hill.
        Lawmakers clashed with Comey multiple times throughout his testimony.    Comey was stopped several times by an attorney for the FBI from answering questions, many of which revolved around the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the election and possible obstruction by the president.
    [NOTE COMEY WAS FIRED SO WHY DOES HE HAVE A DOJ ATTORNEY SITTING WITH HIM TELLING HIM WHICH QUESTIONS TO NOT ANSWER.    IS SOMEONE COVERING THEIR ASSES SINCE THIS GOES WAY ABOVE COMEY?].
        But the former FBI chief used the occasion to take aim at Trump’s public barbs at the criminal justice system, saying “we have become numb to lying and attacks on the rule of law by the president,” and Trump’s suggestion that it should be a crime for subjects to “flip” and cooperate with investigators.
        “It’s a shocking suggestion coming from any senior official, no less the president.    It’s a critical and legitimate part of the entire justice system in the United States,” Comey said.
        Comey also used his time before lawmakers to take on issues, such as Clinton’s funding of the dossier, and two FBI employees who traded anti-Trump text messages.
        He also cast doubt on public assertions by the president that Comey was “best friends” with Mueller.
        “I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number, I’ve never been to his house, I don’t know his children’s names,” Comey said.
        “I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant.    I like him.    I am not a – I’m an associate of his who admires him greatly.    We’re not friends in any social sense.”
        He added he’d “never hugged or kissed the man” despite comments made by Trump in the past.
        “A relief to my wife,” he deadpanned.
    Contributing: Associated Press
    FBI Director James Comey, shown in 2017 at the Senate Judiciary Committee, talked Friday
    to lawmakers about the Russia probe. JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    12/10/2018 Macron prepares response to ‘yellow vest’ protesters as Paris cleans up by Geert De Clercq and Elena Gyldenkerne Massa
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron sits across from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe at the start of a
    meeting at the Elysee Palace day after clashes between police and yellow vest protesters, in Paris, France, December 2, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/Pool
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will address the country on Monday as he seeks to placate “yellow vest” anti-government protesters who wreaked havoc in Paris this weekend.
        On Sunday, workers in Paris and other cities swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars while the government warned of slower economic growth and the judiciary said it would come down hard on looting and attacks on police.
        On Saturday, protesters, for the fourth weekend in a row, threw stones, torched cars and vandalized shops and restaurants in a protest against Macron’s economic policies.
        The Elysee palace said on Sunday that Macron, elected in May 2017, would address the country on Monday evening at 2000 Paris time (1900 GMT).
        On Monday morning, he will meet with trade unions, employers’ organizations and local elected officials as he tries to formulate a response to an unstructured movement that has taken France by storm and broken through traditional political and trade union communication channels with the government.
        Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said on LCI television Macron would announce “concrete and immediate” measures, but that this would not include boosting the minimum wage.
        “Increasing the minimum wage would destroy jobs.    Many small business cannot afford it and risk going bankrupt,” she said.
        Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux warned against unrealistic expectations.
        “Not all the problems of the yellow vest protesters will be solved by waving a magic wand,” he said.
    “FIGHT TILL EASTER”
        Demonstrators were unimpressed with the government’s overtures, continuing their blockade of traffic roundabouts nationwide and vowing to fight on.
        “I will stay here until Easter, if necessary,” a protester called Didier told BFM television in Frejus, southern France.
        Macron’s last televised address was on Nov 27, when he said he would not be bounced into changing policy by “thugs.”
        Since then, he canceled a planned rise in fuel taxes last Tuesday to try to defuse the situation but the protests have morphed into a broader anti-Macron rebellion.
        The upheaval in the Christmas shopping season has dealt a heavy blow to retailing, tourism and manufacturing as road blocks disrupt supply chains.
        On Saturday, the Eiffel Tower and several museums closed their doors for security reasons, as did top Paris department stores on what should have been a prime shopping weekend.
        The protest movement will have “a severe impact” on the economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said as he toured a heavily looted central Paris neighborhood.
        “We must expect a new slowdown of economic growth at year-end,” he said.
        In mid-November, the central bank had forecast 0.4 percent fourth-quarter growth.    Economists said at that time that the economy would need to grow at 0.8 percent in the final three months to hit the government’s 1.7 percent annual growth forecast.
    “GIVE BACK THE MONEY”
        Authorities said 136,000 people had taken part in protests across France on Saturday, including 10,000 in Paris. More than 1,709 had been arrested, of which 1,000 were in Paris. More than 100 remained in custody.
        “We cannot let people think they can come to trash everything and then happily go back home without facing judicial sanctions,” Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters.
        Across the city, banks, toy shops, opticians and other retail outlets had boarded up storefronts smashed by protesters.
        “You won’t make it past Christmas, Emmanuel,” read the graffiti on a boarded-up shop near the Champs Elysees.
        Gregory Caray was relieved to see his furniture shop had not been vandalized.
        “You can understand the yellow vests movement.    But this is completely unacceptable.    It has been three weekends in a row now. Look around you, everything is broken,” he said.
        Named after the fluorescent yellow safety vests French motorists must carry, the protests erupted on Nov. 17, when nearly 300,000 demonstrators nationwide took to the streets to denounce high living costs and Macron’s economic reforms.
        At Place de la Republique, Bertrand Cruzatier watched cleaners scrub out anti-Macron grafitti.
        “I don’t know if Macron’s resignation is necessary, but he must completely change course,” he said.
        Overhead, a banner hanging from the statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, read: “Give back the money.”
    (Rerporting by Geert De Clercq, Elena Gyldenkerne Massa, Ardee Napolitano and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky/Keith Weir/Jane Merriman)

    12/10/2018 EU’s top court says UK can unilaterally stop Brexit by Michele Sinner and Michael Holden
    Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave flags during a protest opposite the Houses of Parliament, London, Britain, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
        LUXEMBOURG/LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union’s top court ruled on Monday that the United Kingdom can unilaterally revoke its divorce notice, raising the hopes of pro-Europeans ahead of a crucial vote in the British parliament on Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal.
        Just 36 hours before British lawmakers vote on May’s deal, the Court of Justice said in an emergency judgment that London could revoke its Article 50 formal divorce notice with no penalty.
        May’s government said the ruling means nothing because it has no intention of reversing its decision to leave the EU on March 29.    But critics of her deal say the ruling provides options — either to delay Brexit and renegotiate withdrawal terms, or cancel it if British voters change their minds.
        The timing of the ruling on the eve of the British parliamentary vote was not a coincidence: the court said it had ruled with unprecedented haste to ensure that British lawmakers would understand their options.
        It also defied the EU’s own executive, which had argued permission was needed from other EU states to stop Brexit.    Britain could stay with no penalty, it ruled, despite some European leaders saying it should have to give up perks agreed over the years, such as a valuable rebate on its dues.
        “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU,” it said.    “Such a revocation, decided in accordance with its own national constitutional requirements, would have the effect that the United Kingdom remains in the EU under terms that are unchanged.”
        Arriving to meet EU counterparts in Brussels, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the ruling “irrelevant.”    The majority of British voters, who decided in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU, would be “shocked and very angry” if Brexit were halted.
        But Alyn Smith, a Scottish nationalist member of the European Parliament and one of the Brexit opponents who had brought the case to the top EU court in Luxembourg, said the ruling “sends a clear message to UK MPs ahead of tomorrow’s vote that there is a way out of this mess.”
        The future of Brexit remains deeply uncertain as dozens of lawmakers — both those who back a cleaner break with the EU and those who want closer ties — have publicly promised to vote down May’s divorce deal.
        Opponents say the deal could keep Britain subject to some EU rules indefinitely, even after it gives up its influence over setting them.    May’s government says the terms are the only way to exit while protecting the supply chains of British business.    Both Brussels and London say there is no scope to renegotiate.    In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52 percent, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48 percent, backed staying.    Polls suggest a re-run would still be close, although some older voters, who mainly voted to leave, have died and young people who mostly want to stay have reached voting age.
    BREXIT REVERSED?
        Campaigners hoping to stop Brexit have been buoyed in recent weeks as May herself warned that if her deal was defeated then the United Kingdom could face either a no deal Brexit or no Brexit at all.
        Both May’s ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party are publicly committed to carrying out Brexit.    But a no-deal Brexit is seen as so disruptive that parliament would be under strong pressure to block it.
        A growing number of backbench members of parliament says the only way out may be a new referendum, an option publicly backed by three of the four living former prime ministers.
        Michael Gove, the most prominent Brexit campaigner in the British government, said the ruling “doesn’t alter either the referendum vote or the clear intention of the government to leave on March 29.”
        “We don’t want to stay in the EU,” Gove, who serves as environment minister, told BBC radio.    “We voted very clearly. 17.4 million people sent a clear message that we wanted to leave the European Union and that also means leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice."
        British newspapers have reported that May could delay the Dec. 11 vote on her deal.    The Northern Irish party which props up her government has suggested she should dash to Brussels to clinch better terms.    The EU says the agreement is the best it can offer and its substance cannot be changed.
        Gove said the vote would go ahead as planned.    Current forecasts indicate May’s deal will be defeated, a step that would thrust the government’s Brexit plans into confusion.
    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Peter Graff)

    12/10/2018 EU foreign ministers hope British parliament approves Brexit deal
    An anti-Brexit protester shelters under an EU flag themed umbrella opposite the
    Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union’s foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday said they hoped the UK parliament would approve in a vote on Tuesday the bloc’s Brexit deal negotiated by British Prime Minister Theresa May.
        A day before the vote in the House of Commons, Ireland’s Simon Coveney said the tentative Brexit deal “is not going to change.”    Britain’s Jeremy Hunt warned of “real risks” if the agreement is voted down.
        As the ministers were arriving for talks, the EU’s top court ruled that Britain could unilaterally revoke its decision to leave the bloc, without the consent of the other 27 EU states.
        “This is the best deal we can have,” Spain’s Josep Borrell told journalists on entering the meeting.
        “This is the best deal and approving this deal would be a good thing, but for sure it’s up to them.”
        Germany’s Haiko Maas echoed that: “I hope that good decisions will be taken this week in London, employing the utmost reason.”
        Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29 but there is broad opposition to May’s deal among British lawmakers.    If the deal is voted down on Tuesday, it could mean more negotiations, delaying Brexit or ousting May, among other possibilities.
        While the bloc has insisted the deal would not be reopened, Coveney’s remarks point to the possibility of tweaking the political declaration on the future EU-UK ties that accompanies the legal withdrawal treaty.
        In any case, the Irish backstop – a key point of contention – would remain an essential part of the agreement, Coveney said.
        EU national leaders will discuss the matter when they meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
        The most damaging scenario for both sides would see Britain crashing out of the bloc with no agreement to mitigate the disruption in trade, economy and security cooperation.
        Belgium’s Didier Reynders said the EU was ready to move ahead with the tentative deal, but added: “Or, we’ll manage a no-deal.”
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

    12/10/2018 Long-distance rail traffic in Germany halted due to strike
    A commuter stands on a platform during a rail workers' strike across the country due to a pay dispute
    with Deutsche Bahn at the Hauptbahnhof main train station in Berlin, Germany, December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
        BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Rail workers in Germany staged a four-hour strike over pay on Monday morning, bringing long-distance rail traffic to a standstill and disrupting commuter and freight trains, state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn said.
        The company said that regional train traffic, too, was significantly affected across Germany, with only a few commuter trains operating in the cities of Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
        “Currently long distance traffic is suspended,” Deutsche Bahn said on its website.    It also said freight trains faced severe disruptions.
        The strike from 0400 GMT to 0800 GMT, comes after wage talks between railway union EVG and Deutsche Bahn broke down on Saturday.    A warning from EVG, which represents most railway industry workers and professionals, that strike action is inevitable has raised fears that Christmas travel could be disrupted.
        “We are asking the EVG to return to the negotiation table,” a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said.    “We are ready to talk.”
    (Reporting by Thomas Seythal and Christoph Steitz; editing by Riham Alkousaa and Raissa Kasolowsky)

    12/10/2018 Swedish Centre Party says to vote ‘no’ to Social Democrat leader Lofven as PM
    FILE PHOTO: Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven arrives at a European Union leaders
    summit in Brussels, Belgium October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
        STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Centre leader Annie Loof said her party will not support Social Democrat leader Stefan Lofven as Sweden’s prime minister after talks over a deal failed, putting attempts at forming a government back to square one, three months after an election.
        “We have taken a decision to vote ‘no’ to Stefan Lofven as prime minister,” Loof told reporters on Monday.
        The Centre Party and the Liberals said last month they were willing to support Lofven if he agreed to lower taxes and free up restrictive labor laws.
    (Reporting by Simon Johnson)

    12/10/2018 U.N. Secretary General seeks to promote global migration pact amid objections
    FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gives a statement after delivering a speech on
    disarmament and denuclearization at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Geneva, Switzerland, May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
        MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres sought to promote a global pact on migrant flows at a U.N. conference in Morocco on Monday, saying developed countries needed more migration due to their declining birth rates and aging populations.
        He was speaking at the start of the conference in Marrakesh where U.N. states are due on Monday adopt the so-called Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
        In July, all 193 U.N. members except the United States finalised the non-binding pact.    But since then, the text has come under fire from right-wing European politicians who say it could lead to an increase in migration.
        At least six European Union members – mostly in Eastern Europe – have shunned the accord.    On Sunday Chile was the latest country to pull out, while Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel saw the biggest party in his coalition quit in a dispute over the accord.
        “In the many places where fertility is declining and life expectancy is rising, economies will stagnate and people will suffer without migration,” Guterres said in his opening address.
        “It is clear that most developed countries need migrants across a broad spectrum of vital roles, from caring for elderly people to preventing the collapse of health services,” he said.
        The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a framework for cooperation and aims to reduce illegal migration, help integrate migrants and return them to their home countries.
    (Reporting by Ulf Laessing)

    12/10/2018 Few Venezuelans turn out for municipal elections amid crisis
    A militia member stands guard at a polling station during the municipal legislators
    election in Caracas, Venezuela December 9, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela held municipal elections to elect some 2,500 counselors on Sunday, though the mainstream political opposition boycotted the vote and widespread apathy kept most people at home during a devastating economic crisis.
        In Caracas and other cities around the country, many polling stations appeared near empty and few had queues.    In interviews, Venezuelans said they preferred to use the day to shop for scarce food and medicine.
        “People have no motivation.    The crisis is a beating every day,” said opposition lawmaker Francisco Betancourt in the city of Barinas, on Venezuela’s west-central plains.
        Venezuela is in its fifth year of a recession that has halved the size of the economy and forced 3 million people to emigrate to escape hyperinflation and rampant crime.
        Full results from Sunday’s election are expected later today or tomorrow morning and the ruling Socialist Party is expected to dominate.
        At the Escuela Josefa Victoriana Riera polling station in the arid northwestern city of Punto Fijo, only 366 people had voted by midday out of 2,510 registered voters, polling officials told Reuters, and a similar proportion was seen elsewhere.
        The main opposition coalition also boycotted national elections in May, which President Nicolas Maduro won in a vote deemed a fraud by the United States, European Union and most other Latin American nations.    Maduro says he is a victim of a U.S.-directed plot to force him from power and blames the crisis on sanctions imposed by Washington on his administration.
        Even voters loyal to Maduro said they were not satisfied with his handling of the crisis.    Johan Matheus, a 46-year-old oil worker in Maracaibo, said he was voting so that “the revolution is consolidated.”
        However, he added: “It’s necessary to make changes, because the economic situation is ugly.”
        Maduro appeared on state television later in the day to cast his vote in Caracas.
        “Despite the conspiracies that come from the White House to divide our country, we have a strong democracy,” Maduro said.
    (Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Valencia, Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Isaac Bula in Maracaibo, and Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo; Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by David Gregorio)

    12/10/2018 Comey’s credibility under fire by OAN Newsroom
    Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters after testifying under subpoena behind
    closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        Fired FBI Director James Comey’s testimony is calling into question his credibility and decision making.
        Republican lawmakers have been highlighting the big takeaways from last week’s questioning.
        Congressman Jim Jordan outlined how Comey said “I don’t recall” eight times, “I don’t remember” 71 times, and “I don’t know” 166 times.
        This comes as Comey is now accused of using a dubious Russian document to influence his decision in the Clinton email case.
        According to a report last year, Comey used that information to announce last July that the Clinton email probe was over.    However, the report suggested many close to the matter believed that information was bad intelligence and possibly even fake.
        Comey is scheduled to return to Capitol Hill later this month for more questioning.
    [Comey must have developed alzheimers after he was fired.    An FBI person who has been in that position and at the level he was at would remember all of this in order to know how to do his job correctly.    So he is the liar that Trump claims or he is protecting his own life from the Democrat corruption that will come after him next.].

    12/10/2018 President Trump says Cohen transactions are not campaign contributions by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump talks to media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn
    of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        President Trump said a simple private transaction made by his former attorney was not a campaign contribution.
        In a tweet Monday, the president said Democrats have failed to find a “smoking gun” in the Russia investigation, which he said it because there was no collusion.
        He went on to say the payment made by Michael Cohen was done properly, and if a mistake was made the liability would be on Cohen.
        The president accused his former personal lawyer of falsely stating the payment was a campaign contribution in order to get his sentence reduced.
        Trump tweets: “Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony.    No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews "That’s because there was NO COLLUSION.    So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,...”    “....which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine.    Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me).    Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!”

    12/10/2018 Venezuelan President Maduro: U.S. trying to undermine country’s democracy by OAN Newsroom
        President Nicolas Maduro is continuing his attacks against the U.S. despite receiving backlash about the authenticity of his own presidential election earlier this year.
        Maduro cast his ballot in this weekend’s local elections, and used the opportunity to accuse the U.S. of disrupting the country’s democracy.    He claimed the Trump administration is working to stage a coup against the country’s leadership and institutions.
    Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks after voting in local elections
    in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
        “Today, they are working, they are coordinating directly with the White House to try and disturb democratic life in Venezuela, and for an attempted coup against the constitutional regime and the freedom of our country,” stated Maduro.
        Since 2015, the struggling socialist country has forced millions of its citizens to flee to neighboring countries out of desperation, with many unable to find food, medicine or jobs.
        The resulting influx of migrants has caused strain on dozens of countries, leading them to turn to the United Nations for help earlier this month. 16 countries requested hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for next year to help address the crisis.
        “There’s one crisis for which we for the first time have a response plan, which is to help the countries neighboring Venezuela deal with the consequences of large numbers of Venezuelans leaving the country,” explained Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator.    “And what we’re trying to do is scale up our support in areas like health services and nutrition, and there are discussions going on in respect to that.”
        According to reports, the recent elections included nearly 2,500 local council members up for election across 335 municipalities.    However, many Venezuelans, as well as the international community, are casting doubt on the outcome of Venezuela’s presidential election earlier this year by saying the results were the result of a fraudulent system.
        Meanwhile, hyperinflation continues to plague the socialist country.    The latest move from Maduro to dramatically increase the minimum wage is expected to lead to one million-percent inflation by the end of the year.
    [It is sad for all when you see a Progressive Socialist Liberal policy bomb out and the leader will not admit it.].

    12/10/2018 British Prime Minister May delays key vote over opposition of ‘backstop’ proposal by OAN Newsroom
    In this grab taken from video, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May makes
    a statement in the House of Commons, in London, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. (PA via AP)
        British Prime Minister Theresa May is postponing a key vote on her proposed Brexit plan.
        May addressed members of Parliament Monday.    She said she stands by her plan, but has delayed Tuesday’s vote due to opposition over the “backstop” proposal.
        The “backstop” proposal is essentially a backup plan to maintain an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland if no formal deal can be reached on trade and security.
        May said she still believes she will be able to secure a deal on her proposal, and outlined why she thinks it is the best chance for her country.
        “It honors the result of the referendum, it protects job security and our union, but it also represents the very best deal that is actually negotiable with the EU,” stated Prime Minister May.    “I believe in it as do many members of this House and I still believe there is a majority to be won in this House in support of it, if I can secure additional reassurance on the question of the backstop, and that is what my focus will be in the days ahead.”
        Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson previously said the EU would use the Irish backstop to “blackmail” the U.K.
        May’s speech came as protesters lined the streets outside Parliament in opposition of her plan.
    Leave the European Union supporters hold placards and protest across the street
    from the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

    12/10/2018 Leaders of 164 nations sign global migration pact amid opposition by OAN Newsroom
        More than 160 nations recently approved a non-binding migration accord amid fierce opposition from some countries, including the U.S.
        Leaders of 164 nations signed the ‘Global Compact for Migration’ Monday at a United Nations conference in Morocco.    While at least 10 members have pulled out, Israel and Switzerland are among those who remain undecided.
    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, 2nd left, and Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
    Nasser Bourita, center, chair the opening session of a UN Migration Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Monday, Dec.10, 2018.
    Top U.N. officials and government leaders from about 150 countries are uniting around an agreement on migration,
    while finding themselves on the defensive about the non-binding deal amid criticism
    and a walkout from the United States and some other countries. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
        Opponents are saying the agreement could challenge national sovereignty and security for host countries, but supporters say the pact will potentially save lives and help boost economies with new labor.
        “With better international cooperation, it would be possible to invest much more in countries of origin, creating the conditions for people to have an option to stay in their own country and build with hope their lives in their own country,” stated UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.    “I do believe that better international cooperation will also open the way for more opportunities for legal migration, taking into account the needs of markets, the demography and the situation of different countries in the world.”
        The United Nations General Assembly is set to adopt an official resolution on the deal next week in New York.

    12/10/2018 Anger, sore eyes and a photograph on the streets of Brussels by Yves Herman
    A woman is sprayed with teargas by the riot police officer during the "yellow vests" protest
    against higher fuel prices, in Brussels, Belgium, December 8, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Usually, a golden rule for a news photographer covering a scene of angry confrontation is to get close, but not involved.    Sometimes, though, it’s hard to avoid.
        In recent days, “yellow vest” protests have spread to Belgium from France.    I followed hundreds of people marching through Brussels on Saturday to demand lower fuel prices and better living conditions.
        They were blocked from reaching the government quarter by riot police using water cannon and tear gas.    Some of the crowd hurled rocks and firecrackers at them.
        I could see the police were losing patience.    So I picked a position close to them, so they could see I was a journalist doing my job and not part of the protest.
        Police squads started surrounding protesters, sending in snatch teams to arrest individuals.    As the march was organized on social media without approval from the authorities, police took the view that anyone involved can be detained and taken away.    Most are quickly released without charge.
        When one young man was seized, a young woman with him rushed toward the line of police, shouting that he had done nothing wrong.    She had no mask or helmet and nothing in her hands. She wasn’t even wearing one of the fluorescent yellow vests adopted by the movement.
        As she yelled at a policewoman, another officer standing behind the front rank pointed and fired a pepper-spray gun, dousing the young woman in the face.    The photo I took dramatically captured the white liquid’s moment of impact and her anguished expression.
        She turned away crying and sat down on the road, her eyes and face inflamed.    I had a bottle of eyewash as part of my own safety equipment.    I put my camera down, asked her to look up and carefully dropped the soothing liquid into her eyes.
    (Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Roche)

    12/10/2018 Macron to speed up tax cuts, raise wages at ‘historic time’ for France
    French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a special address to the nation,
    his first public comments after four weeks of nationwide 'yellow vest' (gilet jaune) protests, at the Elysee Palace,
    in Paris, France December 10, 2018. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged to cut taxes for pensioners and raise the minimum wage in January but refused to reinstate a wealth tax, as he sought to respond to a wave of protests that have challenged his authority.
        “We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns,” Macron said in a TV address to the nation.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by John Irish)

    12/11/2018 Oil down $1.61 to $51.00, DOW up 34 to 24,423

    12/11/2018 Trump: Payments to women were merely ‘private transaction’ by David Jackson, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed payments to alleged mistresses just before the 2016 presidential election as “a simple private transaction,” disputing claims by prosecutors that they amounted to a conspiracy to evade campaign finance laws.
        Though some congressional Democrats cast the payments as potential cause for impeachment, Trump said investigators are looking for something to pin on him because they have been unable to prove any collusion with Russians who sought to influence the presidential election.
        “So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,” Trump said during a series of early morning tweets.
        Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is scheduled to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to felony campaign finance violations, financial crimes and lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia.
        In legal filings released Friday, prosecutors said Cohen told them that when he made the payments to the women, “he acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump, whom they identified in the filings as “Individual 1.”
        On Twitter, Trump argued that even if the payments amounted to campaign contributions, they would constitute a civil case, not a criminal one, and “there would not even be a fine.”
        The Federal Election Commission handles campaign finance violations that aren’t “willful violations” or that involve smaller sums through civil enforcement provisions, which are typically fines.
        “Whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told CNN’s “State of the Union.”    He is likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the House next year.
        Trump has repeatedly denied that he directed Cohen to pay hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
        Trump accused Cohen of lying in an effort to get his sentence reduced after his guilty pleas.
        In his tweets, Trump again compared his situation with one involving Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
        Obama’s campaign was fined $375,000 by the FEC for regulatory civil violations that included missing filing deadlines for disclosing large donations late in the election cycle, reporting wrong dates for some contributions and not returning excessive donations quickly enough    .
        Legal analysts said the allegations against Trump could amount to a felony if it’s determined that there was a conspiracy to conceal payments from campaign contribution reports – and from the voters.
        Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said Obama’s violation “consisted of failing to submit certain forms in time,” while the Trump allegations involve large payments through shell companies and his lawyer.
        “The former is negligent, and the latter is knowing and willful,” he said.    “That is the difference – the mental state required.”
        In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance felonies and told a judge that Trump directed illegal payments “for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016.
        The investigation of payoffs is separate from the inquiry conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian influence in the 2016 election, though Cohen is cooperating with Mueller’s office.

    12/11/2018 Mexico to invest $30 billion to boost growth, stem migration, foreign minister says
    Incoming Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard takes part in a news conference
    in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
        (Reuters) – Mexico will invest more than $30 billion in its poor southern states over the next five years, the foreign minister said on Monday, boosting the region economically as part of efforts to curb migration.
        Under pressure from the United States, Mexico is grappling to halt the northward flow of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America.
        Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told a United Nations-backed conference on migration in Marrakech that the investment would accompany a broad policy shift he expected would stem migration better than “containment measures.”
        He did not detail what policies Mexico may change, or exactly how the $30 billion investment will be funded and deployed.
        “What happens to a migrant today in our nation is a disgrace,” he said, seated beside counterparts from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras who have pledged to work together on regional development.
        “Mexico can’t let this happen anymore.”
        Several thousand people set off on foot in a caravan from Honduras in October, enduring hot sun and rain on the long route in hopes of reaching the United States.
        Roughly 6,000 made it to Mexico’s northern border city of Tijuana, many encountering hostility from locals and dirty conditions at crowded shelters.
        Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, is pushing for U.S. support to fight poverty and crime in Central America that prompt thousands of people to abandon their homes every year and risk the journey north.
        He says his plans for major infrastructure projects, including a refinery and two railways, will provide jobs to both Mexicans and Central Americans.
        Ebrard previously said Mexico was likely to invest more than $20 billion in southern Mexico, and that El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras should each match that sum.
        On Monday, he added that the three countries just south of Mexico had finished an initial “diagnostic” and were expected to present their priority projects at the beginning of 2019.
    (Reporting by Diego Ore and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

    12/11/2018 Spain threatens to send national police to Catalonia after protests
    FILE PHOTO: Mossos d'Esquadra police officers and protesters from Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR)
    clash during a demonstration against Jusapol Foundation rally in Barcelona, Spain November 10, 2018. REUTERS/Albert Gea
        MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s interior minister said he would send national police to Catalonia if local authorities did not do more to stop protests like the one that shut down major highways over the weekend.
        Fernando Grande-Marlaska accused the local Catalan police of doing nothing to prevent pro-independence protesters blocking the AP-7 toll road, which runs up Spain’s Mediterranean coast, for more than 15 hours on Saturday.
        The involvement of national police would be a contentious issue in the northeastern region which has its own administration and where polls suggest almost half the population wants to split away from Spain.
        It would also stir memories of Madrid’s decision to send in a large contingent of national police in September last year after the Catalan government called an illegal independence referendum.
        “Serious disruptions of public order and traffic security, such as those seen in the last few days, need to be dealt with by the regional police,” the minister wrote to his regional counterpart in an open letter late on Monday.
        “If this does not happen … the government will order an intervention by the state police,” he added.
        There was no immediate reaction from the Catalan authorities.
        Spain’s previous conservative government took control of the region in 2017 when the regional administration unilaterally declared independence following the referendum.
        Many of the Catalan politicians that took part in the declaration are in prison awaiting trial for rebellion or in exile.
        Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – who came to power in June – has said he is open to a referendum on greater autonomy and has promised to lay out detailed plans in parliament on Wednesday.
        But Grande-Marlaska said the local authorities had to show they could keep order and prevent a repeat of Saturday’s protests.
        “It was observed that there was no intervention (by the regional police) … a reality that is difficult to deny,” he said in a radio interview on Tuesday morning.
    (Reporting by Paul Day and Jose Elisa Rodriguez; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    12/11/2018 IMF warns storm clouds gathering for global economy by Marc Jones
    FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the
    headquarters building in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – One of the International Monetary Fund’s top officials warned on Tuesday that storm clouds were gathering over the global economy and that governments and central banks might not be well- equipped to cope.
        The fund had been urging governments to “fix the roof” during a sunny last two years for the world economy, IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton said.
        “But like many of you, I see storm clouds building, and fear the work on crisis prevention is incomplete,” he said at a banking conference hosted by Bloomberg.
        He also warned that strains could leave policymakers under pressure and in uncharted waters.
        “Central banks would likely end up exploring ever-more unconventional measures. But with their effectiveness uncertain, we ought to be concerned about the potency of monetary policy.”
        Many governments won’t have much room for manoeuvre, either, having already racked up high debts.
        “We should not expect governments to end up with the ample space to respond to a downturn that they had 10 years ago,” Lipton said.    Stimulus may also be a hard sell politically, considering the financial burden it creates, he said.
        The biggest immediate risk, though, is the current trade war between the United States and China.    If all of the threatened tariffs are put in place, as much as three-quarters of a percent of global GDP would be lost by 2020, the IMF has estimated.
        “That would be a self-inflicted wound.    So it is vital that this ceasefire (recently announced between Washington and Beijing) leads to a durable agreement that avoids an intensification or spread of tensions.”
        If it doesn’t and a stalemate sets in, there could be a damaging “fragmentation” of the global economy that causes a downturn, he said.
    For full speech click https://www.imf.org/en/News/Search?Type=Speech
    (Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Huw Jones, Larry King)

    12/11/2018 President Trump clashes with Democrat leadership over border wall funding by OAN Newsroom
        There was fire and fury in the Oval Office as President Trump clashed with Democrat leadership over border security.
        At the White House Tuesday, President Trump argued with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Nancy Pelosi over getting votes for the border wall funding.
        The president was attempting to explain why he can’t get it passed through the Senate with Democrat votes, but Nancy Pelosi kept interrupting by saying he doesn’t have the votes anywhere.
    House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump,
    and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argue during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        President Trump then said he will shut down the government if he doesn’t get the needed funding for the border wall.
        Schumer pushed back on the president by saying it will not shut down due to wall funding, but the president did not back down.
        He further stated the wall is a big part of border security and he would be proud to shut down the government to protect our country.

    12/11/2018 Rep. McCarthy demands answers from Google over alleged political bias by OAN Newsroom
        House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is demanding answers over claims that tech giants are censoring conservative voices.
        During the CEO of Google’s testimony Tuesday, McCarthy claimed 90-percent of all internet searches go through Google and said with that power comes great responsibility.    He also alleged there is a widening gap of distrust between tech companies the American people.
        This comes amid allegations Google.    Twitter and other social media and tech companies have tried to silence conservative view points, which is an issue McCarthy wants addressed.
    House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left, talks with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio,
    before the House Judiciary Committee questions Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the internet giant’s privacy security and data collection,
    on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. McCarthy made an opening statement before Pichai appeared. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        “All of these topics — competition, censorship, bias and others – point to one fundamental question that demands the nation’s attention.    Are America’s technology companies serving as instruments of freedom or instruments of control?    Are they fulfilling the promise of the digital age?    Are they advancing the cause of self-government or are they serving of instruments of manipulation?” — Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Leader.
        Lawmakers grilled Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai on accusations of bias in search results along with other areas.

    12/11/2018 Congress drafts compromise Farm Bill, eliminates SNAP work requirements by OAN Newsroom
        Congress appears to have reached a compromise on a new Farm Bill in an effort to garner bipartisan support.    The compromise bill — released Monday — does not include the strict work requirements for food stamps passed under the House bill earlier this year.
        However, the measure retains other provisions from the House bill, including items to help prevent fraud and duplication of benefits in the food stamps program.
    (AP/Photo)
        Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the compromise for including provisions for forestry management, and for measures to encourage citizens to move out of poverty and into gainful employment.
        “This bill includes very important forestry management reforms that are important to garner our communities against health risks like wildfires, so this is an effort that is a great step in the right direction,” he stated.    “It will help us get people out of poverty, into careers, into skills and this is something we should be passing and putting on the president’s desk momentarily.”
        GOP lawmakers are saying the newest version of the bill is expected to help bring Democrats to the table. Congress is set to vote on the new version of the bill sometime this week.

    12/11/2018 Sen. Paul supports ‘First Step Act,’ urging Sen. McConnell to bring bill to floor for vote by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Rand Paul is putting pressure on his colleagues to bring a criminal justice reform bill to a floor vote.
        While speaking at the Louisville Urban League on Monday, Senator Paul voiced his support for the ‘First Step Act.’
    Sen. Rand Paul speaks with people at the Louisville Urban League on Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, after making another
    push for a federal criminal justice bill, in Louisville, Ky. Paul urged Kentuckians to contact
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to urge a Senate vote on the measure. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)
        In particular, he’s calling on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the legislation for a floor vote.    Paul is urging residents of Kentucky to reach out to their other senator to stress the importance of criminal justice reform.
        While addressing the audience, Paul said his own life experiences are what have shaped his approach to the bill.
        “From my perspective, the way I look at this is that I was once a kid and I was once an imperfect kid, and made mistakes,” he explained.    “Three of the last four president’s admitted they made mistakes with either drugs or alcohol — there should be a second chance, you should not permanently be excluded from voting, you should not permanently be excluded from employment.”
        McConnell has said he will only bring the legislation to the Senate floor if it is backed by 60 votes or more.
        Meanwhile, Paul said he believes the measure would pass overwhelmingly.

    12/11/2018 President Trump touts newly built border walls, thanks ICE, BP and military for securing border by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is touting the newly built segments of the border wall for helping stop the recent migrant caravans.
        In a tweet Tuesday, the president said despite the large caravans forming and heading to the U.S., migrants have not been able to get through because of the “newly built walls and fences.” He thanked ICE, Border Patrol, and the military for doing a fantastic job of securing the southern border.
        Trump tweet: “.....Ice, Border Patrol and our Military have done a FANTASTIC job of securing our Southern Border.    A Great Wall would be, however, a far easier & less expensive solution. We have already built large new sections & fully renovated others, making them like new. The Democrats,.....”
        The president also called out Democrat hypocrisy in a following tweet for not funding the border wall.    He pointed out that in 2006 they voted for a wall.
        President Trump is set to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Tuesday to discuss the budget.
        This comes as Democrat leaders are only willing to pay a fraction of the five billion dollars needed for border wall funding.    This has led to criticism from Republicans, who are slamming Democrats for failing to make concessions while they complain about the possibility of a partial government shutdown.
        Trump tweet: “....People do not yet realize how much of the Wall, including really effective renovation, has already been built.    If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall.    They know how important it is!”
    U.S. Border Patrol vehicles are parked along a secondary fence as they respond to a group of
    Central American migrants crossing the border wall illegally, seen from across the wall in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

    12/11/2018 Rep. Maxine Waters: Top priority as financial chair to oppose President Trump by OAN Newsroom
    Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. (FILE/AP PHOTO/LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE)
        Democrats have nominated Congresswoman Maxine Waters to be chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services.
        Following the announcement Monday, Waters said a top priority for the committee will be to conduct oversight on the Trump administration.
        Waters has routinely criticized President Trump and sought to oppose his ‘America first’ agenda.
        The nomination comes just days after the congresswoman called the president a criminal, adding, she believes he should be impeached.
        “I started out talking about this president, even before the inauguration, and I talked about him being a despicable character,” stated Waters.    “This criminal must be brought up by the Congress of the United States for impeachment.”
        However, Waters has admitted in the past that she faces tough opposition from both sides of the aisle on her demands to have the impeachment process started.

    12/11/2018 House reviewing Yemen vote once again by OAN Newsroom
        A bipartisan group of lawmakers are, once again, trying to force a vote to revoke U.S. aid in the conflict in Yemen.
        According to The Hill Monday, Democrat Representative Ro Khanna is reintroducing the War Powers Resolution.    The measure would remove U.S. forces from Yemen, with an exception for those fighting terrorism as in accordance with the 2001 war authorization.
        Representative Khanna introduced the same legislation earlier this year, but Republicans blocked the vote and said it wasn’t a priority.    Nonetheless, aides working for Khanna said they expect to see a floor vote by the end of the year.
    FILE – In this Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, file photo, a worker looks at a chocolate factory destroyed by a
    Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen. Envoys from Yemen’s warring parties are headed to Sweden for
    another round of peace talks to stop the three-year-old war, but with few incentives to compromise, expectations
    are low for little more than improving a faltering de-escalation.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)
        Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Republican House leader Paul Ryan has responded to Khanna’s latest request by saying the House has already acted on this question.
        Rep. Ro Khanna On Stopping U.S. Aid in the Saudi War Against Yemen

    12/11/2018 Macron’s concessions set to blow out French deficit by Leigh Thomas
    France's President Emmanuel Macron, France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and
    France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire attend a meeting with the representatives of the banking sector
    at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, December 11, 2018. Thibault Camus/Pool via REUTERS
        PARIS (Reuters) – France is on course to overshoot the European Union’s budget deficit ceiling next year without new spending cuts after President Emmanuel Macron caved in to anti-government street protests.
        Macron announced wage increases for the poorest workers and a tax cut for most pensioners on Monday to defuse discontent, leaving his government scrambling to come up with extra budget savings or risk blowing through the EU’s 3 percent of GDP limit.
        Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was due on Tuesday to address parliament to detail how the measures will be financed in a redraft of the budget weeks before it takes effect.
    Graphic: France/Germany 10-yr yield spread https://tmsnrt.rs/2PwwJLc
    Graphic: French public deficit https://tmsnrt.rs/2SE2eor
        “Under all likelihood, the 2019 public deficit will print above the 3.0 percent benchmark,” Societe Generale economist Michel Martinez wrote in a research note.
        However, the deficit was unlikely to hit 3.5 percent, as some French media suggested, because the government would look to offset the extra strain on the budget, he said.
        Any failure to respect the EU deficit ceiling could shatter France’s fiscal credibility with its European partners after flouting it for a decade before Macron took office.
        Equally, any sign of leniency could at the same time complicate the Commission’s already tense discussions with Rome about keeping its deficit down.
        “There is a very strong interest to put Italy and France in the same pot,” one EU official told Reuters.
        “In Italy they themselves are planning this very blunt breach.    The situation in France serves their purpose, they will say they are preventing social unrest like in France and they will say: what about equal treatment?”
        His concessions to protesters have put pressure on French bond yields with the spread over German yields spiking up to the highest level since May 2017.
        The measures announced by Macron on Monday would put a 8-10 billion euro ($9.1-11.4 billion) hole in the budget, ministers said, on top of the 4 billion euros lost after Macron scrapped hikes to fuel taxes in a first wave of concessions last week.
        “We are going to make savings, just as we have said we would, starting with savings in government and that’s for us to make happen,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux.
        In its original 2019 budget, the government targeted a public deficit of 2.8 percent of GDP.    That, though, was based on a growth estimate of 1.7 percent, which now looks increasingly optimistic as the economy slows in the face of the protests.
        However, the 2019 deficit would have been only 1.9 percent without the long-planned one-off impact of a payroll tax rebate scheme becoming a permanent tax cut at a cost of 20 billion euros.
        Asked whether the budget deficit would be kept below the EU limit, an Elysee official said on Monday France had some wiggle room on spending if the tax rebate was not taken into account.
        Nonetheless, France faces tougher scrutiny from the European Commission, which is likely to demand firm commitments to reforms for any leeway.
    (Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Simon Carraud, additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; editing by Richard Lough, Richard Balmforth)

    12/11/2018 Anarchists daub graffiti protest on ‘criminal’ WTO by Tom Miles
    FILE PHOTO: A World Trade Organization (WTO) logo is pictured on their
    headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, June 3, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – Anarchists claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an overnight graffiti attack on the Swiss headquarters of the World Trade Organization that has a history of attracting anti-globalization protests.
        The red paint on the facade of the building beside Lake Geneva was quickly cleaned off, but those behind the stunt posted pictures on the web, declaring it part of an anarchist campaign against capitalism.
        One piece of graffiti read “OMCriminelle,” playing on the letters “OMC”, the French abbreviation for “WTO”.
        “We attacked the International Headquarters of the WTO in Geneva, the World Criminal Organization, symbol of agreements between the powerful, of frantic free trade, destructive production, sly imperialism, anti-social capitalism,” the authors of the attack wrote on their blog.
        At the WTO “food, oil, metals and human beings are just pieces of an equation whose sole purpose is the accumulation of capital.    The pen-pushers from multinationals, states and financial markets decide the value of the world, who will live and who will die,” they added.
        The WTO condemned the vandalism as contrary to its values of dialogue and respect for different perspectives.
        “In a world as complex and tense as the world of today, the only way we can resolve the problems that confront us is through a multilateral approach,” spokesman Keith Rockwell said.
        The graffiti protest came as neighboring France grapples with “yellow vest” protests against the policies of President Emmanuel Macron.
        There has been no such movement in Switzerland, but the WTO headquarters in Geneva, the most prosperous city in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, is just 15 minutes’ drive from the border.
        Two decades ago, in what became known as the “Battle of Seattle,” nearly 50,000 protesters plunged the U.S. city of into chaos during a WTO ministerial meeting.
        Subsequent WTO meetings have been less eventful, as the “Doha round” of trade talks gradually ran out of steam and protesters turned their attention elsewhere.
        After years in the doldrums, the WTO is in the eye of a new storm this year, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff wars and U.S. complaints about the way it has referred trade disputes leaving the world body in an existential crisis.
    (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
    [As you may know I have no conflict with the WTO, I have only made everyone to let them know that it was in the 1990's the biblical revelation 13 that it was "The Beast That Came Out Of The Sea."].

    12/11/2018 One killed in Venezuela illegal mining clash: defense minister
    FILE PHOTO: An illegal mine is seen in the southern state of Bolivar
    near the border with Brazil November 17, 2012. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo
        CARACAS (Reuters) – A member of Venezuela’s Pemon indigenous group was killed during a “confrontation” last Saturday with security forces attempting to dislodge an illegal gold mine in southern Bolivar state, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Tuesday.
        It was the latest in a string of violent incidents in the remote jungles of the once-booming OPEC nation, where people are increasingly taking to informal gold mining as the country’s socialist economy unravels and hyperinflation leaves millions struggling to afford basic food items.
        Padrino said he regretted the death of 21-year-old Charlie Penaloza in the clash, which took place in Canaima National Park, home to the world’s tallest waterfall.    He said the armed forces were working to protect indigenous people and the environment from “mafias” that control illegal mining.
        “It would be naive to think that only the indigenous are behind illegal gold mining.    The indigenous, I repeat, are victims,” Padrino said on state television.    He did not provide further details of the operation or how Penaloza died.
        President Nicolas Maduro in 2016 declared war on wildcat miners as part of a plan to boost gold output in the so-called ‘Mining Arc’ of southern Venezuela to provide an alternative source of revenue as the economy experienced a dramatic drop in oil production.
        But opposition politicians and indigenous groups have accused the military of seeking to control the informal gold trade.
        “The Venezuelan state is responsible for the physical loss of our companion Charlie Penaloza Rivas, as a result of an uncontrolled armed incursion by the security forces, or with their complicity” the council of Pemon chiefs said in a statement on Saturday.
        As a result of the incident, the chiefs suspended municipal elections in the area that were set to take place on Sunday.
        In October, seven Venezuelans were killed in a remote gold mine in an apparent clash between armed groups for control of the area.    In February, 18 were killed when soldiers clashed with illegal miners in Bolivar.
    (Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Luc Cohen; Additional reporting by Maria Cabello in Ciudad Bolivar; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

    12/11/2018 Judge orders Stormy Daniels to pay $293,000 in legal fees in defamation suit by OAN Newsroom
    In a rare move, a federal judge in California rules in favor of President Trump in the case brought by adult film star Stormy Daniels.
        The judge ordered Daniels to pay the President more than $293,000 in attorney’s fees.    Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has since responded to the decision saying President Trump received less than the $800,000 requested in legal fees.
        He then said the amount awarded to Daniels in the main lawsuit will be at-least one million dollars more than this decision.
        The case is still ongoing.
    [It is so nice to see the couple back together again, they are just two peas in a pod.].

    12/11/2018 Trump Administration takes asylum ban to Supreme Court by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump Administration is seeking an order from the Supreme Court of the United States to move forward with its new asylum restrictions.
        The White House on Tuesday asked the court to approve the policy of refusing asylum to those who illegally cross the border.
        The moves comes in response to a decision earlier this month, in which the 9th Circuit Court denied the justice department’s attempt to move forward with the policy.
        Prior to the agency’s attempt, a district judge shot down the policy, prompting backlash from President Trump, as well as a rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
        Solicitor General Noel Francisco is asked for a stay on the district court judge’s decision which would allow the White House to move forward with the policy’s enforcement.
        The American Civil Liberties Union is fighting the policy and is expected to oppose the request.

    12/11/2018 Judicial Watch president to testify on Clinton alleged pay-to-play by OAN Newsroom
        The president of conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is set to testify on the Clinton Foundation’s so-called pay-to-play scandal.
        On Tuesday, Tom Fitton announced his testimony before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, set for Thursday, will include the Uranium One controversy.
        Fitton is claiming that hundreds of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server show pay-to-play tactics in giving Russia 20-percent of America’s uranium while she was secretary of state.
    Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures during a conference with her husband former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Montreal on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press via AP)
        “Judicial Watch broke open this scandal with Freedom of Information Act emails, showing that the Clinton Foundations donors were receiving special favors and treatment from the Clinton State Department — this controversy also includes the infamous Uranium One scandal,” he explained.    “Judicial Watch is taking the lead, once again, on uncovering this information and we’re glad the Congress is finally on the case.”
        The watchdog group also claimed several shareholders in Uranium One gave the Clinton Foundation millions of dollars just ahead of the approval of the deal.
        Judicial Watch is now demanding the Clintons be prosecuted for their foundation’s alleged corruption.
    [
      Previvous news articles:
    • 1/15/2018 Uranium Indictment in Maryland Not 'Coincidental,' Tom Fitton Says by Debra Heine
          A Maryland transportation firm executive's indictment last week in the FBI investigation of a corrupt uranium deal was not "coincidental," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton suggested on Fox and Friends Monday morning.
          The charges come after reports released in late December revealed that the Justice Department was taking a fresh look at the Uranium One deal that gave a Russian company control of 20 percent of the U.S. uranium industry while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
          Fitton couldn't say for sure if the fresh scrutiny led to the indictment, but added, "It's, I don't think, coincidental, a few months after it's reported about the fact that the Justice Department under Obama was hiding this [Uranium One scandal]" in plain sight from the American people, and certainly hiding key information from Congress, and then the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions responds, "'Hey, we're going to take another look at this.'"
          He added, "This is about, in the end, what steps they're going to take about what happened with Hillary Clinton."
          Mark Lambert is facing 11 counts of money laundering and wire fraud for allegedly bribing a Russian official at a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corp. in order to win contracts to transport uranium.
          The New York Post is reporting that the investigation "grew from charges that the Obama administration covered up an FBI probe of the uranium business."
          The indictment, handed up in Maryland, says Lambert tried to conceal the payments with the code words “lucky figures,” “lucky numbers/i>” and “cake.”
          Lambert’s aim was to win contracts to ship uranium to the US.
          The federal investigation grew from charges that the Obama administration covered up an FBI probe of the uranium business — and thus allowed the Russian firm Tenex to buy a stake in Uranium One, a Canadian company that mines uranium in Wyoming and elsewhere.
          The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reportedly told Congress in 2010 that uranium purchased by the Russian company could not be exported, yet as The Hill reported in November, some of the uranium mined after the deal ended up as far away as Europe.
          Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said at the time that it was "disturbing" to see that some of the yellowcake uranium had made its way overseas despite promises from the U.S. government to the contrary.The more that surfaces about this deal, the more questions it raises      ," Grassley said in a statement.
          "It now appears that despite pledges to the contrary, U.S. uranium made its way overseas as a part of the Uranium One deal," Grassley said.    "What’s more disturbing, those transactions were apparently made possible by various Obama Administration agencies while the Democrat-controlled Congress turned a blind eye."

    • 11/30/2018 FBI Raids Home of Uranium One Whistleblower Over Documents that Connected to Clinton Foundation by Brandon Morse
          A whistleblower for the Department of Justice had his home raided after privately delivering documents concerning the Clinton Foundation’s ties to the Uranium One deal.
          According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, the whistleblower had given up documents willingly to the DOJ prior but was raided by the FBI regardless.    The raid was “an outrageous disregard” of his protections according to the whistleblower’s lawyer, Michael Socarras.
          The FBI claimed that the whistleblower possessed stolen federal property and demanded entry to his private residence according to the DCNF, resulting in sixteen agents arriving at the home of former FBI contractor Dennis Nathan Cain on Nov. 19.    The agents raided his Union Bridge, Maryland, home early in the morning according to Socarras.
          The documents in question, which Cain obtained while working as a Federal contractor, “show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One” according to the DCNF.
          The DCNF reported that Cain attempted to reason with Federal agents before the raid occurred but to no avail: Cain informed the agent while he was still at the door that he was a recognized protected whistleblower under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act and that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz recognized his whistleblower status, according to Socarras.
          Cain further told the FBI agent the potentially damaging classified information had been properly transmitted to the Senate and House Intelligence committees as permitted under the act, Socarras said.    The agent immediately directed his agents to begin a sweep of the suburban home, anyway.
          Frightened and intimidated, Cain promptly handed over the documents, Socarras told TheDCNF.    Yet even after surrendering the information to the FBI, the agents continued to rummage through the home for six hours.
          “For the bureau to show up at Mr. Cain’s home suggesting that those same documents are stolen federal property, and then proceed to seize copies of the same documents after being told at the house door that he is a legally protected whistleblower who gave them to Congress, is an outrageous disregard of the law,” said Socarras.
          According to the law, whistleblowers are granted protections if they are or were government contractors thanks to the Whistleblower act.
          “I cannot believe the Bureau informed the federal magistrate who approved the search warrant that they wanted to search the home of an FBI whistleblower to seize the information that he confidentially disclosed to the IG and Congress,” Socarras told TheDCNF.
          Despite this, Federal agents have not contacted Socarras according to the DCNF.
          “After the raid, and having received my name and phone number from Mr. Cain as his lawyer, an FBI agent actually called my client directly to discuss his seized electronics,” Socarras told TheDCNF.    “Knowingly bypassing the lawyer of a represented client is serious misconduct.”
          At this time, it does seem like the intelligence community ignored protections granted to citizens in order to seize information they deemed critical to a Clinton scandal, though it’s not clear as to why.

    • 12/6/2018 FBI Uranium One raid raises legal questions by OAN Newsroom
          The investigation into Uranium One takes a new turn as the FBI raids a known whistleblower.    One America’s Jack Posobiec sat down with former Reagan-era Jack Posobiec official Bruce Fein to learn more.
    ]

    12/12/2018 Oil up $0.65 to $51.65, DOW down 53 to 24,370

    12/12/2018 Hush money not enough to impeach Trump.
        The sentencing memo filed last week by federal prosecutors against Michael Cohen, who for many years served as Donald Trump’s fixer, had Democrats and media types aflutter — would Trump soon be indicted for breaking campaign finance laws?
        Would Democrats impeach the president over this?
        Prosecutors had previously forced Cohen to admit to making secret hush money payments to two women “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump.    The allegation is that Cohen and Trump ran afoul of campaign finance laws by breaking contribution limits and causing a corporation to make an illegal contribution to conceal a federal candidate’s extramarital affairs from voters.    Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said on CNN that if Trump is proven to have directed the payments, it would constitute “impeachable offenses.”    Soon-to-be House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on CBS that Trump will “face the real prospect of jail time.” Leading Democrats want to impeach and jail their chief political antagonist, and yet it’s Republicans who are constantly accused of running a banana republic.    But I digress.
        The amount in play here is minuscule.    One woman received $130,000 and the other $150,000, or about 0.07 percent of all the money Trump spent to win ($398 million).    By comparison, Trump’s campaign spent at least $3.2 million on “Make America Great Again” hats.
        There are two ways to handle campaign finance issues — via criminal indictment, a la the Cohen/ Trump case, or by administrative fine.    The latter is what you get at the Federal Election Commission, where the supposed line dividing the two paths is whether a campaign knowingly crossed lines or just made paperwork mistakes.
        Case in point: the FEC hit Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign with “one of the largest penalties in the agency’s history” when it levied a $375,000 fine for failing “to disclose the identities of donors responsible for $2 million in contributions” and misreporting “the dates of $85 million in other contributions.”    The Obama people “kept $1.3 million in contributions that were above the legal maximum allowed for a federal campaign, failing to return them within the 60 days required by law.    The campaign kept almost $874,000 of those donations until the FEC discovered they were unlawful/i>,” according to The Washington Post.
        Doing a quick bit of math here, the Obama campaign made mistakes with about $87.3 million, or about 311 times the amount Trump and Cohen were dealing with.    Obama supporters say these were paperwork mistakes (oh, to have paperwork this lucrative!) while Trump’s antagonists argue his alleged sins are far more sinister.
        But let’s accept for a moment that some people want to literally jail a presidential candidate for spending $280,000 to hide decade-old sex.    The prosecutors’ theory — that Cohen and Trump made the payments to influence the outcome of an election — could easily be defeated by Trump in court.
        First, the idea that Trump was trying to conceal from the world that he cheats on his wives is laughable; his infidelity is part and parcel to the “playboy businessman” image Trump carefully cultivated for decades!    Do prosecutors honestly believe that one single voter was unaware of Trump’s promiscuity?
        They would have to explain to a jury that if voters could have heard from just two more women about their sex with Trump, the outcome of the election would have been different.    For goodness sake, Trump once engineered a cover story in The New York Post headlined “The Best Sex I Ever Had,” purportedly words spoken by Marla Maples!
        Second, it is highly likely that Trump has been paying women he’s slept with (and other people for other reasons) for years as part of non-disclosure agreements.    His lawyers will argue that the payments are routine business expenses for a man who has a lot of sex and pays for a lot of silence, whether he’s running for office or not.
        Finally, what do you want to bet Trump’s actual motivation for making the payments had more to do with keeping Melania Trump from finding out more than any voter?    Trump surely has a prenuptial agreement that gets much worse for him if he’s unfaithful.    Plus, Trump admitted after the election he thought he was going to lose, which caused him to rent a smaller ballroom for his election night party.    Trump’s lawyers will argue that their client thought his candidacy to be a lost cause, but not his marriage.
        Which brings me back to Congressman Nadler.    If you want to impeach the president, go for it.    But don’t insult the Constitution’s demand for high crimes and misdemeanors with this campaign finance flimflam.
        Scott Jennings is a CNN Contributor and Partner at RunSwitch Public Relations.    He can be reached at scott@runswitchpr.com or @ScottJenningsKY on Twitter.    The online version contains hyperlinked citations, Scott Jennings, Guest columnist.

    12/12/2018 Trump: ‘We will shut down the government’ - President, Dems bicker over border wall funding by Michael Collins, David Jackson and Eliza Collins, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told Democratic leaders in a remarkable on-camera clash he would be “proud” to shut down the federal government if he doesn’t get the $5 billion he demands for a border wall with Mexico.
        “If we don’t get what we want ... we will shut down the government,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.    Pelosi and Schumer gave as good as they got, telling Trump he lacks support for border wall funding – even while Republicans still control the House – and that he is irresponsible in threatening to halt the government over a project that would be ineffective at best.
        “You don’t have the votes,” Pelosi said.
        Trump wants $5 billion for a border wall as part of a government funding bill, contending the barrier would stop criminals and drug dealers from entering the country.    Democrats said they’re not budging on the $1.6 billion in border security funding included in the Senate bill already negotiated by Democrats and Republicans.
        Most immigrants don’t hop a fence and aren’t convicted of crimes, according to studies.    About half of the estimated 11.4 million undocumented immigrants in 2012 overstayed their visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.    Among those, about 820,000 had criminal convictions, according to a study by the Migration Policy Institute based on department figures of immigrants who could be removed for criminal records.
        If Trump and lawmakers can’t agree on a budget bill by midnight Dec. 21, the government could see a partial shutdown.
        After the adversarial meeting, Schumer said Trump’s “temper tantrum” won’t “get him his wall.”    Pelosi referred to the prospective closure of agencies as a “Trump shutdown.”
        “I asked him to pray over it” in search of a budget agreement, she said.
        Trump said Pelosi is “in a situation where it’s not easy to talk right now” because she is trying to win votes to become speaker when the new House meets next month.    Pelosi countered: “Please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting.”
        During the heated argument, Trump said, “I am proud to shut down the government” over his wall.    “I’ll be the one to shut it down,” he said.    “I will take the mantle.    And I will shut it down for border security.”
        Vice President Mike Pence sat stoned-faced during the exchange.
        Hours later, Trump described his session with Pelosi and Schumer as “very friendly.”    He said he didn’t mind the idea of “owning” a possible shutdown.    “If we have to close down the country (over) border security, I actually like that in terms of an issue,” he said.
        On Capitol Hill, Schumer called on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to persuade Trump to sign off on one of two budget plans on the table.    Schumer said Democrats would be willing to sit down and talk to Trump again, but “you heard the president – he wants a shutdown.”
        McConnell said he hasn’t given up hope that a shutdown can be avoided.
        “I’m sort of hoping for a Christmas miracle here, that we’ll have a level of cooperation that we don’t normally have,” he said.
        Veteran Washington observers said they had never seen such a spectacle as the Oval Office argument, at least not on television.
        Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he has worked with eight presidents – Democrats and Republicans – during his 44 years in Congress, but “this is the only time I’ve seen anything as irresponsible as a president saying he wants a government shutdown.”
        Some Republicans said they were happy with the way Trump stood up for the wall.
        “I don’t think the president is bluffing, I think he’s serious as four heart attacks and a stroke, and I think he’s prepared to shut it down,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said.    “I think he believes, as I do, that walls work.”
    Democratic leaders Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. ALEX BRANDON/AP
        “I’ll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle.” President Donald Trump.
    Vice President Mike Pence sits silently as Rep. Nancy Pelosi argues Tuesday with President Donald Trump. EVAN VUCCI/AP

    12/12/2018 Michael Cohen sentenced to 3 years in prison by OAN Newsroom
        Michael Cohen is sentenced to three-years behind bars in relation to convictions for multiple crimes.
        A New York federal judge handed down the sentence Wednesday after Cohen pleaded guilty to charges related to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations.
        Cohen was also sentenced for lying to Congress, which was a charge brought forward by Robert Mueller.
    Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, leaves federal court after his sentencing in New York,
    Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. Cohen was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for an array of crimes. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
        The judge also ordered Cohen to forfeit $500,000, pay over one million dollars in restitution, and pay a $50,000 fine.
        This comes after Cohen’s lawyer argued the president could of shutdown the investigation, and urged the judge to consider his client’s “life of good works.”    He will be allowed to surrender on Wednesday, March 6, 2018.

    12/12/2018 President Trump says Democrats gave money to Iran, but won’t fund the wall for border security by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic leaders in the
    Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        President Trump is slamming Democrat lawmakers for refusing to grant his request for border security.     On Twitter Wednesday, the president said the Democrats, along with former President Obama, gave $150 billion to Iran and got nothing, however, when it comes to the border wall they can’t give the five billion dollars needed to complete it.
        Trump tweet: “The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?”
        His remarks come after a contentious meeting on border security funding with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker designate Nancy Pelosi.
        The president said he may allow a government shutdown to happen if lawmakers cannot provide the funding for the southern border wall.

    12/12/2018 U.S. wants U.N. to ban nuclear ballistic missile work by Iran by Michelle Nichols
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a conference of the German Marshall Fund
    of the United States on "Reforming the Rules-Based International Order", in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
        UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States will push the U.N. Security Council to toughen its stance to prevent Iran from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and carrying out test launches, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.
        Pompeo also told the Security Council an arms embargo on Iran should not be lifted in 2020 and called on the council to establish “inspection and interdiction measures, in ports and on the high seas, to thwart Iran’s continuing efforts to circumvent arms restrictions.”     “Iran is harboring al Qaeda, supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan, arming terrorists in Lebanon, facilitating illicit trade in Somali charcoal benefiting al-Shabaab, and training and equipping Shia militias in Iraq,” Pompeo said during the meeting on the implementation of U.N. sanctions on Iran.
        Russia and China – which are council veto powers along with the United States, France and Britain – are unlikely to support the measures proposed by Pompeo.    In February Russia vetoed an attempt by the West to have the Security Council call out Tehran in a resolution on Yemen.
        Without naming countries, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused some council members of using Wednesday’s meeting “to discuss the so-called regional behavior of Iran, which they depict as though it were the only source of all the woes in the Middle East.”
        “What they do not voice is any kind of a substantive proposal on this topic and sometimes we’re left with the impression that the only goal is to further escalate anti-Iran hysteria and to demonize Iran,” Nebenzia told the council.
        A 2015 U.N. resolution “called upon” Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.    Some states argue that the language does not make it obligatory.
        The United States wants the council to toughen that measure, Pompeo said, to reflect language in a 2010 resolution that left no room for interpretation by banning Iran from “activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.”
        “This Security Council has a responsibility to protect citizens of the Middle East, Americans traveling through the Middle East, Europeans who are now at risk from Iranian missiles,” Pompeo told reporters after the meeting.
        The United States, Britain and France have accused Tehran of flouting the current U.N. restrictions on Tehran’s missile program by carrying out ballistic missile launches.    Iran says the missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.
        Tehran’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Eshagh al-Habib accused Washington of an “addiction to sanctions and warmongering,” saying Iran was in compliance with its commitments under a 2015 international nuclear deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from in May.
        “What we heard today was another series of lies, fabrications, disinformation and deceptive statements by the U.S. It is not unprecedented,” al-Habib told the council.
        Most U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted in January 2016 when the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed that     Tehran fulfilled commitments under the nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States.    But Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions.
        The U.N. sanctions and restrictions on Iran are contained in the 2015 resolution, which also enshrines the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.    European powers have been scrambling to salvage the deal.
    (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)

    12/12/2018 Maduro accuses U.S. official of plotting Venezuela invasion, gives no evidence
    FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media after
    a meeting in Moscow, Russia December 6, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday, without providing evidence, that U.S. national security adviser John Bolton was leading a plan to invade the South American country, which is increasingly at odds with Washington as its socialist economy collapses.
        Maduro made his accusation just days after Russian bombers landed in Venezuela to carry out joint military exercises, sparking a war of words between Moscow and Washington.
        The White House said Russia has told the United States that the bombers will leave Venezuela on Friday.
        “Mr. John Bolton has been assigned, once again, as the chief of a plot to fill Venezuela with violence and to seek a foreign military intervention,” Maduro told a news conference, adding that Bolton was coordinating the training of mercenaries in military bases in Colombia and the United States.
        There was no immediate comment on Maduro’s remarks from Bolton’s office.
        U.S. President Donald Trump said last year that “the military option” was on the table with regards to Venezuela, fueling Maduro’s contention that Washington seeks to overthrow his leftist government, which U.S. officials deny.
        The Trump administration has levied several rounds of sanctions against Venezuela since last year.
        Bolton is a longtime opponent of leftist governments in Latin America and he announced the most recent sanctions against Venezuela last month as part of a pledge to crack down on Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, which he dubbed the “troika of tyranny.”
    (Reporting by Caracas newsroom; additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)

    12/12/2018 Pompeo says CIA still investigating killing of Khashoggi by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
    speak as they attend a session during the meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the Alliance's headquarters
    in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s handling of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, stressing Saudi Arabia’s importance as a U.S. ally against Iran.
        Pompeo repeated his assertion that there was no direct evidence linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oct. 2 murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, despite a CIA assessment it was likely he ordered the killing.
        CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leaders of the House of Representatives behind closed doors about the killing.    After the classified briefing, House members declined comment beyond saying they had not heard anything that had changed their minds about Khashoggi’s death.
        Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, likely the next chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he intended to hold hearings starting early next year on all aspects of Saudi behavior and the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
        “I think that all leaders are responsible for things that happen under them.    So I think that we’ve still get to get to the bottom of it,” Engel said.
        “Saudi Arabia’s an important … partner, but I don’t think we can simply look the other way when things happen and talk about business as usual,” he said.
        Haspel had already briefed some U.S. senators. Pompeo and Mattis, who held a separate briefing for the entire Senate, are due to discuss Saudi Arabia with the entire House on Thursday.
        Khashoggi’s death sent shockwaves around the world and has drawn outrage from Congress.    Many lawmakers, including some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, also strongly criticize the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.
    WAR POWERS VOTE
        The Senate was due to vote this week on whether to move ahead on a war powers resolution ending U.S. refueling of Saudi jets and other involvement in the Yemen war.    Last month, 14 Republicans defied Trump and joined Democrats to allow the resolution to move ahead, underscoring concern about Khashoggi’s death and a war that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
        Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday he planned to introduce a joint resolution condemning Crown Prince Mohammed for the killing.
        Asked during a Fox News interview about the CIA’s findings, made with medium to high confidence, Pompeo said some reporting of the CIA findings has been inaccurate.
        “This is still a developing set of facts with respect to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” Pompeo said.    He said direct evidence linking the crown prince to the killing “isn’t yet available.”
        Pompeo repeatedly refused to say whether he believed the crown prince was behind the killing.
        Washington imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials last month over the killing, stopping short of action that might affect arms deals Trump has vowed to preserve.
        Pompeo pointed to the sanctions and said the United States would continue to hold accountable those proven to have been involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist.
        Riyadh initially denied knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance, then offered contradictory explanations, including that he was killed in a rogue operation.
        Trump condemned the murder but has stood by the Saudi crown prince, despite the CIA assessment.
        “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia.    They’ve been a very good ally,” Trump told Reuters on Tuesday in an Oval Office interview.
        Nikki Haley, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told NBC News earlier that the administration needed to figure out a path forward with the Saudis.
    (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; editing by David Gregorio)

    12/12/2018 Macron to plead deficit slippage essential for reforms plan
    French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a special address to the nation,
    his first public comments after four weeks of nationwide 'yellow vest' (gilet jaune) protests, at the Elysee Palace,
    in Paris, France December 10, 2018. Picture taken December 10, 2018. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
        PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will plead to euro zone peers this week that the costly emergency measures he announced to quell anti-tax protests were needed to ensure he could press on with his ambitious reform agenda, an official said on Wednesday.
        France is on course to overshoot the European Union’s budget deficit ceiling next year after Macron caved in to a near month-long public revolt and unveiled 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) worth of tax cuts and spending increases.
        “The president’s European message will be very clear,” a source close to Macron said ahead of an EU summit set for Thursday and Friday.    “To be able to reform, you can’t have blockages or incomprehension in society, and we need to overcome this anger and impatience.”
        The “yellow vest” protests erupted out of nowhere on Nov. 17, when nearly 300,000 demonstrators nationwide took to the streets to denounce high living costs and a fuel tax.
        Roadblocks around the country and violent clashes in central Paris have already taken their toll on the economy.
        In his response on Monday, Macron insisted that the subsidies for the poorest workers and tax cuts for pensioners were not a U-turn but an acceleration of his pledge to “make work pay.”
        He also said he would push ahead with planned reforms of the pension system and unemployment benefits next year.    Some analysts have expressed doubts that could now happen after the sharp loss in public support he suffered.
        “The reform agenda is not jeopardized, it would have been stalled had French society been durably blocked,” the source close to Macron said.
        “None of the major economic reforms that had been well received by our partners have been called into question,” the official said, citing reforms of the labor market and railways introduced last year.
        After his election in 2017, Macron made reducing the French deficit below the EU limit of 3 percent the cornerstone of his push to reform the euro zone, arguing that fiscal credibility would help convince Germany to back his plans.
        Asked about the reaction in the German press — which said Macron had lost credibility as one newspaper mocked him as ‘France’s Gulliver’ — the official said he expected to have some explaining to do but that Berlin politicians would be more understanding.
        “Yes, some off-the-cuff comments are a bit rough, but we have to take that into account, because they reflect a concern,” the official said.
        “The German political system will look into this more thoroughly than a few columns done in the heat of the moment.”
    (Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
    [Macron I think has finally realized that the "thugs" were all the French people who do not like his policies or the E.U.'s taxing them to death.    Macron is only kicking the problem down the road andit will all come back to what the E.U. demands.    The "yellow vests" are not done yet just waiting to see.].

    12/12/2018 Pentagon: U.S. Army could fund, build sections of President Trump’s border wall by OAN Newsroom
        The Pentagon has responded to President Trump’s suggestion the U.S. military could build the border wall.    In a statement Wednesday, the Defense Department said it currently has no plans to build the wall, but could take part in the construction of border projects in the near future.
        The Defense Department said U.S. law allows the Pentagon to use its budget for border security purposes.
    Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banksr>< of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas. (Photo/Eric Gay, AP Images)
        This comes as Democrats refuse to meet the president’s funding requests for the project, prompting him to threaten a government shutdown.
        “When you look at what happened with the caravans, with the people, with a lot — we shut it down, we had not choice, we shut it down,” stated President Trump.    “You know what I’ll say: ‘yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you (Sen.Chuck Schumer), through military, through anything you want to call — I will shut down the government.”
        Pentagon officials said the president would be justified if he used Department of Defense funding for the project, arguing a border wall could help limit drug trafficking and prevent criminals from sneaking into the country.

    12/13/2018 Oil down $0.50 to$51.15, DOW up 157 to 24,527

    12/13/2018 Congress approves $400 billion to aid farmers, forests, poor
        Congress voted final approval Wednesday to a sweeping farm bill that will provide more than $400 billion for agriculture subsidies, conservation programs and food aid.
        The House voted 369-47 for the legislation, which sets federal agricultural and food policy for five years, after the Senate approved it 87-13 on Tuesday.    President Donald Trump is expected to sign it.        The measure reauthorizes crop insurance and conservation programs and pays for trade programs, bioenergy production and organic farming research.    It also reduces the cost for struggling dairy producers to sign up for support programs and legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp.

    12/13/2018 China poses serious national security threat, US officials say
        Cyber threats from China and its theft of intellectual property from American companies pose large economic and national security challenges for the United States, national security officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
        “We cannot tolerate a nation that steals the fruit of our brainpower,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said.

    [MORE LEFT WITCH HUNT MEDIA BEING RELEASED].
    12/13/2018 A Cohen timeline, from fixer to flipper by William Cummings, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will go to prison for three years for covering up what he called Trump’s “dirty deeds.”
        Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, made the guilty plea as part of a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election.
        Here is a timeline of key moments in Cohen’s relationship with Trump:
    • 2007: Cohen joins Trump Organization
          Cohen first came on Trump’s radar after he bought a Trump World Tower apartment in 2001.    He later acquired more Trump properties and helped Trump in a dispute with a condo board, prompting Trump to tell the New York Post in 2007 that “Michael Cohen has a great insight into the realestate market.”
    • 2011: Trump’s ‘pit bull’
          Cohen led the push for Trump to make a 2012 presidential run.    By that time he had earned a reputation as Trump’s personal “pit bull.”    “It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit,” Cohen told ABC News.
    • September 2015: Trump World Tower Moscow plans begin
          Cohen met with Felix Sater and began working on plans for Trump World Tower Moscow, Buzzfeed reported.
    • November 2015: ‘Our boy can become president of the USA’
          Sater emailed Cohen on Nov. 3, tell- ing him, “Buddy our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” The New York Times reported.    “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
    • July 2016: Trump says he has no investments in Russia
          “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia,” Trump tweets.
    • Aug. 28, 2017: Cohen gives statement to Congress
          Cohen submitted a written statement to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which said the effort “to build a Trump property in Moscow that was terminated in January of 2016; which occurred before the Iowa caucus and months before the very first primary.”
    • Jan. 12, 2018: Wall Street Journal reports on Stormy Daniels payment
          The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford ahead of the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
    • April 9, 2018: FBI seizes Cohen’s files
          FBI agents raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel room, seizing more than 1.3 million pieces of potential evidence.
    • Nov. 29, 2018: Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress
          Cohen reached a plea deal with Mueller and pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to Congress.    After the news of his guilty plea for lying about efforts to build Trump Tower Moscow, the president told reporters Cohen was a “weak person” who was “lying” to “get a reduced sentence.”
    • Dec. 12, 2018: Cohen sentenced:
          Pauley sentenced Cohen to a threeyear sentence in federal prison for pleading “guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct.”    At the hearing, Cohen said he took “full responsibility” for his acts and that “blind loyalty” drove him to cover up the president’s “dirty deeds.”

    12/13/2018 Defying Trump, U.S. Senate advances measure to end support for Saudis in Yemen by Patricia Zengerle
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
    speak as they attend a session during the meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the
    Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a rare break with President Donald Trump, the Senate voted on Wednesday to move ahead with a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition in the war in Yemen and lawmakers vowed to push for sanctions against the kingdom in the new year.
        Eleven of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Democrats to provide the 60 votes needed to advance the war powers resolution in the Republican-led chamber.    The vote paved the way for debate and a vote on U.S. involvement in a conflict that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many of them young children and left millions more at risk of starvation and death by disease.
        The nearly unprecedented break the 11 Republicans made from Trump was largely symbolic because the House of Representatives is not expected to take the matter up this year.    Trump has threatened a veto.
        But backers of the resolution said it sent an important message that lawmakers are unhappy with the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, and angry about the lack of a strong U.S. response to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.
        Republican and Democratic lawmakers also vowed to keep pushing after the new Congress take office in January for further tough action against Saudi Arabia, including legislation to impose human rights sanctions and opposition to weapons sales.
        “If you want to buy our weapons, there are certain things you have to accept.    How you use them matters,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told a news conference.
        “The individual, the crown prince, is so toxic, so tainted, so flawed, that I can’t ever see myself doing business with Saudi Arabia unless there’s a change there,” said Graham, generally a close Trump ally in the Senate.
        Republicans will hold a slightly larger majority in the new Senate, but Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives, increasing the chances of sanctions legislation passing.
        The Trump administration had urged Congress not to oppose U.S. fueling, targeting help and other support for the Saudi-led coalition as it battles the Houthis, Shi’ite Muslim fighters viewed by Yemen’s neighbors as agents of Iran.
        Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the administration’s handling of Khashoggi’s killing.
        Pompeo repeated his assertion there was no direct evidence linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oct. 2 killing of Khashoggi in Istanbul, despite a CIA assessment it was likely he ordered the killing.
        Riyadh initially denied knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance, then offered contradictory explanations, including that he was killed in a rogue operation.
    TRUMP STANDS BY CROWN PRINCE
        Trump condemned the murder but has stood by the Saudi crown prince.    “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia.    They’ve been a very good ally,” Trump told Reuters on Tuesday in an Oval Office interview.
        Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel briefed leaders of the House of Representatives behind closed doors about the killing.    After the classified meeting, House members said they had not heard anything to change their minds about Khashoggi’s death.
        Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, likely the next chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, said he intended to hold hearings starting early next year on all aspects of Saudi behavior and the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
        “Saudi Arabia’s an important … partner, but I don’t think we can simply look the other way when things happen and talk about business as usual,” Engel said.
        Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who held a separate briefing for the entire Senate, are due to discuss Saudi Arabia with the entire House on Thursday.
        But several lawmakers have urged that Congress keep the Yemen conflict separate from anger over the killing of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist.
        They view Saudi Arabia as an essential counterweight in the Middle East to Iran, arch-enemy of close U.S. ally Israel.    White House officials see Saudi support as a linchpin for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan yet to be unveiled by the Trump administration.
        Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Wednesday in Jerusalem that Saudi Arabia’s role in the Middle East must be taken into account in responding to Khashoggi’s “horrific” fate.
        “If Saudi Arabia were to be destabilized, the world would be destabilized,” Netanyahu told foreign reporters, speaking in English.
    (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)

    12/13/2018 Judge demands documents related to Michael Flynn’s interview with FBI in 2017 by OAN Newsroom
        A federal judge is demanding the special counsel and Michael Flynn turn over confidential documents related to Flynn’s questioning in January 2017.    The request was made late Wednesday, one day after Flynn’s legal team claimed the FBI urged him not to involve his lawyers in the interview.
        Flynn has admitted to lying to investigators during that meeting about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
        The judge is now looking to see if the FBI interfered in Flynn’s legal right to have attorneys present.    If they did, the judge could toss out the entire case and dismiss the charge he’s facing.
        Mueller has until Friday to turn in those documents.
    FILE – In this July 10, 2018 file photo, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn
    leaves federal courthouse in Washington, following a status hearing. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        In the meantime, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is voicing his support of the court ordering a review of Michael Flynn’s dealings with the FBI.    On Wednesday, Representative Devin Nunes said he is glad a federal judge is finally looking into Flynn’s case.    He went on to describe his treatment by the FBI as “disgraceful.”
        Nunes raised concern over the agency waiting seven-months to finalize their interview report — called “302” – about Flynn’s January 2017 interview.
        According to Nunes, the information contained in those memos suggest fired FBI agent Peter Strzok did not believe Flynn had lied to investigators.
    [Now you know why Mueller released him because they did him wrong and he knew it.    Also there are two 302's, which is unusual since ther should on be one.].

    12/13/2018 U.S. Navy, Marine Corps to fall short of 80% aircraft readiness in 2019 byOAN Newsroom
        Mission capable readiness continues to be a thorn in the side of the military.    The leaders of the Marine Corps and Navy appeared before Senate lawmakers on Wednesday.    They explained that while readiness levels are improving, there is still much work to be done.
        At this point the military is expected to fall short of Defense Secretary James Mattis’ goal for next year of hitting 80-percent aircraft readiness levels. Most models currently stand at around a 60-percent mission capable rate.
        The Government Accountability Office broke down the reasons as to why this is into three main categories — problems with aging aircraft, maintenance and supply shortages.
        “In both the Marine Corps and the Navy, aviation units are facing maintenance and personnel challenges.    Out work has found Navy and Marine Corps aircraft are aging and maintaining them is both expensive and time consuming.    Getting the supplies needed to keep these fleets in the air, is also difficult.    Additionally, we have found that pilot and maintenance personnel shortfalls also make it hard to keep these older aircraft running.” — Gen. Robert Neller, Marine Corps Commandant
    In this Sept. 3, 2015, photo released by the U.S. Navy, F-35C Lightning IIs, attached to the Grim Reapers of
    Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101, and an F/A-18E/F Super Hornets attached to the Naval Aviation Warfighter Development Center (NAWDC)
    fly over Naval Air Station Fallon’s (NASF) Range Training Complex near Fallon, Nev. (Lt. Cmdr. Darin Russell/U.S. Navy via AP)
        Even the F-35 program, which is touted as the future of military aviation, has been plagued by high costs and its own slew of maintenance problems.    For example, the entire fleet was grounded back in October after a crash sparked concern over a possible issue with engine fuel tubes.    Later that same month, about two dozen F-35’s were grounded for a second time after aging fuel tubes once again began causing problems.
        In order to correct these issues, the Government Accountability Office released a list of 45 open recommendations alongside its report Wednesday.
        This includes holding contractors accountable for aircraft performance and opening up the line of communication between departments to oversee tasks.

    12/13/2018 New Virgin Galactic test flight could open door to future space tourism by OAN Newsroom
        Space enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting another test of a rocket-powered supersonic spacecraft, which could open the door even wider to the possibility of space tourism in the near future.
        On Thursday, >Virgin Galactic will launch its mothership — dubbed the White Knight T (WK2) — from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.    Attached to that ship will be the VSS Unity spacecraft, which will be released 43,000 feet in the air and will soar as many as five miles above the Earth’s surface — touching the edge of space.
        Virgin Galactic officials said Thursday’s spaceflight represents an incredible opportunity, not just for the company, but for the future in general.
        “If we have a very good day, we could potentially have the first space flight into space of Virgin Galactic, so that would be a big milestone from our personal company and then on a national level, I think this would be the first human spaceflight from American soil into space since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle,” stated George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic.
    This May 29, 2018 photo provided by Virgin Galactic shows the VSS Unity craft during a supersonic flight test.
    The spaceship isn’t launched from the ground, but is carried beneath a special aircraft to an altitude around 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
    There, it’s released before igniting its rocket engine and climbing. (Virgin Galactic via AP)
        Company officials have maintained they’re emphasizing safety above all else as a previous test-flight back in 2014 crashed in the Mojave Desert, killing one of the pilots and injuring another.
        Virgin Galactic has not yet said when it plans on beginning its first passenger flights.    So far, over 600 people have signed up for this unforgettable experience.
        “There’s so much that can be achieved for Earth by really opening space up and we want to be in the forefront of that and we will never give up,” said Virgin CEO Richard Branson.
        Company officials say while the first flights will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, there’s hope of a future where everyday people could afford the spectacular journey.
    [Dont forget your barf bag if you go on it.].

    12/13/2018 U.S. rejects World Trade Organization reform proposals by OAN Newsroom
        The U.S. is remaining unswayed by European Union proposals to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO).
        The Trump administration told the General Council EU reform proposals do not address the problems the U.S. has with the way WTO judges handle trade disputes.
        In response, the U.S. has crippled the organization’s ability to mediate trade disputes in recent years by blocking the appointment of new judges.
    Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, Director General of the World Trade Organization, WTO,
    delivers his speech during the WTO Economic Conference on “Updating Trade Cooperation: An Economic View”,
    at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization, WTO,
    in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
        “We all have witnessed the tensions in the global trading environment over the past months, and this proliferation of trade-restrictive measures and the uncertainty created by such actions could place economic recovery in jeopardy,” stated Roberto Azevedo, Director General of the WTO.    “Further escalation would carry potentially large risks for global trade, with knock-on effects for economic growth, jobs and consumer prices around the world.”
        U.S. trade representatives have further slammed the proposals for benefiting India, China and the EU, yet not benefiting the U.S.
    [As I have said the "Beast Came Out Of The Sea" and it is out of control since it was man-made, and the G-7 the seven richest industrial nations the seven heads who do what they want in the Ten Horns or the original 10 Regions of the 1995 WTO and now we are seeing the development of the four Kings of the EARTH: North, East, South and West, and the only judge they better be worried about is the God of heaven, and of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.].

    12/13/2018 November inflation flat amid drop in gas prices, reflects solid GDP growth by OAN Newsroom
        A new report is suggesting the economy is facing mounting pressure from underlying inflation.    According to the Labor Department Wednesday, the consumer prices index went unchanged between October and November despite a significant drop in gas prices.
        This suggests that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates this month for the fourth time this year.
        The report also found inflation rose by 2.2-percent this year, which is above the Fed’s two-percent inflation target.    However, some experts are confident companies will avoid passing on rising costs to the consumer for as long as possible.
    FILE- In this Nov. 23, 2018, file photo shoppers browse the aisles during a Black Friday sale at a Target store in Newport, Ky.
    On Wednesday, Dec. 12, the Labor Department reports on U.S. consumer prices for November. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, FIle)
        “I also think a lot of firms are just eating it, in terms of their corporate margins, because they are trying not to jack up prices and that would make them lose market share, so I think it’s the Amazon effect to some degree and I think we’ll see that if we get a re-escalation of these tariffs, I think we’ll continue to see that.”
    — Megan Greene, Chief Economist – Manulife Asset Management
        Following last month’s stable inflation rates, the Labor Department predicts GDP growth will remain solid well into the new year.

    12/13/2018 Trump says trade deal pays for border wall, Democrats scoff by Doina Chiacu and Anthony Esposito
    FILE PHOTO: Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrives for an event to
    unveil his plan for oil refining, in Paraiso, Tabasco state, Mexico, December 9, 2018. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
        WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic leaders rebuked President Donald Trump on Thursday for saying Mexico will pay for a border wall through a new trade deal, while Mexico’s new president said the topic has not come up in his talks with Trump.
        The Republican president vowed during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to build a wall along the border with Mexico to slow the flow of illegal immigration, and he has long pledged that Mexico – not U.S. taxpayers – would fund it.
        In a Twitter post early on Thursday, Trump said that unspecified savings for the United States as a result of the renegotiated trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada would pay for the wall.
        “Just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!,” he wrote.
        While some U.S. businesses stand to benefit from a renegotiated North American trade deal, it was not clear what Trump was referring to in terms of savings for the U.S. government.
        Funding for the border wall has been a sticking point in spending bills before Congress, and Trump clashed with leading Democrats over the issue during an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday.
        One of them, House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, ridiculed Trump’s assertion on Thursday.
        “What money?    What money?    ‘That money will be used to pay for the wall?’    The money that businesses make?    What money is he talking about that’s going to go pay for the wall?    It just doesn’t measure up,” Pelosi told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.
        Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer taunted Trump over his Mexico claim in a riposte on Twitter.
        “Mr. President: If you say Mexico is going to pay for the wall (which I don’t believe), then I guess we don’t have to!    Let’s fund the government,” Schumer wrote.
        In Mexico City, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the border wall was not discussed on a phone call with the U.S leader on Wednesday.    Mexico has repeatedly rejected Trump’s demand it pay for the wall.
        “We have not discussed that issue, in any conversation. … It was a respectful and friendly conversation,” Lopez Obrador told reporters after Trump’s tweet linking the trade deal to wall funding.
        Instead, he said the two leaders spoke about the possibility of creating a joint program for development and job creation in Central America and Mexico.    The White House confirmed the call was about the drivers of migration including insecurity and economic stagnation.
        Lopez Obrador said he also discussed a possible meeting with Trump in Washington.
        “He invited me.    I’m also able to go to Washington, but I think that both for him and for us there must be a reason and I think the most important thing would be to sign this agreement or meet with that purpose,” said Lopez Obrador.
    (Reporting by Anthony Esposito in Mexico City and Doina Chiacu in Washington; editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Jonathan Oatis)

    12/13/2018 U.S. to counter China, Russia influence in Africa: Bolton by Steve Holland
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton speaks during
    a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to counter the rapidly expanding economic and political influence of China and Russia in Africa, where the two nations use corrupt business practices with little regard for the rule of law, according to prepared remarks on Thursday by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.
        The United States’ No 1. priority will be developing economic ties with the region to create opportunities for American businesses and protect the independence of African countries, as well as U.S. national security interests, he said in the prepared remarks.
        “Great power competitors, namely China and Russia, are rapidly expanding their financial and political influence across Africa,” Bolton said.
        “They are deliberately and aggressively targeting their investments in the region to gain a competitive advantage over the United States.”
        Bolton’s speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, leaders of the world’s two largest economies, seek to resolve trade disputes that have roiled global markets and created economic uncertainty.
        “China uses bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands.    Its investment ventures are riddled with corruption,” Bolton said in his remarks.
        Bolton had equally harsh words for Russia.
        “Across the continent, Russia advances its political and economic relationships with little regard for the rule of law or accountable and transparent governance,” he said.     He accused Moscow of selling arms and energy in exchange for votes at the United Nations, “votes that keep strongmen in power, undermine peace and security, and run counter to the best interests of the African people.”
        China’s development policies in Africa have been a concern for Washington as the United States seeks to ramp up development finance in the face of China’s global ambitions.
        The head of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) said in July that China is saddling poor nations with unsustainable debt through large-scale infrastructure projects that are not economically viable.
        In October Trump signed legislation overhauling the way the federal government lends money for foreign development, creating a $60 billion agency intended largely to respond to China’s growing influence.    The new the U.S. International Development Finance Corp combines OPIC and other government development organizations.
        Xi’s “Belt and Road” initiative, unveiled in 2013, aims to build an infrastructure network connecting China by land and sea to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
    (This has been refiled to remove typo in Jinping, paragraph 5.)
    (Reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

    12/13/2018 FBI official: Chinese spying poses threat to U.S., democracy around the world by OAN Newsroom
        The assistant director of Counterintelligence for the FBI — Bill Priestap — is saying the U.S. as well as other countries need to build their defenses against Chinese exploitation.
        During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Priestap recommended U.S. companies and individuals should carefully guard their information, and to be fully aware of the threats posed by China.
        He said the situation involves a fundamental clash of ideals between democracy and communism, and said this constitutes a very complex threat.
        “The United States is the world’s sole superpower and the world’s largest economy, but our prosperity and place in the world are at risk because the Chinese government and its proxies are aggressively exploiting our nation’s economy, technology, and information,” stated Priestap.    “I believe this is the most severe counterintelligence threat facing our country today.”
        He further explained China is pushing to become an alternative model for the world, and is seeking to undermine democratic freedom with communist ideals.
        “It’s impossible to overstate the differences between the American and Chinese systems,” he explained.    “China is an authoritarian one-party state where the Chinese communist party reigns supreme.”
    American attorney and intelligence official Bill Priestap. (Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
        In one example, he outlined how the Huawei company’s expansion into the global market has permitted China to harvest information from those who use its technology.
        “The Chinese government does not share our government’s values and — to me — a great example of that is their cyber-security laws that they’ve enacted over the last few years, which provides their government access to user data, any of their telecommunications or cyber companies, when they want it, they can do whatever they want, they basically can exploit that data however they want,” Priestap explained further.
        Priestap urged the government to cooperate with companies and academic institutions in order to effectively counter Chinese espionage.
        He encouraged American businesses to be informed about the downfalls of manufacturing products in China, and to develop innovative strategies in order to safeguard their data and remain competitive in markets around the world.

    12/13/2018 U.S. government posts $205 billion deficit in November
    The U.S. Treasury building is seen in Washington, September 29, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. federal government ran a $205 billion deficit in November, according to data released on Thursday by the Treasury Department.
        Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a $188 billion deficit for last month.
        Treasury said federal spending in November was $411 billion, up 18 percent from the same month in 2017, while receipts were $206 billion, down 1 percent compared to November 2017.
        The total deficit for the first two months of the current fiscal year has widened 51 percent, to $305 billion, compared to $202 billion in the first two months of the prior fiscal year.
    (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao)

    12/14/2018 Oil up $1.43 to $52.58, DOW up 70 to 24,597

    12/14/2018 Trump’s Africa strategy takes aim at China, Russia - Will favor ‘transparent’ investment projects by Maria Danilova and Cara Anna, ASSOCIATED PRESS
        WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Thursday announced a sharp refocus of its Africa strategy to counter what it called the “predatory” practices of China and Russia, which are “deliberately and aggressively targeting their investments in the region to gain a competitive advantage.”
        National security adviser John Bolton laid out the new strategy in remarks at the Heritage Foundation, saying the U.S. will now choose its African partners more carefully. He took special aim at China, accusing it of wielding “bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands.”
        Russia, he alleged, is also “seeking to increase its influence in the region through corrupt economic dealings.”    Russia and China’s efforts across the African continent, he said, “stunt” its economic growth.
        Some critics have said this administration has let Africa policy drift for too long, while the president is well known for his disparaging remarks about the continent that is home to 1.2 billion people.
        Addressing members of Congress on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy was the latest to warn of China’s increasing economic, military and political influence in Africa, a continent with some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and trillions of dollars’ worth of natural resources.    Africa’s population is set to double by 2050, he said, a “demographic tsunami.”
        Any renewed U.S. effort to counter China in Africa, however, comes years late. China became the continent’s top trading partner nearly a decade ago and has invested billions of dollars in highprofile infrastructure projects.    In response to warnings by the U.S. and others about indebtedness to China, some in Africa have noted sometimes uncomfortable financial terms set out by Western powers in the past.    Others praise China’s no-strings-attached terms with no insistence on human rights reforms.
        Congress passed legislation earlier this year creating a $60 billion international development agency, widely viewed as a response to Chinese overseas development programs.
        Under the new “Prosper Africa” strategy, Bolton said, “we will encourage African leaders to choose highquality, transparent, inclusive, and sustainable foreign investment projects, including those from the United States.”
        He warned that the U.S. will “reevaluate its support for U.N. peacekeeping missions” as well as aid to countries whose governance it finds troublesome, including South Sudan.
        “The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent,” Bolton said.
        He added that “countries that repeatedly vote against the United States in international forums, or take action counter to U.S. interests, should not receive generous American foreign aid.”
        On the military front, China opened its first overseas military base last year in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, the site of the only permanent U.S. military base on the continent.    Bolton warned of a possible shift of the strategic region, along the lucrative and busy Red Sea shipping lane, to China.
    John Bolton

    [THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS A DEFINITE SIGN THAT THE OBAMA-CLINTON ADINISTRATION HAD THE FBI COVERING UP EVERYTHING.].
    12/14/2018 Justice Dept. Recovers Missing Strzok Text Messages
        The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog recovers thousands of missing text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.    However, the Special Counsel claims its deletion is “standard procedure.”
        The Department of Justice Inspector General released a report on Thursday, blaming the delayed revelation of the until-recently-unseen messages on a technical glitch.    The report also claims Strzok’s phone, which was issued by the FBI, was wiped clean after he was fired from the agency.
        Investigators were told the phones had been reset to factory settings and reconfigured to be re-issued to a new user.    The Special Counsel told the Inspector General the phone contained no substantive text messages before it was wiped.
        Strzok was terminated and removed from the Special Counsel’s team after it was revealed he exchanged a series of anti-Trump text messages with Page sent between December 2016 and May 2017.    Some believe this points to further bias, along with efforts to hide that bias, within the agency.

    12/14/2018 President Trump’s Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Considered for Next Chief of Staff
        The list of potential candidates for the next White House Chief of Staff is reportedly down to five names, and the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is on that short list.
        Kushner, the husband to Ivanka Trump, already serves an official White House Adviser and reportedly has been pushing for his own candidacy with the President.    He met with President Trump on Wednesday.
    FILE – In this July 25, 2017 file photo, White House Senior Adviser and envoy, Jared Kushner, listens at right as
    President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Cabinet Room of the White House in
    Washington. Kushner began a round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as he resumed efforts to restart peace talks.
    Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday,
    Aug. 24, 2017, before heading to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the evening. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
        According to the Huffington Post, Kushner cited his work on a criminal justice reform package and claims to be able to work with lawmakers from across the aisle.
        On Thursday, President Trump told reporters he is down to five finalists.
    Axios reported potential candidate, Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, also met with the President to discuss the role this week.
        Christie is considered a top contender to replace outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly due to his legal background. Kelly said he would step down by the end of the year.

    12/14/2018 Clinton Foundation whistleblowers refuse to hand over crucial documents by OAN Newsroom
        House Oversight Committee Chairman Mark Meadows is slamming two Clinton Foundation whistleblowers for refusing to share crucial documents with lawmakers.
        On Thursday, John Moynihan and Larry Doyle rejected Meadows request to turn over 6,000 pages of evidence, which could implicate the Clinton Foundation in a pay-to-play scheme.    However, the whistleblowers did agree to answer the committee’s questions about the information contained in those documents.
        They explained how the Clinton Foundation’s revenues hit an all-time low after Hillary lost the 2016 presidential election.
    Hillary Clinton gives her concession speech as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, applauds behind her. (Matt Rourke/AP/Photo)
        The pair then raised questions about the foundation’s dealings with foreign governments during Hillary’s time as secretary of state.
        “Our conclusions, in the interest of time, are this: foreign agent — the foundation began acting as an agent of foreign governments early in its life and continued doing so throughout its existence, as such, the foundation should have registered under FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act),” Moynihan stated.
        The Department of Justice prosecutor assigned to investigate the Clinton Foundation refused to appear for Thursday’s hearing.
        Moynihan and Doyle said they have sent their evidence to the prosecutor three times, because the office reportedly keeps losing the material.
    [WELL TWO OF THE TOP SWAMP CRITTERS ARE IN THE SPOTLIGHT FINALLY AND ATTEMPTS TO QUIET THE WHISTLE BLOWERS IS KNOWN.].

    12/14/2018 President Trump: Democrats are hypocrites, they have always supported border security by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is continuing to push Democrats to support national security by funding the construction of a border wall.
        The president tweeted a video Thursday, calling out Democrats for moving farther left in recent years to adopt open border type policies. In an effort to prove their hypocrisy, he included clips of the party’s most prominent leaders advocating for strong borders not too long ago.
        Trump tweet: “Let’s not do a shutdown, Democrats - do what’s right for the American People!”
        The president called for an end to the partisan games, and said the “flip-flopping” is because Democrats want to oppose his agenda no matter what.
        This comes as migrants from the caravan continue to breach the U.S. border each day. According to authorities, hundreds of migrants have recently adopted a new tactic of digging under the border at a number of locations, where they immediately surrender to Border Patrol and demand asylum.
        Under current laws, they are legally allowed to begin the asylum process even after entering the country illegally.
        This week President Trump tried to impress upon the leaders of the left the threat that unchecked illegal immigration presents to America’s national security.
        “I am proud to shut down the government for border security, because the people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems, and drugs pouring into our country,” he stated.
        President Trump is demanding Democrats agree to provide five billion dollars in funding for the wall, and he appears positive he will get it done one way or another.
        “Whatever it takes to get border security, I will do it I pledged that a long time ago and will pledge it always.    We’ve done a really fantastic job with what we have, we could do an almost perfect job if we have the wall and proper border security and that’s what we’re going to do for American people.” — President Donald Trump

    12/14/2018 Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to allow transgender military ban by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration is seeking aid from the Supreme Court to take the next step in imposing a ban on transgender people in the military.
        In court filings Thursday, the Justice Department’s solicitor general — Noel Francisco — requested a hold against the lower courts, which are currently preventing the administration from enforcing the policy.
        If approved, the hold will allow a temporary block of military recruitment of transgender individuals pending the outcome of the ongoing legal battle.
        The move comes just weeks after the administration asked the Supreme Court to fast-track its review of the order, pushing the issue past the appeals court.
    Transgender U.S. Army Capt. Jennifer Sims lifts her uniform during a July
    interview with The Associated Press in Beratzhausen near Regensburg, Germany. (Photo/Matthias Schrader/AP)
        Many critics have chimed in against the ban since the president first announced it on Twitter last year, claiming the president is taking an anti-LGBTQ stance.    However, the White House is adamant the decision is based off security concerns and is claiming the previous policy poses a risk to overall military effectiveness.
        “The president’s expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, but he’s also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy and based on consultation that he’s had with his national security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion and made the decision based on that,” stated Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
        Francisco is claiming this current legal battle is part of a “growing trend” by activist judges.    He cited the numerous injunctions placed on the administration by the courts blocking policies involving national security, defense, and immigration.

    12/14/2018 Two million more Venezuelans could flee next year: U.N. by Stephanie Nebehay
    FILE PHOTO: A Venezuelan migrant waits outside a temporary camp for
    Venezuelan refugees in Bogota, Colombia November 19, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo
        GENEVA (Reuters) – An estimated two million Venezuelans could join the ranks of migrants and refugees next year, swelling the total to 5.3 million as the country’s meltdown continues, the United Nations said on Friday.
        About 5,000 Venezuelans flee their homeland daily, down from a peak of 13,000 in August, said Eduardo Stein, a joint special representative for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
        Stein described the two million figure as a planning estimate for migrants and refugees leaving for neighboring countries in the next 14 months who will need aid.
        “The region had to respond to an emergency that in some areas of concern was almost similar to a massive earthquake.    We are indeed facing a humanitarian earthquake,” he told a news briefing.
        The U.N. appealed last week for $738 million in 2019 to help Venezuela’s neighbors cope with the inflow of millions of refugees and migrants who have “no prospect for return in the short- to medium-term.”
        About 3.3 million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic crisis in their homeland, most since 2015, the UNHCR said.
        About 365,000 of them have sought asylum, U.N. refugee boss Filippo Grandi said.
        “The reasons these people left are ranging from pure hunger to violence and lack of security … We at UNHCR believe many have valid reasons to seek international protection,” he said.
        Colombia has taken in one million Venezuelan nationals, with most others going to Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
        A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators proposed on Thursday giving temporary protected status to Venezuelan migrants to the United States.
        Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blames its economic problems on U.S. financial sanctions and an “economic war” led by political adversaries.
        The U.N. aid plan, presented to donors on Friday, aims to help Venezuelans to become productive contributors in host countries, said Antonio Vitorio, director-general of the IOM.
        “This means focusing on access to the labor market, recognition of qualifications and also guaranteeing that the provision of social services in those countries – especially housing, health, and education – are up to the stress that derives from the newcomers,” he said.
    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by David Stamp)

    12/14/2018 Venezuela’s last anti-Maduro newspaper publishes final print edition by Vivian Sequera
    FILE PHOTO: General view of El Nacional newspaper main printing press in Caracas, Venezuela June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Adriana Loureiro
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s El Nacional newspaper, which has been heavily critical of the ruling Socialist Party, on Friday published its last print edition after struggling for years under government pressure and a collapsing economy.
        The paper, which is transitioning to a web format, has found it increasingly difficult to obtain newsprint due to exchange controls that make imports nearly impossible, and has potentially massive payments in a defamation lawsuit brought by Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello.
        “I want to think that this is a pause,” said the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Patricia Spadaro, at a press conference in the paper’s empty offices.
        El Nacional said it will resume its print edition “when the country returns to democracy,” a reference to growing global criticism that President Nicolas Maduro has created a dictatorship.
        Marcos Ruiz, Secretary General of Venezuela’s Press Workers Union, described the end of El Nacional’s print edition as part the government’s hostile treatment of the press.
        The paper has over the years faced withering criticism, initially because it openly backed the founder of the Socialist Party, late president Hugo Chavez, in his 1998 campaign.
        By 2002, after the paper’s editor fell out with Chavez, El Nacional celebrated a botched coup by dissident military officers, which critics called evidence it put politics over objectivity.
        It was often targeted for fueling the country’s polarized politics by ignoring government supporters and unquestioningly championing its critics.
        With inflation running at 1.3 million percent currently, the paper had struggled to retain staff.
        As elsewhere in the industry, El Nacional’s print operation was also impacted by younger readers spurning physical newspapers for digital news.
    (Reporting by Vivian Sequera, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
    [Although hardly anyone buys newspapers anymore and do it online instead, if you continue to let the "fake news" pollute your mind you might one day see the American version of Progressive Socialist Liberal Democrats turn America into a Venesuela.    That would be my conclusion of why there would be no "King Of The North" in the end time scenerio.].

    12/14/2018 France needs calm, order and return to normal after protests: Macron
    People attend a CGT labour union demonstration to protest against the
    French government's reforms in Paris, France, December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron called for a return to calm in France after nearly a month of protests by the ‘yellow vest’ movement against his government’s policies which have hit growth and caused widespread disruption.
        “France needs calm, order and a return to normal,” Macron said, speaking a news conference after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.
        The ‘yellow vest’ movement started on Nov. 17 with protests at junctions and roundabouts against fuel tax increases, but quickly became a wider mobilisation against Macron’s economic policies.    Three successive weekends of protests in Paris have led to vandalism and violent clashes with security forces.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose; Writing by Luke Baker)

    12/14/2018 EU’s Tusk says no more Brexit negotiations by Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski
    European Council President Donald Tusk attends a news conference after a
    European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Council President Donald Tusk said on Friday he had no mandate to reopen Brexit negotiations with Britain, while the head of the bloc’s executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he “admired” Prime Minister Theresa May.
        Tusk and Juncker were speaking at a news conference after two days of talks at an EU summit that were dominated by the issue of Brexit and saw the other 27 national leaders of the bloc offer May only vague assurances over their Brexit deal.
        “I have no mandate to organize any further negotiations.    We have to exclude any further opening of the withdrawal agreement,” Tusk said.    “But of course, we are staying here in Brussels and I’m always at the PM’s disposal.”
        Juncker, captured by cameras earlier on Friday during an apparently heated exchange with May, said: “We have to bring down the temperature” around Brexit talks.
        He said he did not mean to offend May and his comments describing the British position as “nebulous” referred to the broader state of the Brexit debate in the United Kingdom.
        “We sypmathyse with Mrs May,” Juncker told a news conference.    “I have the highest respect for the British PM.”
        He added the EU, in answering May’s plea for more assurances on the Brexit deal so that she could get it past her parliament, promised to start negotiations with the UK on their new trade deal “the second after” their divorce deal is approved, so that the contentious Irish backstop hopefully never has to kick in.
        Tusk also offered his words of respect.
        “We have treated PM May with the outmost respect, all of us.    We really appreciate the efforts to ratify our common agreement,” Tusk said.    “We have treated PM May with much greater empathy and respect than some British members of parliament.”
    (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
    [The EU had no intention to make a deal and intended to punish those who want to leave their block, and some of the Eastern Europe nations have even considered leaving the EU.].

    12/14/2018 France’s Macron: The Brexit accord is not renegotiable
    FILE PHOTO: France's President Emmanuel Macron arrives on December 13, 2018 in Brussels for a
    European Summit aimed at discussing the Brexit deal, the long-term budget and the single market. John Thys/Pool via REUTERS
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he continued to believe an economic stabilization function was necessary in the budget of the euro zone and reiterated there was only one achievable deal with London regarding Brexit.
        “The deal cannot be subject to renegotiation,” he said of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, speaking in a news conference after a summit of European leaders in Brussels.
    (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Luke Baker)

    12/14/2018 Chinese hackers targeting U.S. Navy contractors with multiple breaches: WSJ
    FILE PHOTO: A man types on a computer keyboard in this
    illustration picture February 28, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chinese hackers have breached U.S. Navy contractors to steal a raft of information, including missile plans, through what some officials describe as some of the most debilitating cyber campaigns linked to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
        Victims have included contractors of all sizes, with some of the smaller ones struggling to invest in securing their networks, as hackers over the last 18 months have conducted numerous breaches to gather intelligence, sabotage American systems, and steal intellectual property, the Journal reported.
        Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
        The Journal’s report was based on information from experts and officials, who said that Navy Secretary Richard Spencer had ordered a review of cybersecurity weaknesses that led to an initial assessment validating concerns and laying groundwork for a response by the Navy.    Officials in the Navy called the breaches troubling and unacceptable, the Journal reported.
        National Security Agency official Rob Joyce said on Tuesday that in general Chinese cyber activity in the United States had risen in recent months.    The digital attacks have targeted the U.S. energy, financial, transportation and healthcare sectors, and gone beyond efforts to spy and steal intellectual property into disrupting critical infrastructure.
        Chinese officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment but have denied they engage in cyberattacks, according to the Journal.
    (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

    12/15/2018 Oil down $1.38 to $51.20, DOW down 497 to 24,101

    12/15/2018 Thousands of ‘yellow vests’ hit French streets in fifth Saturday of protests
    Protesters wearing yellow vests take part in a demonstration by the
    "yellow vests" movement in Paris, France, December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes TEMPLATE OUT
        PARIS (Reuters) – Thousands of protesters took to the streets of French cities on Saturday in the fifth weekend of nationwide demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron’s government, despite calls to hold off after a shooting in Strasbourg earlier this week.
        In Paris, police were out in force to contain possible outbursts of violence.    But several major stores, such as the Galeries Lafayette, were open to welcome Christmas shoppers.
        On the Champs-Elysees, a handful of topless activists from the feminist protest group Femen faced security forces a few meters away from the Elysee Palace, the president’s residence.
        The Interior Minister said around 69,000 police officers were active on Saturday with a reinforced presence in the cities of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne.
        On Friday, President Macron called for a return to calm in France after nearly a month of protests by the so-called ‘yellow vest’ movement against his government’s policies.    The demonstrations have hit growth and caused widespread disruption.
        “France needs calm, order and a return to normal,” Macron said, after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.
        The ‘yellow vest’ movement started in mid-November with protests at junctions and roundabouts against fuel tax increases, but quickly became a wider mobilisation against Macron’s economic policies.
        Successive weekends of protests in Paris have lead to vandalism and violent clashes with security forces.
        In a televised address to the nation on Monday, Macron announced wage rises for the poorest workers and tax cuts for pensioners in further concessions meant to end the movement but many said they would maintain pressure.
        The government, as well as several unions and opposition politicians also called on protesters to stay off the streets on Saturday, after four people were killed in a gun attack at a Christmas market in the historic city of Strasbourg.
    (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Reuters Television; Writing by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Ros Russell)

    12/15/2018 FBI releases Comey dossier summary by OAN Newsroom
        A summary of the Steele dossier is released by the FBI shedding light on how it was used leading up to the special counsel investigation.
        The bureau released the two page document Saturday which was used by former FBI director James Comey to brief both President Obama and Trump.
        The summary shows the FBI claimed Steele was working for private clients, when in reality he was working for the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
    James Comey, who was fired by President Trump in May 2017, acknowledged during a book tour
    earlier this year that he did not inform Trump who paid for the research. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
        Republicans have accused the FBI of relying too heavily on the unverified document in their investigation into Russian collusion.
        In his testimony on Capitol Hill, Comey said he didn’t know the origins of the dossier, with some saying that claim is without merit.
        Republicans have been trying to get more information on the dossier, and how it was used to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page.
        They even allege it was the dossier that kick-started the special counsel probe.

    12/15/2018 Pres Trump: mainstream media has never been as dishonest as today by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump takes to Twitter to slam the mainstream media for ignoring stories, and unfairly reporting on his administration.
        In a tweet Saturday the president said “never in the history of our country has the press been more dishonest than it is today.”
    FILE – In this Oct. 23, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks following a ceremony signing the
    “America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018” into law in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.
    For some time now, Trump has been encouraging people to think Mexico is a portal for international terrorists who “pour” into the U.S.
    Except, he says, for 10 who were recently caught by the U.S.: “These are very serious people.” These 10 do not exist,
    except as a federal statistic that Trump and his vice president put through a rhetorical grinder in service of
    describing emigrants from Mexico as a menace. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
        He continued saying, “stories that should be good, are bad, and stories that are bad, are horrible.”
        He accused the mainstream media of ignoring relevant news, saying “many stories, including the real story on Russia, Clinton, and the DNC, seldom get reported.”
        Trump tweets “Never in the history of our Country has the 'press' been more dishonest than it is today.    Stories that should be good, are bad.    Stories that should be bad, are horrible.    Many stories, like with the REAL story on Russia, Clinton & the DNC, seldom get reported. Too bad!”

    12/15/2018 Report: complaint over harris aide came to office before her departure by OAN Newsroom
        A new report indicates California Senator Kamala Harris would have known about a pending suit against one of her top aides.
    FILE – In this Sept. 27, 2018, file photo, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens to Christine Blasey Ford testify
    during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice
    of the Supreme Court in Washington. Democrats are trying to turn their most painful losses this year into a rallying cry
    they hope will electrify the 2020 presidential campaign: Every vote matters. (Tom Williams/Pool Photo via AP)
        According to the Sacramento Bee Friday, Harris claimed she did not know about a harassment suit and settlement involving Larry Wallace, while he was working for her at the California Department of Justice.
        However, the report said Harris’s office was notified of the intent to pursue legal action, three months before she left her role as state attorney general.
        The office was also allegedly notified of the pending lawsuit, days before her departure.
        Harris is considered a likely contender for the 2020 presidential election.

    12/15/2018 Yellow vest activists continue protests by OAN Newsroom
        Authorities in France detain dozens of people as the country experiences it’s 5th weekend of protests.
    People wearing their yellow vests demonstrate with a banner Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018 in Marseille, southern France.
    The “yellow vest” movement, which takes its name from the fluorescent safety vests French motorists must all
    have in their vehicles, emerged in mid-November as a protest against fuel tax increases. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
        On Saturday, French police so far have detained around 85 yellow vest protesters, and have made 46 arrests.
        About 8,000 officers were deployed in Paris, as riot squads launched tear gas and fired rubber bullets to disperse the mob.
        The demonstrations continue as French President Emmanuel Macron attempts to quell tensions fueled by his unpopular economic policies.

    12/15/2018 CBP: Border patrol rescues up 26% by OAN Newsroom
        Border patrol rescues are on the rise.
        According to Customs and Border Protection agents on Friday, authorities rescued 4,300 illegal immigrants during the last fiscal year.
    U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicole Ballistrea watches over the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales, Ariz., in Dec. 2014.
        That’s up by more than 26% from 2017, when border patrol agents rescued about 3,400 illegal border crossers.
        Many of the distress calls stem from human smugglers packing illegal immigrants into the back of tractor-trailers, or from abandoning them out in the desert.
        This comes amid a sharp increase in border apprehensions, as agents begin to see a larger number of Central American families make the dangerous trek north.

    [THIS REALLY PUT THE DEMOCRATS PANTIES IN A WAD AS SOMEONE ACTUALLY LOOKED AT THE CONSTITUTION AND RULED FOR WHAT IT SAYS].
    12/16/2018 White House: ‘Obamacare’ intact despite court ruling - Justices likely to decide; Trump calls for new law by Doug Stanglin, Ken Alltucker and Richard Wolf,USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – While President Donald Trump hailed as “great news for America” a federal judge’s ruling striking down aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the White House rushed to assure Americans the program will remain in place while the lawsuit is appealed.
        On Twitter, Trump labeled the ACA an “UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster!” and called on Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to pass a “STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare.”
        In a separate statement late Friday, the White House said: “We expect this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court.    Pending the appeal process, the law remains in place.”
        With the ruling having no immediate effect, consumers were still able to buy 2019 coverage on federal or state marketplaces through Saturday, the federal enrollment period’s deadline.    The deadline in some states is in January.
        If the ruling is upheld on appeal, though, the program’s subsidies would no longer be available.    Medicaid, which provides insurance coverage to millions of low income and working-class Americans, could also be in jeopardy.
        The lawsuit was brought by 20 Republican- led states.    After Trump ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the health care law – President Barack’s Obama signature legislative achievement – a coalition of ACAsupporting states took up the defense.
        The Justice Department had urged the judge not to rule in the midst of the health law’s open enrollment season or risk a chaotic situation.
        Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is virtually assured of becoming House speaker in January, said it was “absurd” that the judge declared portions of the health law unconstitutional.    She pledged to intervene in the appeals process when Democrats take control of the House next month.
        “Republicans are fully responsible for this cruel decision and for the fear they have struck into millions of families across America who are now in danger of losing their health coverage,” she said in a statement.
        Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, who initiated the lawsuit, applauded the decision, saying in a statement: “Today’s ruling enjoining Obamacare halts an unconstitutional exertion of federal power over the American health care system.”
        In a signal of the shifting public opinion in favor of the 2010 law, Trump stressed in his latest tweet that any new program should include one of the most popular aspects of “Obamacare,” a ban on health insurers denying coverage to people based on pre-existing conditions.    Many GOP candidates took care to champion the pre-existing conditions aspect of the law during the midterm elections.
        In his 55-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas agreed with Republicans that it was unconstitutional to mandate that individuals buy health insurance or be taxed for not complying.    The GOP tax-cut bill Congress passed last year, he said, knocked the constitutional foundation out from under the health care law by eliminating the penalty for not having coverage.
        “The court today finds the individual mandate is no longer fairly readable as an exercise of Congress’s tax power and continues to be unsustainable under Congress’s interstate commerce power,” O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote.    “The court therefore finds the individual mandate, unmoored from a tax, is unconstitutional.”
        The ruling likely will be appealed by California and other states to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which is dominated 11-5 by Republican presidents’ nominees.
        The expected lengthy court fight likely would end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has twice voted to uphold other challenges to the ACA.
        In 2012, the court upheld the law’s mandate that individuals buy insurance as a tax, and in 2015 it upheld tax credits for low-income recipients in federal as well as state insurance exchanges.
        If the Texas decision is upheld “it would throw the individual insurance market and the whole health care system into complete chaos,” Larry Levitt, a senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation for health care policy, wrote in a Friday Twitter post.
        “But,” he added, “the case still has a long legal road to travel before that’s an immediate threat.”
        The foundation, a nonpartisan research organization, has estimated that 52 million adults from 18 to 64, or 27 percent of that age group, would be denied coverage under the practices that were in effect in most states before the ACA was passed.
        A central question in the case is whether Congress intended for the individual mandate and coverage for preexisting conditions to be inseparable, as the Obama administration argued in 2012.    Five years later, Congress specified that eliminating the penalty should not jeopardize the rest of the law.
        The annual penalty for those who refuse to get health insurance is $695 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater.

    12/16/2018 Conservative magazine that criticized Trump is shutting down
        The Weekly Standard, the once influential conservative magazine that has been sharply critical of President Donald Trump, will publish its final issue in the coming week, the magazine’s publisher announced Friday.
        Ryan McKibben, CEO of Clarity Media Group, which owned the magazine, said the decision was driven by a nose dive in subscribers that began well before Trump ran for office.

    12/16/2018 Out of prison, Papadopoulos says he plans to run for Congress
        After serving a two-week prison sentence for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos says he plans to run for Congress in 2020.
        Papadopoulos confirmed to USA TODAY that he planned a bid for Congress in Orange County, California, where he moved with his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos.

    12/16/2018 Dershowitz dismisses possibility of prison sentence reduction for Michael Cohen by OAN Newsroom
    Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz says he believes a reduction of Michael Cohen’s sentence is unlikely to happen.
        The legal scholar made the comment during an interview Friday suggesting Cohen’s recent appearances in the media are self-motivated to appear as though he’s learned the error of his ways.
        Cohen received three years in prison earlier this month for tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations.
        Dershowitz added while he believes Cohen probably thinks he’s a changed man his media appearances are also intended to serve as an effort to reduce his sentence.

    12/16/2018 President Trump and Rudy Giuliani Slam Michael Cohen and FBI for Falling Victim to Witch Hunt by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump blasts his former lawyer Michael Cohen while taking aim at the FBI and the Mueller probe.
        The President took to twitter on Sunday saying Cohen only became a “rat” after the FBI raided his office back in April.
        Trump tweet: “Remember, Michael Cohen only became a “Rat” after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started.    They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY’S OFFICE!    Why didn’t they break into the DNC to get the Server, or Crooked’s office?”
        He condemned the act and the FBI for falling victim to the “unthinkable and unheard of” witch hunt.
        He then questioned why the servers of the DNC or “crooked” Hilary Clinton were not subject to being broken into.
        This comes as Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for financial crimes and lying to the FBI.
        The President’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, claims the prosecutors at the southern district of New York do not have any evidence to back up the guilty plea of Michael Cohen.
        In an interview on Sunday, Giuliani called Cohen pathetic and suggested he was lying to fit the situation he was in.
        He also said, with Cohen, you never know what the truth is despite the southern district’s claim of corroborating evidence to back up Cohen’s statements against the President.
        That’s a claim Giuliani denies, saying “they don’t have corroborating evidence.”
        Giuliani also refuted allegations the President knew about Donald Trump Junior’s Trump Tower meeting, as well as Roger Stones’ alleged attempts to contact Wikileaks.

    12/16/2018 Stephen Miller: President Trump Willing to Shut Down Government for Border Wall by OAN Newsroom
        Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller echoed the President’s threat to shut down the government in order to secure funding for the border wall.
        During an interview on Sunday, Miller said with Democrats taking control of the house next year, the administration will have a real opportunity to make bi-partisan progress on immigration and the border.
    FILE – In this Nov. 2, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump’s White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller boards Air Force One
    for campaign rallies in West Virginia and Indiana, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md. The White House is digging in on its
    demand for $5 billion to build a border wall as congressional Democrats stand firm against it, pushing the federal government
    closer to the brink of a partial shutdown. Miller says Trump is prepared to do
    “whatever is necessary” to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        He then doubled-down on President Trump’s call for a government shut down if Democrats don’t want to come to the table.
        Miller also blasted Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer for saying President Trump will not receive the $5 billion requested for border security.

    12/16/2018 Hondurans who fled political violence fear for lives if sent home by Daniel Trotta
    FILE PHOTO: A cameraman is seen amidst tear gas during a protest to mark the first anniversary of a contested
    presidential election with allegations of electoral fraud, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera/File Photo
        TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) – The Pineda family trudged northward for more than a month with a caravan of Central American migrants who are now stuck at the U.S. border. But they were on the run in Honduras much longer than that due to fears of political persecution.
        According to the family’s account, masked men in military uniforms came in November 2017 to their door in the town of Peña Blanca, brandishing handguns and giving them two options: leave or be killed.    They chose to leave, taking refuge with friends and family for nearly a year, they said, before joining thousands of others in a 2,800-mile (4,500-km) journey to the United States in October.
        The confrontation occurred on Nov. 26, 2017, the night of Honduras’ presidential election.    Active in the leftist opposition Libre Party, the Pinedas believe their tormentors were loyal to conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
        His security forces killed at least 16 people in major street protests that followed his disputed re-election and nobody has been criminally charged, according to a U.N. report.
        “They told me that for getting people involved in political parties they were going to fill me with lead,” said Secundina Pineda, 25, one of four sisters living with their 65-year-old father and a toddler inside a tent at a migrant camp in Tijuana, Mexico.
        Their story points to the largely overlooked political violence in Honduras that, along with grinding poverty, has helped create a humanitarian crisis at the U.S. doorstep.
        Reuters could not verify the Pinedas’ story, which was largely narrated by Secundina.    She is the most educated of her family, having studied business administration.    A Honduran armed forces spokesman vehemently denied the account or any other political persecution.
        But human rights observers in Honduras and immigration lawyers representing migrants from the caravan said they have heard similar stories of security forces entering homes and intimidating opposition political activists.
        Military police have conducted arbitrary searches and seizures and broken up opposition demonstrations, the rights observers said, a contention denied by the military.
        In a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world, death squads have conducted 38 massacres of five or more people in 2018, said Berta Oliva, director of the human rights group Committee of the Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH).    She contended that political cases are written off as common crime.
        “The Honduran armed forces absolutely do not persecute anybody,” said Captain Jose Domingo Mesa, a military spokesman.
        “A lot of people who are trying to get asylum (in the United States) are looking for political justification, a lot of times blaming the armed forces,” Mesa said.    “We invite this family that says it has been persecuted to return to the country.”
        The president’s office did not answer a Reuters request for comment.
        U.S. immigration lawyer Maritza Agundez estimated 20 to 25 percent of her coalition’s clients are Hondurans with credible political asylum cases.    She is one of 16 staff attorneys for Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) who are handling dozens of cases from the migrant caravan.    The Hondurans who report harassment from official security forces vow never to return home, she said.
        “They are 100 percent sure that if they return back home that they will be killed,” Agundez said.
    CARAVAN STALLED IN TIJUANA
        Thousands of Central American asylum seekers have been corralled into overcrowded camps for the past month in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana after walking highways and hitching rides since October.    They face long wait times to have asylum claims heard, and some frustrated migrants are considering trying to cross the U.S. border illegally, staying in Mexico or agreeing to be sent home voluntarily.
        The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has made it harder for migrants to get asylum, eliminating protection for people fleeing gangs or domestic violence and attempting to deny asylum to people who cross the border illegally.
        Even before that, less than 14 percent of Hondurans were winning their asylum cases in fiscal year 2018.
        The United States is also deporting about 22,000 Hondurans per year back into one of the poorest counties in the Americas.
        Soledad Pazo, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras, said her mission is monitoring all manner of accusations including kidnapping and disappearances, but Honduran judicial institutions are largely incapable of a proper investigation, Pazo said.
        “There is a high level of impunity here,” Pazo said.    “Many say, ‘I don’t have confidence in the police when those who I am reporting come from the state.'”
        Honduras has long suffered political instability, and the situation has deteriorated since a 2009 coup when the army deposed President Manuel Zelaya, now of the Libre Party that was formed in 2011, for taking measures that could have led to running for re-election.
        Polarization grew more acute in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of presidential re-election despite it still being banned by the constitution, allowing Hernandez to seek the re-election that had been denied Zelaya.
        The election in 2017 was marked by irregularities, and when an early lead for Libre candidate Salvador Nasralla disappeared during the days-long vote count, street protests erupted.
        A U.N. human rights report found 23 people were killed in post-election violence, at least 16 of them shot to death by security forces.
        Oliva of COFADEH said human rights have continued to deteriorate with the military police and armed forces involved in the majority of the violations.
        “From 2017 until now, Honduras has experienced a breakdown like never before on issues of human rights issues, democracy, on freedom of expression, on issues of truth.    This is fundamentally what has made most people decide to migrate like a flock of birds,” Oliva said.
        The Pinedas heard on television about the caravan, which the Hernandez government alleges was instigated by a Libre politician.    After a family debate, the Pinedas decided to leave, joining the 300,000 people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who abandon their countries each year, according to a U.N. estimate.
        Secundina Pineda said she wants to study marketing and learn English, perhaps in Miami where she has a friend.    Older sister Leida, 33, said she would take any kind of job, even scrubbing toilets.    Jose Melvin Pineda, the patriarch, wants to keep working in construction, even though he is 65 years old.
        All of them are terrified of returning to Honduras.    "If we’re deported,” Secundina said, “we’ll be eaten alive.”
    (Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Tijuana; Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Cynthia Osterman)

    12/16/2018 Brexit pressure rises, but UK government says no to second vote
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a news conference after an extraordinary
    EU leaders summit to finalise and formalise the Brexit agreement in Brussels, Belgium November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government is not preparing for a second referendum on Brexit, ministers said on Sunday, sticking to the script that Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal could still pass through parliament with a few changes.
        May delayed a vote last week on her agreement to leave the European Union because she was set to lose in parliament and has tried to secure “assurances” from the bloc to try to better sell it to skeptical lawmakers.    Brussels said last week it was ready to help but warned her that she could not renegotiate the deal.
        With less than four months before Britain is due to leave in March, Brexit, the biggest shift in trade and foreign policy for more than 40 years, is proving anything but smooth, complicated by the deep divisions in parliament and across the country.
        With May facing deadlock in parliament over the deal and the EU offering little so far, more politicians are talking about the possibility of Britain leaving without an agreement or a second referendum that could stop Brexit from happening.
        Asked if the government was preparing for a vote, education minister Damian Hinds told Sky News: “No, a second referendum would be divisive.    We’ve had the people’s vote, we’ve had the referendum and now we’ve got to get on with implementing it.”
        Trade minister Liam Fox also said a second referendum would “perpetuate” the deep divisions in Britain, adding that the prime minister was securing the necessary assurances to persuade parliament to back her deal.
        He said that would take some time.
        “It will happen over Christmas, it’s not going to happen this week, it’s not going to be quick, it will happen some time in the New Year,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
        But the longer it takes, voices urging a change of tack are getting louder and the pressure on the main opposition Labour Party to move against the government is rising.
        Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said if Britain wanted to put an “entirely new” Brexit proposal forward the government would most likely have to delay its departure.
        May survived a no confidence vote among her Conservative lawmakers last week, but opposition parties are calling for Labour to propose a parliamentary motion of no confidence against the government this week.
        Labour has repeatedly said it will call such a motion at “the best time,” or when it knows it can win, and for now will try to force the government to bring its deal to parliament sooner.
        Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s policy chief for communities and local government, said: “We will be using whatever mechanisms we have at our disposal next week to try and force the government to bring forward that deal for a vote before Christmas.”
    (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Potter)

    12/16/2018 Thousands march in Brussels against U.N. migration pact
    Far-right supporters attend a protest against Marrakesh Migration Pact
    in Brussels, Belgium December 16, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Thousands of people marched in Brussels on Sunday against a U.N. pact aimed at fostering cooperation on migration, eclipsing a smaller demonstration in support of the deal, the signing of which brought down Belgium’s government last week.
        Police said some 5,500 people marched in the bigger protest, organized by Flemish right wing parties in the part of the capital where main European Union institutions are located.     A separate counter-demonstration of around 1,000 people, organized by left-wing groups and non-governmental organizations, took place in the city center.     Belgian right-wing N-VA, which is the biggest party in parliament, pulled its ministers from the ruling coalition last week after Prime Minister Charles Michel refused its demand that he not sign the U.N. migration compact in Marrakesh.     Michel had secured a large parliamentary majority in favor of maintaining Belgium’s support of the U.N. text, with support from the opposition socialists and greens. Critics said the N-VA’s move was the opening shot in a campaign before federal elections in May.     The U.N. pact was agreed in July by all 193 U.N. members except the United States, but only 164 formally signed it at the meeting last Monday.     It has run into criticism from European politicians who say it could increase immigration to Europe as the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike since a 2015 spike in arrivals.
        Ten countries, mostly in formerly Communist Eastern Europe, have pulled out of the non-binding pact.
        With a record 21.3 million refugees globally, the United Nations began work on the pact after more than one million people arrived in Europe in 2015, many fleeing civil war in Syria and poverty in Africa    .
    (Additional reportin by Francois Lenoir; Reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Mark Potter)

    12/16/2018 Christian pastors weighs in on terror attack in Strasbourg, France by OAN Newsroom
        Christian Pastor Franklin Graham warns Islamic extremism continues to be a global threat following a recent terror attack in France.
        Graham reacted strongly to the incident in a two-part tweet on Saturday, saying the Muslim idea of Allah is very different than that of Christians.
        He claims violence against non-believers are central teachings of Islam, and it is their beliefs that move terrorists to perpetuate their crimes.
        This comes as the death toll in last week’s terror attack in France rises to five after a fifth victim dies from gunshot wounds.

    12/16/2018 Rep. Nunes: White House should create transparency office for declassification by OAN Newsroom
        Outgoing House Intel Chair Devin Nunes is calling for the creation of a transparency office under the White House.
        Nunes, in an interview on Sunday, said the panel’s investigation into the Special Counsel’s Russia probe is essentially over, however, many documents remain un-redacted.
        The House Intelligence Committee has been looking into the inception of the Special Counsel’s investigation, which many republicans have speculated was sparked by using unverified allegations against the Trump campaign.
        Additionally, Nunes said he plans to work with his colleagues to construct a plan for a transparency office where congress and the American people would be able to submit requests.

    12/17/2018 White House communications official says President Trump ‘very focused’ on wall funding by OAN Newsroom
        White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp said the president is “very focused” on getting the five billion dollars he is seeking for the border wall.
        Schlapp made the comments outside the White House Monday, and predicted the president will get what he is looking for.    She also indicated the White House doesn’t want a government shutdown, but suggested Congress must increase funding for the border.
    Honduran asylum seekers are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents after the group crossed
    the U.S. border wall into San Diego, California, seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
        Schlapp claimed the president is not only pursuing more funding for the wall, but also other areas of border security.
        “The president is continuing to negotiate with Congress,” she stated.    “Obviously, he’s looking to have increased funding for border security — that is his priority and we’re going to find ways to get to that five billion dollars, and make sure that we increase funding not only for the physical barrier, but also for technology and for personnel.”
        Despite the president’s push to secure our borders, congressional Democrats are only willing to put $1.3 billion towards the issue so far.

    12/17/2018 DNC chair under fire for attacking state party leaders in angry email by OAN Newsroom
        Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is facing backlash from his own party after he sent out an angry email to state party leaders regarding the party’s voter data file.
        In the harshly-worded email, Perez slammed state party leaders for pushing back against his plans to allow super PACs and other outside groups to have access to Democrat voter information.
        In exchange for voter data, liberal donors and Silicon Valley tycoons have promised to pay to update the DNC’s tech and pool their data quickly.
        The Republican National Committee is already doing something similar to Perez’s proposal by sharing voter data with groups like the Koch brothers, which has some Democrat leaders worried their party could be at a competitive disadvantage in 2020.
        However, the Democrat state parties, which control a majority of the voter data collected, said handing over data to outside entities would only benefit a few elite figures in the party and could hurt other smaller candidates looking to run in 2020.
    Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez makes comments during a round table discussion. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
        State party officials have introduced a counter proposal to expand existing tools already available to the party, including broadening operations with its data vendor.
        Perez said the counter proposal would reverse decades of progress, adding, its time for the party to modernize its data infrastructure.    He also threatened to cut off state parties’ access to campaign tech tools if leaders move forward with their plans.    His email sparked uproar among inner-party leaders, with some calling his response childish and disappointing.

    12/17/2018 Trump admin. slams Federal Reserve over policy, expresses optimism on China trade by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration’s criticism of the Federal Reserve continues as the Central Bank prepares for another interest rate hike before the end of the year.
        During an interview Monday, White House Trade Policy Adviser Peter Navarro claimed the Feds agenda is the biggest risk to economic growth.    He called on Chairman Jerome Powell to pause rate increases, and said the economy is currently growing with barely any inflation.
        “The reason why the Fed shouldn’t raise interest rates Wednesday is not because the economy is slowing down, its because the economy is growing without inflation,” stated Navarro.
        This comes after the president doubled down in a tweet Monday morning by saying with a strong dollar and barely any inflation, there’s no need for the Fed to bump up interest rates.    He said the Central Bank should just take the victory.
    White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, right, has seen his stature rise
    recently in the Trump administration. (PHOTO/EVAN VUCCI/AP)
        The Fed will hold its last meeting of the year starting Tuesday, with a rate hike widely expected.    It would be the fourth increase of the year.
        After its September meeting, the Fed indicated it will make three moves in 2019 and cited the current positive economic progress.    However, with criticism of the hikes some believe it’s not a guarantee we will even see any in 2019.
        Meanwhile, Navarro talked about trade talks with China.    He said tensions with Beijing have just a small impact on the U.S. economy.
        The market has been volatile lately, with many pointing to uncertainty on trade as the cause.    Navarro downplayed the ups and downs, and called on everyone to have faith in U.S. negotiators.
        “What I would urge people to do on Wall Street is rather than follow this day-to-day and get all excited and go up and down on rumors, is to let the process take its course,” said Navarro.    “We have two of the best negotiators in the world on our side — President Trump and Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative.”
        The U.S. and China are currently in the middle of their so called 90-day truce as the two sides work on agreeing to a deal.
        Navarro said the president has policies that are growing the economy and defending the country, and said people should be optimistic.

    12/17/2018 President Trump: Obamacare hurts families badly by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – This Oct. 23, 2018 file photo shows HealthCare.gov website on a computer screen in New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
        President Trump is continuing to blast Obamacare after a federal judge ruled the health care law, also known as the Affordable Care Act, is unconstitutional.
        In a tweet Monday, the president said “the deductible which comes with Obamacare is so high it’s practically not useable.”
        Trump tweet: “The DEDUCTIBLE which comes with ObamaCare is so high that it is practically not even useable!    Hurts families badly.    We have a chance, working with the Democrats, to deliver great HealthCare!    A confirming Supreme Court Decision will lead to GREAT HealthCare results for Americans!”
        This comes after the judge sided with 20 states, which say a change in the tax law eliminates a penalty for not having health insurance and makes Obamacare invalid.
        President Trump praised the ruling by calling it a big victory.
        “It’s a great ruling for our country, we’ll be able to get great health care, we’ll sit down with the Democrats — if the Supreme Court upholds — we’ll be sitting down with the Democrats and we will get great health care for our people,” he stated.    “Let’s say ‘Repeal and Replace’ — handled a little differently, but it was a big, big victory by a highly respected judge.”
        The president is hoping the high court would uphold the judge’s ruling, and said a Supreme Court decision to confirm the ruling would lead to great health care results for Americans.

    12/17/2018 U.S. isolated at U.N. over its concerns about abortion, refugees by Michelle Nichols
    FILE PHOTO: An anti-abortion demonstrator (R) shouts at pro-choice demonstrators (L) in front of the
    U.S. Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington, January 22, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States found itself isolated in the 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Monday over Washington’s concerns about the promotion of abortion and a voluntary plan to address the global refugee crisis.
        Only Hungary backed the United States and voted against an annual resolution on the work of the U.N. refugee agency, while 181 countries voted in favor and three abstained. The resolution has generally been approved by consensus for more than 60 years.
        However, this year the resolution included approval of a compact on refugees, which was produced by U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi after it was requested by the General Assembly in 2016. The resolution calls on countries to implement the plan.
        The United States was the only country to oppose the draft resolution last month when it was first negotiated and agreed by the General Assembly human rights committee.    It said elements of the text ran counter to its sovereign interests, citing the global approach to refugees and migrants.
        General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.    U.S. President Donald Trump used his annual address to world leaders at the United Nations in September to tout protection of U.S. sovereignty.
        The United States also failed in a campaign, which started last month during negotiations on several draft resolutions in the General Assembly human rights committee, against references to “sexual and reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive health-care services.”
        It has said the language has “accumulated connotations that suggest the promotion of abortion or a right to abortion that are unacceptable to our administration.”
        On Monday, Washington unsuccessfully tried to remove two paragraphs from a General Assembly resolution on preventing violence and sexual harassment of women and girls.    It was the only country to vote against the language, while 131 countries voted to keep it in the resolution and 31 abstained.
        The United States also failed in trying to remove similar language in another resolution on child, early and forced marriage on Monday, saying: “We do not recognize abortion as a method of family planning, nor do we support abortion in our reproductive health assistance.”
        Only Nauru backed Washington in voting against the language, while 134 countries voted to keep it in the resolution and 32 abstained.
        When Trump came to power last year he reinstated the so-called Mexico City Policy that withholds U.S. funding for international organizations that perform abortions or provide information about abortion.
    (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)

    12/17/2018 Facing opposition, UK’s May will bring Brexit deal back to parliament by Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper
    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Steet in
    London, Britain, December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
        LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday she would bring her Brexit deal back to parliament for a mid-January vote, pledging to get assurances from the European Union before then to break a deadlock over Britain’s fraught efforts to quit the bloc.
        With just over 100 days until Britain is due to leave the EU, May faced accusations from some lawmakers that she was trying to force a deeply divided parliament into backing her deal by running the clock down to exit day.
        A mid-January vote could oblige lawmakers to make a decision between her deal or leaving without one on March 29, a nightmare scenario for many businesses.
        May is pressing on with her deal to leave the EU, rejecting calls for a second referendum or to test support for different Brexit options in parliament, despite hardening opposition to the agreement to maintain close ties.
        May said parliament would debate the deal in January, before a vote in the week beginning Jan. 14 – more than a month after an original Dec. 11 vote which she canceled after admitting she faced a significant defeat.
        After a tumultuous week in which she survived a confidence vote within her Conservative Party and sought last-minute changes to the Brexit agreement reached with Brussels last month, May said again that the alternatives to her deal were leaving without an agreement or no Brexit at all.
        “I know this is not everyone’s perfect deal.    It is a compromise.    But if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good then we risk leaving the EU with no deal,” she told lawmakers, her speech punctuated by loud shouts of protest.
        “Avoiding no deal is only possible if we can reach an agreement or if we abandon Brexit entirely.”
        She said the EU had offered “further clarification” on the most contentious aspects of the withdrawal agreement and her government was seeking “further political and legal assurances”
        The leader of the opposition Labour Party sought to turn up the pressure by lodging a motion of no confidence in May for not quickly re-scheduling the vote by lawmakers on her Brexit plan that she delayed last week.     “This is unacceptable in any way whatsoever,” Jeremy Corbyn said in the House of Commons.     But the result of a no-confidence vote in May as prime minister would be non-binding and, if it takes place, there were signs that Labour would struggle to embarrass May.     Some Conservative Party lawmakers, who want a more definitive break from Brussels and challenged her leadership last week, said they would not support Labour’s vote. Similarly, a Northern Irish party which props up May but opposes her Brexit plans said it would not back it.     A government source said Downing Street would not allow time in parliament for “a stunt” and if Labour was serious it should attempt a full vote of no confidence in the government, which would bring it down if backed by parliament. ‘NO REPLAY’
        With the EU unlikely to offer concessions that would win over lawmakers, more politicians are backing a second referendum – something some of May’s ministers say could be avoided if the government tested Brexit scenarios in parliamentary votes.
        “What is irresponsible is delaying a vote on her agreement, not because she is going to get any changes to it but because she wants to run down the clock and try and intimidate MPs (Members of Parliament) into supporting it to avoid no deal,” opposition Labour lawmaker Liz Kendall said in parliament.
        Parliament is deeply divided, with factions pressing for different options for future ties, exiting without a deal or remaining in the EU.
        May and her ministers have repeatedly ruled out a replay of the referendum, saying it would deepen rifts and betray voters who backed Brexit by 52 percent to 48 percent in 2016.
        That increases the risk of a no-deal Brexit, a scenario some businesses fear would be catastrophic for the world’s fifth largest economy.
        The political and economic uncertainty over Brexit is having an impact, with data on Monday showing a drop in consumer spending, falling house prices and growing pessimism in household finances.
        Labour’s Corbyn said May was the architect of a constitutional crisis, “leading the most shambolic and chaotic government in modern British history.”
        Several ministers, including Education Minister Damian Hinds, have said they are open to putting the range of options to parliament to see if there is a majority for any of them.
        Asked if he would rule out a so-called indicative vote, May’s spokesman said: “There are no plans to hold one.”
        The prime minister used her statement in parliament on Monday to reject the idea of a second referendum and to again argue that her agreement to keep close economic ties with the EU after Brexit is the only one on offer.
        “Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum,” May said.
    (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout and William Schomberg; Editing by William Maclean/Mark Heinrich)
    [Why did Britain decide to leave the EU?: Respondents who emphasized the national and personal economic costs of leaving the EU voted overwhelmingly to remain.    Regarding community, our survey data showed that if people believed that leaving the EU would reduce immigration and help to protect Britain from terrorism they were very likely vote for Brexit. Dec 21, 2016.
        I suggest you suck it up and get out of the EU before it becomes totally Socialist and tries to take over all as you can even see now as the yellow vest riots in France, Belgium, and others may join in as the policies of the EU are causing the uprisings from the people.]

    [No.    We should all feel for the person who is targeting innocent people.]
    12/17/2018 REPORT: Russia targeted Mueller in disinformation campaign by OAN Newsroom
        Newly released research reveals Russia targeted Special Counsel Robert Mueller in its disinformation campaign, according to a study conducted for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
        Researchers say Russian operatives posted pictures and memes on several social media platforms with hopes of convincing Americans Mueller is corrupt.
        Lawmakers have since responded to the report, calling it a “wake-up call.”
        Some are now urging congress to take legislative action to prevent election interference in the future.
    [Sounds like more "Fake News" research by the FBI and his probe is coming to an end with no one being convicted of Russian collusion.].

    12/18/2018 Oil down $1.32 to $49.88, DOW down 508 to 23,593

    12/18/2018 Gov. Cuomo calls for legalization of recreational pot in New York
        Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Monday for the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in New York, saying it was beyond time for the state to deal with the “debilitating criminal stigma” of prior convictions related to the drug.
        Cuomo, a Democrat, delivered his most forceful support for legalization during a speech in Manhattan laying out his agenda for the first 100 days of 2019, vowing to allow marijuana for recreational use in the nation’s fourthlargest state.

    12/18/2018 May says postponed Brexit vote to be held week of Jan. 14
        Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that the postponed vote in Parliament on Britain’s Brexit agreement with the European Union will be held the week of Jan. 14.
        But even as May insisted, she could salvage her unpopular divorce deal, pressure was mounting for dramatic action – a new referendum or a vote among lawmakers – to find a way out of Britain’s Brexit impasse before the divorce takes effect on March 29.

    12/18/2018 German police raid mosque over suspected financing of Syria fighter
    German police secures the entrance of the as-Sahaba mosque in
    Berlin Moabit, Germany, December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
        BERLIN (Reuters) – German Police on Tuesday raided a mosque in Berlin whose preacher was suspected of transferring funds to an Islamist fighter in Syria for the purpose of carrying out “terrorist criminal acts,” prosecutors said.
        Officers searched the As-Sahaba mosque in Berlin’s northern district of Wedding where 45-year-old Ahmad A. – known to his followers as Abul Baraa – preaches, the General Prosecutor’s Office said.
        There was no immediate comment from the cleric or any lawyer representing him.
    (Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

    12/18/2018 Former Trump adviser Flynn to be sentenced for lying to FBI by Jan Wolfe
    FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn departs after
    a plea hearing at U.S. District Court, in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge will decide on Tuesday whether former national security adviser Michael Flynn should be sent to prison for lying to the FBI in a case stemming from the investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.
        U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan will sentence Flynn in Washington at 11 a.m. ET (1600 GMT).
        Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference, has asked Sullivan not to imprison Flynn, a former general, because of his military service and because he provided “substantial” cooperation with the probe.
        Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Sergei Kislyak, Russia ambassador in Washington at the time.
        Flynn told investigators in January 2017 that he had not discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Kislyak, when in fact he had, according to his plea agreement.
        Lying to the FBI carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.    Flynn’s plea agreement states that he is eligible for a sentence of between zero and six months, however, and can ask the court not to impose a fine.
        Flynn’s lawyers have asked the court for a probation term of no more than one year, with minimal conditions of supervision, and 200 hours of community service.
        Flynn also deserves leniency because he was not warned before the meeting with FBI agents that it was a crime to lie to them, his lawyers said in a recent court filing.
        They also said that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had told Flynn that the “quickest way” to conduct the interview was without counsel present.
        Critics of the Mueller probe argue that Flynn, who held the White House job for only 24 days, was set up.
        Mueller last week countered in a court filing that Flynn had no cause to lie in the interviews and added that a “sitting National Security Adviser, former head of an intelligence agency, retired Lieutenant General, and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents.”
        Flynn is so far the only member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered during Mueller’s wide-ranging probe, which has so far ensnared 32 individuals and three Russian firms.
        Trump denies there was any collusion and has labeled the investigation a “witch hunt.”    Russia also denies it meddled in the election, contrary to the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies.
        On Monday, Sullivan ordered the special counsel to release a redacted, five-page FBI account of Flynn’s January 2017 interview, saying it was relevant to his sentencing.
    (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
    [So wiil this redacted release of the 302 form be redacted if there is any law breaking by the FBI?
    ].

    12/18/2018 Maduro says Venezuela’s civil militia grows to 1.6 million members
    Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a military parade with the
    National Bolivarian Militia in Caracas, Venezuela December 17, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday the country’s civil militia had grown to 1.6 million members – more than tripling in size from the beginning of the year – and that its mission was to defend the country against external aggression.
        Maduro’s speech to militia members, broadcast on state television, came less than a week after the socialist leader, without offering evidence, accused the United States of plotting to invade the South American country, which is experiencing a severe economic crisis.
        “We will arm the Bolivarian militia to the teeth,” Maduro said, without detailing how many of the militia members were actually armed.    “An invading imperialist force may enter a part of our fatherland, but the imperialists should know that they will not leave here alive.”
        The National Bolivarian Militia is a reserve force composed of civilian volunteers, founded by former President Hugo Chavez in 2008 to assist the armed forces.
        Maduro noted on Monday that he had given an order in April to boost the size of the reserve force to 1 million members.    At the time, he said the militias had “nearly 400,000” members.
    (Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

    12/18/2018 Journalist who broke news of Steele dossier admits much of it ‘likely false’ by OAN Newsroom
        The journalist who broke the story on the anti-Trump Steel dossier is admitting he has doubts about the allegations made by British spy Christopher Steele.
        In an interview over the weekend, investigative reporter Michael Isikoff was asked if the dossier he first detailed in 2016 has been vindicated.    To the surprise of many, he said it hasn’t.
        “When you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them, and, in fact, there’s good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false,” he stated.
    Michael Isikoff, investigative journalist. (AP/Photo)
        Both the dossier and Isikoff’s article were cited by the FBI in the FISA warrants, which were used to spy on Carter Page thus launching the Russia investigation.
        His words of doubt come amid criticisms of the ongoing Mueller probe.
        Just last week, lawyers for former Trump Security Adviser Michael Flynn suggested he was deceived by FBI investigators, who told him he did not need lawyers present during questioning.
        Members of the GOP have also pointed out that Flynn has not been proven guilty of any form of Russian collusion, which was the point of questioning him in the first place.
        Isikoff referenced Flynn’s case to suggest the Mueller probe has gotten no where near its goal.
        “Mueller has not produced evidence suggesting that Flynn’s lies, you know, had given him testimony that he can use to prosecute someone else,” he explained.
        Isikoff said when factoring in the recent findings, or lack there of, he believes Mueller’s probe is winding down.
        He added, the public will likely see less than expected when the now two-year investigation comes to an end.

    12/18/2018 Michael Flynn sentencing delayed by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
    arrives at federal court in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
        Michael Flynn’s sentencing is delayed after the judge overseeing the case grants his legal team’s request to postpone it.
        During a hearing at a Washington, D.C. courthouse, federal Judge Emmet Sullivan decided to postpone the sentencing date until Flynn completes his cooperation with prosecutors.
        Before the delay, Flynn acknowledged he was aware lying to FBI investigators was a crime when he was interviewed back in January 2017.
        As part of a plea deal, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has recommended Flynn receive no jail time for lying to federal prosecutors.
        The judge suggested both sides of the case update him on March 13, 2019 for a status hearing.

    12/18/2018 Secretary Sarah Sanders: GOP needs to stand up against corrupt Comey by OAN Newsroom
        White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is stressing that Republicans need to “stand up” against fired FBI Director James Comey.
        Sanders tweeted the remark Monday, saying the president did the U.S. a service by firing Comey as the list of his corrupt actions is too long to name.
        Sarah’s tweet: “Republicans should stand up to Comey and his tremendous corruption - from the fake Hillary Clinton investigation, to lying and leaking, to FISA abuse, and a list too long to name.    The President did the country a service by firing him and exposing him for the shameless fraud he is.”
        Her call to action comes after Comey slammed the GOP after his hearing Monday, and accused President Trump of attacking America’s rule of law.
        Comey was on Capitol Hill being questioned about his role in the Clinton and Russia investigations.
        A transcript of his answers should be released sometime Tuesday.
    Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill Washington,
    Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, after a second closed-door interview with two Republican-led committees
    investigating what they say was bias at the Justice Department
    before the 2016 presidential election. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    12/18/2018 Judge blasts Trump ex-adviser Flynn, delays sentencing in Russia probe by Jan Wolfe and Ginger Gibson
    A demonstrator holds a sign prior to the arrival of former national security adviser Michael Flynn
    for his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge fiercely criticized President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday for lying to FBI agents in a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and delayed sentencing until Flynn has finished helping prosecutors.
        U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, that he had arguably betrayed his country.
        Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Sergei Kislyak, Russia ambassador in Washington, in December 2016, after Trump’s election victory but before he took office.
        Special Counsel Robert Mueller, leading the investigation into possible collusion betweem Trump’s campaign team and Russia ahead of the election, had asked the judge not to sentence Flynn to prison because he had already had provided “substantial” cooperation over the course of many interviews.
        But Sullivan sternly told Flynn his actions were abhorrent, noting that Flynn had also lied to senior White House officials, who in turn misled the public.    The judge told the court he had read additional facts about Flynn’s behavior that have not been made public.
        At one point, Sullivan asked prosecutors if Flynn could have been charged with treason, although the judge later said he had not been suggesting such a charge was warranted.
        “Arguably, you sold your country out,” Sullivan told Flynn.    “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.”
        The judge also noted that Flynn was operating as an undeclared lobbyist for Turkey even as he worked on Trump’s election team and prepared to be his national security adviser.
        Flynn, dressed in a suit and tie, showed little emotion throughout the hearing, and spoke calmly when he confirmed his guilty plea and answered questions from the judge.
        Sullivan appeared ready to sentence Flynn to time in prison but then gave him the option of a delay in his sentencing so that he could fully cooperate with any pending investigations and bolster his case for leniency.    The judge told Flynn he could not prommise that he would not eventually sentence him to serve prison time.
        Flynn accepted that offer.    Sullivan did not set a new date for sentencing but asked Mueller’s team and Flynn’s attorney to give him a status report by March 13.
        Prosecutors said Flynn had already provided most of the cooperation that he could, but it was possible he might be able to help investigators further.
        Flynn’s attorney said his client is cooperating with federal prosecutors in a case against Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner who has been charged with unregistered lobbying for Turkey.
        Rafiekian pleaded not guilty to those charges in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday.    He is scheduled to go on trial on Feb. 11 and Flynn is expected to testify.
        Prosecutors say Rafiekian and Flynn were lobbying to have the United States extradite a Muslim cleric who lives in the United States and is accused by Turkey’s government of backing a 2016 coup attempt.    Flynn has not been charged in that case.
    ‘LOCK HER UP!’
        Flynn was a high-profile adviser to Trump’s election campaign team, and at the Republican Party’s national convention in 2016 he led Trump’s supporters in cries of “Lock her up!” directed against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
        He became national security adviser when Trump took office in January 2017, but lasted only 24 days before being fired.
        He told FBI investigators on Jan. 24, 2017, that he had not discussed with Kislyak U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by the administration of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, when in fact he had, according to his plea agreement.
        Trump has said he fired Flynn because he also lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the contacts with Kislyak.
        But Trump has said Flynn did not break the law and has voiced support for him, raising speculation the Republican president might pardon him.
        “Good luck today in court to General Michael Flynn.    Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign.    There was no Collusion!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
        Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe has cast a shadow over his presidency.
        Several former Trump aides have pleaded guilty in Mueller’s probe, but Flynn was the first former official of Trump’s White House to do so.    Mueller also has charged a series of Russian individuals and entities.
        Trump has called the investigation a “witch hunt” and has denied collusion with Moscow.
        Russia has denied meddling in the election, contrary to the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that have said Moscow used hacking and propaganda to try to sow discord in the United States and boost Trump’s chances against Clinton.
        Several protesters were at the courthouse on Tuesday as Flynn arrived, along with a large inflatable rat fashioned to look like Trump.    Several Flynn supporters were also outside the courthouse, cheering as he entered and exited. One hold up a sign that read: “Michael Flynn is a hero.”
        Other supporters were inside the courtroom.
        Lying to the FBI carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.    Flynn’s plea agreement stated that he was eligible for a sentence of between zero and six months.
    (Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Ginger Gibson; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Kieran Murray and Will Dunham)

    12/18/2018 President Trump signs executive order creating U.S. Space Command by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force,
    a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express, launches from Space Launch Complex-4E at
    Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (Senior Airman Clayton Wear/U.S. Air Force via AP, File)
        Vice President Mike Pence said “a new era of American leadership in space has begun” as President Trump signs an executive order creating the U.S. Space Command.
        Pence made the comment at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tuesday, where he explained the command will oversee all U.S. military activities in space.
        He also said the command will develop the space doctrine, techniques, and procedures that will enable our “war fighters” to defend our nation.
        His remarks came as the president directed the Pentagon to establish the Space Command as the military’s 11th unified combatant command.
        Pence said the administration is working with congressional leaders to have a stand up Space Force by the end of 2020.

    12/18/2018 Colombia’s ELN rebels announce 12-day Christmas ceasefire by OAN Newsroom
        Colombia’s largest rebel group has announced a 12-day Christmas ceasefire as peace talks with the government continue.
        The National Liberation Army made the announcement Monday by saying the decision was made to contribute to a “peaceful climate over Christmas and the New Year.”    It also expressed interest in restarting negotiations towards a peace deal.
    Three ELN rebels holding guns sit outside a farm house. (Photo/F. Rios/Reuters)
        Colombian President Ivan Duque Márquez has since postponed those talks until the group agrees to his terms, which it has adamantly refused.    The president is urging National Liberation Army members to suspend hostilities and release hostages before demobilizing.
        “What I believe is that those who want to continue dealing in violence and sowing desolation and who want to talk about peace while they continue taking part in violent activities, should hear this clear message: The only way in which there can be confidence in a true gesture of peace is with the release of all the kidnapped and that all criminal activities be stopped,” stated President Duque Márquez.
        The rebel group, which was founded back in 1964, is currently said to be made up of around 2,000 fighters.    They have been accused of kidnapping, drug-trafficking as well as illegal mining.

    12/18/2018 U.S. pledges billions in aid to develop Central America, curb migration by Anthony Esposito
    Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announces a joint development plan between Mexico and the
    United States for the northern triangle of Central America, in Mexico City, Mexico December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The United States is committing billions of dollars toward development in Central America and Mexico, as part of a plan to strengthen economic growth in the region and curb illegal immigration, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.
        Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been seeking to persuade U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to work with Mexico to develop Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as Mexico’s poorer south to stem the flow of migrants.
        However, Trump’s threats to slash aid to the region if illegal immigration was not contained have persistently raised doubts about how much the United States would stump up.
        Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the United States is committing $5.8 billion toward development in Central America.    It is also increasing public and private investment in Mexico by $4.8 billion via the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), $2 billion of which would go to the south.
        Speaking as the U.S. State Department issued a statement setting out the commitments, Ebrard said that the Mexican government had pledged to find $25 billion to develop the south of the country during the next five years.
        “The agreements established here mean more than doubling the foreign investment in the south of Mexico from 2019,” the minister told a news conference in Mexico City.
        It was not immediately clear how much of the investment announced represented new funding.    A spokesman for Ebrard told Reuters he understood that $2.5 billion of the pledges to develop Central America were fresh commitments.
        All told, the deal between the two presidents represented commitments of $35.6 billion for Central America and southern Mexico from next year, Ebrard said on Twitter.
    (Reporting by Anthony Esposito, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Dave Graham and Rosalba O’Brien)

    12/18/2018 British government to activate full ‘no-deal’ Brexit preparations by Kylie MacLellan and Sarah Young
    FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at a European Union
    leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
        LONDON (Reuters) – The British government said on Tuesday it would implement plans for a no-deal Brexit in full and begin telling businesses and citizens to prepare for the risk of leaving the European Union without an agreement.
        Those plans include setting aside space on ferries to ensure a regular flow of medical supplies and keeping 3,500 armed forces personnel ready to support the government with its contingency plans.
        With just over 100 days until Britain is due to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May is yet to win the support of a deeply divided parliament for the deal she struck last month with Brussels to maintain close ties with the bloc.
        She has said a delayed vote on her deal will take place in mid-January, prompting some lawmakers to accuse her of trying to force parliament into backing her by running down the clock as the March 29 exit day approaches.
        No deal means there would be no transition so the exit would be abrupt, the nightmare scenario for international businesses and the dream of hard Brexiteers who want a decisive split.
        May, who last week survived a confidence vote in her Conservative Party, has warned lawmakers that the alternatives to her deal are leaving without an agreement or no Brexit.
        Her spokesman said while the government’s priority remained leaving with a deal, which was the most likely scenario, it would now implement its no-deal plans “in full.”
        “Cabinet agreed … we have now reached the point where we need to ramp up these preparations.    This means we will now set in motion the remaining elements of our no deal plans,” he said.
        “Cabinet also agreed to recommend businesses now also ensure they are similarly prepared, enacting their own no-deal plans as they judge necessary. Citizens should also prepare,” he added, saying that after no-deal guidance issued earlier this year, further detailed advice would be published soon.
        The opposition Labour Party’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said the government was “running down the clock.”
        “No deal has never truly been a viable option, it is a political hoax, and deep down I think the government and this prime minister knows it,” he told parliament.
        Earlier this month, finance minister Philip Hammond said he had made more than 4.2 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) available for Brexit planning since the 2016 referendum and would be allocating a further 2 billion pounds to government departments.
        Britain’s economy has slowed since the 2016 Brexit vote and there is no guarantee that businesses and consumers will retain tariff-free access to EU goods after leaving the bloc.
    (On the way to Brexit: https://tmsnrt.rs/2QMkbnu)
    (Britain’s trade ties: https://tmsnrt.rs/2D0E8zS)
    CONSEQUENCES
        The British Chambers of Commerce forecast on Tuesday that economic growth this year and in 2019 looks set to be the weakest since Britain emerged from recession in 2009, due to a freeze in business investment and weak consumer demand ahead of Brexit.
        Parliament is at an impasse over Brexit, with factions pressing for different options for future ties, leaving without a deal or remaining in the EU.
        May is seeking assurances from the EU over the so-called Northern Irish “backstop” – an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province and EU-member Ireland that its critics fear will trap Britain in a customs union with the EU indefinitely.
        With the EU unlikely to offer concessions that would win over lawmakers and May repeatedly ruling out a second referendum, the risk of a no-deal has increased, a scenario that some businesses fear would be catastrophic for the world’s fifth largest economy.
        British ferry and shipping freight operator P&O is reviewing its UK-registered fleet and is re-flagging two vessels to keep EU tax arrangements ahead of Brexit, the company said.
        Housing Minister James Brokenshire told BBC Radio the government was making no-deal preparations “reluctantly.”
        “It’s not what we want to do, it’s not what we still expect to do because we want to see the deal secured,” he said.
        Mike Amey, head of sterling portfolios at fund management giant PIMCO, said there was “low probability” of no-deal as there was not a majority of lawmakers who would accept it.
        Britain would be more likely to extend or revoke its Article 50 notice to leave the EU, he said.    May has so far ruled out doing either.
        The pound rose further away from 20-month lows on Tuesday, helped by a weaker dollar and hopes that May could avoid a no-deal Brexit.
    (Additional reporting by Michael Holden, Writing by Kylie MacLellan, Editing by Janet Lawrence)

    12/18/2018 France’s Macron turns to Sarkozy amid ‘yellow vest’ protests by Marine Pennetier and Michel Rose
    FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and his wife Brigitte Macron
    greet former French president Nicolas Sarkozy for a ceremony at the Elysee Palace to celebrate Paris as host for the
    2024 Summer Olympic Games, France, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
        PARIS (Reuters) – In the midst of the biggest political crisis of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron is enlisting the help of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in a sign that the right-wing ex-leader’s influence on Macron is on the rise.
        In the space of three weeks, Macron, who has struggled to quell a month-long revolt against his reforms, has made two gestures toward Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012 on a hardline law-and-order platform.
        Macron, 40, lunched with Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace on Nov. 30, an Elysee source said, just before the most violent weekend of demonstrations by “yellow vest” protesters who have caused havoc in some of the poshest districts of Paris.
        Macron and Sarkozy discussed public order, as well as one of the tax measures Macron announced last week – a tax exemption for overtime work – which was a key plank of Sarkozy’s own program while he was president, Le Figaro reported.
        Last Sunday Macron sent Sarkozy to Tbilisi to represent France at the swearing-in of Georgia’s new president, a move that caused a stir in French political circles.
        Sources close to Sarkozy see it as a way for Macron to send a signal to right-wing voters in France who have been shocked by images of burning cars in up-market areas of Paris and Macron’s decision to try to buy off the protesters with costly handouts.
        “Emmanuel Macron has understood the personal and political benefit he could draw from (Sarkozy),” said one source close to the 63-year-old former president, whose defeat in conservative primaries in 2016 marked his exit from the political stage.
        “In a time of crisis, it’s a good idea to keep up relations with those you have points in common with,” the source said.
    “CORDIAL” RELATIONS
        An Elysee official said Macron and Sarkozy had a “cordial, and respectful” relationship, adding that the former president’s role during the 2008 Georgian crisis – when he mediated between Russia and Georgia – justified the honor.
        But Francois Patriat, a senator and close ally of Macron, suggested the president also had a more immediate political goal in mind.
        Only six months ahead of European elections, Macron is keen to undermine Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the conservative Republicans, the biggest opposition party, to which Sarkozy also belongs.
        “By sending this signal, Macron is taking a pop at Wauquiez,” Patriat said.
        Sarkozy has refrained from criticizing Macron publicly since his 2017 election, unlike another former president, Socialist Francois Hollande.    Macron served as economy minister under Hollande and then ran for the presidency as an independent, all but dashing his boss’s hopes of winning a second mandate.
        For Sarkozy, whose rivals suspect he still harbors political ambitions, Macron’s overtures are also useful.
        “It’s a way for Sarkozy to appear at the center of the game, while stinging Wauquiez,” said Damien Abad, a senior official in the Republicans.
    (Reporting by Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose; editing by Richard Lough and Gareth Jones)

    12/18/2018 Mexico: U.S. to spend $10.6B to curb migration from Central America by OAN Newsroom
        The Mexican government claims the U.S. has agreed to allocate billions in aid to Central America.
        According to the Mexican Foreign Minister on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department will spend $10.6 billion to tackle poverty and crime in southern Mexico and Central America.
        Officials believe this will help curb mass migration into the U.S.
        This comes as the government faces a shutdown over what some say is the result of democrat obstruction of the President’s request for $5 billion for the border wall.
        Additionally, officials also said the U.S. aid will come in the form of a public-private partnership.    Mexico’s Foreign Secretary said the U.S. and Mexico will take-charge of the initiative, which he believes will lead to “a prosperous and secure Central America, addressing the causes of immigration.”
        President Trump previously weighed cutting aid to Central America, unless the local governments stop the flow of drugs, violent crime, and mass migration into the U.S.

    12/18/2018 White House: Michael Flynn committed crimes unrelated to the president by OAN Newsroom
        The White House has addressee the delay to Michael Flynn’s sentencing and the crimes he has pleaded guilty to.
        During the press briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said anything that happens regarding Flynn’s sentence is between him and the courts.    She then wished Flynn well on behalf of the president.
        Reporters then pressed Sanders on the crimes of acting as a foreign agent while in the White House.    She responded by saying those had nothing to do with the president.
        Sanders also blasted Flynn’s initial interview where he lied to agents. She said the FBI has clear proven bias, especially under the watch of fired Director James Comey.
    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the media during the
    daily press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, in Washington. Sanders discussed the delayed sentencing
    for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other topics. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
        “The things that may have taken place, again, that’s for the judge to make that determination whether he engaged in something inappropriate,” said Sanders.    “What we do know that was inappropriate, by own self-admittance of James Comey, is that the FBI broke standard protocol in the way that they came in and ambushed General Flynn, and in the way that they questioned him, and in the way that they encouraged him not to have White House Counsel’s Office present, and we know that because James Comey told us that and he said the the very reason they did it…the only reason that they it…it was the Trump administration and they thought they could get away with it.”
        Sanders’ comments come after the president tweeted a staunch defense of Flynn ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.

    12/18/2018 Trump admin. set to officially ban bump stocks by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump administration is rolling out a new federal regulation which will officially ban bump stocks, following support by the NRA.
        The move, signed by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker Tuesday, will prohibit the use and sales of attachments used to modify fire arms into automatic weapons.
    FILE – In this Oct. 4, 2017 file photo, a little-known device called a “bump stock”
    is attached to a semi-automatic rifle at the Gun Vault store and shooting range in South Jordan, Utah. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
        Department of Justice officials said owners of bump stocks will have 90-days to either destroy or surrender them.
        This comes a year after President Trump took action against the devices following the Las Vegas massacre, where a gunman rigged bump stocks to his guns and killed dozens of people attending a concert.
        The regulation will go into effect after it is formally published on Friday.

    12/19/2018 Oil down $3.64 to $46.24, DOW up 83 to 23,676, as Russia and the US are pumping oil.

    12/19/2018 Less-than-$2 gas is here for the holidays by Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY
        Nearly one in five U.S. fuel stations are charging less than $2 per gallon of gasoline as falling oil prices deliver holiday savings for American motorists.
        'We’ve seen dramatic drops toward the end of the year,' says Jeanette Casselano, spokeswoman for AAA.
        As many as eight states could have an average price of less than $2 by the end of the week, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for fuel-finding app GasBuddy.
        Missouri's already there with an average of $1.96 on Tuesday, according to AAA.    Others within cents of the twobuck threshold: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina.
        As of late Monday morning, 31 states had at least one station with fuel for less than $2, according to Gas-Buddy.    One station in Texas was charging $1.65 – the lowest in the country.
        Nationally, the average was $2.37 on Tuesday – 4 cents cheaper than a week ago, 26 cents cheaper than a month ago and 5 cents cheaper than a year ago, according to AAA.
        More than half of the stations in the country were below $2.25 as of Monday, according to the Oil Price Information Service.
        It's 'quite the turnaround' from early October, when gas briefly topped $2.90 per gallon nationwide, DeHaan said.    Americans are saving about $225 million daily on gas as a result of the decline since then, he said.
        About 1 in 10 stations are still charging over $3 per gallon, according to OPIS.
        Many of those are in California, where the national average was $3.40 on Tuesday, according to AAA.
        The highest-ever national average was $4.11 on July 17, 2008, according to AAA.
        A sharp decline in oil prices over the last few months has sparked the decline in gas prices.    Oil is refined into gasoline for use in vehicles.
        The U.S. price of oil has fallen by more than a third since early October and was trading at about $47 per barrel on Tuesday afternoon.
        OPIS analyst Tom Kloza noted that the declines have been especially sharp since some analysts were recently projecting increases to $100 per barrel.    That hasn't played out.
    Gasoline is lower than $2 at about 1 in 5 stations. SBYTOVAMN/ISTOCK

    12/19/2018 Flynn sentencing hearing collapses - Judge rebukes former national security adviser by Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – It all appeared to be a done deal.
        Russia special counsel Robert Mueller urged that Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, serve no prison time for his communication with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
        Flynn stepped to the lectern in federal court Tuesday to declare he was ready to accept responsibility for his crimes and proceed to sentencing.
        Nobody in the packed courtroom – especially Flynn – expected the blistering rebuke unleashed by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who went as far as to question the patriotism of the retired three-star Army general, wheeling to face the courtroom’s American flag to suggest that Flynn’s conduct “undermined” all the banner stood for.
        “Arguably, you sold your country out,” Sullivan said.
        At the end of the extraordinary hearing, Flynn’s attorneys acceded to Sullivan’s warning that they postpone sentencing at least until March.    The move allows Flynn to formally complete his cooperation with Mueller’s team in the Russia investigation and at least one other inquiry in which two of Flynn’s former business associates were charged this week with illegal lobbying on behalf of the government of Turkey.
        Rarely are cooperating witnesses sentenced before their assistance is completed, Sullivan told Flynn, expressing “disgust” over Flynn’s conduct.
        Last week, attorneys raised the notion that Flynn might have been entrapped during an FBI interview Jan. 24, 2017, when the national security adviser falsely denied discussing newly imposed Russian sanctions with Kislyak.
        Almost immediately after Tuesday’s hearing opened, Sullivan seized on the claims made by Flynn’s lawyers, who suggested that agents had not properly warned their client of the criminal consequences for lying to the FBI.
        Sullivan asked whether Flynn asserted the claims in an effort to cast doubt on his guilty plea.
        Defense attorney Robert Kelner disavowed any such attempt, asserting that “Gen. Flynn fully accepts responsi bility.”
        The tenor of the hearing – and the judge – suddenly turned against the decorated military officer and vocal Trump surrogate.
        Asked whether he needed more time to consider the claims related to the FBI interview, Flynn told the judge, “I appreciate that.    No.    I would like to proceed, your honor.”
        The expectation that Tuesday’s hearing would allow Flynn and his family to finally turn the page on an exacting yearlong slog through the most highprofile criminal investigation in the country all but drained away as Sullivan recounted Flynn’s false statements as a ranking official in Trump’s White House.
        “I’m going to be frank with you,” Sullivan said.    “This is a very serious offense.    It involves making false statements to the FBI on the premises of the White House – in the West Wing!”
        The interview with FBI agents occurred in Flynn’s White House office, four days after he assumed his post as national security adviser.
        Though Sullivan referenced Flynn’s career military service and lack of a prior criminal record, he suggested that Flynn’s conduct marked a serious betrayal he could not ignore.
        “I cannot hide my disgust or my disdain for the crimes you committed,” Sullivan said.
        The judge drew a head-snapping response from the defense table when he asked prosecutors whether Flynn’s behavior amounted to “treason.”
        Prosecutors said there was no basis for such a charge, and the judge walked back the reference, saying he did not mean to imply Flynn committed treason.
        “Don’t read too much into my questions,” Sullivan told the courtroom gallery after returning from a short break.
        The judge’s admonition could not erase the sting inflicted on the combat veteran and career military officer.
        “I cannot assure you that, if you proceed today, you will not be sentenced to a period of incarceration,” Sullivan told Flynn, suggesting that he seek a delay until his cooperation was complete so it could count in his favor.
        After a short recess to confer, Kelner said Flynn would seek the postponement, asserting that his client “held nothing back” from prosecutors.
        Kelner said Flynn would probably be called to testify at any trials of two former business associates accused of illegal lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.
        The charges were unveiled Monday, and prosecutors acknowledged that Flynn could have faced charges in that case had he not agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team.
        As part of his plea, Flynn admitted lying about his Turkish lobbying efforts.    He belatedly registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for Turkey.
        “I’m not promising anything,” Sullivan told Kelner about sentencing.    “The court was just being upfront with you.”
        Sullivan set a status conference in the case for March, but before adjourning the session, he offered one last parting shot: “Happy holidays,” he said.
        Flynn, accompanied by his wife, left the courthouse, rushing through a gantlet of protesters and supporters to a waiting car without comment.    “Lock him up!” some called out, echoing Flynn’s similar refrain at the podium of the 2016 Republican Convention, when he referred to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the email investigation that shadowed her campaign.
    Michael Flynn rallied with Donald Trump in Colorado in 2016. GEORGE FREY
    [Why do I get the feeling that the NSA, CIA, DOJ and FBI have created another crime to play with Flynn as history is repeating itself.].

    12/19/2018 Embattled Florida elections official sues to get job back
        Calling her suspension “malicious” and politically motivated, a former Florida elections official asked a federal judge to reinstate her after she was removed from office by Gov. Rick Scott.
        Embattled Broward elections supervisor Brenda Snipes filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Scott and Senate President Bill Galvano, who are both Republicans.    Snipes is a Democrat who worked in one of the state’s Democratic strongholds.
        The suit alleges Snipes’ due process rights were violated and that the law allowing the governor to suspend elected officials is unconstitutional.

    12/19/2018 US pledges aid for Central America, southern Mexico
        The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and an additional $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico.
        The U.S. aid is part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate.

    12/19/2018 Rapid-fire bump stocks banned, but 520,000 already sold by Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY
        The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed a ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire attachment used to carry out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
        Now comes a bigger challenge: How to deal with more than a half-million bump stocks Americans have purchased over the past eight years alone.
        Justice Department officials, who issued the ban Tuesday, said owners of the cheap plastic accessories that can make off-the-shelf semiautomatic rifles fire almost as rapidly as a machine gun will have 90 days to either turn them over to federal agents or to melt, shred or crush them.    Those who don’t face the threat of criminal penalties.
        Both gun owners and advocates of tougher restrictions questioned its effectiveness.    Because officials had long taken the view that the stocks weren’t covered by federal gun laws, their sales weren’t tracked and the government has no way to determine who owns one.
        Some states and cities acted more swiftly to ban the devices on their own, but they’ve had little success getting people to surrender them.    In Massachusetts, the first state to impose a ban, only a handful of the devices have been surrendered to state police.    In Denver, where a citywide ban passed in January carrying a fine and jail time, police reported zero surrenders.
        “Compliance will be impossible because there’s no registration,” said Mark Pennak, president of the gun rights group Maryland Shall Issue.    “And based on how the state bans have been received, I doubt there will be any compliance.    It will be haphazard and discriminatory.”
        Bump stocks had been under scrutiny since a gunman killed 58 people and injured more than 800 from his perch in a Las Vegas casino in 2017, the deadliest mass shooting in recent memory.    The devices allowed the gunman, Stephen Paddock, to fire more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition in 10 minutes.    Bump stocks were affixed to half of Paddock’s guns.
        The Justice Department had long taken the view that bump stocks fell outside federal laws banning machine guns     It reversed that position Tuesday after months of pressure from President Donald Trump and others in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting.
        “As written, this case has important implications for gun owners since, in the coming days, an estimated half a million bump stock owners will have the difficult decision of either destroying or surrendering their valuable property, or else risk felony prosecution,” said Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.
        He said the group planned to challenge the ban in court.    Another gun rights group, the Firearms Policy Coalition, filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the rule in federal court in Washington.
        The national ban comes with no “grandfather” clause to allow previously produced devices and doesn’t provide any financial reimbursement.
        The main manufacturer of one brand in Texas stopped producing the device over the summer in anticipation of the ban.    Another Texas company purchased that producer’s inventory and was still selling devices for $199 Tuesday, including within a Christmas promotion guaranteeing delivery if ordered by Thursday.
        Bump stocks combined two legal devices, a plastic stock and a firearm, that together function like a machine gun.
        “Compliance will be impossible because there’s no registration.” Mark Pennak, president, gun-rights group Maryland Shall Issue.
    [Above on October 1, 2017 I mentioned the following about Steven Paddock seen below.
        "I commented why he was looking for a specific place to do his massacre and why.    He turned down a music festival probably because the crowd did not fit his purpose in Chicago and as well as other ones, but did not fit his purpose, or a specific group.
        The reason I wrote this is, “What was his purpose in buying so many weapons, many are considered overkill, but it is not hard to see what was going on.    He selected the October festival from 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort because it was a Country Music festival which was packed with country music persons who believed in the Second Amendment the rights to have any kind of weapons, and I believe he had a twisted mind thinking that by killing as many of them he could would affect that right in some twisted way, which was crazy in itself.”
        After all that investigation no one even considered that venue, probably because of their political status.
    Jim A. Cornwell, mazzaroth@msn.com
    Noted that it has been a year now and the FBI has not released a final report.]
        [The Second Amendment basically says we can have a tank if we want to in case of foreign attack.    So if someone takes a tank and starts killing mass personage, are you going to ban tanks to the public?
        The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on December 15, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.
    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
        Enabling the people to organize a militia system, participating in law enforcement, safeguarding against tyrannical government, repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, allegedly including slave revolts, though some scholars say these claims are factually incorrect, facilitating a natural right of self-defense.]

    12/19/2018 Hacked diplomatic cables reveal Europe’s anxiety about Trump, Russia, Iran: NYT
    A European Union flag is seen outside the EU Commission headquarters
    in Brussels, Belgium November 14, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
        (Reuters) – Hackers accessed the European Union’s diplomatic communications network for years, downloading cables that reveal concerns about the Trump administration, struggles to deal with Russia and China and the risk of Iran reviving its nuclear program, the New York Times reported late on Tuesday.
        More than 1,100 cables were supplied to the Times by security firm Area 1 after it discovered the breach, the newspaper said, adding that Area 1 investigators believed the hackers worked for the China’s People’s Liberation Army.
        The cables include memorandums of conversations with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries that were shared across the European Union, according to the report.
        One cable, the Times said, shows European diplomats describing a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Finland as “successful (at least for Putin).”
        Another, written after a July 16 meeting, relayed a detailed report and analysis of talks between European officials and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was quoted comparing Trump’s “bullying” of Beijing to a “no-rules freestyle boxing match.”
        A third, from March 7, shows Caroline Vicini, the deputy head of the EU mission in Washington, recommending the trade bloc’s diplomats to describe the United States as “our most important partner” even as it challenged Trump “in areas where we disagreed with the U.S. (e.g., on climate, trade, Iran nuclear deal).”
        The hackers also infiltrated the networks of the United Nations, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide, the report added.
    (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)

    12/18/2018 Brazil’s Bolsonaro says he will target Venezuela, Cuba
    FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro leaves the transition
    government building in Brasilia, Brazil December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he would take all action “within the rule of law and democracy” to oppose the governments of Venezuela and Cuba.
        Bolsonaro, who takes power Jan. 1, is a fervent anti-communist who has praised his country’s 1964-1985 military regime.    He frequently targets Venezuela and Cuba for verbal attacks, a drastic change from Brazil’s governments under the leftist Workers Party that ruled from 2003 to 2016 and had warm relations with those regimes.
        Brazil’s incoming president did not provide any details during the Facebook live video when he made his most recent comments on Venezuela and Cuba.
        The United States is counting on Brazil under Bolsonaro to be a strategic ally.
        In late November, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton met Bolsonaro in his Rio de Janeiro home to help cement ties.
        Bolton said Bolsonaro’s election was a “historic opportunity” for Brazil and the United States to work together on security, economics and other issues.
        Bolton hailed Bolsonaro’s election as a positive sign that Brazil would support U.S. pressure on Venezuela’s left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro, which he describes as part of “the troika of tyranny” in the Americas, alongside Cuba and Nicaragua.
    (Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Dan Grebler)

    12/19/2018 McConnell to introduce interim spending bill by OAN Newsroom
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is putting together a last minute effort to prevent a government shutdown.    While speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, the Kentucky Republican said he will introduce a spending bill to keep the government funded through February 8, 2019.
        However, the move would ultimately push the fight for border wall funding to the next Congress despite Republican efforts to negotiate with Democrats on enhanced border security measures.
        “I’m sorry that my Democratic colleagues couldn’t put the partisanship aside, and show the same good faith flexibility that the President has shown in order to provide the resources our nation needs to secure the integrity of our borders, as well as the safety of American families,” stated McConnell.
        The majority leader’s legislation will continue funding for border security at current levels.
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined at left by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.,
    the Republican Conference chairman, speaks to reporters about the possibility of a partial government shutdown,
    at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, while Democrats will support McConnell’s plan to avoid a government shutdown, they will not support the Trump administration’s plans to reappropriate funds for the construction of the president’s border wall.
        “The administration cannot reprogram funds appropriated by Congress for the full wall without our assent — to do so would violate Congress’ Article One powers,” stated Schumer.    “They cannot do it on their own, and the House and Senate will not approve a wall– from reprogrammed funds or anything else, it won’t happen.”
        The Senate minority leader recently said he supports the previously negotiated amount of $1.6 billion for border security, and will not support any additional funding requests from the White House.

    12/19/2018 Lawmakers battle over southern border wall ahead of government funding deadline by OAN Newsroom
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, joined from left by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.,
    Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters about the possibility of
    a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have begun negotiations to avoid a government shutdown over the Christmas break.    The talks on Capitol Hill kicked off Tuesday, with Republicans looking to convince Democrats to provide funding for a border wall.
        According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, it’s Chuck Schumer who’s leading the charge by refusing to budge on the issue.
        “We had a discussion about a proposal that we offered that I thought was reasonable to both sides to give us an opportunity to in effect thread the needle on the border security issue,” said McConnell.    “I’ve heard back from Senator Schumer that the offer was not acceptable.”
        Originally President Trump was requesting five billion dollars for the construction of the border wall.    However, to avoid a costly government shutdown, Republicans are now proposing a bill which would provide $1.6 billion instead.
    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters about the possibility
    of a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Despite the GOP’s effort to compromise, Schumer left the meeting still favoring a government shutdown over border security.
        not getting it for the wall — plain and simple,” Schumer stated while speaking to the press.
        While the White House waits to see what the Senate can agree on, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders suggested the Trump administration is still looking to get the full five billion dollars by other means.
        “We’re looking at every avenue available to us possible,” said Sanders.    “The president’s asked every one of his cabinet secretaries to look for funding that can be used to protect our borders and to give the president the ability to fulfill his constitutional obligation to protect the American people by having a secure border.”
        President Trump then tweeted about the anti-wall outrage on the left.    He said Democrats are rejecting a barrier, which will give U.S. citizens the security they deserve.
        He added, the wall will end up saving the nation billions of dollars a month once it is completed.
        However, the Senate doesn’t have long to come to an understanding as the deadline for government funding is this Friday.
        Trump tweets: “The Democrats, are saying loud and clear that they do not want to build a Concrete Wall - but we are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it....”
        “....It will be beautiful and, at the same time, give our Country the security that our citizens deserve.    It will go up fast and save us BILLIONS of dollars a month once completed!”

    12/19/2018 President Trump speaks out against investigation into Trump Foundation by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is speaking out about the investigation into his charity organization.
        On Twitter Wednesday, he said his foundation has done great work giving away lots of money over the years.    He denied he took donations for fees, rent or salaries, but said he’s getting slammed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
        Trump tweet: “The Trump Foundation has done great work and given away lots of money, both mine and others, to great charities over the years - with me taking NO fees, rent, salaries etc.    Now, as usual, I am getting slammed by Cuomo and the Dems in a long running civil lawsuit started by former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.....”
        The president said the lawsuit was started by former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who he called a “sleaze bag” over his alleged abuse of women.    He went on to say Schneiderman ran a campaign for Hillary Clinton, and wouldn’t investigate allegations against the Clinton Foundation.
        Trump tweet: “...sleazebag AG Eric Schneiderman, who has since resigned over horrific women abuse, when I wanted to close the Foundation so as not to be in conflict with politics.    Shady Eric was head of New Yorkers for Clinton, and refused to even look at the corrupt Clinton Foundation......”
        The president added, he’ll never be treated fairly and called it a double of standard of justice.
    President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on the Federal Commission on
    School Safety report, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    12/19/2018 Federal Reserve hikes interest rates by OAN Newsroom
    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speak at a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.
    The Federal Reserve is raising its key interest rate for the fourth time this year to reflect the U.S. economy’s
    continued strength but signaling that it expects to slow hikes next year. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        The Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates for the fourth and final time this year.
        The Federal Open Market Committee wrapped up its two-day meeting Wednesday, where they decided to raise base interest rates to a range of 2.25-percent to 2.5-percent.
        However, the Central Bank signaled a slowdown for the new year, lowering its forecast to just two hikes in 2019 instead of the previously planned three.
        The Federal Reserve believes interest rates will hit a neutral level with inflation by the end of next year.
        President Trump has criticized the bank for this year’s hikes. He has called for a slowdown, and is blaming the Fed for recent sell-offs on Wall Street.

    12/19/2018 Sen. Rand Paul weighs ban on lobbyists working for foreign governments by OAN Newsroom
    Sen. Rand Paul speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Senator Rand Paul is considering whether to propose a ban on lobbyists working with foreign governments.
        In an interview Tuesday, Paul said lobbying on behalf of a foreign government could pose a threat to national security.
        The senator pointed out that the Saudis and other gulf monarchies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Capitol Hill to buy political influence in the U.S.
        This comes as former adviser to President Trump” — Michael Flynn — has drawn scrutiny for allegedly working on behalf of Turkey in 2016.
        Paul believes foreign lobbying creates a problem of “divided loyalty” in the U.S. government.    He has yet to decide whether to introduce legislation on the issue.
    [Usually when Paul is telling us something we might want to pay attention, since this was corrupted as a norm for the 8 years of the Obama administration.
        The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a United States law passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a "political or quasi-political capacity" disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances.    i.e. Clinton Foundation    .].

    12/20/2018 Oil up $1.72 to $47.95, DOW down 352 to 23,324

    12/20/2018 In Syria retreat, Trump rebuffs top advisers and blindsides U.S. commanders by Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay
    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Soldiers surveil the area during a combined joint patrol
    in Manbij, Syria, November 1, 2018. Courtesy Zoe Garbarino/U.S. Army/Handout via REUTERS
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump overrode his top national security aides, blindsided U.S. ground commanders, and stunned lawmakers and allies with his order for U.S. troops to leave Syria, a decision that upends American policy in the Middle East.
        The result, said current and former officials and people briefed on the decision, will empower Russia and Iran and leave unfinished the goal of erasing the risk that Islamic State, or ISIS, which has lost all but a sliver territory, could rebuild.
        Trump was moving toward his dramatic decision in recent weeks even as top aides tried to talk him out of it, determined to fulfill a campaign promise of limiting U.S. involvement militarily abroad, two senior officials said.
        The move, which carries echoes of Trump’s repudiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change accord, is in keeping with his America First philosophy and the pledge he made to end U.S. military involvement.
        A former senior Trump administration official said the president’s decision basically was made two years ago, and that Trump finally stared down what he considered unpersuasive advice to stay in.
        “The president won.    His inclination was always not to be there,” said the former official who is close to the White House, saying a variety of senior advisers had all argued against pulling out.
        In meetings with top advisers, Trump would ask: “What are we doing there?    I know we’re there to fight ISIS, but we did it.    Now what?” said the former official.
        Trump understood, but rejected, arguments by senior advisers that U.S. troops were not on the front lines, numbered only 2,000 and markedly strengthened anti-Islamic State local forces, saying he wanted to get out once Raqqa and other ISIS strongholds fell.
    QUALMS IN THE PENTAGON
        A U.S. defense official said Trump’s decision was widely seen in the Pentagon as benefiting Russia as well as Iran, both of which have used their support for the Syrian government to bolster their regional influence.    Iran also has improved its ability to ship arms to Lebanese Hezbollah for use against Israel.
        Asked who gained from the withdrawal, the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, replied: “Geopolitically Russia, regionally Iran.”
        Another U.S. defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S military commanders had expressed concerns with the administration about what a rapid withdrawal would mean for U.S.-backed local forces fighting Islamic State.
        The official said the plan to withdraw had caught the commanders by surprise.
        Trump “destroyed ISIS safe haven in Syria & will lose the peace by withdrawing,” tweeted retired Army Vice Chief of Staff Jack Keane, who has been seen as a possible successor to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.    “ISIS will re-emerge, Iran a greater threat, will own all of Syria, Israel more in danger.”
        Like other experts, Keane, who is also a Fox News analyst, said that by pulling out, Trump will surrender Washington’s ability to play a major role in framing a settlement of the Syrian civil war.
        Charles Lister, an expert with the Middle East Institute thinktank, agreed.    “It completely takes apart America’s broader strategy in Syria,” he said, “but perhaps more importantly, the centerpiece of the Trump administration policy, which is containing Iran."     “Syria is the jewel in the crown of Iran’s regional strategy,” he said.
        The Trump administration dismissed that argument.
        “These troops that we had in Syria were never there to counter Iran.    They were always there to destroy the territorial caliphate of ISIS,” said a senior administration official.    “And so I think the president was perfectly justified when he judged that mission was at an end.”
    FRUSTRATION AMONG REPUBLICANS, ALLIES
        Lawmakers from both parties complained that they were not briefed in advance of the decision.    Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters that GOP senators expressed their frustration “in spades” during a lunch with Vice President Mike Pence.
        French officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were scrambling to find out exactly what the announcement meant and how it will affect their participation in U.S.-led coalition operations against Islamic State.
        “If this turns out to be as bad as it sounds, then it’s a serious problem for us and the British because operationally the coalition doesn’t work without the U.S.,” said one French diplomat.
        Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced around half the country’s pre-war 22 million population and defied all efforts at diplomatic resolution.
        The pull-out may be an especially bitter pill for Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when former President Barack Obama decided to withdraw U.S. forces, undercutting his leverage.
        As recently as in September, Jeffrey told reporters, “We are not in a hurry to pull out.”
    (Reporting by Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Idrees Ali, Arshad Mohammed, Phil Stewart, Richard Cowan and Lesley Wroughton in Washington and John Irish in Paris; Writing By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
       
    ISIS took over the following since the 2011 "Arab Spring" until 2014
       
    ISIS after the U.S. entry to Syria from 2016 to 2017
    ISIS by 2018

    12/20/2018 Dept. of Homeland Security to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico as cases are processed by OAN Newsroom
    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies before the House
    Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        The Trump administration is taking historic action to confront the wave of migrants at the border.
        On Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced that Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be sent to Mexico while their cases are being processed.
        Nielsen said the Mexican government has been cooperating with the new policy, and will offer humanitarian visas and work permits, so the migrants can live in the country while they wait for a decision.
        “I cannot overstate the significance of these developments — we are taking lawful, unilateral action to stop illegal entry,” stated Secretary Nielsen.    “Mexico is taking its own appropriate actions in response, and our two countries have committed to a major regional plan to solve this crisis.”
        Any migrant that is not granted asylum in the U.S. will be returned to their home country.

    12/20/2018 U.S. announces charges against Chinese nationals accused of illegal cyber hacking by OAN Newsroom
        Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recently announced charges against two Chinese nationals he claimed are associated with the Chinese government, and who are accused of illegal cyber hacking against the U.S. and 11 other countries.
        During a press conference Thursday, Rosenstein said the two men are apart of a hacking group known as ‘Advanced Persistent Threat 10,’ which worked in association with a Chinese intelligence agency.    He claims more than 45 companies were targeted in the U.S. in a number of sectors, and said the men stole sensitive information and intellectual property.
        “The victims included companies in banking and finance, telecommunications and computer–consumer electronics, medical equipment, packaging, manufacturing, consulting, health care biotechnology, automotive, oil and gas exploration and mining,” said Rosenstein.    “The defendants allegedly committed these crimes in association with a Chinese intelligence agency known as the Ministry of State Security.”
        The deputy attorney general said their campaign also consisted of stealing personal data from more than 100,000 members of the Navy.
    Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaks during a news conference at the Department
    of Justice in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. The Justice Department is charging two Chinese citizens with carrying out an
    extensive hacking campaign to steal data from U.S. companies. An indictment was unsealed Thursday against Zhu Hua and Zhang
    Shillong. Court papers filed in Manhattan federal court allege the hackers were able to breach the computers
    of more than 45 entities in 12 states. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        They are charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
        Additionally, Rosenstein said China has violated the 2015 agreement not to conduct cyber economic espionage.    He is putting the blame directly on the Chinese government.
        “China will find it difficult to pretend that it is not responsible for these actions,” said Rosenstein.    “America and its many allies know what China’s doing, we know why they’re doing it and in some cases we even know exactly who is sitting at the keyboard perpetrating these crimes in association with the Chinese government.”
        FBI Director Christopher Wray also sounded off on the charges by saying China is trying to replace the U.S. as the world’s super power.    He said, while the U.S. welcomes competition, the U.S. will not tolerate illegal methods to get there.
        The latest move is part of the Department of Justice’s campaign to “name and shame” suspected Chinese hackers in effort to hold the government accountable for allegations of state sponsored crimes.
        It also comes as the U.S. and China continue trade talks in an effort to try and reach a deal during their so-called 90 day truce.    It’s unclear how these latest charges may impact negotiations, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently indicated the two sides are set to meet face-to-face in January.

    12/20/2018 Criminal justice reform bill headed to president’s desk by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is set to make good on another campaign promise as a criminal justice reform bill passes both chambers of Congress and is now headed to his desk for signature.
        In a tweet Thursday, the president praised the legislation — known as First Step Act — as a major bipartisan achievement for the U.S.
        Trump tweet: “Congress just passed the Criminal Justice Reform Bill known as the #FirstStepAct.
        Congratulations!    This is a great bi-partisan achievement for everybody.    When both parties work together, we can keep our Country safer.    A wonderful thing for the U.S.A.!!    ”
        He urged Congress to continue productive cooperation across the aisle and avoid the concerns of a “divided government.”
        The bill — passed overwhelmingly in the House Thursday and cleared the Senate Tuesday — reduces prison sentences for certain crimes, allows earlier release for some criminals, and improves prison conditions for inmates.
    An inmate stands at his cell door at a maximum security facility in Arizona. (Photo/Matt York/AP)

    12/20/2018 Senate rejects bill to protect Mueller for Third time by OAN Newsroom
        The Senate has turned down a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller, yet again, amid concerns of the length and scope of the Russia probe.
    [The Democrats should be scared when the new AG fires Mueller and the whole bunch for their corruption.].

    12/20/2018 Purple Heart recipient raises over $4M on GoFundMe to build the border wall by OAN Newsroom
    In this Feb. 28, 2018 photo, the sun sets over the U.S.-Mexico border wall that runs
    into the Pacific Ocean in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel)
        A GoFundMe page has raised over four million dollars to fund President Trump’s border wall.
        According to reports Wednesday, the impressive amount has been contributed over two-days by more than 30,000 people.
        The creator of the campaign — Brian Kolfage — is a Purple Heart recipient and triple amputee.    He said it’s up to average Americans to raise the money, because he believes Democrats would rather see the president fail than the nation succeed.
        $2 Million and the mainstream doesn’t even start airing till tomorrow evening!    It’s going slow compared to what’s about to happen!
        KEEP SHARING IT! Encourage everyone to donate#GoFundTheWall trend it http://Gofundme.com/thetrumpWall @MarkDice @RyanAFournier @DonaldJTrumpJr
        Kolfage added, if everyone who voted for President Trump each donated $80, it would fund the entire wall.
    We The People Will Fund The Wall
    [The last I heard it was up to more than 11.3 million and the new goal was 1 billion.].

    12/20/2018 House Speaker says President Trump will not sign senate stopgap spending bill by OAN Newsroom
    House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., right, listens as House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks briefly to members of the
    media after they met with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        According to House Speaker Paul Ryan, the president will not sign the Senate passed continuing resolution.
        While speaking to reporters after meeting with President Trump at the White House early Ryan said the House will now work to secure border wall funding in a spending bill and avoid a government shutdown.
        This comes after the Senate passed a stopgap bill on Wednesday, which would keep the government funded until February 8, 2018.    However, that legislation does not include any money for a wall.
        In a tweet Thursday, President Trump accused Congress of going back on its promise to provide additional funding for the border wall.
        Trump tweet: “When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership.    Would be done by end of year (NOW).    It didn’t happen!    We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries - but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!”

    12/20/2018 President Trump defends decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is defending his decision to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.
        On Twitter Thursday, the president said getting out of Syria should be no surprise as he’s been campaigning on it for years.    He said the U.S. was doing the work of other countries in the area, and it’s time to bring our troops home.
        The president then questioned if the U.S. should be the policeman of the Middle East when trillions of dollars and countless lives are spent in countries who do not appreciate the help.
        Trump tweet: “Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?    Do we want to be there forever?    Time for others to finally fight.....”
        He added, other countries are not happy about the U.S. withdrawal, because they will have to fight ISIS on their own.
        The president closed with saying he’s building the most powerful military in the world and if ISIS attacks the U.S. — “they are doomed.”
        Trump tweet: “....Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us.    I am building by far the most powerful military in the world.    ISIS hits us they are doomed!”
    FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2018 file photo, American troops look out toward the border
    with Turkey from a small outpost near the town of Manbij, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Susannah George, File)

    12/20/2018 N.C. state lawmakers override veto, approve new voter id laws by OAN Newsroom
        North Carolina voters will now be required to show photo ID before casting their ballots at the polling station.
        Republicans used their super-majority in the state’s general assembly this week to override a veto issued by Democrat Governor Roy Cooper.    The decision immediately stirred outrage among left-wing activists, who jumped at the chance to make this an issue about race without offering any evidence.
        “Stop backpedaling us toward the time when the black man had no rights — we are drifting back toward Jim Crow,” stated Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, President of the N.C. NAACP.
        In response, the state’s Republican Party chairman slammed Governor Cooper and other Democrats for trying to paint voters as “racist” for wanting to secure elections in a state currently battling allegations of midterm fraud.
        The constitutional amendment requiring photo ID to vote appeared on the ballot last month, and was approved by 55-percent of North Carolina voters.
    (AP/Photo)
        Acceptable forms of identification range from driver licenses, passports and military ID’s to tribal enrollment cards and college ID’s.    Those who are unable to obtain a valid photo ID in time for elections are allowed to cast a provisional ballot after first signing an affidavit stating the reason for the exemption.
        The idea of having voters prove their identity before casting a ballot is not new, in fact, 34 other states have some form of voter ID laws on the books.    Despite this, the NAACP has announced plans to file a lawsuit challenging the requirements.

    12/20/2018 U.S. to send migrants back to Mexico to wait out asylum requests by Yeganeh Torbati and Anthony Esposito
    FILE PHOTO: Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States,
    wait in line for food at their temporary shelter near the U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
        WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The United States will soon send non-Mexican migrants who cross the U.S. southern border back to wait in Mexico while their U.S. asylum requests are processed, a major change in immigration policy, the Trump administration announced on Thursday.
        Immigrant advocates and human rights experts quickly denounced the policy change as illegal and violating the rights of refugees.
        Mexico’s government said that it would accept some of those migrants for humanitarian reasons, in what many will see as an early concession to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration by Mexico’s new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1.
        “We want to discourage those who are claiming asylum fraudulently,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a congressional committee on Thursday, describing the plan.
        In response to the plan, Mexico’s foreign ministry underscored that it still has the right to admit or reject the entry of foreigners into its territory.
        “Mexico’s government has decided to take the following actions to benefit migrants, in particular unaccompanied and accompanied minors, and to protect the rights of those who want to start an asylum process in the United States,” the foreign ministry said.
        But there appeared to be initial confusion within the Mexican government about the plan.    Tonatiuh Guillén, who as head of Mexico’s National Migration Institute regulates migration in the country, said at a news conference on Thursday that the country would not be able to receive migrants from other countries until the regulatory framework had been established.
        “We can’t begin to operate, we can’t begin to receive. We are not in a place to receive,” he said.    “When will we able to do it? When the regulatory issues and operational issues are resolved,” he said.
        Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters on condition of anonymity that the Mexican government has said asylum seekers would have access to attorneys in Mexico and that migrants would be able to enter the United States for their court hearings, without giving more details about how the process would work.
        “Operationally this will look a little bit different at different ports of entry simply based on what the infrastructure is like in the area,” said one official.    “We are not implementing this on the entire U.S. border all at once.”
        Nielsen said the new policy will not apply to Central American unaccompanied children, who have some special protections under U.S. law.
        The administration is invoking a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act allowing the government to return migrants to a foreign country bordering the United States pending their immigration proceedings.
        “We remain convinced that this is a power that the president was granted by Congress to execute exactly the way we have,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News show host Laura Ingraham.    “We’ve had lots of thought and legal review of this.    We are confident that we are on firm ground.”
        But the section of law being used by the Trump administration exempts anyone who is found inadmissible at the border because of a lack of documents, rather than for a criminal conviction, said Stephen Legomsky, a professor at the Washington     University School of Law in St. Louis and a former senior DHS official during the Obama administration.
        “That means the exemption to that section would apply to virtually every asylum seeker at the border,” he said.
    ‘NOT A SAFE COUNTRY’
        Serious doubts remain over whether Mexico can keep vulnerable asylum seekers safe.    Authorities are investigating the deaths of two Honduran teenagers kidnapped and killed in the border city of Tijuana last weekend.
        Immigrant and human rights advocates swiftly denounced the new policy, saying it violated international law and would put migrants at further risk.
        “Make no mistake — Mexico is not a safe country for all people seeking protection,” said Amnesty International Executive Director Margaret Huang.    “Many people seeking asylum in the United States face discrimination, exploitation, sexual assault, murder, or the possibility of being disappeared while traveling through Mexico or while forced to wait for extraordinarily long times in Mexican border towns.”
        Trump tweeted on Nov. 24 that migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border would stay in Mexico until their asylum claims were individually approved in U.S. courts.
        But Kennji Kizuka of the nonprofit group Human Rights First said serious questions remain about implementation of the plan.
        “The administration seems to have no plan,” Kizuka said in a statement.    “Will lawyers be able to visit their clients before hearings?    Where will those hearings take place?    We know that access to counsel is one of the most important factors in whether or not an asylum seeker is able to live in safety in the United States.”
        The arrival of several thousand Central Americans in Tijuana about a month ago prompted Trump to mobilize the U.S. military to beef up border security.    At the same time, the Trump administration has restricted the number of asylum applications accepted per day, saying they do not have the capacity to process more.
        Illegal crossings at the southern border have dropped dramatically since the late 1970s, but in recent years applications for asylum have ballooned and more Central American families and unaccompanied children are migrating to the United States.
    (Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Yeganeh Torbati, additional reporting by Julia Love, Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Christine Murray and Jonathan Oatis)

    12/20/2018 Defense Secretary James Mattis Calls It Quits by OAN Newsroom
        Defense Secretary James Mattis will retire at the end of February, President Trump announces in a tweet made Thursday.
        In a letter to the President, Mattis explains he will be stepping down so President Trump can appoint someone new in the position who more closely alligns with his agenda.    His decision to quit comes a day after President Trump announced he would pull U.S. troops from Syria.
        The two have clashed in the past over issues including the pulling of the U.S. from of the Iran Nuclear Deal, the banning of transgender troops, and giving U.S. troops the authority to shoot asylum seekers while stationed at the U.S. border.    The president also overruled Mattis’ nomination to the joint Chiefs of Staff and put in his own pick, a rarity in American history.
        Since this summer, there have been reports claiming Mattis’ influence in the White House has diminished, as less people whom Mattis has worked well with remain in the administration. Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly have all left the administration to be replaced with Iranian hardliners.
        Despite this, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Mattis and the President share a good relationship with one another.    She added, Mattis’ two-and-a-half years of service as Defense Secretary and his decision to stay with the administration for a couple more months shows his willingness to cooperate with the president.
        Mattis will stay with the Defense Department until February 28. President Trump has yet to name his successor, but several names have been floated, including Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, as well as retired army general Jack Keane.

    12/21/2018 Oil down $2.08 to $45.88, DOW down 464 to 22,860

    12/21/2018 House votes to avert shutdown - Spending bill adds $5B funding for border wall by Michael Collins, David Jackson and Bill Theobald, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – A deeply divided House voted on Thursday to add $5 billion in border wall funding to a short-term spending bill, yielding to President Donald Trump’s demand for the money but casting further doubts upon the fate of efforts to avert a government shutdown.    The bill, which the House approved by a vote of 217-185, now heads back to the Senate, which must either approve the measure or risk shutting down a quarter of the government at midnight Friday.    A Senate vote is expected Friday afternoon.
        The House vote capped a dramafilled day that started with lawmakers anticipating quick passage of an already approved Senate funding bill, but then erupted into chaos when Trump announced he would not support the measure because it did not contain funding for the border wall – one of his signature campaign promises.
        At an Oval Office meeting a few hours earlier, Trump had informed House GOP leaders that he would not sign the Senate version, sending them scrambling to deliver new legislation that included $5 billion in border wall funding.
        “We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.    “We have very serious concerns about securing our border.”
        Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to pass a spending bill or funding will expire for a quarter of the federal government, triggering a shutdown heading into the holidays and forcing some 800,000 federal employees to go on furlough or work without pay.
        Congress is trying to end the budget stalemate and avert a government shutdown by piecing together a shortterm measure that would keep the funds flowing through early next year.
        The Senate voted Wednesday night to approve a short-term spending bill offered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that would fund the government through Feb. 8 but would delay any decision on border wall funding until next year.
        But hard-line conservatives in the House revolted because the Senate bill did not include Trump’s border funding, even though he had insisted during the presidential campaign that he’d make Mexico pay for the wall.    Trump’s announcement that he would not sign the Senate measure sealed its fate.
        The House responded by introducing its own spending package that also would fund the government through Feb. 8, but would include $5.7 billion for a border wall and nearly $8 billion in disaster relief to compensate communities hit hard by this year’s hurricanes and wildfires.
        The border funding in the House proposal won’t be enough to build the wall but will improve border security, said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
        “This is about keeping America safe – it’s not a complicated vote,” said Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
        Democrats accused Republicans of catering to a “Trump Twitter tantrum” and warned that the House bill would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
        “This is a sham and a shame,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.
        Members of the House Freedom Caucus insisted now is the GOP’s last chance to deliver on Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall since Democrats will resume control of the House in January and their leader, Nancy Pelosi, will return as speaker.
        “We’ve been telling the American public that we were going to fight, they have no reason to believe us now,” said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a Freedom Caucus member.
        The uncertainty over the funding bill – and the chaos that ensued – was heightened by Trump’s constantly shifting position on the legislation.
        Last week, Trump boasted during an Oval Office meeting with Democratic leaders that he would be “proud” to shut down the government over border funding and that he’d be willing to take the blame for any fallout.    On Tuesday, the White House signaled that Trump was looking for other ways to fund a border wall and that he might be willing to sign a short-term spending bill that did not include the money.
        Thursday morning, Trump took to Twitter and posted a message about his demands for a border wall funding but did not specifically comment on the Senate’s short-term bill.
        “When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership.    Would be done by end of year (NOW).    It didn’t happen!    We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries but not for our beloved U.S.A.    Not good!” he wrote.
    House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, right, listens to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday. AP

    12/21/2018 Defense Secretary Mattis is retiring, Trump tweets
        A day after saying he would pull U.S. troops out of Syria, President Donald Trump said Thursday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is retiring.
        “General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations,” Trump tweeted.    “A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly.    I greatly thank Jim for his service!”

    12/21/2018 Acting attorney general won’t step aside in Russia probe
        Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker chose not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation even though a top Justice Department ethics official advised him to step aside, a senior official told The Associated Press.    Whitaker’s past criticism of the Russia investigation has raised questions about whether he can oversee it fairly.    The ethics official said this week that a recusal was “a close call,” but suggested that Whitaker remove himself, although he was not required to do so.
        Whitaker declined to take the advice.
    [Stay there Whitaker, since you may have to fire Mueller for not doing the job correctly.].

    12/21/2018 House OKs criminal justice bill, sends it to Trump for signature
        A sweeping bill intended to reduce the number of people in the nation’s prisons was on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature Thursday after the House approved it.
        The bill, known as the “First Step Act,” passed the House 358-36 after passing the Senate this week 87-12.    The measure would give judges more discretion in sentencing offenders for nonviolent crimes, particularly drug offenses, and strengthen rehabilitation programs.

    12/21/2018 DHS won’t allow asylum seekers to wait in USA - Democrats warn that a reckoning is coming by Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
        The Department of Homeland Security announced a new policy Thursday banning asylum seekers from entering the USA and requiring them to stay in Mexico, a change that upends the way migrants fleeing persecution have been welcomed into the country for decades.
        Under U.S. law, people requesting asylum at the southern border – either at a port of entry or after illegally entering the country, and who pass an initial screening – are allowed to stay in the country pending an immigration judge’s decision on their application.
        Under the policy unveiled Wednesday by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, that will no longer be the case. Anybody who requests asylum will be processed by federal immigration agents, then immediately returned to Mexico.
        For weeks, the U.S. and Mexican governments negotiated over a similar policy dubbed “Remain in Mexico,” but the Trump administration was unable to reach an agreement with the administration of new Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office Dec. 1.
        Instead, the United States implemented the policy unilaterally, Nielsen said before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.    The Mexican Foreign Ministry said Thursday it will grant migrants with pending asylum applications in the USA a humanitarian visa to remain in Mexico, work permits and the ability to travel back and forth to the USA for court hearings.
        The Mexican government is struggling to accommodate thousands of members of a migrant caravan who are camped out in Tijuana, awaiting their chance to apply for asylum.    A Mexican official said Thursday that the new U.S. policy will add to that burden.
        “This unilateral measure puts (migrants) in a situation of enormous vulnerability,” said Alejandro Alday, legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry.
        Nielsen defended the move as necessary to secure the U.S. border while allowing legitimate asylum seekers a better chance to win entry.
        “Let me be clear: We will undertake these steps consistent with all domestic and international legal obligations, including our humanitarian commitments,” Nielsen told the committee.    “All affected migrants will receive humanitarian visas to stay on Mexican soil, they will be given the ability to apply for work and other protections while they await a legal U.S. determination.”
        The DHS relies on authorities granted under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows an attorney general to order the return of asylum seekers arriving at a land port to the country they attempted to enter from.    But the law states that the attorney general can remove only migrants who are “not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted.”
        A separate part of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows asylum seekers entry if they simply show they have a “credible fear” of returning to their home country.
        “This plan cannot be done lawfully,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who led a lawsuit that forced the administration this summer to reunify families separated at the southern border with Mexico.
        Nielsen said the policy is needed to stem a flood of unaccompanied minors and family units arriving at the USA to request asylum, knowing they will probably be granted entry while their case slowly winds through the backlogged immigration court system.    In the past two months, more than half of the 102,000 people caught illegally crossing the southern border were minors or family units.
        Before the DHS announcement, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who will become Judiciary Committee chairman in January when Democrats retake control of the House, warned Nielsen that her department would face intense scrutiny over its treatment of families, minors, asylum seekers and all others along the southern border.
        He likened the administration’s “zero- tolerance” policy that led to thousands of family separations this summer to “mass kidnapping by the federal government.”    He described policies attempting to limit asylum as dangerous, haphazard and chaotic.    He said Nielsen should prepare for investigations.
        “I want to put you and the department on notice: The time for accountability has arrived,” Nadler said.    “The Trump administration, including DHS under your watch, has launched a relentless attack against immigrants of all stripes.    The time for zero accountability is over.”
        Nielsen received praise from committee Republicans for the new policy.    Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, thanked her for bringing “some sanity” back to the U.S. immigration system.
        Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told Nielsen the policy will surely be met by lawsuits similar to those that struck down two other attempts to limit asylum.
        “You’ll be … in court, as you know … your policy does not adhere to the requirements of the immigration law,” she said.
    Contributing: David Agren in Mexico City.
    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says unaccompanied minors and
    family units swamped the border to request asylum. NICK OZA/USA TODAY NETWORK

    12/21/2018 House passes border wall funding by OAN Newsroom
    President Donald Trump speaks before he signs H.R. 2, the “Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018,”
    in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,
    on the White House complex, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
        President Trump appears to have proved Nancy Pelosi wrong after the House passed border wall funding despite the incoming speaker saying it would be impossible to accomplish.
        In a tweet Thursday, the president reminded his followers about last week’s heated exchange with Democrat leadership in the Oval Office.
        Trump tweet: “Soon to be Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, last week live from the Oval Office, that the Republicans didn’t have the votes for Border Security.    Today the House Republicans voted and won, 217-185.    Nancy does not have to apologize.    All I want is GREAT BORDER SECURITY!”
        During that meeting, Pelosi repeatedly told President Trump he didn’t have the votes necessary to pass border wall funding through the House.
        “We get it passed very easily in the House, we would get it passed,” the president stated
        “No, no that’s not true,” Pelosi responded.
        “Nancy, I’d have it passed in two seconds,” said President Trump.
        But the fact is that legislating, which is what we do, you begin you make your point, you state your case — that’s what House     Republicans could do if they had the votes, but there are no votes in the House, a majority of votes, for a wall no matter where you start,” she insisted.
        House lawmakers voted 217-to-185 Thursday to approve $5.7 billion for a border wall.    The legislation will now head to the senate for a possible vote Friday, though it remains unclear if there is enough support in the upper chamber for it to pass.
    [Even though the Democrats will have the majority in the House in 2019, the ones in the Senate now have to realize that the Republicans have the votes in the Senate 52-45 in 2019 to kill or delay what the House passes also.    So what they do next may set up their own future.].

    12/21/2018 N.Y. Federal Reserve president claims Central Bank may rethink monetary policy by OAN Newsroom
        Just days after the Fed announced there would be another rate hike this year and two more next year, the Federal Reserve president of New York said the Central Bank is open to reconsidering its views on next year’s outlook.
        During an interview Friday, New York Fed head John Williams said the Federal Reserve is going to listen to a number of factors when looking at 2019, including markets and business leaders.
        While the current projection is two hikes next year, Williams said the Fed is leaving the door open to reassessing and reevaluating its views.
    N.Y. Fed President John Williams. (Photo/Reuters)
        “In terms of this disconnect I think, you know the important things is we are ready, and think we have proven over the years, that when we see changes in the economic outlook, we are ready to reassess that view and obviously we’re ready to shift our view on monetary policy to better achieve our goals,” stated Williams.
        His comments are seen as a positive, especially for the markets after days of volatility.    President Trump has been critical of rate hikes, saying they are the reasons markets have been up and down.
        This week Wall Street has been focused on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Wednesday press conference in which he claimed the economy is strong now, but outlined a possible slow down in 2019.    As a result, Wall Street plummeted.    However, Williams believes a number of factors have weighed on the markets recently, including recent trade talks with China.
        “I think that there are a lot of factors effecting the markets in the last few months, beyond just the specifics of monetary policy of the economic outlook — obviously concerns about global growth and China," said Williams.    “We here from business leaders, quite a bit, concerns around tariff and trade negotiations, so I would say there are a number of factors that are contributing to volatility and market moves.”
        The Trump administration has dismissed market volatility by saying Wall Street is being too reactionary.
        This comes as the U.S. and China continue to be in the middle of their 90-day truce as they work on trade.    Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the two sides will meet face to face in January.

    12/21/2018 Former Senate Intel Committee staffer sentenced for lying to FBI about media contacts by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this June 13, 2018, file photo, James Wolfe former director of security
    with the Senate Intelligence Committee leaves the federal courthouse in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
        The former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee will spend the next two-months behind bars for lying to the FBI about his dealings with the media.
        James Wolfe was sentenced on Thursday, and was also fined $7,500 by the judge.
        The sentence was much less than the two-years federal prosecutors had recommended for Wolfe, who they had accused of putting national security at risk.
        The 58-year-old pleaded guilty in October to lying about his unauthorized contact with reporters, including one he was having an affair with.    However, he denied ever giving out classified information.
        Wolfe is expected to serve out his sentence at a minimum security facility in Maryland.

    12/21/2018 French yellow vest protesters to march in Versailles by Geert De Clercq
    FILE PHOTO: Protesters wearing yellow vests gather near the Opera House
    as part of the "yellow vests" movement in Paris, France, December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        PARIS (Reuters) – Yellow vest protesters, who have blocked roads across France and fought running battles with police since mid-November, will march in the former royal city of Versailles on Saturday in their fight against the government’s reforms.
        The Versailles chateau and gardens, a symbol of French state power and one of Europe’s top tourist attractions, will be closed on Saturday as authorities expect hundreds of protesters in the wealthy suburb, 20 km (12 miles) west of Paris.
        Jean-Jacques Brot, prefect of the Yvelines region, told reporters the demonstration would be confined to the city’s central avenue, well away from the palace and shopping areas.
        Versailles was a focal point of the French revolution and the October 1789 march on the palace by the Parisian mob led to overthrown and subsequent execution of King Louis XVI.
        According to a prefecture official quoted by daily Ouest France, about 1,400 people have said they would take part in the march following a call to demonstrate in Versailles by one of the yellow vest leaders on Thursday.
        “We are ready in case the protest focuses on Versailles, but it could also be elsewhere,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Thursday.
        Yellow vest leaders have called for new demonstrations on Saturday and encouraged their supporters to block trucks at the borders in a sixth weekend of nationwide protests, which have led to rioting and looting in Paris and other big French cities.
        Nine people have died in the protests, mostly in traffic accidents at yellow vest roadblocks.    Retailers, restaurants and hotels have lost millions of revenue in the weekends leading up to Christmas as they were forced to closed their doors for fear of looting and violence.
        But the movement – named after the fluorescent vests motorists are required to have in their cars – has gradually lost steam in recent weeks, with just 66,000 people taking part in protests nationwide last Saturday compared to nearly 300,000 on Nov. 17., according to interior ministry data.
        President Emmanuel Macron has announced a raft of measures costing the state budget some 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) to appease the yellow vests, boosting the minimum wage and easing tax increases on pensioners.
        Macron has also promised to organize a broad nationwide debate about taxation in the coming three months.
    (Reporting by Geert De Clercq)

    12/21/2018 Police arrest Catalan separatists seething at Spanish cabinet visit by Sam Edwards
    Demonstrators block traffic during a march towards Casa Llotja de Mar where
    Spain's cabinet meeting will take place, in Barcelona, Spain, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera
        BARCELONA (Reuters) – Police dragged Catalan separatists off roads and arrested 13 during protests on Friday as the Spanish cabinet met in the regional capital of Barcelona in both a show of central power and an attempt at negotiation.
        Secession supporters used tyres and rubbish to barricade highways from before dawn, and thronged the streets of Barcelona in their thousands, many flying the striped Estelada, the Catalan independence flag that bears a lone star.
        Some set off flares and burned an image of King Felipe VI, while police scuffled with masked youths in chaotic scenes.    Emergency services said 32 people suffered light injuries, most of them local police.
        More peaceful rallies continued into the evening, with thousands marching along the Passeig de Gracia shopping street, normally a draw for tourists, chanting ‘Freedom for political prisoners!’ and ‘Independence!’
        Many were wearing yellow, a color that had become associated with jailed separatist leaders.
        Protester Joan Toll lamented the lack of progress after an illegal referendum and self-declaration of independence in 2017.
        “If you think about what has happened in the last year, we have achieved nothing.    We are only being repressed more,” Toll, a 44-year-old chemist, said during one of the morning rallies.    “No one wants to see violence but people are getting tired.”
        The decision by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to convene his cabinet in Barcelona for the first time since the crisis began underlined Madrid’s opposition to full independence for the prosperous northeastern region of 7.5 million people.
        But it could also help him to secure the survival of his minority government with the aid of Catalonian pro-independence parties in return for more autonomy.
    HUGE MINIMUM WAGE RISE
        Sanchez, who has been trying to get voters on his side before a series of elections in the next two years, decreed a 22 percent rise in the minimum wage, the biggest in four decades.
        His Socialist party controls only a quarter of seats in the Spanish parliament and will need all the support he can muster to pass next year’s budget, to be presented in January.
        On Thursday, Sanchez met Quim Torra, who heads Catalonia’s pro-independence regional government.    The pair agreed to a deeper dialogue despite what their governments described in a statement as their “notable differences.”
        Friday’s protests were patrolled by Catalonia’s local police force, unlike during last year’s illegal referendum when national officers’ use of batons and rubber bullets caused an outcry.
        Meeting at a 14th century building on Barcelona’s historic sea front, the cabinet approved a handful of symbolic measures for the region, including renaming an airport after Josep Tarradellas, Catalonia’s first president following the end of Spain’s dictatorship in the 1970s.
        It also took steps to overturn a trial which led to the execution of former Catalan leader Lluis Companys by firing squad in 1940, and freed up over 100 million euros in investment for regional infrastructure – measures the Catalan government dismissed as being of little to no value.
        Four jailed Catalan leaders ended a hunger strike on the eve of Sanchez’s visit and their party vowed to back his broad plan for the national budget in 2019 and 2020.
        Failure to approve the budget could topple the government, raising the possibility of a right-of-center administration with stronger centralist preferences – a risk some Catalan politicians would prefer to avoid.
    (Editing by Andrei Khalip and David Stamp)

    12/21/2018 ‘Yellow vest’ protesters attempt to stop traffic in Portugal
    Protesters are seen during a demonstration by the "yellow vests" movement in Lisbon, Portugal, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
        LISBON (Reuters) – A few hundred “yellow vest” protesters demanding lower taxes and inspired by riots in Paris took to the streets across Portugal on Friday in an attempt to stop traffic.
        About 100 protesters scuffled with police at a central square in Lisbon, while in the northern city of Braga some access roads were blocked early in the day.
        “The reason why I joined this protest today is because this really is the voice of the people,” said Joao Viana, 50.
        “The movement is not aligned to any political party and we simply want to tell the government that we are tired of corruption, we are tired of taxes, we are tired of paying to sustain the political class.”
        The Socialist government had put 20,000 police on alert, yet there were no serious interruptions to traffic at the major intersections targeted by the protesters in Lisbon.
        Portugal has no real tradition of violent protests, unlike in France where the movement began.
        The French “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protesters – named after the high-visibility jackets French motorists must carry in their cars – launched their demonstration in mid-November to rally against fuel tax increases.
        The movement has since evolved into a wider backlash against the economic reforms of French President Emmanuel Macron, and protests in Paris this month were marred by major outbreaks of violence and vandalism.
        Some copycat protests have flared up in other countries such as Belgium.
        Portugal’s minority government, which is backed by two far-left parties in parliament, has recently cut some taxes and raised the wages of civil servants in an effort to reverse austerity measures launched during Portugal’s 2010-14 debt crisis.
    (Reporting by Catarina Demony; Writing by Axel Bugge; Editing by Toby Davis)

    12/21/2018 No. 2 U.S. Senate Republican sees possible spending compromise
    FILE PHOTO: Senator John Cornyn speaks to the media during a news conference
    at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There may be room for compromise on a government funding bill but U.S. President Donald Trump would not back any measure that lacked money for his proposed border wall, the No. 2 Republican in the U.S. Senate said on Friday, hours ahead of a midnight deadline to fund part of the federal government.
        “The president is not in the mood for zeroing that out,” Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn told reporters, referring to funds to protect the U.S.-Mexico border.
    (Reporting by Gingern Gibson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

    12/21/2018 U.N. tells UK: Allow Assange to leave Ecuador embassy freely
    FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony
    of the Embassy of Ecuador in London, Britain, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall
        GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. rights experts called on British authorities on Friday to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the Ecuador embassy in London without fear of arrest or extradition.
        The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reiterated its finding published in February 2016 that Assange had been de facto unlawfully held without charge in the embassy, where he has now been holed up for more than six years.
        He initially took asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.    That investigation was dropped.
        Assange, whose website published thousands of classified U.S. government documents, denied the Sweden allegations, saying the charge was a ploy that would eventually take him to the United States where a prosecutors are preparing to pursue a criminal case against him.
        Britain says Assange will be arrested for skipping bail if he leaves the embassy, but that any sentence would not exceed six months, if convicted.    It had no immediate comment on the experts’ call, but in June, foreign office minister Alan Duncan said Assange would be treated humanely and properly.
        “… the only ground remaining for Mr. Assange’s continued deprivation of liberty is a bail violation in the UK, which is, objectively, a minor offence that cannot post facto justify the more than six years confinement that he has been subjected to since he sought asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador,” the U.N. experts said in a statement.
        “It is time that Mr. Assange, who has already paid a high price for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of opinion, expression and information, and to promote the right to truth in the public interest, recovers his freedom,” they said.
        Lawyers for Assange and others have said his work with WikiLeaks was critical to a free press and was protected speech.
        The experts voiced concern that his “deprivation of liberty” was undermining his health and could “endanger his life” given the disproportionate amount of anxiety that has entailed.
        Ecuador in October imposed new rules requiring him to receive routine medical exams, following concerns he was not getting the medical attention he needed.    The rules also ordered him to pay medical and phone bills and clean up after his cat.
        Assange has sued Ecuador, arguing the rules violate his rights.
    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
    [The NSA, CIA, DOJ and FBI are drooling at the thought of getting him back so they can trick him into lying to them, and would do that to keep his information to never see the light of day, REDACTED if it did.].

    12/22/2018 Oil down $0.29 to $45.59, DOW down 414 to 22,445
    [With Oil at $45.59 and no profit is made on a barrel of oil below $30, which means Iran is only making $15.59 a barrel, which used to be $45 a barrel.    So the eight countries buying Iran's oil will not pay more than that, or they will have to go somewhere else.].

    12/22/2018 McConnell in middle of battle over wall, shutdown - House adjourns without a deal on spending by Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was thrust into the middle of President Donald Trump’s battle for his coveted border wall on Friday, hours ahead of a probable federal government shut down.    The president blitzed McConnell with a series of tweets Friday morning that urged the Kentucky Republican to use the “nuclear option” to bypass Democratic opposition.    Under the Senate’s filibuster rules, McConnell’s 51-member caucus needs nine Democrats to break the 60-vote threshold on a federal spending measure.    “Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done,” Trump tweeted.    “Our Country is counting on you!”
        By Friday evening, though, McConnell took to the Senate floor to announce that no vote would be taken until a compromise is reached that satisfies Congress and the president.
        “I hope Senate Democrats will work with the White House on an agreement that can pass both houses of Congress and receive the president’s signature,” he said.    “So colleagues, when an agreement is reached, it will receive a vote here on the Senate floor.”
        However, around 7:30 p.m. Friday, the House adjourned without a deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing a partial government shutdown at midnight.
        Trump has regularly used his Twitter pulpit to poke McConnell, including a recent successful urging to approve criminal justice reform.
        McConnell visited the White House earlier Friday to continue negotiations, but his office made it clear that the GOP leader was not going to blow up the Senate rules for the president.
        “The leader has said for years that the votes are not there in the conference to use the nuclear option,” McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said in a statement to the Courier Journal Friday afternoon.    “Just this morning, several senators put out statements confirming their opposition, and confirming that there is not a majority in the conference to go down that road.”
        McConnell issued a lengthy statement after meeting with Trump that spoke in favor of additional security at the southern border and chastised Democrats and other critics over their, “personal spite for the president.”
        McConnell got rid of the 60-vote rule in 2017 to clear a path to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch with a simply majority vote.    But Republicans, such as Sen. Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, showed no interest in changing the rules for other policy matters.
        “We have rules to follow,” Alexander said in a statement.    “I want to put a stop to this practice of the Senate breaking its rules to change its rules.    I will not vote to turn the Senate into a rulebreaking institution.”    McConnell had been trying to avoid a government shutdown this week when he said he would file a measure funding the government through Feb. 8, which was supported by Senate Democrats.
        “We don’t want to end this year the way we began it, with another government shutdown,” McConnell told reporters earlier in the week.
        Trump blew up the negotiations, however, when he refused to sign legislation.    His base of supporters wants him to fulfill a promise to tighten security at the U.S.-Mexico border.    This comes a week after a public confrontation Trump had with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office over border security.
        The White House wants roughly $5 billion to build a wall at the border.    Democrats have proposed $1.6 billion for border security, and argue the Republicans must find a better solution given they control Congress.
        “The Democrats are trying to belittle the concept of a Wall, calling it old fashioned,” Trump tweeted.    “The fact is there is nothing else’s that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years.    It’s like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone, & technology.”     Trump’s chances of getting a border wall next year will be severely diminished, however, once Democrats take control of the House in January.
        U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Kentucky, who is chairman-elect of the House Budget Committee, said Friday that the president is putting McConnell in a difficult position.
        “I can’t imagine Mitch is very happy with the president right now after he doubled-crossed him,” he said.    “He told Mitch he was for the continued resolution earlier this week and the president backed out of the deal.”     Yarmuth said Trump’s refusal to sign the short-term funding measure is a response to conservative media critics who were slamming the president for failing to get his border wall funding through Congress.    He said McConnell has proven to be a good negotiator during past budget disputes, and that his fellow Kentuckian could resolve this by threatening to override any Trump veto.
        There are at least nine federal departments and other small agencies representing about 25 percent of the government that would run out of cash at midnight Friday if the president and Congress haven’t reached an agreement.
        McConnell being called out by name on the president’s Twitter account over the border wall also comes a day after the Senate majority leader expressed his concerns about the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who left the administration in protest.
        McConnell has been loathe to criticize Trump publicly when peppered with questions by reporters, but he expressed sorrow in seeing Mattis go.
        The majority leader took subtle jabs at Trump’s foreign relations when he said that he believes it is essential that the U.S. “maintain and strengthen the post-World War II alliances that have been carefully built by leaders in both parties.”
        “We must also maintain a clear-eyed understanding of our friends and foes, recognizing that nations like Russia are among the latter,” McConnell added.
        Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@ courierjournal.com.
    Sen. Mitch McConnell is met by reporters as he returns to the Capitol from the White House on Friday. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

    12/22/2018 Last-minute talks fail to avert federal shutdown by Michael Collins and David Jackson, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – A partial federal government shutdown was almost certain to begin at midnight Friday after the House adjourned for the evening amid a flurry of last-minute negotiations aimed at ending a budget standoff.
        The Senate remained in session late Friday as congressional Democrats and the White House worked behind the scenes to strike a budget deal.
        But with House lawmakers adjourning and no more votes expected before Saturday, a partial government shutdown was virtually assured.
        With the clock ticking, President Donald Trump said earlier Friday he was “totally prepared for a very long shutdown.”    The chances of a shutdown are “probably very good,” he said, as he blamed the Democrats.
        “It’s totally up to the Democrats” whether or not a shutdown happens, he said.
        On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor that it was clear that there were not enough votes to pass a spending measure that includes border wall funding.
        But Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats had agreed to continue the discussions with the White House.
        “I hope Senate Democrats will work with the White House on an agreement that can pass both houses of Congress and receive the president’s signature,” McConnell said.
        Trump had planned to leave Friday afternoon for an end-of-the-year vacation in southern Florida, but said he would push back that trip if a new budget agreement is not reached and a shutdown occurs.
        Amid a series of shutdown-related tweets Friday, Trump blasted Democrats ahead of any Senate action and was already blaming them for any future government shutdown, which he warned could “last a very long time.”
        “The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED,” he wrote via Twitter.    “If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time.    People don’t want Open Borders and Crime!”
        A Senate proposal, approved Wednesday night, would have funded the government through Feb. 8 but would have delayed any decision on border wall funding until next year.
        But after Trump informed House GOP leaders during an emergency Oval Office meeting on Thursday that he would not sign the Senate bill, the House responded by introducing its own spending package.
        The House bill would fund the government through Feb. 8 but also includes $5.7 billion for a border wall and nearly $8 billion in disaster relief to compensate communities hit hard by this year’s hurricanes and wildfires.    The House approved that bill Thursday night.
        Congress is scrambling to pass a short-term spending bill because lawmakers still haven’t passed seven of the 12 appropriations bills that are needed to fund the government for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
        The seven remaining bills would fund nine departments – Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development – as well as several smaller agencies.    Those are the departments and agencies that would be impacted by a government shutdown.
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber Friday as the Senate
    prepared to take up a House-passed bill that would fund President Donald Trump’s border wall. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
    President Donald Trump said Friday he was “totally prepared” for a long shutdown. EVAN VUCCI/AP

    12/22/2018 The federal government is officially shut down, with lawmakers continuing negotiations to reach an agreement by OAN Newsroom
        The federal government is officially shut down, with lawmakers continuing negotiations to reach an agreement.
        The shutdown comes after the Senate failed to vote on legislation approved by the House.
        Lawmakers said the bill, containing $5.7 billion for the southern border wall, didn’t have enough votes to pass the Senate.
    All eyes were on the Senate Friday afternoon as an effort to vote on a bill to fund
    President Donald Trump’s border wall teetered on the edge.J. Scott Applewhite / AP
        Negotiations are expected to continue on Capitol Hill, to try to end the partial government shut down.
        House and Senate leaders have begun reconvening, as they try to come to terms on a funding agreement.
        President Trump has vowed to veto any bill that doesn’t fund a border wall and congressional Democrats are refusing to pay for it.
        In a tweet Saturday he said he is negotiating with Democrats on desperately needed border security.
        Now, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are facing uncertainty about when their next paycheck is coming.
        However, in a message to the American people Friday night, President Trump suggested the shutdown won’t be long.
        Trump tweet: “Will be having lunch in White House residence with large group concerning Border Security.
        OUR GREAT COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!    ”

    12/22/2018 Sen. McConnell urges Dems to address Pres. Trump request on border funding by OAN Newsroom
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urges his colleagues across the aisle to address the president’s request for border security funding as lawmakers seek to end the shutdown.
    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, walks back to his office as they work to pass a bill that would pay
    for President Donald Trump’s border wall and avert a partial government shutdown, on Capitol Hill, Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        Speaking on the Senate floor Saturday, McConnell stressed Democrats are refusing to meet the president halfway on border security funding.
        He also pointed out Democrats offered much more on border security earlier this year than the $5.7 billion the White House is currently asking for.
        McConnell also said ‘productive discussions’ are continuing but asserted no votes in the chamber will occur until the president and Senate Democrats reach an agreement.

    12/22/2018 DOJ panel: Whitaker not required to recuse from overseeing Mueller by OAN Newsroom
        DOJ officials say acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is not required to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller probe.
        This week, the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress laying out the reasoning for his decision.
    Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker arrives to speak to area law enforcement officials at the U.S. Attorney’s Office
    for the Western District of Texas in Austin, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
        The letter said Whitaker was briefed by a DOJ panel on ethics rules and guidelines.
        The panel recommended Whitaker recuse himself, saying his past comments on the probe made the decision a “close call,” but added it ultimately was not a requirement.
        The acting AG opted to not follow the advice saying he did not want to create a precedent for recusal in similar situations.
    [No we need to keep someone there who is not corrupt until the new Attorney General comes in to insure the Dems do not cover up any more than they already have.].

    12/22/2018 U.S. special envoy in fight against ISIS resigns from his post by OAN Newsroom
        A U.S. special envoy to the fight against ISIS, follows in the footsteps of James Mattis, by resigning from his post.
        Brett McGurk submitted his resignation on Friday, in disagreement with the president’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.
    FILE – In this June 7, 2017 file photo, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition against IS, speaks during a
    news conference at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. McGurk has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to
    withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, joining Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security officials. AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
        McGurk was reportedly planning his departure back in February, but said pulling the U.S. out of the region “accelerated” his decision.
        He added, the fight against ISIS in Syria is not over, and the destruction of the terror group while protecting citizens is a top priority.
    [Brett H. McGurk, an American diplomat who is Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, appointed by President Barack Obama on October 23, 2015 and was retained in that role by the Trump administration.    McGurk replaced General John R. Allen to whom he had been a deputy since September 16, 2014.    McGurk also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran, at the U.S. Department of State, and from October 2014 through January 2016 led 14 months of secret negotiations with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of four Americans from Evin Prison in Tehran, including Washington Post journalist, Jason Rezaian.    This assignment, among others, reinforced McGurk's "reputation as a doer," according to the New York Times.].

    12/22/2018 Few turn out for French ‘yellow vest’ protests, driver dies at road block by Johanna Decorse and Emmanuel Jarry
    A protester wearing a yellow vest attends a demonstration by the "yellow vests" movement as police use a
    water cannon on the Champs Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, December 22, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        TOULOUSE/PARIS, France (Reuters) – France’s anti-government “yellow vest” protest was losing steam on Saturday but caused traffic disruption through road blocks across the country, leading to the death of a 10th person since the start of the movement last month.
        The turnout on the streets of Paris and other cities was smaller than in previous weekends, authorities said.    No major damage or clashes had been reported between police and protesters as of mid-afternoon.
        About 23,800 people were demonstrating at 1300 GMT, including fewer than 1,000 in Paris, the interior ministry said.    This was down from a week ago at the same time when there were 33,500 protesters out on the streets, 2,200 of which were in Paris.
        Authorities had expected a march in Versailles, whose castle is a symbol of French state power and one of Europe’s top tourist attractions.
        But few “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protesters – so-called after the high-visibility jackets French motorists must carry in their cars – showed up in the formal royal city.
        Dispersed groups of protesters were out on the streets of Paris near tourist landmarks such as the Sacre Coeur Basilica and the Galeries Lafayette department stores, singing La Marseillaise and calling for President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation.
        Attendance was on the rise, however, in Lyon and Bordeaux, according to Reuters witnesses.    Protesters also managed to block some of the big highways, including one leading to Spain.
        Late on Friday, a 36-year-old man died in Perpignan, southern France, when his car hit a truck at a road block erected by protesters, raising the death toll linked to the demonstrations to 10.
        On Saturday, police fired tear gas against protesters who gathered near Macron’s villa in the chic resort of Le Touquet in northern France.
    ROAD ACCIDENTS
        In the French capital, the police arrested 109 protesters, seven of whom were held in custody.
        Three weeks ago the protests in Paris turned into some of the worst unrest seen in the capital since the student-led civil unrest of 1968.    Cars were set on fire, bank and insurance offices’ windows smashed and street furniture was vandalized.
        Of the ten deaths linked to the protests, most have been the result of road accidents.
        The “yellow vest” protesters began in mid-November to rally against fuel tax increases and subsequently against the wider liberal economic reform policy of Macron, who made tax and salary concessions earlier this month.
        But the movement has gradually lost steam in recent weeks.
        Since he caved in to protesters in a TV address on Dec 10, Macron, who turned 41 on Friday, has largely kept out of the public eye, staying inside the Elysee palace for what his press team called internal meetings.
        A recent poll showed France’s far-right party National Rally, formerly known as the National Front, confirmed it was so far the biggest political beneficiary of the protests.
    (Reporting by Johanna Decorse in Toulouse and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Additional reporting by Christian Hartmann, Clotaire Achi, Pierre Savary, Gilbert Reilhac, Claude Canellas and Myriam Rivet; Writing by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    12/22/2018 Guyanese parliament brings down government, triggering elections by Neil Marks
    FILE PHOTO - Guyana's President David Arthur Granger review an honour guard during
    Mercosur trade bloc annual summit in Brasilia, Brazil December, 21, 2017. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
        GEORGETOWN (Reuters) – Guyana’s parliament voted late on Friday in favor of a no-confidence motion in the government, triggering new elections in March in a surprise defeat for President David Granger as he seeks to develop the nation’s oil sector.
        One lawmaker defected from Granger’s APNU-AFC coalition, which had a one-seat majority, and sided with an opposition-led motion to cut short his term that would have ended in 2020.    The Guyanese parliament had never before called a no-confidence vote.
        The opposition called the no-confidence motion claiming mismanagement of the country’s oil resources.
        The South American nation, with no history of oil production, has become one of the world’s most closely watched oil basins after Exxon Mobil discovered more than 4 billion barrels of oil in recent years.
        Since 1999, Guyana has awarded a group led by Exxon hundreds of oil blocks along the country’s maritime borders with Venezuela and Suriname.    Oil output could reach more than 500,000 barrels per day in coming years, similar to OPEC-member Ecuador.
        Granger, president since 2015, has been out of the public eye since he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer, in October.
        Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo accepted defeat and said their coalition would return to the polls.
        “This is not the end … this is just a challenge that we need to deal with,” Nagamootoo told a news conference.
        The opposition accused the government of taking a bad deal with Exxon, saying it had a chance to renegotiate the contract once oil was discovered but that it acceded to Exxon’s “maximum demands.”
        “They sold our patrimony,” said Bharrat Jagdeo, leader of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
        Granger’s government insists it got the best deal and is banking on new oil wealth to transform the economy.
    (Reporting by Neil Marks; Writing by Angus Berwick; Editing by Leslie Adler)

    12/22/2018 Sen. Schumer refuses to back down on border wall funding by OAN Newsroom
        Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer continues to obstruct progress to end the partial government shutdown.
        On the Senate floor Saturday, the minority leader refused to give any concessions for President Trump’s wall on the southern border.
    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters about the possibility of a partial government shutdown,
    at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Congress and President Donald Trump continue to bicker over his demand that
    lawmakers fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown at midnight Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Schumer downplayed the effectiveness of a physical barrier, saying it would cost more than it actually protects.
        He then said without reference, a majority of Americans do not support footing taxpayer money for the wall.
        “Everyone knew yesterday, long before the House vote, that the President will elect 60 votes in the Senate, it is proven to lack even 50 votes,” said Schumer.    “It will never pass the Senate, not today, not next week, not next year.    So Mr. president, President Trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall, plain and simple.”
        Schumer’s comments come as President Trump meets with lawmakers at the White House in a bid to find compromise and properly fund border security.
        The New York Democrat has had shifting stances on immigration enforcement over the years, leading some to believe he is only out for political gain.
    [If Shumer had a top hat on in the above image he would really look like "SCROOGE".].

    12/22/2018 Federal government to remain shut down, Senate adjourns without reaching a funding deal by OAN Newsroom
        The government will remain shut down through the holiday weekend, as the Senate adjourns without reaching a funding deal.
        Senators are not expected to be back until Monday for a procedural session, and then they will reconvene again on Thursday the 27th.
        The shutdown comes after the Senate failed to vote on legislation approved by the House.
        Lawmakers said the bill, containing $5.7 billion for the southern border wall, didn’t have enough votes to pass the Senate.
        President Trump has vowed to veto any bill that doesn’t fund a border wall and congressional Democrats are refusing to pay for it.
        Now, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are facing uncertainty about when their next paycheck is coming.
        However, in a message to the American people Friday night, President Trump suggested the shutdown won’t be long.
        Trump tweet: “Will be having lunch in White House residence with large group concerning Border Security.”

    12/22/2018 WH: No plans to fire Jerome Powell by OAN Newsroom
        Despite speculation, the White House announces it has no plans to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
        White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders verified the position Saturday, responding to a recent report from Bloomberg.
        The report claims President Trump has been voicing his frustrations with Powell as of recently.
    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speak at a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.
    The Federal Reserve is raising its key interest rate for the fourth time this year to reflect the U.S. economy’s
    continued strength but signaling that it expects to slow hikes next year. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
        Further, the president has grown frustrated with the Federal Reserve chair for hiking interest rates this week, marking the third increase this year.
        Some Republicans have suggested the reasoning for the hike could be an attempt to slow down the country’s booming economy.
        However, Powell said politics didn’t come into play regarding his decision.
        Stocks plummeted following the announcement by the Federal Reserve.    Investors hope it rebounds, before entering a bear market.

    12/22/2018 NBC reports Turkish President promised President Trump he’d finish ISIS in Syria by OAN Newsroom
        The president of Turkey reportedly promises his American-counterpart that his country will finish the fight against ISIS in Syria.
        This, according to an NBC News report on Saturday citing senior White House officials.
        Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan allegedly gave his word to President Trump as a “friend,” adding if the U.S. were to pull out of Syria — Turkey would be able to handle the remaining ISIS fighters in the country’s northern region.
        Trump tweets: “I am in the White House, working hard.    News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE.    We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay.    On Syria, we were originally...”
    “....going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago - we never left.    When I became President, ISIS was going wild.    Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains.    We’re coming home!”
        The report comes after the President doubled-down on his position to withdraw troops in a Twitter post.
        He claimed Middle Eastern countries and NATO allies, such as Turkey, could handle the fight on terror.

    12/22/2018 Trump Administration revokes Obama-era policy urging public schools to be lenient on students of color by OAN Newsroom
        The Trump Administration scraps another Obama-era policy urging public schools to be more lenient with students of color.
        The Education and Justice departments on Friday removed the 2014 rule, which the Federal School Safety Commission claims may have actually made schools less safe.
        This comes after the prior administration issued guidelines, claiming students of color are disproportionately impacted by suspensions and expulsions, allegedly leading to the “school-to-prison” pipeline.
        The Commission, however, claimed the policy tied the hands of teachers and administrators and ultimately decided disciplining students is best left to school officials.

    12/23/2018 Senate adjourns with no end to federal shutdown in sight - Trump, GOP talk amid standoff on wall funds by Michael Collins and David Jackson, USA TODAY
        WASHINGTON – Parts of the federal government will almost certainly remain closed through the holidays after the Senate adjourned on Saturday and made no plans to return until the middle of the week.
        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that no other session is planned until Thursday.
        House and Senate lawmakers had returned to work Saturday as behind-the-scenes negotiations continued in hopes of ending a budget standoff that has shut down one quarter of the federal government.
        At the White House, President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday morning that he would be having lunch with a “large group” about border security.
        The White House said the attendees included Vice President Mike Pence and GOP Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah.    Republican Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona – all members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus – also were expected to attend.    No Democratic lawmakers were on the list.
        Parts of the federal government shut down Saturday for the third time this year after a last-ditch effort by Republicans and Democrats failed to resolve a budget stalemate.
        Before the Senate adjourned, McConnell said that any agreement reached would be put to a quick vote.
        “We’ve pushed the pause button until the president … and Senate Democrats … reach an agreement,” he said.    “No procedural votes.    No test votes.    Just a meaningful vote on a bipartisan agreement, whenever that is reached."
        “It’s my hope that it is reached sooner rather than later.”
        Senate Democrats, however, vowed they would not retreat from their opposition to funding for a border wall.
        “President Trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall – plain and simple,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, DN. Y., said from the Senate floor.
        What is certain is that nine federal departments and several smaller agencies ran out of funding at midnight Friday, requiring them to close their doors.    More than 380,000 federal workers are on furlough and 420,000 are working without pay.    The good news is that only one-fourth of the government is affected because most federal agencies already have been funded by Congress.
        The bad news is for those agencies that have not received funding beyond the midnight deadline.
        They include the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Patrol and the IRS, as well as national parks and forests.    In all, the nine departments affected by the shutdown are Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development.
        Late Saturday morning, Trump tweeted, “We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay.”
        Trump also complained about news coverage of the shutdown, as well as his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
        On Friday, Trump sought to place the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, who refused to go along with his demand for $5 billion to build a wall along the nation’s southern border.
        “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” he tweeted, though a week ago he had boasted that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government and would accept the blame.

    12/23/2018 Pres. Trump Touts Possible Benefits of Wall Amid Govt Shutdown Over Border Funding by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump continues his push for a southern border wall amid the ongoing government shutdown over border security funding.
        In a tweet Sunday, the President said the only way to stop drugs, gangs, human trafficking, criminal elements and more from coming into the country is with a wall or barrier.
        Trump tweet: “The only way to stop drugs, gangs, human trafficking, criminal elements and much else from coming into our Country is with a Wall or Barrier.    Drones and all of the rest are wonderful and lots of fun, but it is only a good old fashioned Wall that works!”
        This comes as the partial government shutdown enters a second day amid Congressional Democrats and the White House’s inability to reach an agreement on border wall funding.
        On Saturday, Senate Appropriations Committee Member Sen. James Lankford said he hopes the shut down is short-lived.
        The Oklahoma lawmaker said he doesn’t think he and his colleagues are too far away from an agreement.
        Lankford says he is on-board with the President’s request for wall funding, adding the U.S. needs to put a physical infrastructure in place as well as the proper man-power to secure the southern border.
        U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security Analyst Lester Munson says it’s likely neither Democrats or Republicans will shift their stance on the border wall.
        During an interview, he says there is a “limited amount of issues” that both sides agree on, but Republicans are not likely to back down.

    12/23/2018 Trump talks to Turkey leader about ‘slow’ Syria troop withdrawal
    U.S. President Donald Trump arrives with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly for an exclusive interview with
    Reuters journalists in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he spoke with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan about “a slow and highly coordinated” withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, a decision that sparked criticism from U.S. lawmakers, including fellow Republicans.
        “We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, and the slow and highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area,” Trump said in a tweet.    “After many years they are coming home.”
        Trump said he and Erdogan also discussed “heavily expanded” trade between the United States and Turkey, after the two NATO allies’ relationship went into a tailspin over the summer.
    (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Mary Milliken and Phil Berlowitz)

    12/23/2018 Venezuela navy confronts Exxon oil ship in Guyana border dispute
    FILE PHOTO - A Venezuelan flag is seen in downtown Caracas, Venezuela December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
        GEORGETOWN/CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s navy “intercepted” a ship exploring for oil on behalf of Exxon Mobil Corp in Guyanese waters over the weekend, Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a statement, while neighboring Venezuela said the incident occurred within its territory.
        The latest incident in a century-old border dispute comes after a series of offshore oil discoveries have given Guyana the potential to become one of Latin America’s largest producers.    In OPEC member Venezuela, by contrast, crude output has tumbled to the lowest levels in nearly 70 years amid an economic crisis.
        The Ramform Tethys vessel, which belongs to Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and was conducting seismic survey work on behalf of Exxon, stopped exploration and turned east after being approached by the Venezuelan navy, PGS spokesman Bard Stenberg said in a statement.
        “Guyana rejects this illegal, aggressive and hostile act,” Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a statement late on Saturday, adding that the move “demonstrates the real threat to Guyana’s economic development by its western neighbor” and “violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.”
        The ministry added that it would report the incident to the United Nations and send formal communication to Venezuela’s government.    It said it would inform the governments of the various homelands of the 70 crew members aboard the vessel, flagged by the Bahamas, of the “threat to their safety.”
        A spokeswoman for Exxon said the U.S. oil firm’s seismic explorations in the western portion of Guyana’s Stabroek Block “have been paused until they can be safely continued,” and that the vessel was operating in Guyana’s exclusive economic zone.
        In a statement on Sunday, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said its navy, during a routine patrol, had encountered two boats hired by Exxon in an area under “undoubtedly Venezuelan sovereignty” and “proceeded to apply the appropriate international protocols.”
        The ministry said the boats’ captains told the navy they had permission from Guyana’s government to explore in the area, and that the boats turned around after being told Guyana did not have jurisdiction in that area.    It also said it informed the UN and sent a protest note to Guyana’s government.
        Neither PGS nor Guyana’s foreign ministry immediately responded to requests to clarify whether one or two research ships were involved in the incident.
    LONGSTANDING DISPUTE
        Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro has previously criticized Guyana’s decision to allow oil exploration to go ahead in the waters off the shore of the Essequibo region, a sparsely populated and dense jungle area equivalent to around two-thirds of Guyanese territory that Venezuela also claims.
        Guyana says Caracas agreed to relinquish the area after a ruling by an international tribunal in 1899, but Venezuela later backtracked on that decision.    The UN earlier this year referred the dispute to the International Court of Justice, a move welcomed by Georgetown but criticized by Caracas.
        The dispute has heated up in recent years as Exxon has announced the discovery of more than 5 billion barrels of oil off the shore of Guyana, an English-speaking nation of 750,000 with no history of oil production.
        The U.S. State Department was “monitoring reports that the Venezuelan Navy may have interfered with vessels operating on behalf of ExxonMobil,” deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino said on Twitter on Sunday, adding that Guyana had the right to exploit resources in its territorial waters and calling on Venezuela to respect its neighbors’ “sovereignty.”
        The United States is a staunch critic of Maduro’s government, which it accuses of corruption and human rights violations.
        On Friday, Guyana’s parliament toppled the government in a no-confidence vote, paving the way for elections in three months.
    (Reporting by Neil Marks in Georgetown and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; Additional reporting and writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Dan Grebler and Rosalba O’Brien)

    12/23/2018 Senator Rand Paul slams “neocons,” “warmongers” in Festivus tweetstorm by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Rand Paul slams the “Washington establishment” as part of his “Festivus” greetings.
        Paul tweet: “I came to say Happy #Festivus to my friend Elizabeth Warren.    Can’t find her.
        You’ll be surprised to learn I have some grievances with people in Washington, fellow members and others.    It’s time to talk about them now, because it’s the holiday season    .”
        Senator Paul launched what he called a “Festivus tweetstorm” on Sunday, inviting his fellow lawmakers to share their concerns as well.    The senator praised President Trump’s decision to pullout U.S. troops from Syria, and welcomed bipartisan cooperation on prison reform.
        He also took a creative approach to expressing his support for the President’s border wall.
        Senator Paul included criticism “wasteful spending” of the federal government, and what he called “neocons and warmongers” on both sides of the political aisle.
    [Yes, there are a some Adults in the Senate, but they believe in a Border Wall.].

    12/23/2018 President Trump reportedly arms Kurdish allies ahead of Syria pull-out by OAN Newsroom
        A new report claims President Trump has sent weapons and ammunition to Kurdish allies in Syria, according to Turkish media on Sunday.
        The U.S. is said to have delivered 150 truckloads of military equipment to the Kurdish YPG fighters, which is expected to help the Kurds defend themselves against ISIS, and a possible Turkish offensive.
        This follows the U.S. announcement of a withdrawal of troops from Syria, with European nations expected to boost presence in the country.
        For their part, Kurdish officials say they will not cede control over border regions to Turkey.    A top Kurdish-led administration official in Syria saying cooperation will be required to keep terror networks designated to one area, and to “annihilate” them “once and for all.”
        Reports also allege U.S. forces will leave Syria in sixty-to-100 days, but will likely continue sending supplies to Kurdish allies from Iraq.

    12/23/2018 Democrat California rep. agrees with President’s withdraw of troops from Syria by OAN Newsroom
        One California democrat says he actually supports the President’s decision on a troop withdraw.
        Congressman Ro Khanna, in an opinion piece published on Saturday, said democrats “should applaud — not chastise” the President for his planned withdraw of U.S. military personnel from Syria and Afghanistan.
        Khanna adds the U.S. should end its involvement in continuing conflicts in Yemen as well.    In one report, Khanna cautioned President Trump’s instincts on a withdraw are correct, but it must be done in a planned and tactical way.
        The representative said he and fellow members of the Progressive Caucus would prioritize a final draw-down of troops in the next House session.

    12/23/2018 Pres. Trump Taps Patrick Shanahan to Serve as Acting Secretary of Defense by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump says Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will temporarily replace outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon.     In a tweet Sunday, the President said he’s pleased to announce Shanahan will assume the title of Acting Defense Secretary starting January 1st.
    FILE – In this April 9, 2018, file photo, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, right, listen as President Donald Trump
    speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington. A U.S. administration official says that Defense Secretary
    Jim Mattis will leave his post Jan. 1, 2019, as Trump is expected to name Shanahan as acting secretary. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        He added Shanahan has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy Defense Secretary and will be great.
        The move comes after Mattis said he would step down in February, giving the President additional time to find a suitable replacement.

    12/24/2018 SpaceX launches Air Force’s best GPS yet, ends banner year
        SpaceX has launched the U.S. Air Force’s most powerful GPS satellite ever built.
        A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, hoisting the satellite into orbit.    It was SpaceX’s 21st and final launch of the year, a company record.

    12/24/2018 Comey rebukes Brennan on dossier by OAN Newsroom
        James Comey’s closed-door testimony is showing a direct contradiction to claims made by his predecessor John Brennan.
        In his testimony Comey said the dossier was used in an intelligence community assessment in January of 2017.br>     The dossier was a piece of opposition research funded by the president’s opponents, including the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
    Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill Washington, Monday, Dec. 17, 2018,
    after a second closed-door interview with two Republican-led committees investigating what they say was
    bias at the Justice Department before the 2016 presidential election. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
        Comey’s statement directly goes against what Brennan told the House Intelligence committee in May of 2017.
        Brennan claimed the dossier was not in any way used as the basis for the assessment into the report, which is a claim he has repeated to the mainstream media.
        “It became a hot topic of debate within CINSA and FBI and DNI…about whether or not to take that dossier into account when the intelligence community assessment was done,” stated Brennan.    “We decided no, because there was no way we could substantiate it, it wasn’t an intelligence document, so it was appended to it, but it was not taken into account at all as that intelligence community assessment was done and was completed.”     Meanwhile, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers have both rebuked Brennan’s statements on the dossier as well.
    [Well it looks like the Swamp is bginning to cover its asses, so why was it used to get a FISA judge to approve a surveillance?].

    12/24/2018 WATCH: Schumer Flip-Flops on Border Security by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is calling out the hypocrisy of Democrats as they refuse to back border wall funding amid the government shutdown.    The president said virtually every Democrat we are dealing with today strongly supported a border wall or fence.    That is until he made it an important part of his campaign.
        Here’s more on how Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has shifted his stance on immigration over the years.

    12/24/2018 President Trump outlines need for southern border wall amid funding battle by OAN Newsroom
    A helicopter monitors the U.S. border fence from above, seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
        Despite pressure from Democrat lawmakers, President Trump is not backing down from his calls for a southern border wall.
        In a tweet Sunday, the president said the most important way to stop gangs, drugs, human trafficking and crime is by securing the border. He claimed everyone knows you can’t have border security without the construction of a border wall.
        The president said while some call for an increase in drones and technology at the border, those tactics do not work.
        Trump tweet: “The most important way to stop gangs, drugs, human trafficking and massive crime is at our Southern Border.    We need Border Security, and as EVERYONE knows, you can’t have Border Security without a Wall.    The Drones & Technology are just bells and whistles.    Safety for America!”
        Funding for the border wall has been the top sticking point between both sides of the aisle as it relates to funding the government.
        Democrats have said the president must abandon the wall.    On the other hand, conservatives are saying the president will be abandoning his base if he does.

    12/24/2018 Mnuchin looks to boost economic confidence by OAN Newsroom
        Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is attempting to boost confidence in the U.S. financial system.    Mnuchin had phone calls with the heads of the six largest banks in the country Sunday, and said all of them confirmed they have enough available funds for lending to consumer and business markets.    The Treasury secretary added, all of the executives said markets have been functioning properly.
        This comes after the worst week on Wall Street in a decade.    A number of factors are said to be contributing to the ups and downs, but Mnuchin has dismissed the volatility as an over reaction.
    FILE – In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talks
    with reporters at the White House, in Washington. Mnuchin says that the negative market reaction following the
    Federal Reserve’s rate hike was “completely overblown.” (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
        Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve announced it will raise interest rates one more time for the year and have two planned for 2019.    Additionally, trade tensions are continuing with China as the two sides are in the middle of their 90-day truce.    Mnuchin previously announced the two sides will likely meet face to face in January.
        While claims of an economic slow down or even a recession have been discussed by the mainstream media lately, the Trump administration has pushed back.
        “I’m just saying the economy, the basic economy, has reawakened and it’s going to stay there — I mean I’m reading some of the weirdest stuff, how a recession is around the corner, nonsense,” stated Larry Kudlow, National Economic Council Director.
        Meanwhile, Mnuchin also released a statement about the economy, saying the U.S. continues to see strong growth and robust activity from consumers and businesses.

    12/24/2018 President Trump slams Special Envoy McGurk, Sen. Corker over sympathizer criticism by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is calling out retiring U.S. Special Envoy Brett McGurk and Senator Bob Corker on Twitter.
        In a tweet Monday, the president referred to the McGurk sympathizers by saying he was the Obama appointee responsible for sending almost two billion dollars to Iran as part of the terminated Nuclear Deal.
        He went on to remind the deal had been approved by “little Bob Corker.”
        Trump tweet: “For all of the sympathizers out there of Brett McGurk remember, he was the Obama appointee who was responsible for loading up airplanes with 1.8 Billion Dollars in CASH & sending it to Iran as part of the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal (now terminated) approved by Little Bob Corker.”
        McGurk previously led the delegation that negotiated with Iran over the release of detained Americans.
        McGurk announced he was resigning from his envoy position on Friday, citing his disagreement with President Trump’s troop withdraw from Syria.
    FILE – In this June 7, 2017 file photo, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition against IS,
    speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

    12/24/2018 Women’s March leaders under fire for pushing out Jewish organizer by OAN Newsroom
        Despite its intentions of being an all-inclusive group, support for the Women’s March organization is declining, following allegations of anti-Semitism within the group’s high-ranking members.
        In a report released this month, activist and former Women’s March organizer Vanessa Wruble claimed she was kicked out of the progressive group for her Jewish heritage.
        During a meeting before the historic 2017 protest, Wruble said current organizers Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez said Jewish people needed to take responsibility and confront their own role in racism.
        This comes as the group’s now-co-president, Mallory, has previously been publicly criticized for her ties to controversial religious leader Louis Farrakhan.    Farrahkan is known for making anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks, and has even written a book blaming the Jewish community for allegedly playing a major role in the American slave trade.
        “Call me a hater, you know what they do?    Call me an anti-Semite.    Stop it.    I’m anti-termite.” — Louis Farrakhan, leader of Nation of Islam.
    Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory. (AP/Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
        After being kicked out of the group, Wruble went on to form March On, which is an organization to raise support for local women activists and denounce anti-Semitism.
        While both Mallory’ and Perez have denied the allegations, several others continue to seek their resignation.
        As more members start to separate themselves from Women’s March, some are turning to March On.    The split has even led to the creation of two conflicting marches in New York.    Both are scheduled to take place on the same date in January, showing just how divided the group truly is.

    12/24/2018 Ivanka Trump successfully pushes House to pass Women’s Entrepreneurship Act by OAN Newsroom
    FILE – In this fie photo, Ivanka Trump, left, speaks, while Steve Case watches during a working session regarding
    the opportunity zones provided by tax reform attended by President Donald Trump,
    in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
        First daughter Ivanka Trump has found some success on Capitol Hill, following the House’s passage of a measure benefiting female entrepreneurs.
        The advisor to the president helped push the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act through through the lower chamber on Friday.
        The bipartisan legislation comes as her husband Jared Kushner saw his own bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed by the president.
        The Ivanka-backed bill would move some government funds, usually spent on foreign aid, to areas promoting female-owned businesses around the world.
        The Senate is expected to hold a formal vote on it in the coming weeks.

    12/24/2018 Mexico vows to end ‘horror’ migrants face, seeks more detail on U.S. plan by Dave Graham
    FILE PHOTO: A group of Central American migrants, hoping to apply for asylum in U.S., wait at the
    Paso del Norte international border crossing bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
        MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexican government on Monday pledged to end the “horror” migrants face crossing the country en route to the U.S. border, and pressed Washington for more details of its plan to send asylum-seekers to Mexico while their requests are processed.
        Mexico’s government had said it would on Monday set out its position on the Trump administration’s radical policy change, announced last week, that migrants seeking refuge in the United States would be sent to Mexico while their cases are pending.
        But for the second time running, Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard told a regular news conference that he would seek “more information” from U.S. authorities about the plan both sides unveiled on Thursday.
        Most migrants traveling to the United States are from poor and violent countries in Central America.    Caravans of them from the region have in recent months fanned tensions between Mexico and U.S. President Donald Trump over border security.
        Ebrard reiterated his government would not sign any accord that made Mexico a “safe third country” – an agreement Mexico says U.S. officials have requested which would oblige migrants who arrive first in Mexico to file asylum requests there.
        Instead, the minister said, Mexico would “drastically” change its migration policy to ensure that its response to the mass movement of people was humanitarian.
        “Today there’s only one way of describing the experience of the migrants that travel through our country: It is a horror.    Humiliations, abuses, violations, and outrages,” Ebrard said alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
        Deflecting attention from Trump’s often pointed criticism, Mexico has tried to take the higher ground in the debate by promising to help migrants get jobs and visas.
        Interior Minister Olga Sanchez told the news conference that migrants would in future enter Mexico in an “orderly” and “safe” way, vowing a shift away from what she called a policy of “repression and militarization” at its southern border.
        But many questions remain about how Mexico will cope with an influx of potentially thousands of Central Americans into the country for cases that may take years to process.
        Lopez Obrador has sought not to antagonize Trump by commenting on the U.S. president’s demands for a southern border wall, and on Monday he again declined to do so.
        “There’s a special situation in the United States and I don’t wish to offer a point of view,” he told reporters.    “I will keep my counsel.    There will be time.”
    (Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

    12/24/2018 Explainer: ‘Plunge Protection Team’ to convene amid Wall Street rout by Jason Lange
    U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions about his responses to the violence, injuries and deaths at the
    "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville as he talks to the media with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (L) at his side in
    the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration is arranging a phone call on Monday with top regulators to discuss financial markets amid a rout on Wall Street.
        Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will host the call with the president’s Working Group on Financial Markets, known colloquially as the “Plunge Protection team.”
    WASHINGTON HAS A PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM?
        Yes, although it does not deal exclusively with Wall Street panic.    The Working Group dates to March 1988 when Washington was still trying to figure out what was behind the “Black Monday” stock market crash of October 1987.    Then-President Ronald Reagan created the group to find ways to keep financial markets operating smoothly.    The group also met in 2008 during a profound financial crisis and issued recommendations for overhauling banking regulations and rules on mortgage lending.    The group, however, does not always meet during a crisis.    In 1999, the group issued a report asking Congress to change laws on derivatives markets.
    WHY IS THE GROUP MEETING NOW?
        Financial markets are not in crisis but lately they have had a very bad run.    The benchmark S&P 500 stock index is on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression.    The Treasury Department on Sunday said the Working Group will discuss “coordination efforts to assure normal market operations.”    Financial turbulence is not always a sign of trouble in the economy, but Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who is a member of the Working Group, said last week that tighter financial conditions were partly behind a downward shift in economic growth expectations.
    WHO ELSE WILL BE AT THE MEETING?
        As Treasury secretary, Mnuchin chairs the group.    Besides Powell, it also includes the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.    Mnuchin has also invited representatives from the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to participate in the call.
    WHY ARE FINANCIAL MARKETS SO CHOPPY?
        Investors are betting U.S. economic growth will slow as a tax cut stimulus fades and as three years of gradual interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve cool purchases made by businesses and households.    Slower growth in the global economy is also weighing on the United States.
        Additionally, Wall Street is on edge over reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has privately discussed firing Powell, who was nominated by Trump to be Fed chairman and took the helm at the U.S. central bank in February.    The Fed’s independence from politics is widely seen as vital for its mission of keeping inflation under control.
        On top of these concerns, Washington is currently roiled by a partial government shutdown that began on Saturday due to a congressional impasse over Trump’s demand for more funds for a wall on the border with Mexico.    Financing for about a quarter of federal government programs expired at midnight on Friday.
    (Reporting by Jason Lange; Additional reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

    12/25/2018 GOP Sen. Tim Scott blames government shutdown on Nancy Pelosi, Democrats by OAN Newsroom
        South Carolina GOP Senator, Tim Scott blasts Nancy Pelosi and Democrats over the partial government shutdown.
        During an interview on Monday, Scott said Democrats like Pelosi are blocking border wall funding, because her House speakership is at-risk and they dislike President Trump.
    FILE – In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump, with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.,
    left, Ivanka Trump, top second from right, and Steve Case, top right, participate in a working session in the
    Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
        He pointed out Democrats had no problem approving 25 billion dollars for the Obama Administration, saying they now only support proposals for 1.3 billion dollars under President Trump.
        Pelosi has indicated there likely will be no agreement before January.
        Scott added, if things are going to move forward, lawmakers must make the safety of Americans a top priority.

    12/25/2018 Retiring Rep. Jimmy Duncan salutes President Trump for troop withdrawal from Syria by OAN Newsroom
        A retiring Republican congressman salutes President Trump for his decision to bring home troops from Syria.
        During his final speech on Monday, Tennessee GOP Representative, Jimmy Duncan Jr., said the U.S. cannot afford to be the policemen of the world.
    FILE – In this April 4, 2018, file photo, a U.S. soldier sits on an armored vehicle on a road
    leading to the front line with Turkish-backed fighters, in Manbij, north Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
        He added, wars in the Middle East have cost trillions of dollars, and resulted in the loss of thousands of young Americans, and thousands more innocent women and children.
        He also said, the wars have created more enemies of the U.S. around the world.
        Duncan will retire at the end of the year after serving 30 years in Congress.

    12/25/2018 U.S.-led coalition reports recent air strikes on ISIS in Syria
    File Picture: US Air Force A-10 Thundebolt-2 flys away from fuel boom suspended from US Air Force's KC-10 Extender
    after mid-air refueling support to Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria air space, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S.-led coalition in Syria conducted air strikes last week that destroyed facilities used by Islamic State, the coalition said on Tuesday, less than a week after President Donald Trump declared victory over the militant group and said he would withdraw U.S. troops from the war-torn country.
        The coalition said its attacks during the week of Dec. 16-22, including air strikes and “coordinated fires,” had destroyed logistics facilities and staging areas used by Islamic State, damaged the group’s ability to finance its activities and “removed several hundred ISIS fighters from the battlefield.”
        “ISIS presents a very real threat to the long-term stability in this region and our mission remains the same, the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said UK Major General Christopher Ghika, the deputy commander of the coalition.
        ISIS is a commonly used acronym referring to Islamic State.
        That statement presents a contrast to Trump’s declaration last week that U.S. troops had succeeded in their mission to defeat Islamic State and were no longer needed in the country.
        News of the withdrawal drew immediate criticism from some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who said that leaving would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran, which both support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
        In response to Trump, Britain’s Foreign Office said last week that Islamic State remained a threat even though it held no territory.
        The withdrawal may also leave exposed an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militants known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which has been among the most effective against Islamic State, but is now seen under threat as Turkey weighs a new offensive in Syria.
    (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati, editing by G Crosse)

    12/26/2018 Dow dips 653 points - Continued ‘political unrest’ rattles stock market by Janna Herron, USA TODAY
        The stock market entered the holidays on a grim note, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 stopping short of bear market territory and on track for its worst December since 1931.
        The plunge on a shortened trading day came as President Trump doubled down on his criticisms of the Federal Reserve and after attempts by the U.S. Treasury secretary to reassure markets unsettled investors instead.
        The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 66 points, or 2.71 percent, to close out Monday at 2,351.    The index is 19.77 percent off its Sept. 20 high.    A bear market is when an index falls 20 percent or more from its most recent high.
        The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 653 points, or 2.91 percent, to end at 21,792.    The Dow is 18.77 percent off its high it hit on Oct. 3.
            The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which fell into official bear territory on Friday, lost 140 points, or 2.21 percent, to finish at 6,193.    The Russell 2000, an index of small-company stocks that’s also in a bear market, ended down 25 points, or 1.95 percent, at 1,267.
        “There’s a lot of political unrest,” said Jimmy Lee, CEO of the Wealth Consulting Group.    “And when you have uncertainty and a lack of confidence in leadership, it makes investors nervous and it has.    They run to safety.”
        The moves come after Trump reportedly discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, blaming the recent turmoil in the stock market on the central bank’s Wednesday hike of a benchmark interest rate and its rate outlook for next year.
        Trump reiterated his displeasure with the central bank in a tweet on Monday.
        “There is a misunderstanding between what the Fed is doing and what markets expect,” said John Lynch, chief investment strategist for LPL Financial.    “People were counting on one or no hikes next year and the Fed came out with two.”
        On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that he had called the chief executives of the six biggest U.S. banks to ensure they had enough liquidity to operate normally.    The unexpected move rattled investors.
        Also adding to the political chaos was Trump’s removal of Defense Secretary James Mattis before the general’s planned departure, along with the continuing partial shutdown of the federal government.
        Trump refused to sign a temporary funding bill on Thursday because it didn’t include money for a border wall.    A new bill, including $5.7 billion in border funding that Democrats oppose, was dead on arrival in the Senate.    It appears the impasse could last until after the New Year.
        “The government shutdown doesn’t destroy the economy per se, but it destroys investors’ appetites to take on risk,” said Benjamin Lau, chief investment officer Apriem Advisors in Irvine, California.
        The market closed at 1 p.m. ET Monday, is closed on Tuesday and will reopen with regular trading hours for the rest of the week.

    12/26/2018 Partial government shutdown continues by OAN Newsroom
        The partial government shutdown continues as President Trump demands Democrats increase funding for the border wall.    The president remained at the White House over Christmas, where he doubled-down on his commitment to get the $5.7 billion for the wall.
        Democrats who oppose the measure are showing no signs of budging.    Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of government workers will either not return to work after the holiday or have to work without pay.
        President Trump has claimed the only way to keep drugs, crime and human trafficking from pouring into our country is having a physical barrier at the border.    While speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday, the president said the government will not be open until he gets — what he believes — is the appropriate funding for the border wall.
        “The only way you’re going to do it is to have a physical barrier, meaning a wall, and if you don’t have that then we’re just not opening,” stated the president.
        He also said his goal is to have 500 to 550 miles of border wall built by election time 2020.    As he fights for funding, President Trump claimed there is building being done already, specifically in San Diego, where he said the wall will be done soon.
        “And we’ve renovated a massive amount of wall and in addition to that — and I think ever, very importantly –we’ve built a lot of new wall, so it’s all being built,” he explained.
    People walk up the steps even though the National Archives is closed with the
    partial government shutdown, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        Separately, the president discussed recent market volatility by saying the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates too fast, because the economy is too good.    He said he has great confidence in American companies and it’s a great time to buy on Wall Street.
        The president also expressed confidence in Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, calling him a talented guy and a smart person.    However, he wouldn’t say the same about Fed Chair Jerome Powell.    Recent reports have suggested the president was considering firing     Mnuchin over the recent Wall Street losses and predictions by some of an economic slow down in 2019, but the president appears to have dismissed those claims.    The Trump administration has rejected predictions by some of a recession, saying the economy is still strong and Wall Street is over reacting.

    12/26/2018 President Trump, First Lady make surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq to meet with U.S. troops.
        According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, they made the trip late on Christmas night to thank the troops for their service, success and sacrifice.    Of course, they were also there to wish the troops a Merry Christmas.
        There were speculations about what the president was up to after reports of Air Force One being spotted flying over Europe.
        Trump tweet: “.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!"
        President Trump reportedly spoke on the Syria troop withdrawal as well as not pulling troops out of Iraq.
        There was no mention of the proposed Afghanistan withdrawal.

    12/26/2018 Trump admin. files appeal to federal judge’s block of asylum policy by OAN Newsroom
        The White House has filed an appeal to a federal judge’s ruling, which blocks the president’s new asylum policy.
        According to court documents filed Wednesday, the Trump administration told the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals it plans to appeal the December ruling.
        The U.S. district judge initially stopped the asylum order, saying it violated current immigration laws.
        The order prevented people from claiming asylum based on domestic or gang violence when they report to immigration officials.    The policy also stopped people from being able to claim asylum if they crossed into the U.S. illegally.
    A migrant jumps into the United States to San Diego, from Tijuana, Mexico, in front of a border patrol officer on Tuesday,
    Dec. 25, 2018. Discouraged by the long wait to apply for asylum through official ports of entry, many Central American migrants from
    recent caravans are choosing to cross the U.S. border wall and hand themselves into border patrol agents. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
        As the migrant situation continues at the border, the Homeland Security secretary is taking steps to ensure proper procedures are being followed.
        Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is set to visit the U.S.- Mexico border soon.    She will reportedly be reviewing her agency’s treatment of migrants after an eight-year-old boy died, while in U.S. detention.    The official cause of death has not been announced.
        This comes after thousands of migrants in the so-called caravan flooded the southern border, which has contributed to the border battle between Republicans and Democrats as the government remains partially shutdown.

    12/26/2018 CEA Chairman predicts economic strength to continue in 2019 by OAN Newsroom
    Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett. (Photo/Reuters/Larry Downing)
        The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers is predicting the economy will maintain strength through 2019.
        Kevin Hassett recently told reporters the economy remains on track for three-percent growth on the year and predicted that growth will continue next year.
        Hassett also dismissed fears over the economic impact of the government shutdown despite the recent plunge on Wall Street.    He said the shutdown will only have temporary effects on the economy, but it would balance out in the long-term.
        “What happens in the end is that people get their pay — they might miss a pay period because the government shutdown, but in the end, even if they aren’t working, then Congress has to decided to pay people for the whole time, and so in the end it’s really just a sort of short-term problem not a long-term problem for government workers,” explained Hassett.
        Despite continued criticism from President Trump and concern he could fire the Federal Reserve chairman, Hassett said Jerome Powell’s job is “100-percent safe.”
        The president has blamed the recent stock sell-off on Powell’s interest rate policy.

    12/26/2018 Special Report: Oil output goes AWOL in Venezuela as soldiers run PDVSA by Alexandra Ulmer and Marianna Parraga
    FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's Oil Minister and President of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA Manuel Quevedo gestures
    as he talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, August 7, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.
        The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass.    The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output.
        “This place of peace and spirituality,” read a release by the Oil Ministry that was later scrubbed from its web site, “was the site of prayer by workers for the recovery of production of the industry.”
        President Nicolas Maduro turned heads in November 2017 when he named a National Guard general with no oil experience to lead PDVSA [PDVSA.UL].    Quevedo’s actions since have raised even more doubts that he and the other military brass now running the company have a viable plan to rescue it from crushing debt, an exodus of workers and withering production now at its lowest in almost seven decades.
        Aside from beseeching heaven, Quevedo in recent months has enacted a series of controversial measures that oil industry experts, PDVSA employees and contractors, and even everyday citizens say are pushing the once-profitable and respected company towards ruin.
        Soldiers with AK-47s, under orders to prevent cheating on manifests, now board tankers to accompany cargo inspectors, rattling foreign captains and crews.
        Workers who make mistakes operating increasingly dilapidated PDVSA equipment now face the risk of arrest and charges of sabotage or corruption.    Military chieftains, moonlighting in the private sector, are elbowing past other contractors for lucrative service and supply business with PDVSA.
        In a little-noted reversal of the Socialist government’s two-decade drive to nationalize the industry, the lack of expertise among military managers is leading PDVSA to hire outsiders to keep afloat even basic operations, like drilling and pumping oil.    To the dismay of many familiar with Venezuela’s oil industry, some of the contracts are going to small, little-known firms with no experience in the sector.
        Combined, industry veterans say, the steps leave Venezuela’s most important company – which accounts for over 90 percent of export revenue – with even fewer means to rebuild the nation’s coffers, pay its many creditors and regain self-sufficiency as an oil producer.
        “What we are witnessing is a policy of destroying the oil industry,” said Jose Bodas, general secretary of the Oil Workers Federation, a national labor union.    “The military officials don’t listen to workers.    They want to give orders, but they don’t understand this complicated work.”
        Maduro defends the military managers, arguing they are more in synch with his Socialist worldview than capitalist industry professionals who exploit the country for personal profit.    “I want a Socialist PDVSA,” the president told allied legislators earlier this year.    “An ethical, sovereign and productive PDVSA.    We must break this model of the rentier oil company.”
        Quevedo, who holds the title of oil minister as well as president of PDVSA, didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.    Neither Venezuela’s Information Ministry, responsible for communications for the government and senior officials, nor PDVSA’s press office returned phone calls or emails from Reuters.
        PDVSA and the Oil Ministry disclose scant information about Quevedo, who is 51, according to his social security registration.    He seldom makes public speeches.    But at an industry event in Vienna last June, Quevedo told journalists PDVSA is aware of its challenges and hoped within months to make up for plummeting output.
        “We hope by year end to recover the lost production,” he said in a forecast that has been missed.    “We have the capacity and we have summoned the strength of the workers.”
        Nearly 20 years after the late Hugo Chavez launched his “Bolivarian revolution,” much of Venezuela is in tatters.    Food and medicines are scarce, hyperinflation has gutted purchasing power for increasingly desperate citizens and roughly three million Venezuelans have fled the country in search of a better life.
        At PDVSA, managers long sought to keep the company running, even if the economic meltdown and falling oil prices meant they had fewer resources to invest in exploration, growth and basic maintenance.    Despite their efforts, decay led to dwindling production, deteriorating facilities and a progressive loss of skilled workers.
        Now, critics say, military officials atop PDVSA have put aside any pretense of running it like a proper business, doing little to stem the fall in production or improve the company’s financial, operational and staffing problems.
    A PURGE
        No matter the dysfunction, PDVSA remains a rare and crucial source of foreign currency in the enfeebled Andean country.    For Maduro, who became president after Chavez died in 2013, handing the company over to the military is seen by many as a calculated move to buy loyalty from officers.
        “No one will be able to remove the military from PDVSA now,” said Rafael Ramirez, a former oil minister.    Ramirez ran the company for a decade under Chavez before clashing with Maduro, who accuses him and many other former executives of corruption.    “PDVSA is a barrack.”
        PDVSA is struggling to fulfill supply contracts with buyers, including major creditors from China and Russia who have already advanced billions of dollars in payments in exchange for oil.    Last month, the head of Rosneft , the Russian oil company, flew to Venezuela and complained to Maduro about the delays, Reuters reported.
        Demand remains healthy for Venezuelan oil.    Operational problems under Quevedo, however, have caused production to drop 20 percent to 1.46 million barrels per day, according to the latest figures Caracas reported to OPEC, the oil cartel, of which it is a member.
        Quevedo in January will assume OPEC’s rotating presidency for one year.    PDVSA’s financial problems are likely to demand much of his attention.
        The gross value of PDVSA’s oil exports is expected to fall to $20.9 billion this year compared with $24.9 billion last year, according to a calculation provided to Reuters by the International Energy Center at IESA, a Venezuelan business school.    Exports a decade ago were over four times as much, reaching $89 billion, according to PDVSA’s accounts for 2008.
        PDVSA didn’t publish a 2017 report and hasn’t released financial results in 2018.
        Little has been publicly disclosed by PDVSA or Maduro’s government about the military transformation within its ranks.
        A Reuters examination based on confidential PDVSA documents – as well as interviews with dozens of current and former employees, shippers, traders, foreign oil executives and others who do business with the company – shows how Quevedo’s National Guard is seeping into every facet of its operations.    The documents include employment records, agreements with contractors and internal staff memos.
        Quevedo has appointed more than 100 aides and advisors from the military and from a previous post as a government minister to senior positions, according to a person familiar with PDVSA’s human resource records.
        At its shabby concrete Caracas headquarters, once brimming with suited executives, military officers are now in charge of operations.    Workers say offices in Quevedo’s penthouse sanctum remain luxurious.    But in the run-down halls below, socialist propaganda, including portraits of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, is among the scant decor left on the walls.
        The shift toward military management was the result of a purge of PDVSA leadership.
        Allegations of corruption have been rife across the Venezuelan government in recent years; Maduro himself is the target of U.S. sanctions for graft and human rights violations, which he denies.
        In 2017, the president leveled his own accusations against PDVSA, describing it as a den of “thieves.”    He accused many former executives of skimming from contracts and laundering money and argued that their graft worsened the country’s crisis.
        He ordered the arrest of dozens of top managers, including PDVSA’s two previous presidents, chemist Nelson Martinez and engineer Eulogio Del Pino.    Martinez died at a military hospital earlier this month, suffering a heart attack while undergoing kidney dialysis, two people familiar with the circumstances said.
        Del Pino remains detained, awaiting trial.    Reuters was unable to reach his lawyers for comment.    A person familiar with Del Pino’s defense said he has yet, after a year in jail, to have an initial court hearing.
    LOYALIST
        At the time of the purge, Quevedo had risen from the National Guard ranks to become a prominent government loyalist.
        Quevedo’s Twitter profile often features a photo of the general, a stocky and balding man with heavy eyebrows, reviewing paperwork with the president or smiling happily alongside him.    His feed consists almost exclusively of retweets of Maduro’s posts.
        Since 2001, the general has moved between military and civilian positions.    He has a longstanding relationship with Diosdado Cabello, the powerful vice president of the Socialist party: The two were classmates as young men at military school.
        Those ties led to senior posts for Quevedo at the Defense Ministry and a program created by Chavez for low-income housing, according to official government gazettes and people who know his trajectory.
        In 2014, back in a command role with the National Guard, Quevedo led a unit that clashed with demonstrators during protests that shook Venezuela for four months.    At least 43 people, on both sides, died during the demonstrations, sparked by the onset of food shortages.
        Quevedo was criticized by many government opponents for using excessive force, which he denied.    He appeared frequently on state television at the time, donning an olive-green helmet and bullet-proof vest.    “These are terrorist groups,” he said of the protestors, who eventually dissipated, leading him to declare that “the coup has been defeated.”
        Pleased with Quevedo’s performance, Maduro in 2015 named him housing minister.    In his two years in the post, he again became a fixture on state television, often wearing the red shirt of the Socialist movement and praising Maduro’s “humane” housing policies.
        Opposition leaders scoffed at what they saw as Quevedo’s outsized boasts, including an unsubstantiated claim that the government constructed more than 2 million homes, despite widespread shortages of basic building materials.    The housing ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
        In November 2017, intelligence agents arrested former PDVSA chief Del Pino in a predawn raid on unspecified graft charges.    By then, Quevedo was Maduro’s choice to lead the all-important company.    The announcement prompted widespread skepticism in the industry.
        Quevedo said he would need little time to get a handle on the oil businesses.    “Give me 10 days,” he told acquaintances, according to one person who spoke with him at the time.
        From the start, Maduro made clear the challenge ahead.    In a public address during “Powerhouse Venezuela 2018,” a government conference meant to showcase business potential, the president ordered Quevedo to boost oil output by a whopping 1 million barrels per day – roughly a 50 percent increase at the time.
        Over the past year, though, Quevedo has failed to reverse the slide.
        One of his first challenges, according to people within PDVSA, was to stanch the flow of workers, many of whom deserted the company and Venezuela altogether.    PDVSA hasn’t disclosed recent employment figures.    But estimates by IPD Latin America, an oil and gas consultancy, indicate PDVSA has about 106,000 workers – 27 percent fewer than in 2016.
        Because of cost-of-living increases that now top 1 million percent per year, according to Venezuela’s National Assembly, PDVSA salaries have crumbled to the equivalent of a handful of dollars a month for most workers.
        With no money, and little real work to do at idle and faulty facilities, some employees only show up to eat at the few company cafeterias that remain open. Shippers told Reuters that PDVSA workers at times board vessels to ask for food.
    “MALICE”
        To boost manpower, Quevedo has been staffing some jobs, including posts that once required technical knowledge, with National Guard recruits.    The terminal of Jose, a Caribbean port in northeast Venezuela, is one of the few remaining facilities from which PDVSA exports crude oil.
        The changes are disturbing buyers here. Some tanker captains complain that young soldiers are woefully unprepared to verify technical details, like whether crude density, a crucial attribute of quality, complies with contract specifications, according to three shippers and one PDVSA employee.
        Crews fret a stray bullet from the soldiers’ rifles could spark fires and complain that some of the crime afflicting the country is making its way on board.    Although Quevedo has tasked the soldiers to help spot graft, some of the low-paid recruits ask for bribes themselves, shippers said, for signing off on paperwork or completing inspections.
        “There are many risks,” one captain told Reuters.
        Venezuela’s Defense Ministry, which oversees the National Guard, didn’t respond to Reuters phone calls or emails requesting comment.
        Even with soldiers as substitutes, PDVSA can’t find the workers it needs to man many posts.    From the processing of crude at refineries to contract negotiations with buyers, the shortage of skilled staffers is hobbling the company.
        In a recent internal report, PDV Marina, the company’s maritime unit, said staffing was in a “critical state” on PDVSA’s own tankers, forcing some workers to toil far more than allowed by union rules.    The “alarming deficit of main staff,” the report read, means “we cannot honor labor agreements.”
        Tensions with military managers are causing even more departures, some workers say.
        Consider an incident in June, when two tankers docked at Jose.    One prepared to take on heavy crude, the other a lighter grade of oil.
        As the tankers loaded, PDVSA port employees noticed a mixup – the two crudes had blended.    The mistake, the government said later, forced PDVSA to pay the buyers, because of contractual penalties, $2.7 million.
        It would also be costly for nine PDVSA employees.
        Shortly after the error, soldiers and intelligence agents arrested the workers, and prosecutors charged them with sabotage.    “This was premeditated,” said Tarek Saab, Maduro’s chief prosecutor, announcing the arrests on television.    “The actions go beyond negligence – there was malice here.”
        After three days in an overcrowded military jail, they were released, pending trial.    Two workers in the oil industry familiar with their case said poor maintenance, not sabotage, caused the mishap.    A faulty valve system, flimsy after years without upkeep, caused the fuels to mix, they said    .
        Six months later, the government has presented no evidence against the workers.
        Reuters was unable to reach the accused or to independently determine the cause of the mishap.    Colleagues said the workers are under orders not to speak publicly of the incident.
        The arrests have rattled PDVSA employees, especially because soldiers and intelligence agents have also detained workers at other facilities after mistakes.
        In July, four PDVSA employees were arrested after crude spilled into a river near an oilfield in the state of Monagas, according to workers and media accounts there.    One worker in Monagas told Reuters that faulty turbines caused the spill and that a vehicle shortage kept employees from reaching the site to stem the flow.
        “We don’t understand how a lack of resources becomes an excuse to accuse workers of negligence or sabotage,” he said.    “They’re being asked to work without safety equipment, tools, even without being able to feed themselves or their families.”
        Quevedo has been creating new partnerships that are meant to shore up PDVSA.    In August, for instance, the general said the company was “opening its doors” for seven private companies to pursue unspecified “service contracts” across the country.
        The move raised eyebrows here, because it ran counter to longstanding efforts to nationalize the entire industry.    Chavez himself phased out similar contracts, arguing that they enriched private enterprise for work that the state should do itself.
        According to a document seen by Reuters, the companies obtained six-year agreements to operate oilfields on behalf of PDVSA in return for boosting output, financing investments and procuring equipment.
        But the companies are unfamiliar even to veterans of Venezuela’s oil industry.    None are recognized as having experience operating oilfields.    Consorcio Rinoca Centauro Karina, one of those listed on the document, doesn’t appear to have a web site.    Reuters was unable to reach it or any of the others.
        Critics of the arrangements, and government opponents, say the transactions aren’t transparent.    By keeping details from the public, they argue, the company faces little scrutiny over whom it chooses to do business with.
        “PDVSA is looking to maintain its confederation of mafias, its quota of looting,” said Jorge Millan, an opposition legislator who in September led a push in the National Assembly to denounce the contracts.
        While Quevedo’s militarization of PDVSA hasn’t reversed the company’s decline, the government shows few public signs of displeasure.    In October, the government announced a PDVSA board shuffle.    Among the changes: Jose Rojas, another National Guard general, replaced a civilian director.
        Past executives joke that Quevedo knew what he was doing when he prayed for help.
        “He’s right,” said Jose Toro Hardy, an economist who served on PDVSA’s board of directors in the 1990s.    “A miracle is needed for an increase in these conditions.”
    (Additional reporting by Mayela Armas and Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Ernest Scheyder in Vienna. Editing by Paulo Prada.)

    12/27/2018 In a first, Trump makes surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq by Steve Holland
    U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet military personnel at the dining facility
    during an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq December 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
        AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Reuters) – President Donald Trump made a surprise Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday, his first trip to a conflict zone nearly two years into his presidency and days after announcing a pullout of American troops from neighboring Syria.
        Trump was looking for some positive headlines after several days of turmoil over his decisions to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, pull out half of the 14,000-strong contingent in Afghanistan, and push out Defense Secretary James Mattis two months earlier than planned for criticizing his policies.
        Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump and speaking at the Al Asad Air Base west of Baghdad, Trump defended the withdrawal from Syria and said it was made possible by the defeat of Islamic State militants.
        “Our presence in Syria was not open ended and it was never intended to be permanent,” he told troops wearing camouflage fatigues in a hangar at the base.    He said some troops “can now return home to their families.”
        Many Republican and Democratic lawmakers have heaped scorn on Trump over his Syria policy, saying the fight against Islamic State is far from over and the withdrawal leaves allies in the lurch.
        One of those critics was Mattis, who said in a candid resignation letter last week that his views did not align with Trump’s, particularly on the treatment of U.S. allies.
        Mattis had planned to leave at the end of February but Trump forced him to go on Jan. 1 after his resignation letter was made public.
        Trump has also drawn fire from some in the U.S. military for not having visited U.S. troops in conflict zones since taking office in January 2017, particularly after he canceled a trip to a World War One cemetery in France last month due to rain.
        While there has been no full-scale violence in Iraq since Islamic State suffered a series of defeats last year, some 5,200 U.S. troops train and advise Iraqi forces still waging a campaign against the militant group.
        Trump spent a little more than three hours in Iraq, and on his way home was to stop to visit troops at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
        Trump was supposed to meet with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi but in the end they only spoke by telephone.
        Abdul Mahdi’s office said there was “a disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.”    Iraqi lawmakers said the prime minister declined Trump’s request to meet him at the military base.
        White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the meeting was canceled due to security concerns and the short notice of the trip, but she said they had a “great call” and that Abdul Mahdi accepted Trump’s invitation to the White House in the New Year.
    SECRECY
        The unannounced visit followed in the footsteps of two of Trump’s predecessors, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama, who both made surprise trips to see troops.
        For security reasons, the visits are usually kept secret until after the president arrives.    A small group of aides and Secret Service agents, and a pool of reporters, were with Trump and the first lady on the overnight flight from Washington.
        Trump said his main security concern was for the first lady.
        While in Iraq, Trump also spoke to military commanders and the U.S. ambassador.    Sanders said they “came up with a powerful plan that will allow us to continue our path to total victory” over Islamic State.
        Unlike Syria, Trump said he had no plans to withdraw from Iraq.
        Trump has had an uneven relationship with America’s military.    He did not have to serve during the Vietnam War after being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels.
        As president-elect, Trump was drawn to the brawn of the armed forces and stacked his first Cabinet with generals, many of whom have since left his administration.
        Trump has also wanted to end protracted U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts, and to force allies to pay more of the costs that he says fall disproportionately on American taxpayers, a point he made again on Wednesday.
        Trump spoke to troops gathered in a dining hall festooned with holiday decorations and teased soldiers about their favorite football teams.
        To reporters, he lamented the wear and tear of overseas conflicts.
        “It’s time to get our young people out,” Trump said.    “And I’ve been signing plenty of letters and I don’t like sending those letters home to parents saying that your young man or your young woman has been killed.”
        “I don’t like doing it.    We’ve been doing it long enough.”
    (Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Mary Milliken, Alistair Bell and Tom Brown)

    12/27/2018 Oil up $3.69 to $46.22, DOW up 1086 to 22,878

    12/27/2018 Trump surprises troops in Iraq - President defends pullout from Syria by ASSOCIATED PRESS
        AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq – In a surprise trip to Iraq, President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria where they have been helping battle Islamic State militants.
        Trump said it’s because of U.S. military gains that he can withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. During his first visit to a troubled region, Trump also said he has no plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
        Trump’s trip to Iraq came a week after he stunned his national security advisers by announcing the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria.    Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump’s decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq.
        The president’s visit was shrouded in secrecy.    Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening.
    President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive to speak
    to members of the military during an unannounced trip Wednesday. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

    12/27/2018 Stocks dodge bear market with surge by Janna Herron, USA TODAY
        Bear market?    What bear market?
        Stocks roared back on Wednesday, with the Dow surging more than 1,000 points, as investors shrugged off a rout two days earlier that had put the Standard & Poor’s 500 on the brink of a bear market.
        Reports of strong retail sales during the holidays and a rally in oil prices helped to boost stocks the day after Christmas when the markets were closed.    Concerns about the fate of the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, also seemed to evaporate after White House reassurances that President Donald Trump has no plans to fire him.
        The Dow Jones Industrial average surged 1,086 points, or 5 percent, to end at 22,878.    It is now 14.7 percent off its 26,828.39 closing record high on Oct. 3.
        The S& P 500 increased 117 points, or 4.96 percent, to finish at 2,468 on Wednesday.    The index is now 15.8 percent lower than its 2,930.75 closing record high on Sept. 20.
        The tech-heavy Nasdaq – which fell into a bear territory on Friday but recovered on Wednesday – jumped 361 points, or 5.84 percent, to close at 6,554.    The Russell 2000 – an index of smallcompany stocks that’s still in a bear market – added 63 points, or 4.98 percent, to close out at 1,330.
        A bear market is when an index falls 20 percent or more from its most recent closing high.
        “There are more people who believe that we’re not going into a recession, and they are taking advantage to buy stocks at good valuations,” said Jimmy Lee, CEO of the Wealth Consulting Group in Las Vegas.    “But I wouldn’t be surprised if there is selling into the rallies.    It should be volatile for a while.”
        Crude oil prices leaped 10.37 percent to $46.94 on Wednesday afternoon.    Shares of Exxon finished up 4.78 percent to $68.64, while Chevron stock rose 6.32 percent to end at $107.37.
        News from the retail front on Wednesday also showed the American consumer is healthy.
        Holidays sales increased 5.1 percent this year to more than $850 billion, marking the best season in six years, according to data from Mastercard on Wednesday. Online sales grew 19.1 percent year over year.
        The news comes after Amazon announced Wednesday morning that the retailer had “more items ordered worldwide than ever before,” according to a company press release.
        Amazon stock jumped 9.45 percent to close at $1,470.90.
        Drama that gripped the White House days ago also has subsided some.    Kevin Hassett, an adviser to Trump, said Wednesday that Fed Chair Jerome Powell was “100 percent” safe in his position as the central bank head.
        Over the weekend, Trump reportedly considered firing the Powell, blaming the stock market swoon on the Fed’s interest rate hikes.
    Trader Michael Milano works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. RICHARD DREW/AP

    12/27/2018 Germany would oppose new nuclear missiles in Europe: Foreign Minister
    FILE PHOTO: German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas delivers his statement, during the Geneva Conference on
    Afghanistan, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, November 28, 2018. Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany would strongly oppose any move to station new medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe if a key Cold War-era arms control treaty is scrapped, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told DPA.
        “Under no circumstances should Europe become a stage for a rearmament debate,” the German news agency quoted him as saying in an interview published on Wednesday.
        “Stationing of new medium-range missiles would be met with broad resistance in Germany,” he said.
        The United States has threatened to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which bans Moscow and Washington from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe.
        Russia has said it was planning for a U.S. deployment of new nuclear missiles in Europe following Washington’s planned withdrawal from the treaty.
        Germany’s Maas said: “Nuclear rearmament is most certainly the wrong answer.”
    (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Paul Tait)

    12/27/2018 Judicial Watch: Dept. of Justice colluding to obstruct on Hillary Clinton email server discovery by OAN Newsroom
        Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton has been discussing the latest developments in the efforts to shed some more light on the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
        This week Fitton explained his organization is moving forward after a federal judge approved discovery into the former secretary of state’s use of private emails for official business.    However, Judicial Watch is facing resistance from the government and has made a request to President Trump.
    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Chuck Burton/AP)
        “Outrageously, this Justice Department is colluding with Clinton email witnesses to stop our efforts to gather evidence in federal court,” stated Fitton.    “President Trump should ask this Justice Department why they are still protecting Hillary Clinton.”
        This comes after a hearing earlier this month, when a judge questioned whether or not the government acted in good faith while investigating the email scandal.
        He described the private server as one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency, and granted Judicial Watch’s request to gather more information in the case.
    [It is obvious that the DOJ will be part of the problem, and the Swamp still has some critters in it to get rid of.].

    12/27/2018 Giuliani accuses Mueller of destroying evidence, calls for investigation by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump’s attorney is calling for an investigation into special counsel Robert Mueller.
        In an interview Thursday, Rudy Giuliani accused Mueller’s office of destroying evidence by allowing text messages sent between former FBI officials Peter Stzrok and Lisa Page to be erased.
        Giuliani claimed those text messages would have shown the mind and tactics of one of Mueller’s lead prosecutors at the start of the Russia probe.
    FILE – In this May 5, 2018, file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks at the
    Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights and democracy in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
        He said a second special counsel should be appointed to investigate Mueller’s possible role in the missing texts.
        “How about destroying the 19,000 texts of Stzrok and Page right in the middle of them texting each other — ‘we hate Trump, we’re going to get Trump, we’re going to prevent him from being president, we’re going to have an insurance policy if he becomes president’ — and then all of a sudden, just coincidentally, they’re in charge of the investigation that could potentially remove him from office…that should be investigated fully,” stated Giuliani.
        His comments come after a Department of Justice inspector general report found the government phones of Stzrok and Page had been wiped clean by technicians.
    [This was a cover your ass by the FBI and DOJ of both departments trying to do in the Trump campaign.].

    12/27/2018 President Trump blasts Democrats as government shutdown continues by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is continuing to urge Democrats to end the partisan charade and fund a border wall.
        On Twitter Thursday, the president asked, “have Democrats finally realized that we desperately need border security and a wall on the southern border?”
        He added, the U.S. needs to “stop drugs, human trafficking, gang members and criminals from coming into our country.”
        Trump tweet: “Have the Democrats finally realized that we desperately need Border Security and a Wall on the Southern Border.    Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking, Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our Country.    Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?.”
        This comes as the government shutdown continues to keep federal workers at home as it enters its sixth day.
        On Wednesday, the office of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said it would not schedule a vote for any new legislation Thursday, and would give lawmakers a 24-hour notice of any upcoming vote.
    Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers check and watch airline passengers
    at Reagan National Airport in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018. TSA employees are working
    through the partial government shutdown without pay. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

    12/27/2018 German army floats plan to recruit foreigners
    FILE PHOTO: German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen awards medals to troops at
    Camp Marmal in Masar-i-Scharif, Afghanistan, March 25, 2018. Michael Kappeler/Pool via Reuters
        BERLIN (Reuters) – Struggling to fill its ranks, Germany’s military is drawing up plans to recruit nationals from other European countries as part of a drive to beef up the armed forces.
        Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen wants to recruit Poles, Italians and Romanians, magazine Der Spiegel said, citing a ministry document.
        The German military, or Bundeswehr, has stepped up its recruitment efforts as part of a broader reset following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.    Last year, Germany said it would increase the size of its armed forces to 198,000 active soldiers by 2024 from 179,000.
        Pressure on Berlin mounted again in July when U.S. President Donald Trump told a NATO summit that Washington could withdraw support for the alliance if Europe did not boost military spending.
        According to the classified ministry document, some 255,000 Poles, 185,000 Italians and 155,000 Romanians, aged between 18 and 40, live in Germany – about half all foreign EU nationals.    If 10 percent of them could be interested in the Bundeswehr, that could generate 50,000 new applicants, it said.
        It did not say if they would serve alongside Germans in regular regiments, or would form their on units akin to the French Foreign Legion.
        There was no comment available from the ministry when it was contacted by Reuters.
        The Defence Ministry wants to limit the group of potential recruits to those who have already lived in Germany for several years and speak fluent German, Der Spiegel said.
        Such limits would aim to minimize concern among other European Union countries about Germany luring their potential soldiers by offering better pay.
        The ministry had sounded out defense attaches in other EU countries about the plan in recent months with “very different results,” Der Spiegel said, with Eastern European countries particularly worried about the impact on their own recruitment.
        Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told the magazine that military service was “closely tied to nationality.”
        To help attract new recruits, the Bundeswehr is also targeting youngsters in Germany, where the army remains a sensitive career choice more than 70 years after World War Two.
    (Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

    [The following are previous articles of SpaceX.].
    12/20/2018 Storms halt SpaceX’s first U.S. national security space mission
    The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled to launch a U.S. Air Force navigation satellite,
    sits on Launch Complex 40 after the launch was postponed after an abort procedure was triggered
    by the onboard flight computer, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo
        (Reuters) – Thunderstorms forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to postpone Thursday’s launch of a navigation satellite for the U.S. military, which was poised to be the rocket company’s first national security space mission for the United States.
        SpaceX said its Falcon 9 rocket and payload, a roughly $500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp, were “in good health” and that it was now targeting a Saturday morning launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral.
        The cancellation, which followed two previous launch attempts this week that were scrubbed for technical reasons, came as thunderstorms and wind gusts swirled around the launch site.
        Patrick Burke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said the weather might not clear up until Saturday.
        A successful launch would be a significant victory for Musk, a billionaire and Tesla Inc chief executive, who spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches, long dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co.
        It would have marked SpaceX’s first so-called National Security Space mission, as defined by the U.S. military, SpaceX said.
        SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force in 2014 in protest over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed.    It dropped the lawsuit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.
        The next year, SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract in 2016 to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years.
        The launch would be the first of 32 satellites in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined $12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program, Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said.
        Air Force spokesman William Russell said: “Once fully operational, this latest generation of GPS satellites will bring new capabilities to users, including three times greater accuracy and up to eight times the anti-jamming capabilities.”
        The launch was originally scheduled for 2014 but has been hobbled by production delays, the Air Force said.
        The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.
    (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Peter Szekely in New York, and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reporting by Joey Roulette in Seattle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Steve Orlofsky)
        On 12/22/2018 Spacex halts launch of U.S. military satellite due to winds
        (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX scrapped Saturday’s launch of a long-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military due to strong upper level winds.     The next launch attempt will be on Sunday at 8:51 a.m. EST/ 13:51 UTC, according to Space X officials.     The launch, SpaceX’s fourth attempt in a week after technical and weather delays, would have been the rocket firm’s first national security space mission for the United States.    Musk’s rocket company has spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches long-dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co .
        SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force in 2014 in protest over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed.    It dropped the lawsuit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.
        The next year, SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years.
        The launch would be the first of 32 satellites in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined $12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program, Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said.
        Air Force spokesman William Russell said: “Once fully operational, this latest generation of GPS satellites will bring new capabilities to users, including three times greater accuracy and up to eight times the anti-jamming capabilities.”
        The launch was originally scheduled for 2014 but has been hobbled by production delays, the Air Force said.
        It would have marked SpaceX’s first so-called National Security Space mission, as defined by the U.S. military, SpaceX said.
        The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.
    (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
        On 12/23/2018 SpaceX launches first U.S. national security space mission by Joseph Ax
        (Reuters) – A SpaceX rocket carrying a U.S. military navigation satellite blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Sunday, marking the space transportation company’s first national security space mission for the United States.
        The Falcon 9 rocket carrying a roughly $500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:51 a.m. local time (1351 GMT).    Four previous scheduled launches in the last week, including one on Saturday, were canceled due to weather and technical issues.
        The successful launch is a significant victory for billionaire Elon Musk’s privately held rocket company, which has spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co .
        SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force in 2014 over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed.    It dropped the lawsuit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.
        The next year, SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years.
        The satellite is the first to launch out of 32 in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined $12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program, according to Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder.
        The launch was originally scheduled for 2014 but has been hobbled by production delays, the Air Force said.
        The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.
    (Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson and Gina Cherelus; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Daniel Wallis)

    12/28/2018 Oil down $1.61 to $44.61, DOW up 260 to 23,139

    12/28/2018 May’s Brexit deal can get through parliament: UK foreign minister
    Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt arrives in Downing Street, London, Britain, December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
        LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal can be passed by the British parliament if the European Union provides clarification that the Northern Irish “backstop” will be temporary, foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Friday.
        The backstop is an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of border checks between Ireland, an EU member, and British-ruled Northern Ireland.    It is proving the biggest obstacle to a divorce deal between Britain and the EU.
        May pulled a vote on her divorce deal earlier this month after admitting that parliament would reject it.
        Lawmakers are set to discuss the agreement again next month, with a vote in the week starting Jan. 14.
        Parliament is deeply divided, with both supporters and opponents of Brexit opposed to May’s deal, which seeks to maintain close ties with the EU.
        Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29 and the impasse has increased the chances of a no deal Brexit and led to growing calls for a second referendum.
        Hunt said May’s withdrawal agreement could be passed by lawmakers if the EU made clear that the Irish “backstop” would be time-limited.
        Critics fear the backstop will trap Britain in a customs union with the EU indefinitely, while European leaders have said they would not renegotiate the treaty.
        “If it is temporary, then parliament can live with that,” Hunt told BBC radio.    “We can get this (the deal) through, absolutely can.”
        If May’s deal fails, senior ministers are themselves split on what should happen.    Some suggest that another referendum should be considered, while others, including Hunt, favor a “managed” no-deal Brexit.    May herself has said neither option is viable.
        Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said May should recall parliament early to allow a vote on her Brexit deal, and warned it was a matter of “when, not if” his party tried to force an election by proposing a vote of no-confidence in the government.
        Lawmakers (MPs) are not due to return until Jan. 7 and Corbyn said the government was using the delay as a ploy to put pressure on parliament to accept her deal or risk a no-deal Brexit.
        “What I suspect is that it’s a completely cynical maneuver to run down the clock and offer MPs the choice of the devil or the deep blue sea,” Corbyn said in an interview with the Independent newspaper.
    (Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by David Milliken and Gareth Jones)
    [Of course the whole problem with this deal is EU is trying to control the conditions so that the UK countries will have restrictions on who they can trade with and how.    I think they need to cut from it and make a deal after separation, since there are a lot of countries besides the 27, and it may be possible that some of the 27 will leave, and the EU will become a shell of itself.].

    12/28/2018 Illegal immigrant suspected of killing Calif. police officer captured by OAN Newsroom
        The manhunt for an illegal immigrant suspected of killing a California police officer has come to an end.
        During a press conference Friday afternoon, authorities confirmed the suspect — identified as Gustavo Perez Arriaga — was taken custody in Bakersfield Friday morning.    He was captured nearly 200 miles from where officer Ronil Singh was killed on Wednesday.
        According to officials, Arriaga was trying to flee to Mexico.    His brother and a coworker were also arrested over claims they were aiding and abetting.    They are also in the country illegally.
        Arriaga has a criminal history that includes two previous arrests for DUI.
        The Stanislaus County Sheriff suggested the outcome could have been different if it weren’t for sanctuary state laws that prevented them from sharing information with ICE.
    Gustavo Perez Arriaga is now in police custody in connection to the fatal shooting of a
    Calif. police officer. (Image/Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department/via AP)
    [So an illegal alien who was protected by Sanctuary State Laws against ICE went as you can see believed buying beer, driving while drinking, and shooting a cop was a Christmas holiday.].

    12/28/2018 Financial experts reject recession claims, tout future of Wall Street by OAN Newsroom
        Financial experts are dismissing recent claims of a possible recession by saying the current market volatility is not a long-term concern.
        During an interview Friday, Leuthold Chief Investment strategist Jim Paulsen said ups and downs in the markets are going to happen for a while, but it doesn’t mean there should be a negative outlook on Wall Street.    He believes markets have hit close to their low and it’s a great time to buy.
    Traders Robert Charmak, Michael Milano, and Steven Kaplan, left to right, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,
    Friday, Dec. 28, 2018. Stocks are opening higher Friday as U.S. markets try to maintain the momentum from a late-day rally on Thursday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
        The former head of the Nasdaq — Bob Greifeld — said the lack of volatility the last few years has been abnormal.    He said people should focus on the percentage markets move rather than numbers, because Wall Street has never been so high and the numbers may be inflated.
        “A three-percent move will happen, right, will it happen five times a year, 10 times a year, 20 times a year — I don’t know, but it’s going to be in that order of magnitude, so investors really always have to look behind the noise of the moment and look at what is the fundamentals of the company,” he explained.
        Greifeld went on to say Wall Street is having a disconnect with economic data, which he said is positive and doesn’t predict there will be a recession.

    12/28/2018 President Trump: U.S. will cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador by OAN Newsroom
        President Trump is calling on Democrats to fund the border wall.    He made the remarks in a tweet Friday morning, adding, the U.S. will be forced to close the southern border entirely if obstructionist Democrats don’t comply.    He also blasted the current immigration laws by saying we need to change them.
        In another tweet, the president said the U.S. will be cutting off aid to Honduras, Guatemala as well as El Salvador, which he said has done nothing but take money from the U.S.
        Trump tweet: “We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!”
        He also said, a new caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it.
        President Trump has been adamant about securing our southern border, and has called for the construction of a border wall throughout his presidency.
    A migrant climbs the border fence before jumping into the U.S. to San Diego, Calif., from Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018.
    Discouraged by the long wait to apply for asylum through official ports of entry, many Central American migrants from
    recent caravans are choosing to cross the U.S. border wall and hand themselves into border patrol agents. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
        Meanwhile, the office of Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Democrats and Republicans are still no where near reaching an agreement to end the government shutdown.
        On Thursday, a spokesman for Schumer said there have been no negotiations since Democrats rejected an offer from the White House over the weekend.
        According to a House Democrat official, the White House proposed a deal which would allocate $2.1 billion to border security.    This is a significant cut from the original request, but Schumer rejected it.
        Schumer’s spokesman said Democrats will refuse to accept any future offer unless it’s made publicly by President Trump.

    12/28/2018 Caravan of 15K migrants to leave Honduras in mid-January as overcrowded shelters struggle by OAN Newsroom
        Another migrant caravan is forming in Honduras and is preparing to head north.    According to reports, the group of about 15,000 people is set to leave the Central American country on January 15, 2019.    Migrants from El Salvador and Guatemala are expected to join them.
        Advocacy groups said the new caravan will likely stay in southern Mexico, where the country’s president has promised them visas and employment.
        This comes as thousands of migrants from a caravan, which left from Honduras in October, remain stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border and are overcrowding shelters in Tijuana as well as the southern U.S.
    Seen from the Tijuana, Mexico side of the border wall, Honduran migrants who jumped a wall wait on the U.S. side for
    U.S. Border Patrol agents after surrendering, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018. Thousands of migrants who traveled via a caravan want to
    seek asylum in the U.S., but face a decision between waiting months or crossing illegally. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
        The director of an immigration shelter in Texas said his organization is struggling to deal with the influx of migrants.
        On Thursday, Annunciation House Director Ruben Garcia said his agency has served more than 1,300 people within the last five-days after they were released by U.S. immigration authorities.    He said more than 500 people arrived at the shelter on Wednesday alone.    The director is now calling for more structure on how the migrants are managed.
        “It isn’t an issue of the maximum, it is a very big issue of the communication — the importance of the communication with all the different individuals that are involved in this,” stated Garcia.
        This comes as immigration officials continue to try and reduce the ongoing rise in border crossings.
        Trump tweet: “.....Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money. Word is that a new Caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries - taking advantage of U.S. for years!”

    12/28/2018 White House Press Secretary: Democrats care more about keeping borders open than government by OAN Newsroom
        Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is accusing Democrats of caring more about keeping our borders open than our government.    During an interview Friday, Sanders criticized Democrats for refusing to budge on the issue of immigration and said they have completely left the negotiation table.
        The press secretary said the president has bent over backwards trying to make a deal on border security to put a stop to the human and drug trafficking that’s happening at the southern border.
        Sanders noted that the left used to care about border security, adding, its a sad day when the White House can’t even get them to show up to work.
    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks with reporters
    outside the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
        “They do not want to protect American citizens, but they do want to protect illegal immigrants, and it’s a very sad day when we can’t get Democrats to even show up for work and sit down with us and have these conversations and try to help make real solutions and get something done, and that’s exactly what we are seeing take place over the last 24-and-48-hours,” she stated.
        The White House official said the president wants to close loopholes and expedite the asylum process by increasing the number of immigration judges.
        She then encouraged migrants to come to the U.S. legally.    Sanders warned the journey poses a dangerous threat to everyone, but especially to women and children.

    12/28/2018 No embassy move announced as Brazil’s Bolsonaro hosts Israel’s Netanyahu by Gabriel Stargardter
    Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a
    meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 28, 2018. Fernando Frazao/Courtesy of Agencia Brasil/Handout via REUTERS
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil’s far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and while both pledged to deepen ties, there was no announcement as some anticipated of Brazil moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
        Netanyahu, the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil, flew in to Rio de Janeiro to meet with Bolsonaro, an ideological ally who takes office on Jan. 1 after his election victory in October.    The two men had lunch in a fort on Copacabana beach before delivering statements.
        “Israel is the promised land. Brazil is the land of promise,” said Netanyahu, adding that Israel could help in areas such as economics, security, agriculture, and water resources.
        Bolsonaro and top aides have repeatedly said he would move Brazil’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but since his election he has come under pressure to ditch the idea from powerful backers in the agricultural sector, who fear the decision would hurt their halal meat sales in Arab countries.
        The Arab League had told Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries, according to a letter seen by Reuters earlier in December.
        Such a move by Bolsonaro would be a sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy as it was for the United States when President Donald Trump relocated the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in May.    Brazil has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
        Some political observers had speculated that Bolsonaro would use Netanyahu’s visit as the perfect way to make the announcement.
        Bolsonaro discussed Israel during a meeting in Rio with Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton late last month.
        Although Bolsonaro could well make the announcement at a later stage, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday that the U.S. government expected him to eventually make the move.
        “We also welcome President-elect Bolsonaro’s comments regarding moving the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem in support of Israel’s sovereign right to have its capital of Jerusalem recognized by nations around the world.    We look forward to welcoming many more of our friends and allies in Jerusalem,” the official said.
        Netanyahu said he had invited Bolsonaro to visit him in Israel, and Bolsonaro said he intended to go next March.
        “We will be starting a difficult government from January, but Brazil has potential,” Bolsonaro said.    “So that we can overcome obstacles, we need good allies, good friends, good brothers, like Benjamin Netanyahu.”
    (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Additional reporting by Mary Milliken in Washington; Editing by Brad Brooks and Grant McCool)

    12/29/2018 Oil up $0.72 to $46.33, DOW down 76 to 23,062

    12/29/2018 Suspect in California officer’s shooting death is captured
        A suspected drunken driver accused of fatally shooting the California police officer who pulled him over was captured Friday as he tried to flee back to Mexico, where he lived before illegally crossing into the U.S., authorities said.
        The sheriff whose agency was leading the investigation blamed California’s sanctuary law for preventing local authorities from reporting Perez Arriaga to federal immigration officials for previous arrests.    If the suspect had been deported, he said, Cpl. Ronil Singh of the tiny Newman Police Department would still be alive.
        Gustavo Perez Arriaga crossed the border in Arizona several years ago and had worked a variety of jobs as a laborer, including at several dairies.    He also had two prior arrests for driving while intoxicated, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said.

    12/29/2018 UK trade minister says ’50-50' chance Brexit may be stopped: paper
    Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox and Secretary of State for
    Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Wright leave Downing Street, London, Britain, December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
        LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s trade minister Liam Fox said there is a “50-50” chance that Brexit may be stopped if parliament rejects the government’s divorce deal with the European Union next month.
        “If we were not to vote for that, I’m not sure I would give it (Brexit) much more than 50-50,” Fox, a leading supporter of leaving the EU, told the Sunday Times newspaper.
        With three months left until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, May’s Brexit deal is floundering, opening up a range of possibilities from a Brexit without a trade deal to calling Brexit off.
        Earlier this month, May pulled a planned vote on her deal after admitting parliament would reject it.    Lawmakers are set to vote on the deal in the week starting Jan. 14.
    (Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, editing by G Crosse)

    12/29/2018 Turnout falters but France’s ‘yellow vest’ protests rumble on by Sarah White and Jean-Yves Saint-Ceran
    A protester holding a French flag and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask takes part
    in a demonstration by the "yellow vests" movement on the Champs Elysees near
    the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, December 29, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
        PARIS/BORDEAUX (Reuters) – France’s “yellow vest” demonstrators kept numerous roads across the country blocked on Saturday as groups of protesters marched in city centers, but the anti-government backlash was more dispersed and muted than in previous weeks.
        Driven by anger over a perceived squeeze on household income, the movement has shaken Emmanuel Macron’s presidency and hurt retailers and other businesses after the spontaneous protest against fuel taxes gave way to riots in early December.
        Sporadic clashes with police broke out as protesters in several cities including Bordeaux and Nantes were pushed back by teargas and stun grenades, though the turnout across France dwindled on the seventh Saturday of demonstrations.
        Official estimates were not yet available, though French TV channel LCI, citing unnamed sources, put the turnout at 12,000, well below the nearly 40,000 last week.
        In Paris, where protests turned violent in early December, police said by early evening that they had detained some 57 people after 800 demonstrators took to the streets, down from at least 109 arrests last week with a similar number of protesters.
        People wearing high-visibility vests mingled among shoppers and tourists and chanted “Macron, resign!” on the Champs Elysees avenue, home to boutiques that were smashed and bore the brunt of lootings at the height of the violence.
        Major stores, including some that were boarded up on recent weekends, opened their doors.
        Other demonstrators converged west of the capital near the headquarters of 24-hour news channel BFM TV, where scuffles ensued; and several cars were set on fire outside the offices of the Parisien newspaper in the evening, though it was initially unclear who had torched them and whether it was directly linked to the protests.
        In Toulouse, where like in Bordeaux crowds exceeded 2,000 people, protesters set bins on fire and some hurled yellow paint at police.
        Several highway tolls and motorway slip-roads across France were blocked, operator Vinci said, and traffic on some of the roads leading to Spain was severely backed up.
    SIT-INS
        The protests — 18 months into Macron’s tenure, and his bid to reshape the economy — are expected to rumble on into January despite his attempts to defuse them, including by backtracking on planned fuel tax hikes and signaling wage rises for the poorest workers.
        “We will continue until we win, until Macron backs down and gives us what we deserve: more purchasing power, less taxes, a healthy life without having to tighten and tighten and tighten the belt at the end of every single month,” a protester in Nantes who only gave her name as Virginie told Reuters.
        “My son asks me for something and (I say) no I can’t, but I work so it is not normal.”
        Stemming in part from a feeling of disconnect between more provincial and rural areas and an urban elite Macron has come to represent for his critics, the protest has spawned sit-ins at roundabouts and roadsides as people dig their heels in, demanding more measures to help household incomes.
        The “yellow vest” protests — named after the garments that drivers have to carry in their cars in case of emergency — have been concentrated on Saturdays, after first erupting on Nov. 17 following a campaign spread on social media.
        But protesters were also being urged to turn out on Dec. 31, including for a show of force on the Champs Elysee, where revelers tend to gather for New Year’s celebrations and a firework display.
        The city council has said festivities, usually boxed in by a heavy police presence, would go ahead as planned. Macron is expected to address voters in a traditional New Year’s Eve televised message.
    (Additional reporting by Marc Leras in Marseille, Johanna Decorse in Toulouse and Sophie Louet and Reuters TV in Paris; Editing by Helen Popper and Alison Williams)

    12/29/2018 UK to spend over $130 million on ferries to cope with no-deal Brexit by Andrew MacAskill
    A passenger ferry sails across the English Channel with the French coast seen on the horizon,
    towards the Port of Dover, Britain, January 9, 2016. The white cliffs of Dover
    are a symbol of Britain's identity as an island nation. REUTERS/Toby Melville
        LONDON (Reuters) – The British government will spend more than 100 million pounds ($130 million) chartering extra sea ferries to ease cross-Channel congestion if the United Kingdom fails to secure a trade deal before leaving the European Union next year.
        Just three months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the world’s largest bloc, the risk of a no-deal Brexit is rising — the nightmare scenario for many businesses, which are now planning for an economic shock.
        Extra ships will be needed to work new routes across the Channel in the event that the main French terminal of Calais and Britain’s Dover and Folkestone are clogged up by customs checks.
        Currently, Britain’s membership of the EU means that trucks drive smoothly through border checks within the bloc.    But in a no-deal Brexit, even a few minutes’ delay at customs for each truck would be likely to mean vehicles backing up at ports and queuing on feeder roads on both sides of the Channel.
        To ease a potential backlog, the government has awarded three contracts to provide additional freight capacity on routes from English south-coast ports including Poole, Portsmouth and Plymouth.
        They comprise one worth 47 million pounds with the French firm Brittany Ferries, a 47 million pound deal with the Danish shipping company DFDS and a 14 million pound contract with Seaborne Freight.
        The leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, Vince Cable, called the move “complete madness” and said public money was being spent recklessly in a last-minute bid to prepare for a no-deal outcome.
        The contracts were not put out to tender.    The Department for Transport said it was responding to a “situation of extreme urgency” brought about by “unforeseeable events.”
        About 16,000 trucks pass between Dover and Calais every day, transporting everything from perishable food to medicines and the industrial goods needed to keep factories running.
        “This extra capacity is a small but important element of the DfT’s no-deal planning,” the Department for Transport said in a statement.    “While remaining committed to working to ensure a deal is reached, the department is helping ensure the rest of government are fully prepared for a range of scenarios.”
        Earlier this month, the government announced that all government departments must step up planning for a no-deal Brexit, including putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption.
    ($1 = 0.7871 pounds)
    (Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

    12/30/2018 EU is not trying to keep Britain in: Juncker
    FILE PHOTO: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attends a news conference
    after a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal/File Photo
        BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is not trying to keep Britain in and wants to start discussing future ties the moment the UK parliament approves Brexit, partly to focus on its own unity ahead of May elections, the head of the bloc’s executive said.
        “It is being insinuated that our aim is to keep the United Kingdom in the EU by all possible means.    That is not our intention.    All we want is clarity about our future relations.    And we respect the result of the referendum.” Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in an interview.
        Juncker said the EU was ready to start negotiating a new deal with Britain right after the British parliament approves the divorce deal.    A vote is now due in the week starting Jan. 14.
        He also said Britain should get its act together.
        “And then tell us what it is you want,” he said.
        “I am working on the assumption that it will leave, because that is what the people of the United Kingdom have decided,” he added, refusing to be drawn into whether Britain would hold a second Brexit vote.    “That is for the British to decide.”
        On other challenges facing Europe, Juncker said he was watching closely U.S. President Donald Trump on trade.
        “I trust him for as long as he keeps his word.    And if he no longer keeps it, then I will no longer feel bound by my word either,” Juncker said of tensions between the EU and Washington around car tariffs.
        He said he felt EU citizens were increasingly growing apart, another problem to tackle ahead of Europe-wide parliamentary elections in May.
        “We have to ensure that these rifts do not become too deep,” Juncker said.    “We must not imply that the populists are right … they are just loud and do not have any specific proposals to offer on solving the challenges of our time.”
        He said Europe had to stand united “in combating the trolls and hacker groups from China or Russia” that could seek to sway the European vote.
        He expressed doubt about EU state Romania, which takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency from Jan. 1, but struggles with corruption and bitter divisions.
        “The government in Bucharest has not yet fully understood what it means to take chair over the EU Member States … Romania’s internal situation is such that the country cannot act as a compact unit in Europe,” Juncker said.
    (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by David Evans)

    12/30/2018 Venezuela offers help probing alleged planned attack on Colombia president
    Colombian President Ivan Duque speaks at a news conference, along with Defense Minister Guillermo Botero
    and National Prosecutor Nestor Humberto Martinez, in Medellin, Colombia December 21, 2018. Courtesy of Colombian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
        CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government is willing to help investigate a plot to assassinate Colombian President Ivan Duque, in which three Venezuelan nationals arrested in Colombia may be suspects, foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said.
        The alleged assassination attempt comes amid tense relations between the two neighboring South American countries.    Duque has been a strong critic of the socialist government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who he calls a “dictator,” and Maduro regularly accuses Duque of plotting to overthrow him.
        In a late Saturday night statement, Arreaza said Venezuela was willing to provide “the necessary police and intelligence cooperation” and had asked Colombian authorities for more information on the three Venezuelans arrested.
        Earlier Saturday, Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo had said in a video message that there was intelligence indicating “credible” plans to target the right-wing Duque, who took office in August.    Three Venezuelans were arrested in recent days with “weapons of war,” he added.
        Colombian authorities are trying to establish any connection between the alleged plan to assassinate Duque and the presence in Colombia of the three armed men.
        Colombia’s defense minister Guillermo Botero told journalists on Sunday that two of the men – arrested on a bus in the northern city of Valledupar on Dec. 21 and found carrying two 5.56 caliber rifles – are Jose Vicente Gomez Rios and Pedro Jose Acosta Ovalle, both 22.
        A third man arrested days later in coastal Barranquilla was armed with a submachine gun and a grenade, Botero said.
        “What’s really worrying it they weren’t just any guns,” Botero said.    “The president’s security has been strengthened with intelligence and eventually with some additional measures.”
        On Sunday Arreaza said on Twitter he was still attempting to get in contact with Trujillo and that Colombian authorities should lose no time in sharing information with Venezuela.
        Maduro in September accused the governments of Chile, Colombia and Mexico of helping “terrorists” who Venezuela said tried to kill him during a drone attack in early August.    The three countries rejected the accusation they were linked to the attack.
    (Reporting by Mayela Armas and Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Luc Cohen and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Chris Reese)

    12/30/2018 U.S. judge dismisses suit versus Google over facial recognition software
    Google signage is seen at the Google headquarters in the
    Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
        (Reuters) – A lawsuit filed against Google by consumers who claimed the search engine’s photo sharing and storage service violated their privacy was dismissed on Saturday by a U.S. judge who cited a lack of “concrete injuries.”
        U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang in Chicago granted a Google motion for summary judgment, saying the court lacked “subject matter jurisdiction because plaintiffs have not suffered concrete injuries.”
        The suit, filed in March 2016, alleged Alphabet Inc’s Google violated Illinois state law by collecting and storing biometric data from people’s photographs using facial recognition software without their permission through its Google Photos service.
        Plaintiffs had sought more than $5 million collectively for the “hundreds of thousands” of state residents affected, according to court documents.    Plaintiffs had asked the court for $5,000 for each intentional violation of the Illinois     Biometric Information Privacy Act, or $1,000 for every negligent violation, court documents said.
        Attorneys for the plaintiffs as well as officials with Google could not immediately be reached to comment.
        Google had argued in court documents that the plaintiffs were not entitled to money or injunctive relief because they had suffered no harm.
        The case is Rivera v Google, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 16-02714.
    (Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

    12/30/2018 Rep. Steve Scalise: Government shutdown is on democrats by OAN Newsroom
    A helicopter monitors the U.S. border fence from above, seen from Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018.
    A partial federal shutdown has been put in motion because of gridlock in Congress over funding for
    President Donald Trump’s Mexican border wall. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
        House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says democrats could end the partial government shutdown in just a few hours.
        The Louisiana congressman appeared on Fox News on Sunday, saying if the party applied their own standards from 2006 there wouldn’t have been a shutdown at all.
        He explained how democrats, including then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer, backed the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
        Scalise said democrats are now afraid to support the policy because of the radical-left who want open U.S. borders.
        The republican representative has been a staunch supporter of border security, directing his anger at democrats just hours after the shutdown.    He asked members of the Senate if they would “stand with the President and say ‘we’re going to give you the tools to secure the border, or not?    It’s a straight up vote.” in regards to funding for the U.S. southern border wall proposed by President Trump.
        Scalise says the recent murder of a California police officer, allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant, highlights the demand for additional border security.

    12/30/2018 GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham suggests President Trump is open to striking a funding deal with democrats by OAN Newsroom
        Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says he thinks the President is “very receptive” to making a government funding deal with democrats, if it achieves his goals of securing the border.
        Graham made the comment on Sunday after meeting with President Trump to discuss the shutdown, among other matters, and said the President is firm in his commitment to get border funding.
        He suggested that no deal in the Senate will receive sixty votes without funding to secure the U.S. southern border, also outlining a potential compromise he mentioned to the President.
        Speaking to the media following the meeting, Graham said the compromise would be “five billion dollars for a wall slash border security, the Bridge Act and TSP reform,” in exchange for discussions in regards to protections for DACA recipients and those covered by a Temporary Protected Status.
        In addition, the lawmaker expressed hope that “serious” talks compromise can begin in the near future.

    12/30/2018 REPORT: Pres. Trump did away with several Obama-era energy rules in 2018 by OAN Newsroom
        With 2018 coming to a close, reports are shedding light on the Trump Administration’s accomplishments, regarding energy policies.
    President Donald Trump signs an executive order to keep families together at the border, but says that the ‘zero-tolerance’
    prosecution policy will continue, during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 20, 2018.
    Standing behind Trump are Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left, and Vice President Mike Pence. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
        President Trump implemented several measures, according to a Breitbart article on Sunday, most recently rolling-back the 2015 Clean Water Act, which officials criticized as being too restrictive on farmers, land developers, and energy companies.
        Last year, the President also signed an Executive Order to rewrite the Clean Power Plan, which did away with Obama-era restrictions on coal production and gave jurisdiction to states.
        He touted the measure as a way to curtail job-killing regulations, and argued the policy would have raised price of energy.
        With President Trump just a little over halfway into his term, he’s poised to continue cutting burdensome regulations from the previous administration, which could potentially bring thousands of jobs into the United States.

    12/30/2018 Sen. Richard Shelby says congress “looks silly” in shutdown “blame game” by OAN Newsroom
        Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby (R-AL), decries partisan politics behind the ongoing government shutdown.
        Senator Shelby said the political “blame game” over the shutdown makes no sense, and doesn’t make lawmakers look good either, in an interview on Sunday.
    People walk up the steps even though the National Archives is closed with the
    partial government shutdown, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
        He stressed the lack of bipartisan cooperation in congress is “silly.”
        His comments came as the partial government shutdown entered its ninth day Sunday, as democrats refuse to fund the President’s border wall.
        The Senator added the shutdown could last for a while unless the sides reach a bipartisan compromise.    He went on to say, “I do believe the President would like to work to get to yes.”
        Further, Shelby cited his time working with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and said he thinks the democrat “would like to fund the government,” but questioned when congress would end the “blame game,” and get to “serious negotiations.”
        The republican also stressed the U.S. must secure its borders from the influx of drugs, crime, and illegal arrivals.

    12/31/2018 Graham more upbeat on Syria troop withdrawal after Trump meeting by Jonathan Landay
    U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters after attending a closed-door briefing,
    on the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Gina Haspel
    at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior Republican U.S. senator said he emerged from a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Sunday reassured that Trump is committed to defeating Islamic State even as he plans to withdraw American troops from Syria.
        Senator Lindsey Graham had warned that removing all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria would hurt national security by allowing Islamic State to rebuild, betraying U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters of the YPG militia battling remnants of the militant group, and enhancing Iran’s ability to threaten Israel.
        During a morning television interview, Graham said he would ask Trump to slow down the troop withdrawal, which was announced earlier this month and drew widespread criticism.
        An ally of Trump, although he has opposed some of his foreign policy decisions, Graham was more upbeat after the meeting.
        “We talked about Syria.    He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,” Graham, an influential voice on national security policy who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters at the White House.br>     “We still have some differences but I will tell you that the president is thinking long and hard about Syria – how to withdraw our forces but at the same time achieve our national security interests,” Graham said.
        Asked if Trump had agreed to any slowing down of the troop withdrawal, Graham said: “I think the president’s very committed to making sure that when we leave Syria, that ISIS is completely defeated.”
        He said Trump’s trip to Iraq last week was an eye-opener and he understood the need to “finish the job” with Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
        “I think the president has come up with a plan with his generals that makes sense to me,” Graham said.
        Graham said later on Twitter that Trump would make sure that any withdrawal from Syria “will be done in a fashion to ensure:
    1) ISIS is permanently destroyed 2)Iran doesn’t fill in the back end.    And 3)our Kurdish allies are protected    .”
        The Pentagon says it is considering plans for a “deliberate and controlled withdrawal.”    One option, according to a person familiar with the discussions, is for a 120-day pullout period.
    KURDISH FORCES
        Graham told reporters that Trump was committed to making sure Turkey did not clash with the Kurdish YPG forces once U.S. troops leave Syria, and was assuring the NATO ally that it would have a buffer zone in the region to help protect its own interests.
        Turkey views the YPG as a branch of its own Kurdish separatist movement and is threatening to launch an offensive against the group, igniting fears of significant civilian casualties.
        U.S. commanders planning the U.S. withdrawal are recommending that YPG fighters battling Islamic State be allowed to keep U.S.-supplied weapons, according to U.S. officials.
        That proposal would likely anger Turkey, where Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, holds talks this week.
        Trump decided on the Syria withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, ignoring the advice of top national security aides and without consulting lawmakers or U.S. allies participating in anti-Islamic State operations.    The decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.
    (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and David Lawder; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Peter Cooney)

    [HERE GOES THE LEFT AGAIN WITH THEIR DESPERATE ASSUMPTIONS OF UNPROVEN CRIMES BY THE DEEP STATE NOTICE NO NAMES ATTACHED ON ANY OF THE ACCUSATIONS]
    12/31/20018 Probes will follow Trump into 2019 by ASSOCIATED PRESS
        President Donald Trump is facing criminal investigations in Washington and New York.
        Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation.    Trump also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime.    They say Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make illegal hush money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign.
        What do I need to know?
        House Republicans brought an unceremonious end to their yearlong look at the Justice Department’s handling of the investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails.
        In a letter released before Republicans cede the House majority to Democrats, the chairmen of two committees described what they said was the “seemingly disparate treatment” the two probes received during the 2016 presidential election and called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate further.
        Why is the attorney general nomination an issue?
        Trump’s pick for attorney general, William Barr, sent an unsolicited memo to the Justice Department this year criticizing parts of the Mueller probe as “fatally misconceived.”
        The 20-page memo, sent in June while Barr was in private practice and months before he was selected by Trump for the Justice Department job, may prompt questions about his ability to oversee the investigation fairly.
        The document argues that there could be disastrous consequences for the Justice Department and the presidency if Mueller were to conclude that acts a president is legally permitted to take – such as firing an FBI director – could constitute obstruction of justice, just because someone concludes that there was corrupt intent.
        So – did the Trump campaign collude with Russia?
        There is no smoking gun when it comes to the question of Russia collusion.    But the evidence so far shows a broad range of Trump associates had Russia-related contacts during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period, and that several lied about the communication.
        There is also evidence that some people in the president’s orbit were discussing a possible email dump from WikiLeaks before it occurred.
        Other questions to consider:
    • What about obstruction of justice?
          That is another unresolved question that Mueller is pursuing.    Investigators have examined key episodes such as Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his fury over the recusal from the investigation of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
    • What does Trump have to say about all this?    Trump has repeatedly slammed the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” and insisted there was “NO COLLUSION” with Russia.
    President Donald Trump has denied collusion and obstruction of justice. EVAN VUCCI/AP FILE
    [Whoever wrote this article by the Associated Press is just another Democrat dreamer that is trying so hard to wish that Trump has done anything wrong.]

    12/31/2018 Brazil moving its embassy to Jerusalem matter of ‘when, not if’: Netanyahu by Gabriel Stargardter
    Birds fly on a foggy day near the Dome of the Rock, located in Jerusalem's Old City on the
    compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, Jerusalem, January 2, 2018. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
        RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro told him that it was a matter of “when, not if” he moves his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
        The far-right Bolsonaro, who takes office on Tuesday and is hosting Netanyahu and the leaders of other countries for his inauguration, has said he would like to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump and move the embassy.
        But he has come under intense pressure from Brazil’s powerful agriculture sector not to do so, as it could hurt Brazilian exports to Arab nations.    Despite Netanyahu’s comments, a senior official from Brazil’s incoming government told Reuters on Sunday no decision had yet been made on the issue.
        Such a move by Bolsonaro would be a sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy, which has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
        The Arab League had told Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries, according to a letter seen by Reuters earlier in December.     “Bolsonaro told me it was ‘when, not if’ he moves the embassy to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said on Sunday during a meeting with leaders of Brazil’s Jewish community in Rio de Janeiro.
        “We attach enormous importance to Brazil, and Brazil in the context of Latin America,” he added.    “This heralds a historic change.”
        Netanyahu, who met with Bolsonaro on Friday, said that the Brazilian accepted his invitation to visit Israel, a trip that is likely to take place in March.
        Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil.
        After he met the Israeli leader, Bolsonaro said that “we need good allies, good friends, good brothers, like Benjamin Netanyahu.”
    (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by Brad Brooks and Phil Berlowitz)

    12/31/2018 Brent crude rises but set for first yearly drop since 2015 by Julia Payne
    Pumpjacks are seen against the setting sun at the Daqing oil field in
    Heilongjiang province, China December 7, 2018. Picture taken December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
        LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices rose about 2 percent on the final day of the year on Monday, mirroring gains in stock markets, but were on track for the first annual decline in three years amid lingering concerns of a persistent supply glut.
        Hints of progress on a possible U.S.-China trade deal, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying he had a “very good call” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, helped bolster sentiment for oil.
        Brent crude futures was up 83 cents at $54.05 a barrel by 0932 GMT, after rising by over a $1 a barrel in early trade to a high of $54.55 a barrel.
        U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $45.99 a barrel, up 66 cents, or 1.4 percent, from their last close.    WTI also rose more than a $1 in early trade, reaching $46.38 a barrel.
        Both contracts are down more than a third this quarter, the steepest decline since the fourth quarter of 2014.
        For most of 2018, oil prices were on the rise, driven up by healthy demand and supply concerns, especially around the impact of renewed U.S. sanctions against major producer Iran, which were introduced in early November.
        Brent crude, seen as a global benchmark for oil prices, rose by almost a third between January and October, to a high of $86.74 per barrel.
        That was the highest level since late 2014, the start of a deep market slump amid bulging global oversupply, and many leading analysts and traders at the time said they expected crude to hit $100 per barrel again by the end of 2018.
        Instead, Brent prices have wiped out all of 2018’s gains, plunging by almost 40 percent from the year’s high, in what has been one of the steepest oil market sell-offs of the past decades.
        The slump came after Washington gave unexpectedly generous sanction waivers to Iran’s biggest oil buyers and as concerns over a global economic slowdown amid the Sino-American trade dispute dented the outlook for oil demand.
        “It was the bailout of Iran that really pricked the bubble that was the crude oil market,” said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta.
        “For the immediate future, in the absence of anything new, the first pressure point for oil markets would come around May 2019 or a month or so earlier when the ‘extensions of (Iran)waivers’ would be discussed.”
        The current downward pressure on oil prices should likely taper off from January, analysts said, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia start curbing production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd).
        The market, however, might still remain under some pressure from swelling production in the United States, which has emerged as the world’s biggest crude producer this year, pumping 11.6 million bpd.
        “The key swing producers within OPEC+ do have meaningful spare capacity and are able to use it if they deem it necessary.    That said, it is nonetheless a difficult tool to use correctly in a world where forecasters tend to routinely underestimate U.S. production by several hundred thousand barrels per day,” JBC Energy consultancy said in a daily note.
        Outside the United States, production in Russia and Saudi Arabia also hit record levels this year.
    (Reporting By Koustav Samanta and Henning Gloystein in Singapore, Editing by Richard Pullin, Christian Schmollinger and Adrian Croft)

        This page created on 9/13/2018, and updated on 9/19/2018, 9/23/2018, 9/30/2018, 10/2/2018, 10/13/2018, 10/20/2018, 10/27/2018, 11/3/2018, 11/10/2018, 11/17/2018, 11/24/2018, 12/1/2018, 12/8/2018, 12/15/2018, 12/22/2018 and 12/31/2018.

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