Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., said he supports an effort from Republican senators to save President Donald Trump from an embarrassing defeat over his emergency declaration for the border because Congress needs to start taking back its legislative powers.
"Congress has given that authority away to the president," Reed told CNN on Wednesday, after saying he backs the move proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. "The president, even under the proposed reform that the senator and I are looking to do, still has the ability to act in an emergency, but it forces Congress to have to make a determination in each and every one of those declarations going forward."
The measure supports Trump in declaring the national emergency if he agrees to support a bill allowing future emergency declarations to be checked by Congress.
"If we don't want our president acting like a king, we need to start taking back the legislative powers that allow him to do so," Lee tweeted Tuesday.
However, Reed recently voted against legislation in the House to block the president from declaring the emergency, and he told CNN that was because he agrees there is an emergency.
"In future declarations, I am going to agree or disagree with that declaration by the president," Reed said. "It gets caught up in politics because they pick and choose in Congress when they weigh in on the National Emergency Act."
He said he agrees with Lee about the president "acting like a king" with such orders, as he believes any president "that is unchecked is using authority that is way beyond" his boundaries.
FILE PHOTO - British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
April 8, 2019
By Kylie MacLellan and William James
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to argue for a Brexit delay while her ministers hold crisis talks with Labour to try to break the deadlock in London.
Britain’s departure from the EU has already been delayed once but May is asking for yet more time as she courts veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, whose opposition Labour Party wants to keep Britain more closely tied to the bloc after Brexit.
“The Prime Minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise,” Corbyn said ahead of further talks between his team and government ministers on Tuesday.
While May travels to Berlin and Paris ahead of an emergency EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday, British lawmakers will hold a 90-minute debate on her proposal to delay Britain’s EU departure date to June 30 from April 12.
The debate has been forced on the government by parliament passing a law on Monday which will give lawmakers the power to scrutinize and even make legally binding changes to May’s request to extend the Article 50 negotiating period again.
Labour’s demands include keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU, something which is hard to reconcile with May’s desire for Britain to have an independent trade policy.
The Telegraph reported Labour and the government were still discussing both a customs union and the idea of holding a confirmatory referendum on any deal they agree.
Both ideas are anathema to many in May’s party, whose rebels have helped trigger three parliamentary defeats of the withdrawal deal she negotiated with the EU last year.
“I’ve said many times before, we can be more, much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK,” EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Monday.
BREXIT DELAY?
The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom divided over much more than EU membership, and has sparked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British.
Yet, more than a week after Britain was originally supposed to have left the EU, nothing is resolved as May, the weakest British leader in a generation, battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a profoundly divided parliament.
If Britain’s exit is delayed beyond May 22, the EU has said it will have to take part in European Parliament elections. The British government on Monday took the legal steps necessary to take part in that vote.
“It does not make these elections inevitable, as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part,” a government spokesman said.
EU leaders, fatigued by the serpentine Brexit crisis, must decide on Wednesday whether to grant May a further delay. The decision can be vetoed by any of the other 27 member states.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was “crucial to know when and on what basis (the) UK will ratify the Withdrawal Agreement” as the EU considers May’s request to delay.
Without an extension, Britain is due to leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday, without a deal to cushion the economic shock.
While the EU is not expected to trigger such a potentially disorderly no-deal exit, diplomats said all options were on the table – from refusing a delay to granting May’s request or pushing for a longer postponement.
But May is boxed in at home.
Brexiteers in her cabinet insisted on at most a short delay, while Mark Francois, deputy chief of the Conservatives’ hardline eurosceptic faction in parliament, demanded she resign and called on the party to vote on forcing her out – even though there is no formal provision to do so before December.
The Goldman Sachs company logo is seen in the company's space on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
March 14, 2019
By Fathin Ungku
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Malaysia’s securities commission said on Thursday that it has issued a show-cause letter to Goldman Sachs, which is embroiled in multi-jurisdictional investigations into Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
A show-cause letter typically requires the recipient to explain why they should not be subject to disciplinary action.
“We have issued a show cause to Goldman Sachs,” the chairman of the Malaysia Securities Commission, Syed Zaid Albar, said at a press conference on Thursday.
However, he did not say when the letter was issued or provide any details about its contents. If the commission finds a financial institution violated regulations, its powers include issuing fines or revoking operating licenses.
Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apart from facing civil lawsuits, Goldman Sachs is being investigated by Malaysian authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice for its role as underwriter and arranger of three bonds that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB.
Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB had lied to the bank about the use of the proceeds from the bond sales.
(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Neil Fullick.)
Authorities in Atlanta are searching for a suspect, left, tehy say stole $7,900 from a gas station gamiling machine earlier this month.
Authorities in Atlanta are searching for a gambler they say stole $7,900 in cash earlier this month from a gambling machine at a Shell gas station.
The incident occurred at 2 a.m. on April 6, according to a Fox 5 Atlanta report. The suspect could be seen reaching into what looks like a variation of a slot machine, police said. A store clerk reported the incident to police.
The suspectwas described by police as skinny with a low haircut. He was wearing a gray dress shirt and gray pants.
Rodolfo Karisch, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Management and Accountability on Thursday, that the Border Patrol in his sector has intercepted illegal aliens trying to enter the United States “from 40 different countries, including Bangladesh, Turkey, Romania and China.”
“I want to provide some perspective on the challenges facing our men and women at the Southwest border,” Karisch told the committee in his opening statement. “Though I cannot speak for all of the components of Customs and Border Protection, I can provide a first-hand account of the complex border-security environment and ask for your assistance in helping our frontline men and women.
“In our line of work, Border Patrol agents rarely know exactly who or what they will encounter,” he said.
“In a single day,” he said, “and agent may arrest a violent felon, encounter a large group of families and children, or rescue a drowning migrant sent into the river by smugglers.”
Karisch told the committee that in his sector, the Border Patrol apprehends “nearly a thousand people between the ports of entry each day.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has divided the U.S.-Mexico border into nine Border Patrol Sectors. Running from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, these include: the San Diego Sector, the El Centro Sector, the Yuma Sector, the Tucson Sector, the El Paso Sector, the Big Bend Sector, the Del Rio Sector, the Laredo Sector, and the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
FILE PHOTO: Former New York Mets' pitcher Ron Darling waves to the crowd before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Game 7 in the Mets' NLCS playoff baseball series against the St. Louis Cardinals in New York October 19, 2006. REUTERS/Mike Segar
April 2, 2019
Former New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling on Tuesday stood by the allegation he made in his new book that Lenny Dykstra shouted racial slurs at a Boston Red Sox pitcher in the 1986 World Series.
Darling went on the ESPN radio show “Golic and Wingo” to reassert his claim that Dykstra, his former teammate, hurled racial insults at Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd prior to his first at-bat of Game 3 of the World Series.
“I heard what I heard and I put it in the book for a reason,” Darling said, referring to his new book titled, “108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game.”
In the book, released Tuesday, Darling wrote that Dykstra was “shouting every imaginable and unimaginable insult and expletive in his [Boyd’s] direction — foul, racist, hateful, hurtful stuff” while in the on-deck circle. Further, Darling wrote that the insults were “worse than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard.”
For his part, Dykstra went on ESPN Radio’s “Michael Kay Show” on Monday and threatened to sue Darling. Further, Dwight Gooden and Kevin Mitchell told Kay on Monday that they never heard Dykstra slur Boyd.
But Darling said Tuesday that there’s “no chance that I misremembered it.”
Deborah Brown, of Richmond, Virginia, won $150,000 after playing the same four number sequence 30 times on $1 lottery tickets (Virginia Lottery)
If luck be a lady, it might just be this lady.
A Virginia woman found herself with a six-figure payout after playing the same four number sequence on 30 different lottery tickets.
Deborah Brown, of Richmond, said she kept seeing the numbers "1-0-3-1" throughout the day, and decided to stop at a gas station in Chesterfield County to purchase 20 of the $1 Pick 4 tickets on Feb. 11. Later, she went by the same gas station again and picked up 10 more tickets with the numbers. Later that day, much to her surprise, "1-0-3-1" was read out as the winning sequence - and she netted a $150,000 check.
"I nearly had a heart attack," she said according to NBC News.
Each of the $1 tickets has a top prize of $5,000 - so her decision to buy so many allowed her to pile up the cash. Lottery organizers reportedly said her chances of winning with all four numbers in that sequence were 1-in-10,000.
Brown doesn't have concrete plans on what she wants to do with her winnings yet, but is considering using the money to renovate her home.
It's been a lucky few weeks to play the lottery. Earlier this month, an unemployed and recently divorced New Jersey man won the $273 million Mega Millions jackpot after his winning ticket, which he had lost, was turned in to the store clerk by a Good Samaritan.
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 26, 2019
LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.
The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo
April 26, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.
The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.
Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.
But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.
Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.
High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.
It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.
Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.
“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.
The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.
Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.
Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.
Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.
Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.
This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff
April 26, 2019
By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh
(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.
The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.
Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.
Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.
“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.
Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.
“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.
U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.
Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.
Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.
Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.
Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.
Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.
Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.
Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
April 26, 2019
By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan
(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.
Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.
Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.
WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?
The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.
Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.
HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?
The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.
Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.
The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.
The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.
No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.
Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.
Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.
CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?
No.
Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.
“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.
“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”
PROOF OF WRONGDOING?
In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.
Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”
PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?
Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.
In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.
The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.
WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?
A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
FILE PHOTO: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft attends a conference at the Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s lawyers on Friday are set to ask a Florida judge to toss out hidden-camera videos that prosecutors say show the 77-year-old billionaire receiving sexual favors for money inside a Florida massage parlor.
The owner of the reigning Super Bowl champions plans wants the video to not be used as evidence against him as he contests two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Florida, along with some two dozen other men.
His legal team is fresh off a win on Tuesday, when they successfully persuaded Palm Beach County Judge Leonard Hanser to block prosecutors from releasing the hidden-camera footage to media outlets, which had requested copies under the state’s robust open records law.
Kraft, who has owned the franchise since 1994, pleaded not guilty, but has issued a public apology for his actions.
His attorneys have argued in court papers that the surreptitious videotaping of customers, including Kraft, inside a massage parlor was governmental overreach and the result of an illegally obtained search warrant.
The warrant, Kraft’s lawyers claim, was secured under false pretenses because police officers cited human trafficking as a potential crime in their application. Prosecutors have since acknowledged that the investigation yielded no evidence of trafficking.
Palm Beach County prosecutors in a court filing on Wednesday said Kraft’s motion should be rejected because he could not have had any expectation of privacy while visiting a commercial establishment to engage in criminal activity.
That prompted an indignant response from Kraft’s attorneys, who said the prosecution’s position on privacy was “unhinged.”
“It should go without saying that Mr. Kraft and everyone else in the United States have a reasonable expectation that the government will not secretly spy on them while they undress behind closed doors,” they wrote.
Click below to consent to the use of the cookie technology provided by vi (video intelligence AG) to personalize content and advertising. For more info please access vi's website.