President Trump on Monday formally labeled Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization," in Washington’s first such designation for an entire foreign government entity.
The announcement, which officials said would put the military organization on the same level as terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, is the latest administration step to increase pressure on Iran.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing the IRGC's ties to terror plots, said the designation recognizes a "basic reality."
“This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one,” he said. “The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled.”
In a statement, Trump said the unprecedented move “underscores the fact that Iran’s actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments.”
He warned: “If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism. This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences.”
Administration officials have said the step will further isolate Iran and make clear that the U.S. won't tolerate Iran's continued support for rebel groups and others that destabilize the Middle East.
But the designation may also have widespread implications for American personnel and policy in the region and elsewhere as Iran has threatened to retaliate.
President Donald Trump signs the first veto of his presidency in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Washington. Trump issued the first veto, overruling Congress to protect his emergency declaration for border wall funding. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON – House Democrats accused President Donald Trump on Tuesday of wasting money on outdated border barriers and violating the Constitution to do it, but they seemed headed toward defeat in an effort to override Trump's first veto.
In the legislative finale of a showdown that's been building for months, Democrats were trying to annul Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border. But they seemed sure to fall short of the two-thirds majority required for veto overrides to succeed.
Congress passed legislation voiding the emergency earlier this month, but Trump vetoed it almost immediately. Under the declaration, Trump wants to shift $3.6 billion from military construction projects to erecting barriers. Building a wall along the boundary was one of his most oft-repeated campaign promises, though he claimed the money would come from Mexico, not taxpayers.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said spending money on "a stupid, static wall" was a waste of money. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, called Trump's action "constitutional vandalism" because Congress has the power to control spending.
Republicans said Trump was merely exercising his legal authority to declare emergencies and said Democrats were going too far.
Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., called the Democratic effort "a partisan whack job" that would fall short. And Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Trump was acting to defeat the efforts of the "radical left in this House that would dissolve our borders entirely if given the chance" — a position that no Democrats have taken.
When Congress voted initially to block Trump's emergency declaration , it drew unanimous opposition from Democrats and opposition from some Republicans, especially in the Senate , where lawmakers objected that he was abusing presidential powers.
But while Congress approved a resolution voiding Trump's move, the margins by which the House and Senate passed the measure fell well short of the two-thirds majorities that will be needed to override the veto.
"The president will be fine in the House," said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a brief interview. "The veto will not be overridden."
Even with his veto remaining intact, Trump may not be able to spend the money for barriers quickly because of lawsuits that might take years to resolve.
Tuesday's vote was coming as Trump claimed a different political triumph after Attorney General William Barr said special counsel Robert Mueller had ended his two-year investigation without evidence of collusion by Trump's 2016 campaign with the Russian government.
Democrats were hoping to use the border emergency battle in upcoming campaigns, both to symbolize Trump's harsh immigration stance and claim he was hurting congressional districts around the country.
The Pentagon sent lawmakers a list last week of hundreds of military construction projects that might be cut to pay for barrier work. Though the list was tentative, Democrats were asserting that GOP lawmakers were endangering local bases to pay for the wall.
Congress, to which the Constitution assigned control over spending, voted weeks ago to provide less than $1.4 billion for barriers. Opponents warned that besides usurping Congress' role in making spending decisions, Trump was inviting future Democratic presidents to circumvent lawmakers by declaring emergencies to finance their own favored initiatives.
Trump supporters said he was simply acting under a 1976 law that lets presidents declare national emergencies. Trump's declaration was the 60th presidential emergency under that statute, but the first aimed at spending that Congress explicitly denied, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks the law.
The House approved the resolution blocking Trump's emergency by 245-182 in February. On Tuesday, Trump opponents will need to reach 288 votes to prevail.
Just 13 Republicans opposed Trump in February, around 1 in 15. Another 30 would have to defect to override his veto.
This month, the GOP-led Senate rebuked Trump with a 59-41 vote blocking his declaration after the failure of a Republican effort to reach a compromise with the White House. Republicans were hoping to avoid a confrontation with him for fear of alienating pro-Trump voters.
Twelve GOP senators, nearly 1 in 4, ended up opposing him.
If the House vote fails, the Senate won't attempt its own override and the veto will stand.
French high school students attending anti-racism sessions this week have been warned that it would be “bizarre” to feel greater emotion over the Notre-Dame cathedral fire than about the plight of migrants in the Mediterranean.
Retired professional footballer and the most capped player in the French national football team’s history, Lilian Thuram, denounced what he described as a “hierarchy” of emotion in which the destruction of the cathedral’s spire appeared to arouse more public grief than the drowning of illegal African immigrants.
Speaking at a press conference on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, where he had held ‘prejudice-fighting’ sessions with students at high schools across the French territory, Thuram commented humans are “emotional creatures” and that, “as a Parisian” it is “normal that we are affected” by events like the Notre-Dame fire.
“But there is an impression, sometimes, of there being hierarchies in place regarding these emotions,” the 47-year-old said, lamenting that “the world is not moved in the same way” at the sight of “people who die trying to cross the Mediterranean” as it appeared to by fire ravaging a more than 800-year-old church considered one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture and the most important icon of Christian France.
The UNICEF ambassador then went on to blast Donald Trump, linking — somewhat oddly — tweets from the U.S. President expressing horror at the blaze in Paris with the desire to get illegal immigration at the country’s Mexican border under control.
“That there are individuals who want to build walls to stop people from entering, but who are happy to send tweets to ask, ‘Do you need help to put out the fire?’, as Donald Trump did? It is bizarre”, remarked Thuriam, who has been an active “anti-racism campaigner and author” since retiring from football, with his eponymous Foundation working to educate, “deconstruct” and end “inequalities generated by systems of oppression” over past centuries.
KFAR SABA, Israel – Explosions have been heard in central Israel after air raid sirens wailed.
The Israeli military says a rocket was launched early Monday from the Gaza Strip toward Israel and was looking into the reports.
The apparent attack comes 10 days after rockets were fired toward Israel's densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv. Gaza's Hamas leaders said it was fired accidently.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility to Monday's incident.
Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction. The territory is home to other militant groups, including Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed armed organization that also has a formidable rocket arsenal.
The Santa Ana Police Department sent over a few of its officers to Ewinn’s party Saturday afternoon — “to swear him in as a Jr. officer.” (Santa Ana Police Department)
A boy in California loves the police, and got a special birthday treat as he turned 5 years old from the men and women in blue.
The Santa Ana Police Department sent over a few of its officers Saturday afternoon to the party of the boy named Ewinn — “to swear him in as a Jr. officer.”
Cpl. Caprice Kirkpatrick told Fox News on Sunday night that the boy wants to be a police officer when he grows up, so they brought over soccer balls and cones as gifts and gave him a sticker of a police badge.
The department posted pictures of the joyous celebration on social media, using the hashtag, #communitypolicing
Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com. His email is Frank.Miles@foxnews.com.
A workman prepares a Confederate staute for removal, Tuesday, March 12, 2019, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Crews began removing the Confederate statue Sunday from the grounds of an old courthouse. North Carolina has been at the forefront of the debate over what to do with Confederate monuments as one of three southern states with the most statues, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. (AP Photo/Tom Foreman Jr.)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A North Carolina city removed a Confederate statue Tuesday from the grounds of an old courthouse, a rare move in a state where such monuments are largely protected by law.
Construction crews in Winston-Salem spent more than an hour attaching a harness and a cage-like metal frame to protect the statue of an anonymous soldier, then hoisted it from atop its pedestal with a large crane. A small group of onlookers clapped and cheered as the statue was taken down and placed on a flatbed truck.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said in a phone interview that he hoped work to remove the pedestal and base would be finished by the end of the day. Joines said the statue will eventually be moved to historic Salem Cemetery. Before that, it will be put into temporary storage while a site at the cemetery is prepared.
"We realize that there are very strong feelings on both sides of this issue, so what we've tried to do is devise a solution that recognizes both sides," he said, describing its eventual home in the cemetery as "a very dignified and appropriate location for the statue."
Wearing a jacket and hat with Confederate symbols, Howard Snow came to watch from across the street. He said the city was wasting money by taking the statue down and that the money could be put to better use.
Winston-Salem had more leeway than most North Carolina cities because the old courthouse property had passed into private hands. A 2015 North Carolina law all but prohibits the permanent removal of Confederate statues from public land.
In January, a judge denied a request by the United Daughters of The Confederacy to prevent the removal of the Winston-Salem statue. City officials had given the group until the end of that month to move the statue from the grounds of the building that now houses apartments, or the city would take action.
The approximately 30-foot (9-meter) high monument includes a granite statue atop a base and column and was dedicated in 1905. It depicts an anonymous soldier in a Confederate uniform resting his rifle stock against the ground.
North Carolina has been at the forefront of the debate over what to do with Confederate monuments as one of three southern states with the most statues, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. A state tally shows Confederate monuments are located at contemporary or historic courthouses in about half of the state's counties.
The United Daughters of The Confederacy unsuccessfully argued in court papers that the sale of the Winston-Salem courthouse left the public monuments in the hands of Forsyth County, so removal would violate the state law. But county officials have said they don't own the statue and the current owner of the property agreed the statue should be removed.
City officials have said it's impossible to preserve the monument or protect public safety at the downtown location. The statue has been vandalized several times in recent years, and critics and supporters have rallied around it.
Elsewhere, some statues had been relocated by North Carolina cities in the years before the 2015 law went into effect, but since then, local governments have been all but blocked from doing so under the law that allows relocation only in very narrow circumstances.
Two North Carolina Confederate statues have been torn down by protesters, including one at a historic Durham courthouse and another on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Critics argue many Confederate statues were built decades after the Civil War to promote white supremacy. Supporters counter that the monuments are simply memorials to ancestors who fought and died protecting their homes.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said 115 Confederate statues have been taken down across the U.S., a sign that they are losing favor.
___
Associated Press writer Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
FILE PHOTO: New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attends a news conference after meeting with first responders who were at the scene of the Christchurch mosque shooting, in Christchurch, New Zealand March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
March 28, 2019
bWELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that she welcomed Facebook Inc’s decision to ban praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism on its social media platforms.
“Arguably these categories should always fall within the community guidelines of hate speech, but nevertheless it’s positive the clarification has now been made in the wake of the attack in Christchurch,” she said at a press conference.
Facebook’s ban was a shift in policy after criticism by civil rights groups that it was failing to confront extremism.
Ardern said 59 countries will send diplomatic representatives to a national remembrance service on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
April 26, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – Wulf Matthias will not stand for a second term as Wirecard’s chairman in 2020, German daily Handelsblatt said on Friday, citing sources in the financial industry.
For age reasons alone this would not be an option for Matthias, aged 75, Handelsblatt added.
Matthias will keep his mandate until it ends in 2020, the paper quoted a company spokeswoman as saying.
Wirecard was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Thomas Seythal)
FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
April 26, 2019
ZURICH (Reuters) – Shareholders approved Credit Suisse’s 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted.
Three shareholder advisers had recommended investors vote against Switzerland’s second-biggest bank’s remuneration report, while a fourth backed the report but expressed reservations about whether management pay matched performance.
The approval marked a slight increase over the 80.8 percent support garnered for the bank’s 2017 compensation report.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London, Britain December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Simon Jessop and Sinead Cruise
LONDON (Reuters) – Activist investor Edward Bramson is likely to fail in his attempt to get a board seat at Barclays’ annual meeting next week, even though shareholders are dissatisfied with performance of the group’s investment bank.
New York-based Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and the board of the British bank have been sparring for months over Barclays’ strategy.
Bramson wants to scale back Barclays’ investment bank to reduce risk and boost shareholder returns. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley remains staunchly committed to growing the business out of trouble.
After failing to persuade Staley to change course since he began building a 5.5 percent stake in the bank in March last year, Bramson hopes a board seat will rachet up the pressure.
Both sides have written to shareholders pitching their case and Bramson has courted investors in one-on-one meetings, although none have publicly backed him yet.
Interviews by Reuters with five institutional investors in Barclays suggest Bramson has failed to persuade them.
Sherborne declined to comment.
Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at top-40 shareholder Aviva Investors, said Bramson was welcome on the bank’s register but the boardroom was a step too far.
“He has created a lot of value at other businesses, but, generally, when he has come in as executive chair and taken full control. This would be a different case where he would just be one lone voice on the board,” he said.
A second Barclays shareholder said he backed Bramson’s goal of improving returns but via an “evolutionary” approach.
“If you look at banks that have tried to restructure their operations in investment banking – you look at Natwest Markets, Deutsche Bank – I struggle to think of an example where a roughshod restructuring has been accretive to shareholder value.”
A third, top-30 investor said he had been impressed by incoming Chairman Nigel Higgins’ grasp of the challenge in hand, and felt investors would give him time.
“Management know they have to execute and deliver improved returns… [Higgins] will continue to re-shape the board but obviously he didn’t feel that having someone with a diametrically opposed view on it would be helpful.”
A fourth, top-30 investor agreed: “We voted for the chairman to come in and it would be crazy to allow an activist to join the board (at this time).”
Jupiter Fund Management, the 24th largest investor, said it also planned to vote against Bramson.
Barclays has nearly 500 institutional shareholders, Refinitiv data showed.
Since Staley joined Barclays in 2015, the investment bank returns relative to capital invested have increased but are still underperforming the overall business.
Barclays’ first-quarter figures showed the investment bank posted a 6 percent drop in income from its markets business and a 17 percent fall in banking advisory fees.
Returns in the investment bank fell to 9.5 percent from 13.2 percent a year ago.
Famed for successful campaigns against smaller British companies in sectors from chemicals to advertising, Bramson’s board seat pitch has been rebuffed by shareholder advisory firms.
Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s biggest, said Bramson’s proposal “falls short of what can reasonably be expected from a shareholder trying to address issues at a 28 billion pounds, systemically important bank”.
Glass Lewis also flagged concern about Bramson’s lack of banking experience and “questionable” shareholding structure, referring to Sherborne’s use of derivative contracts to hedge losses should its strategy fail.
Critics said the arrangement meant his interests are not truly aligned with those of other long-term shareholders.
British advisory firm Pirc, however, said it recommended that investors abstain in the vote on Bramson’s proposal as a challenge to the board to do better in the year ahead – or face a similar contest in 2020.
After an over 15-month pregnancy, “Akuti,” a 7-year-old Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros, gave birth as a result of induced ovulation and artificial insemination at Zoo Miami, April 23, 2019.
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, in this April 25, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp reported a 27 percent fall in quarterly earnings on Friday, hit by lower crude prices and weaker margins in its refining and chemicals businesses.
Net income attributable to the company fell to $2.65 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $3.64 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.
Earlier in the day, larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp reported earnings well below analysts’ estimates, as margins in its refining business were hurt by higher Canadian prices and heavy scheduled maintenance.
(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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.