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Lakers, James overrule Kings, end losing streak

NBA: Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers
March 24, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) moves to the basket against Sacramento Kings forward Marvin Bagley III (35) during the second half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

March 25, 2019

LeBron James had 29 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-106 win against the visiting Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.

Kyle Kuzma also scored 29 points and JaVale McGee overcame early foul trouble to finish with 17 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks for the Lakers, who ended a five-game losing streak.

Marvin Bagley III had 25 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Kings, who fell 6 1/2 games behind the San Antonio Spurs for eighth place in the Western Conference with nine games left.

Buddy Hield, who broke the Sacramento single-season franchise record for 3-pointers on Saturday night, shot 5 for 11 from 3-point range and scored 18 points, and Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 points off the bench.

The Lakers led by 15 points after McGee scored on a hook shot with 10:51 left in the game, but Bagley and Bogdanovic helped pull the Kings within two points with 6:09 remaining. That was as close as they would get, however. James made all six free throws in the final 38 seconds to seal the win.

The Lakers scored the first 14 points of the second half to take a 62-49 lead. They stretched the advantage to as much as 17 points before taking an 87-77 lead into the fourth.

Both teams got off to a slow start. The Kings shot 8 for 29 from the floor in the first quarter and the Lakers shot 9 for 23.

The Lakers trailed by as many as five in the opening quarter before taking a 22-20 lead into the second.

Sacramento power forward Nemanja Bjelica and McGee each had two early fouls in first quarter. Bjelica’s foul trouble brought Bagley into the game earlier than usual, and he scored seven points in seven first-quarter minutes.

Kuzma sank a 3-pointer with 13.5 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Lakers the 22-20 lead, and that basket sparked a 12-0 run that carried into the second quarter, giving Los Angeles its biggest lead at 31-20.

The Kings pulled even at 33-33 with 6:13 left in the first half, though, eventually taking a 49-48 lead into intermission.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Dershowitz gives media an ‘F,’ says CNN chose Avenatti over him

Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday that CNN kept him off the network due to his analysis of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and claimed that the channel once booted him from appearing on air in favor of troubled lawyer Michael Avenatti.

Dershowitz made the claims during an interview with Howard Kurtz on Fox News’ “Media Buzz,” saying that he knew “for a fact” that CNN President Jeff Zucker nixed his appearances because of Dershowitz’s views on the Russia investigation.

“CNN, which used to have me on all the time, on Anderson Cooper, on Cuomo, on Lemon, as an analyst, as a centrist analyst, they decided no, no, it is okay to have extreme Trump supporters, because people just use them as a stick figure exhibits,” Dershowitz said. “What they didn't want was a centrist liberal that went against their narrative.”

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: A PROSECUTOR'S JOB IS TO MAKE DECISIONS, MUELLER DIDN'T FINISH THE JOB

"Walter Cronkite could not get a job in the media today."

— Alan Dershowitz

CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News' requests for comment.

Dershowitz added that if he were to grade the media on their coverage of the Mueller probe, he'd give them an “F.”

“Even with grade inflation, I just think the media comes off awful, terrible, for the most part. I think we are seeing an elimination of the distinction between the editorial page and the news pages in some of the leading media in the country, and that’s a shame. Walter Cronkite could not get a job in the media today,” he added.

In regards to Zucker’s alleged order, Dershowitz said: “I asked [Zucker] how come I am not on anymore, and he said, oh, no, no, no, you will be on, but since the summer I’ve never been on a single time. I have been on all of the other networks repeatedly. But clearly, they made a decision. They did not want my kind of analysis.”

What appeared to really rile up the Harvard Law professor was that CNN chose frequently to use Avenatti – over Dershowitz – for its analysis of the Mueller investigation.

“They had a choice of a Harvard law professor for 50 years who has been getting it right, a centrist liberal and who has credibility, or Michael Avenatti,” Dershowitz said. “And they picked Michael Avenatti.”

He added: “He became their go-to guy. Every one of his predictions turned out to be false.”

Avenatti, who previously represented adult-film star Stormy Daniels in her feud with President Trump, recently has become embroiled in a series of legal quagmires of his own.

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Earlier this month, he was hit with a 36-count indictment that accused him stealing millions of dollars from clients, cheating on his taxes, lying to investigators and trying to hide money from debtors in bankruptcy proceedings.

Avenatti denied the charges on Twitter, saying he had made powerful enemies and would plead not guilty and fight the case. "I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me," he tweeted.

The new charges did not include a New York extortion case alleging Avenatti demanded millions to stay quiet about claims he planned to reveal about Nike paying high school players.

Avenatti, 48, was arrested March 25 in New York on the Nike charge. Federal prosecutors at the time announced he also faced single counts of wire and bank fraud in Southern California, where he lives and practices law.

Fox News' Howard Kurtz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Lawsuit says Tyson, Cargill, JBS conspired to suppress beef prices paid to U.S. ranchers

A Cargill logo is pictured on the Provimi Kliba and Protector animal nutrition factory in Lucens
FILE PHOTO: A Cargill logo is pictured on the Provimi Kliba and Protector animal nutrition factory in Lucens, Switzerland, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

April 23, 2019

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Four of the largest U.S. beef-packing companies were accused in a lawsuit on Tuesday of violating federal antitrust law by conspiring to drive down prices they paid ranchers for cattle, even as retail beef prices hovered near record levels.

Tyson Foods Inc, Cargill Inc, the JBS USA unit of Brazil’s JBS SA and National Beef Packing Co were accused of colluding since Jan. 2015 to suppress the price of “fed” cattle, which is cattle raised specifically for beef production, with a goal of improving margins and profitability.

The 104-page complaint by the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) and four cattle-feeding ranchers was filed in Chicago federal court, and seeks compensatory, punitive and triple damages.

It resembles litigation in the same court in which companies, including Tyson and JBS, have been accused of conspiring to fix prices of broiler chickens and pork.

Tyson said the lawsuit was “baseless,” and that as in the chicken and pork lawsuits there was no merit to the claim it colluded. “Tyson wants its suppliers to succeed,” it added.

The other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the complaint, Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef conspired to suppress prices through such tactics as importing foreign cattle at a loss, closing slaughter plants, and reducing slaughter and purchase volumes.

The conspiracy “encouraged an apprehension amongst producers that they might not be able to ‘get their cattle dead'” unless prices were cut, and led to an artificial 7.9 percent average reduction in fed cattle prices, the complaint said.

Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef controlled more than 81 percent of the market for U.S. fed cattle in 2017, with more than $48 billion of beef sales in that fiscal year, the complaint said.

The lawsuit is meant to “prevent the Big 4 packers from capturing the U.S. cattle market from independent U.S. cattle producers,” R-CALF Chief Executive Bill Bullard said in a statement provided by the group’s lawyers. “We hope U.S. cattle ranchers can be compensated for years of significant losses.”

The case is Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America et al v Tyson Foods Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 19-02726.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot)

Source: OANN

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To many voters, Mueller hasn’t mattered


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On the roster: To many voters, Mueller hasn’t mattered - For Biden, campaign headaches without a campaign - Buttigieg passes $7 million in first quarter fundraising - House Dems will vote to subpoena Mueller report - No one likes a road hog

TO MANY VOTERS, MUELLER HASN’T MATTERED
Well, the first benchmark of success for Special Counsel Robert Mueller has already been met. Both sides are absolutely infuriated.

We know that when Mueller’s work is revealed in fuller form, there will be plenty more unhappy people. And having watched the gyrations on both sides when the Justice Department was only tracers and not live rounds, we’re ready for anything.

But as a matter of political consequence so far, it’s been a dud. Not that the narratives aren’t being shaped for longer-term consequences. And not that the narrative can’t be exploded if the final report due later this month has something really shocking.

But for now we are still in the rain shadow that followed the sheltering peaks of ‘no collusion’ that Attorney General William Barr generously provided for the president. For Republicans to do anything but feel the sunshine on their hindquarters and generally be still is a mystification.

And yet, here we are.

The truth here is that Republicans already succeeded in their work of discrediting Mueller to those who were persuadable to that end. That is not a small number of people! It would take John Delaney times John Hickenlooper to the power of Elizabeth Warren equal these numbers.

But just 10 percent of respondents in the latest WSJ/NBC News poll said that they had a more favorable attitude toward Trump’s innocence as a result of Barr’s letter characterizing Mueller’s findings as politically non-lethal to the Trump presidency.

That should seem low to you.

This is a consequential matter. No one will remember what camera-starved back benchers in Congress of both parties have to say, or who voted on the dead-end legislation in what is guaranteed to be a do-nothing Congress. Such things are blights upon every age. But the question before the court of public opinion — did the sitting president obtain his office by corrupt means — is no small matter.

And yet, only 10 percent saw their confidence in the president’s innocence increase after the announcement of his non-collusion. And that’s less than the 12 percent who were actually more suspicious.

We certainly understand why that number is so static, relatively speaking.

For everybody paying attention, this hasn’t just been a big story, it’s been the background music for everything going on in Washington for two years. It’s “House of Cards” meets “Veep” with “The Americans” thrown in for good order.

And for everybody paying attention, attitudes about Trump and Russia and Mueller and collusion and the deep state and everything else pollsters can think of to ask about the subject have been quite steady.

There’s some broad agreement in the electorate about big issues. People generally disapprove of hostile foreign powers interfering in our politics. People generally think Mueller is a good egg. People generally don’t want the president impeached unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Those aren’t the numbers to pay attention to here, though.

Cast your eyes instead of the 61 percent of the electorate which said it had not heard “a lot” about the story. Holy croakano!

It surely is not for lack of trying on the part of the political press. We have been knee-deep in Russia stories and counter-Russia stories and shady lawyers and hostile witnesses and ostrich-skin costs for years.

So when you are tempted to overstate the importance of what has transpired so far in the investigation into the 2016 campaign and election, just remember that the rest of the country, outside the 39 percent that’s deeply invested, is now treating this like a typical Washington issue: Assume both sides are lying to some degree and do their best to ignore it.

Manage your expectations for political consequences accordingly.

THE RULEBOOK: TERRIBLE TWOS?
“Have we any reason to infer, from the spirit and conduct of the representatives of the people, prior to the Revolution, that biennial elections would have been dangerous to the public liberties?” – Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, Federalist No. 52

TIME OUT: A DUTCH MASTER IN THE NUTMEG STATE
AP: “A painting at a Connecticut museum that has long been thought to be by Vincent van Gogh has been authenticated by Dutch researchers. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford announced Friday that ‘Vase With Poppies,’ a still life oil painting, has been verified by researchers at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam as having been made by the Dutch artist in 1886, just after he moved to Paris. … The painting’s authenticity was called into question in 1990 by the art historian Walter Feilchenfeldt, who raised concerns about many purported van Goghs around the world, the Hartford Courant reported. The artwork was taken out of museum displays and shelved. Years later… It was examined initially at the Atheneum, where a digital X-ray revealed an underpainting that looked like a self-portrait, which added to confidence about its authenticity. The museum in Amsterdam analyzed the artwork’s paint, materials and style to conclude it was indeed done by van Gogh.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance 
Average approval: 
42.6 percent
Average disapproval: 52.8 percent
Net Score: -10.2 points
Change from one week ago: down 2.2 points 
[Average includes: NBC/WSJ: 43% approve - 53% disapprove; Pew Research Center: 41% approve - 55% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 44% approve - 50% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 39% approve - 55% disapprove; Fox News: 46% approve - 51% disapprove.]

FOR BIDEN, CAMPAIGN HEADACHES WITHOUT A CAMPAIGN
NYT: “Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. scrambled on Sunday to contain a quickly growing crisis for his likely presidential bid, putting forward several former female aides and allies to praise his treatment of women after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator, accused Mr. Biden of kissing and touching her. Mr. Biden also issued a sweeping statement acknowledging that he had shown ‘expressions of affection’ to people during his years on the campaign trail, but said, ‘not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately.’ It was the second damage-control statement to come from his team since Ms. Flores made her allegation on Friday… [S]ome of the former vice president’s would-be rivals in the 2020 Democratic field and some allies said that Ms. Flores’s claim should be taken seriously. … Mr. Biden’s advisers indicated on Sunday that the accusation would not dissuade him from entering the 2020 campaign, which they suggest he still intends to do at the end of April or just after.”

Warren fundraiser quits prompting new worries - NYT: “…Senator Elizabeth Warren began a swing through the South by proclaiming that [her campaign would] not include high-dollar fund-raisers but was entirely reliant on grass-roots contributions. … [S]he defied the pleas of her longtime finance director and declared that she would stop pursuing big donations altogether, leading to his resignation. But as the first fund-raising deadline arrives at midnight on Sunday, Ms. Warren — who last year was widely considered a would-be front-runner — finds herself in a political vise. Her rivals on either ideological flank will raise substantially more money in the first quarter than she does, and her focus on policy has not yet translated in the polls. Ms. Warren’s early troubles reflect the broader challenges confronting the vast Democratic field…”

Dems’ invisible primary is ‘truly invisible’ - NYT: “Publicly, the 2020 hopefuls are all about attracting low-dollar donors, trying to prove their grass-roots appeal and populist bona fides by touting large numbers of small donations — an ascendant force in Democratic politics. But privately, most Democrats also badly need the big checks and are still going behind closed doors to woo the wealthy, whose money is critical to pay for campaign staff, travel and advertising. As a result, a traditional part of presidential races early on — candidates trumpeting big-money and well-connected contributors as a show of political strength — has gone virtually underground, the invisible primary turning truly invisible. The jockeying for major donors remains as intense as ever, but the usual campaign announcements of powerhouse finance committees and boldfaced bundler lists have all but disappeared.”

Harris’ past catches up with her - AP: “Within months of [Kamala Harris’] swearing-in, she sponsored a bill urging states to eliminate cash bail, denouncing the system as a scourge on the poor and communities of color. That position would become a key part of her criminal justice reform platform. … Now a presidential candidate, Harris is casting herself as a progressive who consistently leveraged her power in the justice system to further civil rights causes and advocate for the disadvantaged. She has pledged a wholesale overhaul of the country’s fractured criminal justice system, arguing for marijuana legalization, bail reform and a moratorium on the death penalty. But when she had a chance to take a bold stand on these issues as a top law enforcement officer, Harris often opted for a careful approach or defended the status quo. Observers of her career note some of her key positions, like her opposition to cash bail, came at politically opportune moments, after public views had shifted on race, inequality and bias in the justice system.”

Beto’s Lone Star candidacy - Real Clear Politics:Beto O'Rourke officially launched his presidential campaign Saturday, heavily focusing on a Texas narrative that he's used to rise from El Paso council member to Senate candidate to contender in the Democratic race for the White House. From his El Paso hometown, O'Rourke drew a stark contrast with President Donald Trump, telling Americans that the nation can do better on many fronts, including developing a compassionate immigration system that secures the border. [He said:] ‘This is a campaign for America, for everyone in America. Like so many of you here, like so many more across the country at this defining moment, Amy and I want to know that we've done everything within our power for this country.’”

BUTTIGIEG PASSES $7 MILLION IN FIRST QUARTER FUNDRAISING
Bloomberg:Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana mayor whose stock and poll numbers have risen in the last weeks following a breakout performance in a CNN town hall, will report more than $7 million raised in the first quarter for his presidential bid. Buttigieg announced the preliminary total on Twitter, where he said his campaign was ‘out-performing expectations at every turn.’ Presidential candidates will release their first quarter fundraising totals for the period between January 1 and March 31 no later than April 15. For most of them, this will be the first key test of their ability to raise money at a presidential campaign level. Beyond mere viability to continue a campaign operation, and test of organizational strength, fundraising will also be a criteria for inclusion in the first Democratic presidential debates.”

Buttigieg grows in fame, his campaign needs to catch up - Politico: “Pete Buttigieg has the mojo. Now he needs a campaign. The South Bend, Ind., mayor is earning glowing press coverage and enjoying a polling spike after a fiery rebuke of Vice President Mike Pence during a CNN town hall. But, so far, he’s got almost no on-the-ground operation in the early states, as he has to figure out how to convert his Twitter-trending bid into a sustained national campaign. ‘Up to now, I haven’t seen or heard of anything he’s built here in Iowa,’ said Jerry Crawford, a longtime Iowa Democratic operative. … The challenge for Buttigieg goes beyond teaching America how to pronounce his last name. Local operatives said the 37-year-old lags behind the rest of the sprawling pack of 2020 candidates in building infrastructure in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — a problem Buttigieg’s campaign is racing to correct as money starts rolling in.”

Does he really have a chance? - NBC News: “He was described as ‘the longest of long shots’ when he decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, and for good reason. … Larry Agran from Irvine, California, the last candidate before Buttigieg to attempt the audacious leap from a midsize City Hall to the White House. Agran ran in 1992, a generation ago, when the media ecosystem was far narrower and more constricting. To compare what he endured as a candidate then to what Buttigieg has already experienced now is to recognize just how drastically that ecosystem has been revolutionized — and what that revolution has made possible. Two months after announcing his bid, Buttigieg has already attained something akin to political celebrity status, at least with a slice of the public. … To call his '92 campaign ‘forgotten’ would be a misnomer; few ever knew he was running in the first place.”

HOUSE DEMS WILL VOTE TO SUBPOENA MUELLER REPORT
WaPo: “The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote Wednesday to authorize subpoenas to obtain the full report of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, escalating a feud with the Justice Department over a lengthy document detailing findings about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on Monday announced plans for the panel’s vote, which would take place a day after a deadline the committee set for Attorney General William P. Barr to share the report. Barr pledged last week to release a redacted version by mid-April, well after Nadler’s deadline. Nadler’s committee is seeking to obtain the ‘full and complete report,’ which spans nearly 400 pages, as well as underlying evidence. ‘As I have made clear, Congress requires the full and complete Special Counsel report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence,’ Nadler said in a statement Monday, in which he urged Barr to reconsider meeting his Tuesday deadline.”

Ross Douthat: ‘The Mick Mulvaney Presidency’ - NYT: “So why revive the Obamacare debate? Why set yourself up for ‘Trump Defunds Special Olympics’ headlines? The answer is that there are effectively two Trump presidencies. One offers something like what the president promised on the campaign trail — a break with Paul Ryan’s green-eyeshade approach to entitlement reform, a more moderate tack on health care, an indifference to Obama-era conservative orthodoxies on fiscal and monetary policy. The other offers a continuation of the Tea Party’s insistence on spending cuts and Obamacare repeal, and appropriately its present leader is a former Tea Party congressman — Mick Mulvaney, the Zelig of the administration, whose zeal is apparently the main reason that the Obamacare lawsuit now has administration support.”

VIRGINIA DEMS TEST THE WATERS AFTER SCANDAL
WaPo: “Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has begun doing something normal for most politicians but risky for him: appearing in public and taking questions from reporters. Tarnished by a blackface admission and a racist photo on his page in an old yearbook, Northam defied widespread calls to resign and spent weeks in a cocoon of private meetings and tightly controlled events. But the glare of national attention has faded. Northam dismissed his outside crisis management team when its two-week contract expired. And, with increasing confidence, he has begun exercising the power of his office. His reemergence coincides with the General Assembly’s return to Richmond on Wednesday for a one-day session to tie up loose ends. … Northam isn’t going away… And neither is Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D), who denies two separate allegations of sexual assault, nor Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), who admitted wearing blackface during his college days.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Graham begins re-election campaign in S.C. with help of Vice President Pence - WaPo

McConnell: ‘Time to stop the Democrats' obstruction’ - Politico

AUDIBLE: HEAR, HEAR
“The only conclusion anybody should draw right now is they shouldn’t draw any conclusions. …  I can’t think of a Democratic field comparable to this.” – Joel Benenson, a top strategist for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, told the WaPo.

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NO ONE LIKES A ROAD HOG
KMSP-TV: “Officials in Chisago County, Minnesota are sharing a strange encounter to warn others about distracted driving. … [Sergeant Jason Foster] was responding to a complaint about someone driving north on I-35 near Harris having a tough time staying in their lane. But, when he stopped and approached the pickup, he learned the distracted driving wasn't being caused by a cell phone ‘hogging’ the driver's attention as he suspected. ‘It was kind of shocking. He had this 250 pound pig on his lap. In fact, it was leaning against the steering wheel he was muscling the steering wheel to keep it in its lane,’ he said. Sgt. Foster said there was not one, but two pigs in the picture. … Rather than roast the driver, Sgt. Foster gave him a warning and sent them on their way, but even though this passenger was a bit of a ham…”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“Here's the central question: if you thought this was obstruction of justice when Trump was asking [James Comey] to drop the Flynn thing, why didn't [he] resign? … Anyway, this is a man, I don't know if cowardly is the right word. But he sure has post-facto integrity.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) on “Special Report with Bret Baier” on June 8, 2017.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.

Source: Fox News Politics

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White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow promises big cuts in domestic spending for 2020 budget

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow revealed Sunday that President Trump wants a 5 percent cut “across the board” on all domestic spending as part of his proposed 2020 budget.

“It will be a tough budget,” Kudlow said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re going to do our own caps this year and I think it’s long overdue.”

Kudlow added: “Some of these recent budget deals have not been favorable towards spending. So, I think it’s exactly the right prescription.”

GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS US BUDGET DEFICIT SET TO HIT $897B 

Kudlow said that "there's no reason to obsess" about the budget deficit, even as it approaches $1 trillion, as long as it remains below 5 percent of the overall economy.

He said the budget will contain a proposed 5 percent across-the-board reduction in domestic spending.

Like previous spending blueprints, Trump's plan for the 2020 budget year will propose cuts to many domestic programs favored by lawmakers in both parties but leave alone politically popular retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Washington probably will devote months to wrestling over erasing the last remnants of a failed 2011 budget deal that would otherwise cut core Pentagon operations by $71 billion and domestic agencies and foreign aid by $55 billion. Top lawmakers are pushing for a reprise of three prior deals to use spending cuts or new revenues and prop up additional spending rather than defray deficits that are again approaching $1 trillion.

Trump's 2017 tax cut bears much of the blame for expanding the deficit, along with sharp increases in spending for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies and the growing federal retirement costs of the baby boom generation. Promises that the tax cut would stir so much economic growth that it would mostly pay for itself have been proved woefully wrong.

TRUMP ASKS CABINET TO CUT DEPARTMENT BUDGETS BY 5 PERCENT 

Trump's upcoming budget, however, won't address any of the main factors behind the growing, intractable deficits that have driven the U.S. debt above $22 trillion. Its most striking proposed cuts — to domestic agency operations — were rejected when Tea Party Republicans controlled the House, and they face equally grim prospects now that Democrats are in the majority.

Trump has given no indication he's interested in the deficit, and he has rejected any idea of curbing Medicare or Social Security, the massive federal retirement programs whose imbalances are the chief deficit drivers.

Kudlow – a former Wall Street analyst and economic commentator – said that the 2020 proposal will also keep the 3 percent tax cuts implemented in 2018.

“If you want to deal with budget deficits, you’ve got rapid growth which means keep the tax cuts in place,” He said. “We believe the 3 percent tax rates of 2018 will continue in 2019 and beyond 2020 and so forth.”

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One area that won’t see a cut in the proposed budget is for funding for the president’s border wall.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Trump will request at least $8.6 billion in new funding to build additional sections of a wall along the Mexico border. Trump also wants $5 billion in additional funds for the Department of Homeland Security and another $3.6 billion in military construction funds.

All this would come in addition to the $6.5 billion Trump vowed last month to redirect for the construction of the wall.

“I would just say that the whole issue of the wall and border security is a paramount of importance,” Kudlow said on Sunday. “We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case effectively. It’s a crisis of economics, it’s a crisis of crime and drugs, it’s a crisis of just of humanity.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Alibaba invests $693 million for stake in Chinese courier STO Express

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

March 11, 2019

By Josh Horwitz

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will take a 14 percent stake in STO Express Co Ltd through a $693 million deal, the e-commerce giant’s fourth significant investment in a Chinese courier company.

Shares in STO Express shot up when trading opened and immediately hit the upper 10 percent limit on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, according to Refinitiv data.

STO Express said in a statement on Monday its controlling shareholder planned to set up a new subsidiary that will own a 29.9 percent stake in the courier firm.

Alibaba will in turn invest 4.66 billion yuan ($693.44 million) for a 49 percent stake in the new subsidiary, and by extension hold more than 14 percent of STO Express, the statement said.

Alibaba, in a separate statement, confirmed its investment in “one of the top five express delivery companies in China”.

“We will deepen our existing collaboration with STO in technology, last-mile delivery across China and New Retail logistics,” it said.

“This investment is a step forward in our pursuit of the goal of 24-hour-delivery anywhere in China and 72 hours globally,” Alibaba added.

STO Express is Alibaba’s fourth investment in the Chinese courier sector after it acquired minority stakes in YTO Express Group Co Ltd, Best Inc and ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.

STO Express is one of several companies that works with Alibaba under Cainiao, its logistics division launched in 2013.

Cainiao provides software and shares data with warehouses, carriers and other logistics companies that help deliver packages to shoppers on Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba’s largest e-commerce sites.

Cainiao works with a number of logistics companies to ensure packages are delivered and vendors paid, but relationships between Cainiao and its partners have at times been uneasy.

In 2017, Cainiao temporarily barred Chinese courier SF Express from taking deliveries from Alibaba’s e-commerce vendors in a dispute over the ownership of customer data.

(Reporting by Josh Horwitz and Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Huckabee on Sri Lanka Islamic terror: Nothing could be more cowardly, disgusting

Islamic terrorism is a threat spreading to different parts of the world, Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee said Monday in wake of the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday massacre.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor, told "Fox & Friends" said Sunday's attack should remind everyone of the challenges faced across the globe in fighting the scourge of terrorism.

SURVIVOR OF SRI LANKA BOMBING FEARS RETURNING TO CHURCH

"It's global. It's not just targeted to a handful of countries like the United States...not just targeted to Middle Eastern countries...it's a global war on terrorism," Huckabee said.

"These are cowardly people who go after innocents. These aren't folks who take on a military. These are people who blow up innocent people, in this case, people who are going to church, people who are celebrating the holiest day for Christians around the world, and nothing could be more cowardly, nothing could be more disgusting, and it shows you the character of those who were involved in this kind of terror."

CALIFORNIA CHURCH PARISHONERS HELP TACKLE WOMAN WITH GUN WHO ALLEGEDLY THREATENED ATTACK

His comments came after it was reported authorities in Sri Lanka received warnings a domestic radical Muslim group would attack the nation on the Christian holy day.

Despite multiple warnings from international intelligence agencies, however, Sri Lanka’s security officials reportedly failed to heed the alerts and apparently took no action to protect against a potential attack. Authorities were first alerted to the threat April 4.

More than two weeks later, near-simultaneous blasts detonated at three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo, the capital city. Two more explosions occurred hours later outside of Colombo – one at a guesthouse and the other near an overpass.

At least 290 people – including 39 foreigners – were killed and more than 500 people were injured. The government on Monday said the attacks were likely perpetrated by local militant group National Thowfeek Jaamath, a little-known radical Islamist organization.

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Experts told the New York Times the group promotes an Islamic terrorist ideology.

“These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the ISIS, Al Qaeda, global militant jihadist playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a high religious holiday,” Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, told the newspaper.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said international agencies warned of possible attacks several times beginning in early April. He said the defense ministry wrote to the police chief on April 9 to give law enforcement a heads up about the intelligence, including providing the group’s name.

Two days later, on April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division about the warnings. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response.

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Top government officials, including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet, were reportedly kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attack – which Senaratne blamed on political dysfunction within the government.

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“We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” Wickremesinghe said Sunday.

An investigation has been launched into the apparent breakdown of communication within the government.

Source: Fox News World

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Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that a detailed plan for a merit-based immigration system will be presented to President Trump, giving priority to skilled immigrants rather than those with family ties to the U.S.

“I do believe that the president’s position on immigration has been maybe defined by his opponents by what he’s against as opposed to what he’s for,” Kushner said at the Time 100 Summit in New York City. “What I’ve done is I’ve tried to put together a very detailed proposal for him.”

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Kushner announced that the new immigration proposal, which Trump will receive this week or next, will resemble the point-based systems in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and will unify people by ensuring strong wages and secure borders while protecting humanitarian values.

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term,” he said. “And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term. And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

— Jared Kushner

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Kushner denied in the same talk that he has clashed with White House staffer Stephen Miller, who’s seen as tougher on immigration than others, adding that the plan was concocted with the help of Miller and Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison,” Kushner joked, referring to the Israel-Palestine peace plan he’s working on.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison.”

— Jared Kushner

After the plan gets presented to Trump, it will likely undergo some changes and then he will decide when to proceed with it, Kushner said.

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“It’s very, very complicated, but it’s a very interesting issue, and if we can solve it, I do think it’s a critical component for America’s long-term competitive advantage,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

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