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The Latest: Granted asylum requests dropped in EU in 2018

The Latest on Europe's response to mass migration (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

The European Union's statistics agency says more than 300,000 people were granted asylum within the bloc last year, a drop of almost 40 percent from 2017.

Eurostat said Thursday that around 333,400 people were deemed eligible for international protection, most of them Syrians, Afghans or Iraqis fleeing conflict or persecution.

The agency says 67,000 of the total 96,100 Syrians determined to be bona fide refugees across the 28-nation EU in 2018 were granted asylum in Germany.

Germany, Italy and France were the EU countries that recognized the most refugees.

Well over 1 million migrants entered the EU in 2015, a relatively small number compared to arrivals in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. However, the influx caused a political crisis and immigration became a hot-button topic. .

EU countries remain deeply divided over the best approach despite the sharp drop in new arrivals.

___

12:50 p.m.

A survey has found that Germans are increasingly hostile toward asylum-seekers, whereas prejudices toward homeless or gay people have declined.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said Thursday that 54.1% of respondents expressed negative opinions about asylum-seekers, up from 49.5% in 2016 and 44% in 2014.

Germany saw a significant increase in migrant arrivals in 2016, with almost 746,000 people seeking asylum that year. Numbers have since declined again, with about 186,000 asylum requests last year.

The representative telephone survey, which is conducted every two years, involved 1,890 respondents and took place between September and February.

The study also examined for the first time how receptive Germans are to conspiracy theories. It found that about 46% of respondents believed secret organizations influence political decision-making.

Source: Fox News World

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Trump budget seeks 5 percent cut in non-defense spending: OMB

U.S. President Trump walks out to talk to reporters as he departs for travel to Alabama and Florida from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump walks out to talk to reporters as he departs for travel to Alabama and Florida from the White House in Washington, U.S. March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

March 11, 2019

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will propose in his fiscal 2020 budget on Monday that the U.S. Congress cut non-defense spending by 5 percent while boosting spending on the military, veterans’ healthcare and border security, the White House budget office said on Sunday.

The Republican president’s proposal, slated for release at 11:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on the Office of Management and Budget’s website, is expected to be the first volley in this year’s bitter funding fight with Congress, which has control over federal purse strings.

His budget blueprint is expected to be rejected by Congress, where Democrats control the House of Representatives. Spending bills typically need 60 votes to get through the 100-member Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold 53 seats.

Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate immediately panned Trump’s request for $8.6 billion to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, reported by Reuters earlier on Sunday.

Last year, a protracted battle over Trump’s demand for more than $5 billion in wall funding led to a five-week partial shutdown of the government. Congress’ refusal to grant him the funds led Trump to declare a national emergency so he could redirect funds approved for other purposes to the project.

The White House and Congress must agree on funding by Oct. 1 to keep the government funded and open – which coincides with the deadline to lift the debt limit, or risk a default, which would have severe economic repercussions.

At the same time, Trump and congressional leaders also face a deadline from a 2011 fiscal belt-tightening law that would see all discretionary spending slashed by $126 billion or 10 percent, unless they agree to lift spending caps.

Tax cuts have been a priority for the Republican White House and Congress in recent years, rather than fiscal restraint. The deficit ran to $900 billion in 2019, and the national debt has ballooned to $22 trillion.

Trump wants to cut non-defense program spending by an average of 5 percent below caps that Congress had set for fiscal 2019, the OMB said in a release.

“President Trump added nearly $2 trillion to our deficits with tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, and now it appears his budget asks the American people to pay the price,” said John Yarmuth, Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, who added: “It has no chance in the House.”

Trump’s budget would boost funding for some of his priorities. For example, Trump will propose a 5 percent increase for the Department of Homeland Security to help pay for his border wall and hire more immigration and border enforcement officials.

The budget also includes an increase of almost 10 percent for veterans’ healthcare programs from last year, and investments in opioid addiction programs, the OMB said.

That means some departments and programs may see steeper proposed cuts than 5 percent.

BOOST FOR DEFENSE

Some programs will be targeted for cancellation altogether to push total non-defense discretionary spending below a cap of $542 billion established in the 2011 Budget Control Act, an administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not specify which programs would be targeted.

“This budget shows that we can return to fiscal sanity without halting our economic resurgence while continuing to invest in critical priorities,” Russ Vought, the acting OMB director, said in a statement.

The budget was expected to boost defense spending, although details were not immediately available.

Vought said last month that new defense spending would be included in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, more traditionally used for emergencies.

Fiscal hawks have characterized OCO as a slush fund or budget gimmick to get around spending caps.

Also unclear is how the budget will handle mandatory spending on programs for seniors like Medicare and Social Security, which account for the largest portion of the budget. The programs are popular with older voters.

The OMB said the budget would propose $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, which it said would be more than any other administration had ever planned.

But the cuts would not be enough to balance the budget in that timeframe. The OMB said the budget was designed to balance by 2034, exceeding the traditional 10-year period that previous administrations targeted.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Biden laughs off touchy talk


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On the roster: Biden laughs off touchy talk - Schultz is ready to rumble - March jobs surge - Trump retracts threat to close border - Um, ouch?

BIDEN LAUGHS OFF TOUCHY TALK
NYT:Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday twice jokingly referred to allegations from several women that he had made them uncomfortable with his physical contact, using his first public remarks since the complaints emerged to try to push past the controversy that overtook his expected presidential campaign in the past week. Speaking at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference in Washington, the former vice president largely stuck to his long-running political themes, highlighting the importance of uniting a divided nation and restoring the ‘great American middle class’ — save for two notable asides. As he took the stage, he hugged Lonnie R. Stephenson, the union’s president. ‘I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie,’ he said, and the largely male crowd burst into laughter. The joke came as Mr. Biden was fending off criticism from some Democrats, who worry that the 76-year-old is out of step with the party’s mores around gender and race.”

Obama stays mum on Biden bashing - Fox News: “Former President Barack Obama is staying silent on allegations surrounding Joe Biden, but he still has his ex-VP’s back, a new report claims. Obama hasn’t commented publicly on allegations from a number of women that the former vice president touched them inappropriately. But someone close to Obama said the former president still views Biden as someone who could be an ‘excellent’ commander-in-chief, according to a new report. ‘He's spent an infinite amount of time talking about his character, and they remain in touch and good friends,’ a source close to the former president said, The Hill reported. … The source reportedly continued: ‘President Obama is not going to be weighing in on the primary and the day-to-day stories around it. And Joe Biden would be the first to tell you that he'll have to earn the nomination on his own.’”

THE RULEBOOK: AMEN TO THAT
“The prudent inquiry, in all cases, ought surely to be, not so much FROM WHOM the advice comes, as whether the advice be GOOD.” – James Madison, Federalist No. 40

TIME OUT: ARCHAEOLOGICAL LOST AND FOUND
Smithsonian: “In the 19th century, 46 ornate medieval gravestones were discovered at a churchyard in the Scottish district of Govan, which is now part of Glasgow. Thirty-one of the ‘Govan Stones’ were moved into the church for safekeeping, and the rest were displayed against a churchyard wall. But in the 1970s, amid the hubbub of the demolition of an adjacent shipyard, the outdoor stones disappeared. Experts believed they had been destroyed. Thanks to a 14-year-old aspiring archaeologist, [Mark McGettigan], there is now hope that the lost Govan Stones have survived to the present day, as the BBC reports. … Two professional archaeologists [helped] Mark in extracting the object from the ground and cleaning it off. Records helped confirmed that the stone they pulled from the ground was in fact one of the famed Govan set. Subsequent excavations led to the discovery of two more of the missing stones. The trio, which date to the 10th and 11th centuries, are adorned with crosses and Celtic interlace patterns similar to the ones seen on the stones inside the church.”

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 0.4 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.]

SCHULTZ IS READY TO RUMBLE
Fox News: “Potential independent 2020 White House contender Howard Schultz predicted outright that President Trump will win re-election if Democrats nominate a self-described socialist like Bernie Sanders, during Fox News' ‘America's Election HQ’ Town Hall Thursday night in Kansas City, Missouri. Schultz also said he ‘took full responsibility’ for his disastrous ownership of the former Seattle SuperSonics… Mismanaging a basketball team of ‘13 people’ and driving away the city's first major professional sports franchise, Schultz insisted, should not in any way be seen as a ‘proxy’ for his presidential chops. The Town Hall, co-hosted by Fox News' Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, began as Schultz called former Vice President Joe Biden's behavior around women ‘concerning’ … Asked by Baier if Schultz would ever vote for Biden, Schultz said simply that he would ‘vote for myself.’ However, he clarified that he was not announcing a presidential run Thursday.”

He’s on the Buttigieg of an announcement - WNDU: “The mayor of South Bend will be making a special announcement next week. It's the secret that's perhaps not so secret. In the last few weeks, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he'd decide soon if he'll officially run for president in the 2020 election. ‘It's the kind of announcement you only get to make once,’ Buttigieg said during a Thursday interview on ABC's ‘Good Morning America.’ He currently has a presidential exploratory committee. So, will he finally announce he's running for president in 2020? He might. But for now, he posted a video to his Twitter account inviting his supporters to RSVP and join him in South Bend on April 14.”

Swalwell will make gun control his campaign platform - Atlantic: “There are more long-shot Democrats running for president this year than there have been total candidates in previous campaigns—and next week, Eric Swalwell is joining the pack. The California congressman and frequent cable-news guest on all things related to President Donald Trump and Russia will announce his presidential plans in an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. But he won’t be running on Russia, or on the continuing fallout from the Mueller report and the Barr letter. Swalwell will center his campaign on gun control. … When [The Atlantic] reached out to Swalwell on Wednesday evening, he wouldn’t confirm the news, but he didn’t leave much doubt that he intends to run for president. ‘We are doing a town hall in Parkland,’ he told [The Atlantic].”

Dems compete for Al Sharpton’s approval - Fox News: “The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged as a kingmaker in the crowded 2020 Democratic field, as the party's White House hopefuls lined up this week to pitch their vision of America to him in hopes of receiving his blessing. All of the top Democratic contenders were in New York City this week, attending Sharpton's National Action Network convention and discussing the issue of racism in America. More speeches were scheduled for Friday. Among the attendees: former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar.”

MARCH JOBS SURGE
WaPo: “The U.S. economy added 196,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported Friday, in line with expectations and a strong rebound from the anemic 33,000 jobs added in February. Experts see little sign of an imminent recession as hiring remains robust and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.8 percent. The low level of hiring in February now seems like an anomaly, possibly been caused by employers’ hesi­ta­tion to bring on new employees in the deep of winter and an economic hangover from the lengthy government shutdown. ‘The labor market remains healthy, and last month is just an outlier,’ said Brad McMillian, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. The United States has had more job openings than unemployed workers since last summer, spurring companies to raise wages and offer signing bonuses and more training programs in an effort to recruit and train employees.”

TRUMP RETRACTS THREAT TO CLOSE BORDER
WaPo: “Facing widespread opposition, President Trump backed down Thursday from his threat to close the southern border, instead giving Mexico a ‘one-year warning,’ but also leaving his administration with no clear path to deal with a record surge of migrant families. Trump had issued an ultimatum on Twitter late last week that he would move to seal the border to trade and travel… The president’s pronouncement, coming amid reports that U.S. Border Patrol was at the ‘breaking point,’ surprised White House aides and sparked fear among Republican allies and business leaders over the potentially devastating economic impact of closing the 2,000-mile border with the nation’s third-largest trading partner. … Those efforts were rendered moot Thursday when Trump, in an exchange with reporters at the White House, suddenly shifted gears, saying that if Mexico does not stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States within the next year, he will impose first tariffs on cars and then, possibly, close the border.”

This comes as he returns to the southern border Friday - USA Today: “President Donald Trump heads back to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday as his administration ramps up pressure on Mexico to stop migrants and drugs from flowing illegally into the United States. Trump’s visit to Calexico, California, comes just one day after he backed off an earlier threat to seal off the border. … The small California city sits on the U.S.-Mexico border, about 120 miles east of San Diego and about 60 miles west of Yuma, Arizona. It’s also where a 30-foot segment of replacement border fencing was installed last year, the first such project in Trump’s presidency. A plaque welded to the bollard-style fencing refers to the 2.25-mile-long barrier as ‘the first section of President Trump's border wall.’”

PELOSI HAS DOUBTS ABOUT MEDICARE FOR ALL
WaPo: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether a health-care proposal embraced by several Democratic presidential candidates would be too expensive and fail to provide the same coverage as the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Thursday that she would rather build on the 2010 law and is yet to be convinced the Medicare-for-all proposal pushed by many liberals would achieve its purported goals. ‘I’m agnostic. Show me how you think you can get there,’ Pelosi said in an interview with The Washington Post. ‘We all share the value of health care for all Americans — quality, affordable health care for all Americans. What is the path to that? I think it’s the Affordable Care Act, and if that leads to Medicare-for-all, that may be the path.’ She also suggested that Medicare-for-all had become more of a buzzword among political activists in the run-up to the 2020 campaign, a loosely defined concept that few people understood in concrete terms.”

And she won’t budge on NAFTA - Bloomberg: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she doesn’t plan to use President Donald Trump’s new North American trade accord as leverage to advance other Democratic priorities like a minimum wage hike, easing concern that the deal could get stalled by unrelated negotiations. ‘It will stand on its own,’ Pelosi said of the trade deal with Canada and Mexico, adding that she is focused on strengthening enforcement of the pact’s provisions rather than bringing other policy issues to the table. ‘I’m hopeful that we could get a trade agreement, but it has to be one that is real and that works.’ The trade accord faces challenges in all three countries, including a tight timetable and uneven support among the American electorate.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Trump readies his post-White House memoir - Daily Beast

Report: Two Nobel Peace Prize nominations for Trump were forged - NYT

Poll: Partisan divide over tax law grows - Pew Research Center

Manchin mulling run for West Virginia governor - Politico

Texas Dems launch initiative to unseat Cornyn - Texas Tribune

AUDIBLE: NEVER FORGOTTEN
“His life, career, ideological evolution, and philosophical background are reminders that he matters not only for what he thought but for how he thought. Three things characterized the life of Charles Krauthammer: chance, contention, and pluralism.” – An excerpt taken from Matthew Continetti’s piece, “Why Charles Krauthammer Matters,” from National Review.

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY
This weekend Bill Hemmer will guest anchor for Mr. Sunday. He will sit down with Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. Watch “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.

#mediabuzz - Host Howard Kurtz has the latest take on the week’s media coverage. Watch #mediabuzz Sundays at 11 a.m. ET.

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“‘There is a substantial minority of American voters who deeply distrust both parties.’ To be fair, this isn't a new phenomenon (you mentioned Ross Perot as a great example of a non-politician who gained national traction with the voters) and is likely the biggest reason Trump was elected. Schultz, like Trump, has made his own way by providing goods and services both political and non-political people enjoy. Schultz now has the same opportunity to show voters he isn't beholden to either major political party, exclusively. And so far, it's his best strength. Voters have been over-promised for decades by the major parties. Should Schultz run for his first political office this election season, he has a real chance to pull away even more voters from the two parties. Maybe then, just maybe, the leaders in the parties will tamp down the ‘us vs. them’ rhetoric and focus their efforts on trustworthiness while getting their elected jobs done. Sure, it's a stretch, but electing another non-establishment candidate might start us down that road.” – Mark Hoffman, Des Moines, Iowa                                        

[Ed. note: And now it looks like he might be having fun. It sounds strange to say, but the truth is people who win presidential elections are usually the people who enjoy running for president. Watching Schultz on Thursday I realized that for the first time he might be getting a little jazzed about the possibility. Running for president is a brutal, cruel business. If you don’t enjoy the fun parts then you’re doomed. Schultz is starting to look like the kind of guy who would relish the challenge.]                                                                                 

Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

UM, OUCH?
The Fresno Bee: “A Fresno [California] equipment store owner wants help finding the man who stole an Echo chainsaw Wednesday by shoving it down his pants before driving away in a Dodge Ram pickup. Jeff Bennett, of RG Equipment near East Clinton and North Fowler avenues, said the theft was caught on his security camera about 2:45 p.m. The video shows the suspect casually stuffing the chainsaw blade in his pants and then covering the engine assembly with his jacket. Bennett described the pickup as a late-1990s model Ram, silver, with an extended cab. Bennett said he believes the thief had an accomplice who had been in the store last week, ‘scoping out’ the area. As of Thursday afternoon, the suspect was still at large, but Fresno Police Lt. Mark Hudson said a man did show up at the department’s southeast station in connection with the theft.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“We had no idea how lucky we were with Sputnik. The subsequent panic turned out to be an enormous boon. The fear of falling behind the Communists induced the federal government to pour a river of money into science and math education. The result was a generation of scientists…” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the National Review on Oct. 5, 2007.

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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Is Mueller Ready to Turn in Report and Flip on Democrats?

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Ex-Dem staffer pleads guilty to ‘doxxing’ McConnell, others in GOP during Kavanaugh hearings

A former House Democratic staffer pleaded guilty Friday to five federal offenses related to posting online the personal information of five Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, during hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The charges against Jackson A. Cosko, 27, include making public restricted personal information, computer fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

EX-CLINTON AIDE FACES BACKLASH FOR MOCKING MCCONNELL'S FALL, REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE

In addition to McConnell's information, Cosko posted the home addresses and phone numbers of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- as well as then-Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Cosko reportedly became angry about the senators' support for Kavanaugh despite sexual assault allegations that President Trump's nominee was facing during the hearings. Cosko intended to intimidate the senators and their families, according to court records. Kavanaugh's nomination was ultimately confirmed.

At the time of his arrest, Cosko was working as an unpaid intern for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who fired him soon after. He was previously employed as a computer systems administrator in the office of Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., a job that gave him "intimate knowledge of, and broad access to" the computer systems in Hasan's office, according to court records. But he had been fired from Hassan’s office in May 2018 for failing to follow office procedures.

After the firing from Hassan's office, Cosko became angry and repeatedly burglarized the office without being detected, court records said. He copied gigabytes-worth of data, including dozens of user names and passwords belonging to Senate employees and "contact information for numerous sitting U.S. senators," according to court records.

Cosko was arrested Oct. 3, 2018, one day after a staffer discovered him working on a computer in Hassan's office, where Cosko was not authorized to be. Records show Cosko sent a threatening email to the staffer the evening he was confronted.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington on June 13. He could face between two and five years in prison.

Cosko previously held positions with other prominent Democrats, including former Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also of California and the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Ukrainian ultra-right spray tear gas over lesbian gathering

Ultra-right activists in Ukraine have attempted to derail a lesbian conference in Kiev, engaging in scuffles with security guards.

Several dozen activists from ultra-right groups picketed a hotel hosting a European lesbian conference that opened Thursday. They tried to break through security cordons protecting the entrance and sprayed tear gas at the guards.

The assailants were holding placards "We are against gays" and "Go back to hell, sodomites."

One ultra-right activist, Margarita Korotkikh, said their goal is "to put pressure on the government and explain that heterosexuals are against LGBT propaganda."

Ukraine's ultra-right groups have become increasingly assertive, regularly assaulting gatherings by LGBT and women's rights groups. International rights groups have criticized Ukrainian authorities for failing to track down and punish ultra-right activists for acts of violence and intimidation.

Source: Fox News World

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European stocks eye longest winning streak in six months

The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

March 19, 2019

By Sruthi Shankar and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares were on course for a fifth day of gains on Tuesday, with retail and basic resources stocks particularly strong as investors anticipated a more accommodative policy stance from the U.S. Federal Reserve this week.

The benchmark STOXX 600 rose 0.5 percent by 0932 GMT, hitting a five-month peak in what would be its longest winning streak since mid September. Gains were broad-based although Germany’s DAX led the pack with a 0.6 percent rise.

The Fed’s two-day meeting starts on Tuesday, with financial markets expecting the U.S. central bank to reinforce a halt to further rises in interest rates while possibly going further on a plan to cease reductions in its balance sheet.

That would follow moves by the European Central Bank two weeks ago to reloosen policy and pump more money into the financial system, offering hope of a continuation of stock market gains.

“There is a slightly better sentiment about stabilization on the global economy compared to late last year,” said Geoffrey Yu, head of UK investment office at UBS Wealth Management.

“As long as we have this stabilization anchored by clear expectations of a dovish Fed, or at least a non-hawkish Fed, this will be enough to keep things going,” Yu said.

Bank stocks handed back early losses to trade up 0.4 percent, after jumping more than a full percentage point on Monday following confirmation of merger talks between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.

Scandal-hit Danske Bank fell more than 5.3 percent in the aftermath of a vote by shareholders against a proposal to break up the bank.

NEW VOTE

News on Brexit also pointed to a delay in efforts by British Prime Minister Theresa May to get her divorce deal through parliament.

The speaker of parliament on Monday ruled May could not put her deal to a new vote unless it was re-submitted in a fundamentally different form. May is due at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday at which she will ask for a delay to Britain’s planned departure from the bloc on March 29.

London’s FTSE 100, packed with international companies that benefit from a weaker British pound, rose 0.4 percent, boosted by oil majors and miners.

Online supermarket Ocado climbed to a record high after posting strong gains in first-quarter retail sales despite a fire at its flagship distribution center.

Luxury stocks got a lift from positive trade surplus data from Switzerland, with the retail index gaining nearly 1 percent.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta advanced about 4 percent and was the top gainer on the STOXX 600, as a higher than expected dividend overshadowed a drop in core earnings.

French telecoms operator Iliad dropped more than 2 percent after the company cut its cashflow target for 2020 in France and added it was considering the sale of part of its mobile assets.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Catherine Evans and David Holmes)

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“Outdated laws” need fixing to deal with the surge in illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, a top Border Patrol official said Friday.

Migrant families face no consequences if apprehended trying to cross the border illegally under present law, Border Patrol chief of Operations Brian Hastings claimed during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“We need a change in the current outdated laws that we’re dealing with for this current demographic and this crisis that we have,” he said.

Hastings said as of Thursday there have been 440,000 apprehensions along the southwest border. There were 396,000 apprehensions all of last year.

SOUTHERN BORDER AT ‘BREAKING POINT’ AFTER MORE THAN 76,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TRIED CROSSING IN FEBRUARY, OFFICIALS SAY

And those numbers continue to rise, he said.

Historically 70 to 90 percent of apprehensions at the border were quickly returned to Mexico, Hastings said.

Now, 83 percent of those apprehended have come from the Central American northern triangle which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and of those 63 percent are “family units” and children who cannot be returned, he said.

“There are no consequences that we can apply to this group currently,” Hastings said. “We’re overwhelmed. If you look at agents there doing a tremendous job trying to deal with the flow.”

The law dictates children have to be released after 20 days of detention.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says that has forced immigration officials to release entire families because “you don’t want to separate families.”

Recently, he said he is drafting legislation that would allow children to be detained for more than 20 days.

Hastings said agents are frustrated with the situation but are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

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“Up to 40 percent of our agents are processing at any given time,” he said. “That should say that in and of itself is pulling from those border security resources.”

Source: Fox News National

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President Trump on Friday blasted liberal billionaire activist Tom Steyer for his continued push to impeach Trump — with Trump claiming Steyer is “trying to remain relevant” and doesn’t have the “guts” to run for the White House himself.

“Weirdo Tom Steyer, who didn’t have the ‘guts’ or money to run for President, is still trying to remain relevant by putting himself on ads begging for impeachment,” the president tweeted. “He doesn’t mention the fact that mine is perhaps the most successful first 2 year presidency in history & NO C OR O! [Collusion or Obstruction]”

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT BACKERS NOT GIVING UP AFTER MUELLER REPORT

Trump and his allies have pointed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report’s conclusions that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and its decision not to make a conclusion on obstruction of justice as a vindication for the president.

But some Democrats and left-wing activists have pointed to the instances of possible obstruction of justice that the investigation looked into as proof of the need for more investigations or even impeachment proceedings.

ELIZABETH WARREN DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PUSH, SAYS IT’S ‘BIGGER THAN POLITICS’

Steyer has been one of the leaders backing a push to impeach Trump and founded “Need to Impeach” and has kept up that push since the report’s release. He announced on Thursday that he was calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to support impeachment proceedings.

On Friday he responded to Trump’s tweet, calling him “angry and scared.”

“I know you want it all to go away. But for the sake of the country you must face your transgressions. Rage away, but that anger doesn’t matter,” he said in a tweet. The truth and the people will prevail.”

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Impeachment hearings have been backed by a number of House Democrats, as well as 2020 presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. However, Pelosi has long been skeptical of impeachment proceedings against Trump.

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in an interview last month. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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A Florida measure that would ban sanctuary cities is set for a vote Friday in the state’s Senate after clearing its first hurdle earlier this week.

The bill would effectively make it against the law for Florida’s police departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

“The Governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the state against such officers to enforce compliance,” a draft version of the Senate bill reads.

A House version of the bill, which passed by a 69-47 vote Wednesday, adds that non-complying officials could be suspended or removed from office and face fines of up to $5,000 per day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign off on the measure, although it’s not clear which version.

FLORIDA MAY SEND A BIG MESSAGE TO SANCTUARY CITIES

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state.

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state. (AP)

LAWRENCE JONES: NEEDLES, DRUG USE AND HUMAN WASTE ARE THE NEW NORMAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Florida is home to 775,000 illegal immigrants out of 10.7 million present in the United States, ranking the state third among all states.

Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — already have enacted state laws requiring law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida doesn’t have sanctuary cities like the ones in California and other states. But Republican lawmakers say a handful of their municipalities — including Orlando and West Palm Beach – are acting as “pseudo-sanctuary” cities, because they prevent law enforcement officials from asking about immigration status when they make arrests.

“There are still people here in the state of Florida, police chiefs that are just refusing to contact ICE, refusing to detain somebody that they know is here illegally,” Florida Republican Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said earlier this month. “So while the actual county municipality doesn’t have an actual adopted policy, they still have people in power within their sheriff’s department or police department that refuse to do it anyway.”

Florida’s Democratic Party has blasted the anti-Sanctuary measures, while the Miami-Dade Police Department says it should be up to federal authorities to handle immigration-related matters.

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“House Republicans today sold out their communities to Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by passing this xenophobic and discriminatory bill,” the state’s Democratic Party said Wednesday after the House passed their version of the bill. “It’s abhorrent that Republican members who represent immigrant communities are now turning their backs on their constituents and jeopardizing their safety.

“Florida has long stood as a beacon for immigrant communities — and today Republicans did the best they could to destroy that reputation,” they added.

Fox News’ Elina Shirazi contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the county added about 2,500 people in 2018. LNP reports that about 1,000 of them were Amish.

Elizabethtown College researchers say Lancaster County’s Amish population reached 33,143 in 2018, up 3.2% from the previous year.

The Amish accounted for about 41% of the county’s overall population growth last year.

Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre (30-hectare) housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish.

Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, told Manheim Township commissioners this week that some in the community are worried about the development and the increased traffic it would bring.

___

Information from: LNP, http://lancasteronline.com

Source: Fox News National

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