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War Room – 2019-Mar-01, Friday – InfoWars Reporters To Make Major 2020 Olympic Announcement

On this Friday’s edition of the War Room, Rob Dew and Owen Shroyer open the show with an exclusive announcement, followed by commentary on the latest news from the UK with Katie Hopkins. Dew also uncovers some of the latest vaccine news and is then joined in studio by Savanah Hernandez who announces the next attempt on confronting the Mayor of Austin on the unfair advantages the city gives to Planned Parenthood.

GUEST // (OTP/Skype) // TOPICS:
Katie Hopkins//Skype

Source: The War Room

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Funds raised for Syrian refugees who lost all seven children in Canada fire

A house where an early morning fatal fire killed seven children from the same family in the community of Spryfield is seen in Halifax
A house where an early morning fatal fire killed seven children from the same family in the community of Spryfield is seen in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Ted Pritchard

February 20, 2019

TORONTO (Reuters) – A fundraising effort for a Syrian-refugee couple who lost all seven of their children in a house fire in the eastern Canadian city of Halifax has reached C$290,000 ($220,281) from nearly 6,000 people in 24 hours, according to online fundraiser GoFundMe.

With the children’s father in the hospital with life-threatening injuries and the mother stricken with grief, the community will hold a vigil for the family Wednesday evening in Halifax, according to one of the groups that helped resettle the refugees.

Family friends of the victims, the Imam Council of Halifax, and the Hants East Assisting Refugees Team (HEART) Society initiated the GoFundMe crowd-funding drive for the Barho family, according to the website. The vigil was scheduled for 6 p.m. Atlantic time.

The Barho family arrived in Canada in 2017 and were the first family sponsored by the HEART Society, according to the organization. A YouTube video posted on The Enfield Weekly Press & The Laker channel shows the family receiving a welcome at an airport in Sept. 29, 2017.

The society said the children enjoyed living in Canada, and participated in swimming and bicycling.

Natalie Horne, vice president of the HEART Society, told Reuters on Wednesday, the family was “full of humour, full of smiles, full of gratitude, and love.”

The father is in hospital with life-threatening injuries, and the mother was not injured but is dealing with “an overwhelming amount of grief” according to Horne.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined by the authorities.

“It’s been an overwhelming show of support from the community locally, nationally, internationally. It means a lot. We wish that we could all bring the children back,” Horne said.

(Reporting by Tyler Choi; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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George Washington's Farewell Address to be read on Senate floor in annual tradition

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., will follow an annual tradition when the Senate meets again next week.

The Senate returns to session next Monday afternoon. The first order of business is for Fischer to read George Washington’s Farewell Address aloud on the floor.

The annual oration stands as one of the Senate’s most enduring customs.

A senator has read the address every year since 1896.

In recent years, the spectacle comes around Presidents’ Day.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., had the honor last year. The list of readers includes the late Sens. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., John McCain, R-Ariz., Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz.,  Hubert Humphrey, D.-Minn., and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

But this year, Washington’s 32-page valedictory screed bears more weight than in years past. Washington was retiring to Mount Vernon when he wrote the speech to “friends and fellow-citizens.” He used the manifest to warn Americans of the dangers of partisanship and politics if they were to maintain values in the fledgling United States.

“It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another,” wrote Washington. “The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.”

One wonders how many people will tune in to C-SPAN2 or digest Fischer’s recitation of Washington’s counsel next week.

Most senators will be jetting back to the Beltway after the Presidents’ Day recess, not yet on the ground to hear Fischer’s presentation. That’s ironic considering the debate which now simmers over whether President Trump overstepped presidential authority to redistribute money for his border wall. This is especially prescient considering how lawmakers guard Congressional prerogatives. Ceding power of the purse to the executive establishes a new precedent in American government. This is precisely the concern Washington raised when he spoke of “encroachment” and limiting power within “constitutional spheres.”

TRUMP NEEDS A TRANSFER, MAY HAVE TO ROB PETER TO PAY PAUL

Policymakers always have exercised a healthy tension between the legislative branch and the executive branch. But none other than Alexander Hamilton called for what he characterized as “energy” in the executive when writing Federalist #70, the precursor set of documents which helped form the Constitution.

Hamilton demanded an active executive to curb legislative overreaches and to pose as a bulwark against Congress. In this instance, Trump asserts there’s an emergency at the border. So he needs the wall. Maybe. Maybe not. But this is why the founders formed a system of checks and balances. There’s a question about just how much latitude the president has when it comes to repurposing funds Congress designated for something else. The Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power of the purse. All presidents can do is either sign or veto bills after lawmakers decide to spend money. Trump’s plan to rejigger billions of dollars of already appropriated spending by Congress could be a problem.

Presidents long have tested the parameters of executive authority. President Woodrow Wilson declared a “national emergency” in 1917 because of an “insufficiency of maritime tonnage” to carry U.S. agricultural and manufacturing commodities. Congress approved the National Emergencies Act of 1976, granting presidents the ability to act on any number of priorities they may deem an emergency. Presidents have declared 58 national emergencies since 1976. Thirty-one are renewed each year.

From a parliamentary perspective, Fox News is told that the National Emergencies Act is a legislative mess. It lacks focus, specificity and is inherently vague.

“It is not the gold standard for writing legislation,” confided one source.

That said, Congress can terminate declarations of national emergencies with the adoption of a joint resolution by both bodies of Congress. It needs a simple majority and must earn a presidential signature. If the president vetoes a House/Senate joint resolution, those bodies can move to override the veto with a two-thirds vote.

The House likely would seek action to revoke the national emergency as it pertains to the wall. But this process is far thornier in the Senate. The statute contains imprecise verbiage as to how the Senate may consider the legislation and whether certain, special procedural motions fly in the face of debating the statute. For instance, the law requires the Senate to vote on overturning the national emergency after “three days.” But what constitutes “three days?” Three full days of debate? A motion to adjourn is one of the most-privileged motions in the Senate. What happens if the Senate were to adjourn without first finishing work to repeal the national emergency?

CAPITOL GRAPPLES WITH COMPLICATED HISTORY ON RACE

As one source said to Fox News, “If (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell doesn’t want the resolution to come up, it won’t.”

When rushing to the Senate floor to announce that Trump would sign the spending package last week, McConnell also declared he was on board with the national emergency. A few weeks ago, McConnell’s position on Congressional action to rebuke a national emergency was hazier. But McConnell’s position grew definitive when asked by Fox News about Trump using executive authority to mine appropriations bills for wall funding.

“He ought to feel free to use whatever tools he wants to use to secure the border. I would not be troubled by that,” replied McConnell, R-Ky.

Democrats are apoplectic that Trump would go to such lengths to bypass Congress. Many Republicans are, too. That’s why a Senate vote to reverse the national emergency could prove so interesting. Some Senate Republicans also have shown a willingness to buck Trump when it comes to foreign policy. Some Republicans have broken with the administration over an early withdrawal from Syria, relaxing of U.S. sanctions on Russia and how the president dealt with Saudi Arabia following the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

The other problem staring at the Trump administration is the “Youngstown Steel Case.” The 1952 Supreme Court case Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer is thought to be the most consequential rebuff of presidential powers in history. In fact during his confirmation hearing, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cited the case as one of the most important rulings ever handed down by the High Court. It’s possible Trump could face a dim view on his expansion of appropriation powers at the Supreme Court. Moreover, it will be interesting to see how Kavanaugh interprets the president’s maneuver, considering his testimony about “Youngstown Steel” last year.

The question on the table is why Congress should exist if the president is able to trample on legislative spending authority.

The late Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., long worried about what would happen to Congress if it forked over powers to the executive branch. Byrd cited the decline of the Roman Senate once the executive seized the power of the purse.

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“The United States Senate would have set its foot on the same road to decline, subservience, impotence and feebleness that the Roman Senate followed in its own descent into ignominy, cowardice and oblivion,” warned Byrd.

But you don’t have to study the Romans. Consider the warnings Washington issued in his 1796 Farewell Address. Fischer will lay those all out before the Senate next Monday afternoon.

Source: Fox News Politics

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On heels of scandals, USC announces new president

The University of Southern California on Wednesday announced a new school president to usher "a new era" following a series of high-profile scandals that culminated last week with a massive college admissions bribery case.

Carol Folt, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will become USC's 12th president and the first permanent female president in school history — an announcement that came a week after news of the bribery scandal broke.

Folt said the scandal didn't give her pause about taking on the job.

"I want to be a part of fixing this," Folt said. "If you're trying to run an institution, you have to enjoy the fixing as well as the advancing."

Folt said she was horrified to learn of the scheme, which involved wealthy parents paying bribes to have a college counselor rig standardized tests or get their children admitted as recruits of sports they didn't play.

"Most of us (at universities) spend our lives caring about students and admissions and trying to do things fairly ... so when you see something like that, you're just aghast," she said. "But most of us immediately started thinking, 'OK, boy, we know how to get to the bottom of this, we're going to figure this out and that is not something I want to ever see happen again.' "

Rick Caruso, chairman of the USC board of trustees, said problems will occur, but the measure of great leadership is how one reacts to them.

"We have worked hard to try to turn a corner, to make a change," Caruso said. "Today firmly cements the fact that there is a dramatic cultural change in this university."

A lengthy search for a new president led a 23-member committee to unanimously recommend Folt, Caruso said.

"If nothing else, this last nine months has shown us that this university can handle whatever's thrown at us," he said. "We are ready to move forward."

Folt will take over USC from interim President Wanda Austin, who stepped in after former President C.L. Max Nikias resigned last summer amid two major controversies: reports that the school ignored complaints of widespread sexual misconduct by a longtime campus gynecologist and an investigation into a medical school dean accused of smoking methamphetamine with a woman who overdosed.

Combined with the bribery scandal, Folt will have her work cut out for her, said Roger Sloboda, a Dartmouth biology professor who worked with Folt at the New Hampshire school, where she started her academic career and spent three decades.

"Considering the recent stuff at USC, I feel sorry for Carol jumping into that mess. But I think she'll clean it up," he said. "She is a scientist and she'll look at the data, figure out what happened and how to fix it."

From a crisis standpoint at her previous job at UNC-Chapel Hill, Folt did just OK, said Jay Schalin, policy analysis director at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, a right-leaning think tank.

At UNC, Folt inherited a department that offered irregular courses with significant athlete enrollments dating back years before her arrival. The courses were misidentified as lecture classes that didn't meet, required a research paper or two for typically high grades with little to no faculty oversight.

Folt also was forced out early from the job in January amid a controversy over a Confederate statue known as "Silent Sam" that was torn down on campus.

Schalin said Folt angered conservatives in North Carolina with "mixed signals" on Silent Sam that they felt emboldened protesters.

As far the academic scandal involving UNC athletes, he said the USC scandal seems smaller in scope. "Folt should have little trouble managing it, unless the media goes after USC in a major way," he said.

The president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, where Folt served as chair of a committee on science and technology policy, said he has always "admired her insights and wisdom on ways universities can better serve students and the public at large."

"Carol Folt is a very accomplished and highly respected higher education leader," association President Peter McPherson said in a statement.

Four USC students showed up to Folt's introduction at USC holding protesting her actions during the Confederate statue controversy, saying she took credit for taking it down when it really was a student-led movement.

One of the students, Rebecca Hu, said she wanted to make her concerns known and felt students should have been more heavily involved in the selection of a new president.

"I think the student community is really hurt by everyone in USC administration, and we just want to make sure they actually hear us for once and take us seriously," said Hu, a senior majoring in philosophy.

Jason Chang, a 20-year-old accounting major, said he and his fellow students "just want transparency" about the unfolding scandal.

"It's sad to say that it's tainting the school's reputation," he said.

Graduate student Myla Bastien also called for transparency and honesty. "I think that if USC just owns it, and then comes up with a plan to prevent it from happening in the future, that would be helpful," she said.

Folt said she's committed to addressing student concerns and that the university is off to "an amazing start."

"I think people have been very honest and forthright about it," she said. "I'm certainly not being encouraged to be anything but direct and open and honest and to try to do this the right way. That's really critical."

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles, Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Hyundai set for Elliott showdown as it rejects $6.3 billion payout call

FILE PHOTO: Chief Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group Chung Eui-sun delivers his speech during the company's new year ceremony in Seoul
FILE PHOTO: Chief Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group Chung Eui-sun delivers his speech during the company's new year ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, January 2, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

February 26, 2019

By Hyunjoo Jin

SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday rejected demands by U.S. activist investor Elliott Management for a combined 7 trillion won ($6.3 billion) dividend payout and new board members, complicating efforts to revamp South Korea’s second-biggest conglomerate.

Opposition from Elliott led Hyundai to drop an earlier attempt to overhaul its ownership structure and executive vice-chairman Euisun Chung pledged in January to complete a restructuring expected to pave the way for him to succeed his father Mong-Koo Chung as group chairman.

“I think Elliott expected that its proposals would be rejected by Hyundai. Its purpose is to rally support from other shareholders for a vote on a restructuring plan,” Park Ju-gun, head of corporate analysis firm CEO Score, said.

Elliott, which was not immediately available for comment, had proposed a 2018 dividend of 4.5 trillion won for Hyundai Motor and 2.5 trillion won for auto parts supplier Hyundai Mobis, regulatory filings show.

The two had proposed payouts of nearly 1 trillion won.

Hyundai will hold an annual shareholders meeting on March 22, when shareholders will vote on dividend and board members.

The group is expected to come up with a revised proposal, which is expected to be put to a vote at extraordinary shareholders meeting in April or May, Park said.

Hyundai Motor said in a regulatory filing that the dividend proposed by Elliott would lead to a “massive cash outflow,” hurting future investments and shareholder value.

Hyundai Mobis also said it would “undermine its future competitiveness” as it needs to invest more than 4 trillion won to develop new vehicles over the next three years.

Instead Hyundai Mobis announced a 2.6 trillion won shareholder return package over the next three years, less than Elliott’s demand for at least 4 trillion won.

The Hyundai Mobis package includes dividends worth 1.1 trillion won, a buyback of stock worth 1 trillion won and a cancellation of 460 billion won worth of shares.

It said it will appoint former Opel Chief Executive Karl-Thomas Neumann, and Brian Jones, co-president at Archegos Capital Management, as outside board directors.

Hyundai Motor said it will also add foreigners as outside board directors, while appointing president Albert Biermann, a former BMW executive, as a new board member.

Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Motor also announced plans on Tuesday to appoint Euisun Chung as co-CEO. Mong-Koo Chung will remain as co-CEO of the two companies.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Miyoung Kim, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Swedish Towns Facing Economic Crises After Migrant Surge

Multiple municipalities in Sweden are facing economic crises due to an overloading of welfare-dependent migrants and reduced federal support, according to local media.

"Like many other Swedish municipalities, Filipstad has received thousands of immigrants from the Third World - almost all of whom live on grants," Fria Tider reports. "Filipstad will soon no longer be able to cope with the cost of social assistance."

Filipstad, a locality in south-central Sweden which had only about 6,000 residents as of 2010, now boasts a population of roughly 10,000, including some 2,000 "overseas" migrants, according to Expressen columnist Anna Dahlberg.

"Even after the major restructuring of the migration policy, the influx has continued. Relatives have joined, as well as some new arrivals from Stockholm," Dahlberg writes. "Filipstad has the most social welfare beneficiaries across the country in relation to the population."

"Of the city's over 10,000 inhabitants, over 2,000 have overseas backgrounds. A total of 80% of the adults in that group lack a job and another 10% are in labor market policy measures, according to the municipal executive."

Alarm bells are ringing in Vilhelmina, as well, where officials have reportedly proposed closing a local school in order to bridge budget gaps after the Migration Board reduced assistance to the city in the amount of roughly $4.2 million, prompting the outrage of parents.

"It would be a disaster for the village," a local parent told parent told SVT Nyheter.

Similar financial crises are also unfolding in other Swedish municipalities, according to SVT Nyheter.

Alex Jones covers the Notre Dame fire as it burns the 900-year-old cathedral to the ground.

(PHOTO: Magnus Persson/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Source: InfoWars

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Sex abuse convictions of Australia cardinal prove polarizing

The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse will be sentenced to prison on Wednesday in an Australia landmark case that has polarized observers. Some described the prosecution as proof the church is no longer above the law, while others suspect Cardinal George Pell has been made a scapegoat for the church's sins.

Pope Francis' former finance minister, who had been described as the third-highest ranking Catholic in the Vatican, has spent two weeks in a Melbourne remand jail cell since a sentencing hearing in the Victoria state County Court on Feb. 27 in which his lawyers conceded the 77-year-old must spend time behind bars.

Pell had been convicted in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and indecently dealing with the boy and the boy's 13-year-old friend in the late 1990s, months after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne and initiated a compensation scheme for victims of clergy sexual abuse. A court order had prohibited media from reporting on the verdict until two weeks ago, when prosecutors abandoned a second trial on charges that Pell had groped two boys in a public swimming pool in the 1970s.

Chief Judge Peter Kidd will sentence Pell on five convictions, each carrying a potential 10-year maximum sentence. The sentences for each conviction are likely to be served concurrently.

Pell's sentence will also reflect court standards of two decades ago when his crimes were committed. In those days, judges placed less weight on the damage done to children by sexual abuse.

In an unusual move for an Australian court that acknowledges intense international interest in the case, the judge will allow his sentencing remarks to be broadcast on live television.

After centuries of impunity, cardinals from Australia to Chile and points in between are facing justice in both the Vatican and government courts for their own sexual misdeeds or for having shielded abusers under their watch.

Last week, France's senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was convicted of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police. Barbarin was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Pope Francis last month defrocked the onetime leader of the American church after an internal investigation determined Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually molested children and adult men. It was the first time a cardinal had been defrocked over the child abuse scandal.

Pell has denied any wrongdoing and will appeal his convictions on the Victoria Court of Appeal on June 5. His lawyers canceled an application to keep him free on bail before then.

The appeal grounds include that the "verdicts are unreasonable and cannot be supported" by the evidence of more than 20 witnesses who testified, including clerics, choristers and altar servers.

"It was not open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt on the word of the complainant alone," the filings said.

That view has been expressed in some sections of the media.

"Pell was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt on the uncorroborated evidence of one witness, without forensic evidence, a pattern of behavior or a confession," veteran crime reporter John Silvester wrote in Melbourne's The Age newspaper.

"Pell has become a lightning rod on the worldwide storm of anger at a systemic cover-up of priestly abuses. But that doesn't make him a child molester," Silvester added.

An Australian academic who wrote an opinion piece describing Pell's "accusers" as "wicked" last week apologized for the article, which was published in a Catholic monthly newspaper that was later pulled by the church.

"Pell is a tough man and he will, by the grace of God, survive the wickedness of his accusers and the silence of many who should defend him but won't," Tasmania University think-tank director David Daintree wrote in the Tasmania-based Catholic Standard newspaper.

In his written apology issued by the Hobart Archdiocese, Daintree said: "It was never my intention to cast doubt on survivors."

Sky News Live, an Australian cable and satellite television station, protected advertisers' reputations by removing all ads from prominent conservative commentator Andrew Bolt's nightly program after he flagged he would be venting his own misgivings about the verdict.

"Pell could well be an innocent man who is being made to pay for the sins of his church and made to pay after an astonishing campaign of media vilification," Bolt said.

The judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer repeatedly told both Pell's juries that they must not make Pell a scapegoat for the church. The first trial ended in a deadlocked jury and the second jury delivered unanimous guilty verdicts.

Judge Kidd told the sentencing hearing last month: "The Catholic Church is not on trial ... I'm imposing sentence on Cardinal Pell for what he did."

Pell is guilty as charged in the eyes of many who have been quick to distance themselves from the cardinal since the convictions were made public. Melbourne's Richmond Football Club quickly dropped Pell as the Australian Rules Football team's honorary ambassador. Pell was contracted to the club as a budding professional footballer in 1959 before he joined the priesthood.

The prestigious Catholic school where Pell was educated in his hometown of Ballarat, St. Patrick's College, announced that a building named after him would be renamed and Pell would be removed from the school honor board.

"The jury's verdict demonstrates that Cardinal Pell's behaviors have not met the standards we expect of those we honor as role models for the young men we educate," headmaster John Crowley explained.

But the Australian Catholic University said its Pell Center at its Ballarat campus would not be renamed until the appeal process was completed, angering academic staff.

The university's president Greg Craven and former Prime Minister John Howard are among 10 prominent Australians whose character references were submitted to Kidd to take into consideration when deciding an appropriate sentence.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher told a congregation on the first Sunday after the convictions were made public that they should withhold judgment on Pell until the appeal.

"If we are too quick to judge, we can end up joining the demonisers or the apologists, those baying for blood or those in denial," Fisher said.

Fisher, a former lawyer, holds the church post in Australia's largest city that Pell held before he was elevated to the Vatican.

In the Vatican, Pell is facing a church investigation that could lead to his removal from the priesthood.

When Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson last year became the most senior Catholic cleric ever found guilty of covering up child sex abuse, he initially refused to resign pending an appeal.

But Wilson quit two months later after then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on Pope Francis to fire him. Wilson's conviction was eventually quashed on appeal in December, but he has not been reinstated to his former role.

Current Prime Minister Scott Morrison is willing to hold off acting on Pell until his appeal is settled. A petition with more than 100,000 signatures has called for Pell to be stripped of an Australian honor awarded in 2005 for his service to the church, education and social justice.

"I was appalled and shocked," Morrison said of the convictions. "I think any Australian would be to read of those events, but it shows that no one is above the law in this country."

Source: Fox News World

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Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of
Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of “Avengers: Endgame” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut, distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends the funeral service for murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.

“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.

He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg)

Source: OANN

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Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli
Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, Libya April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 26, 2019

By Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s U.N.-recognized government has budgeted up to 2 billion dinars ($1.43 billion) to cover costs of a three-week-old war for control of the capital, such as treatment for the wounded, to be funded without new borrowing, the economy minister said.

Ali Abdulaziz Issawi suggested the government hoped for business to continue more or less as usual despite the assault on Tripoli, in the country’s northwest, by forces tied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Once Africa’s third largest producer of oil, Libya has been riven by factional conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Khalifa Haftar and the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

Still, with Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces unable so far to pierce defenses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, normal life and business activities continue in much of the capital and western coastal towns.

Issawi, in an interview with Reuters in his Tripoli office, also said Libya’s commercial ports and wheat imports were still functioning normally, although some roads have been blocked.

He said the Serraj government estimates it will spend up to 2 billion dinars extra on medical treatment for wounded, aid for displaced people and other “emergency” war costs.

He said this was not military spending but analysts believe that the sum will also cover expenditures such as pay for allied armed groups or food for fighters.

“We could actually spend less,” he added, in comments that gave the first insight into the economic impact of the fighting.

Issawi said the Tripoli government, which controls little territory beyond the greater capital region, would not incur new debt to fund the war costs, sticking to a plan to post a 2019 budget without a deficit.

Tripoli derives revenue largely from oil and natural gas production, interest-free loans from local banks to the central bank, and a 183 percent surcharge on foreign exchange transactions conducted at official rates.

But with centralized tax collection greatly diminished, public debt has piled up – to 68 billion dinars in the west, including unpaid state obligations such as social insurance.

Some analysts expect Serraj’s government will be forced to raise new debt if the war for control of Tripoli drags on.

With much of Libya dominated by armed factions that also act as security forces, the public wage bill for both the western and eastern administrations has soared as fighters have been made public employees in efforts to buy their loyalty.

The east has sold bonds worth 35 billion dinars outside the official financial system as the Tripoli central bank does not fund the parallel government apart from some wages.

Despite its limited reach, the Tripoli government still runs an annual budget of around 46.8 billion dinars, mainly for public salaries and fuel subsidies.

“This year we cannot finance via debt…we will not borrow (by agreement with the central bank),” Issawi said.

According to International Monetary Fund data, Libya’s central government debt-to-GDP ratio is 143 percent, making it one of the most heavily indebted in the world on that measure.

Issawi declined to say what parts of the budget would be trimmed to support the extra outlay for war costs.

However, with some 70 percent of the budget allocated to public wages, fuel subsidies and other welfare benefits, a portion devoted to infrastructure is most likely to be axed.

Widespread lawlessness has meant there have been no major infrastructural projects since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi, leaving schools, hospitals and roads in acute need of restoration.

FOREX SURCHARGE

Issawi said the government planned to raise as much as 30 billion dinars by the end of 2019 from hard currency deals after imposing in September a 183 percent surcharge on commercial and private transactions done on the official rate of 1.4 to the U.S. dollar. That fee has effectively devalued the official rate to 3.9, much closer to the black market equivalent.

Some 17 billion dinars have been raised since then, with hard currency allocated for import credit letters now issued without delays, Issawi said. The forex fee has helped the government forecast a budget in the black for 2019.

Despite the narrowing spread between the two rates, the black market continues to thrive. Dozens of traders remained at their favorite spot behind the central bank headquarters in Tripoli when Reuters reporters visited it last week.

But traders said it could take time for the Serraj government to register the extra forex receipts as official banking channels were taking up to six months to approve import financing, keeping the black market in play for dealers.

Issawi said authorities planned to lower the forex fee from 183 percent, without saying when. The black market rate has dropped from 6 to around 4.1 since September but it has hardly moved of late as demand for black market cash remains high.

The Tripoli government has stopped subsidizing food and bread, which used to be cheaper than drinking water in Libya. Wheat imports are now being arranged by private traders and there are surplus stocks of flour at the moment, Issawi said.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Tripoli with additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., threatened possible jail time for White House officials refusing to comply with subpoenas to testify before the House Oversight Committee.

Connolly, a member of the House panel, made his comments during an interview on CNN on Thursday. He said that “if a subpoena is issued and you’re told you must testify, we will back that up.”

He added: “And we will use any and all power in our command to make sure it’s backed up — whether that’s a contempt citation, whether that’s going to court and getting that citation enforced, whether it’s fines, whether it’s possible incarceration.”

“We will go to the max to enforce the constitutional role of the legislative branch of government.”

His comments came after three officials have refused to comply with congressional requests to testify, CNN noted.

Trump told The Washington Post that his staff should not testify on Capitol Hill, explaining that the White House cooperated fully with special counsel Robert Mueller and “there is no reason to go any further, especially in Congress where it’s very partisan.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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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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