Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Singapore PM promotes likely successor in Cabinet reshuffle

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has named a deputy in a Cabinet reshuffle, in a possible indication of his successor.

His office said Tuesday that Heng Swee Keat would be promoted to deputy prime minister. Heng has been finance minister since 2015. He will keep that post when the appointment takes effect on May 1.

Lee, who is 67, intends to step down in the coming years. He said Heng's promotion was "part of the ongoing leadership renewal."

"The next generation leadership is taking shape, and progressively taking over from me and my older colleagues," he said in a Facebook post.

Heng was managing director of Singapore's central bank during the 2008 financial crisis. In 2011, he won his first election and was appointed education minister.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Asian shares hold near six-month high on hopes of dovish Fed

A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo
A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

March 20, 2019

By Hideyuki Sano

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares got off to a cautious start on Wednesday, holding close to six-month highs on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will stick to a dovish stance and unveil a plan to stop cutting bond holdings later this year.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.1 percent from a six-month high touched the previous day. Japan’s Nikkei was also down 0.1 percent.

Wall Street shares were narrowly mixed on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 losing 0.01 percent and the Nasdaq adding 0.12 percent.

The Federal Reserve, which is wrapping up its two-day policy review later on Wednesday, is expected to lower its policymakers’ rate projections from December, when their median expectations were for two rate hikes this year.

Since the beginning of year, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has said the central bank would be patient – interpreted as code word for holding off on a rate hike – on signs of slowing economic growth in the United States and many parts of the world.

Financial markets have gone even further by pricing in a rate cut this year. Fed funds futures point to about a 30 percent chance of a cut by the end of year.

The Fed is also expected to lay out a plan to stop shrinking its $4 trillion balance sheet, or so-called quantitative tightening. Many policy makers have suggested the Fed is likely to conclude the process and stabilize its bond holdings by the end of this year.

“I think market consensus centers around an end in September but we expect the Fed to end its balance sheet rolloff in June, at around $3.85 trillion yen, based on our calculations on the amount of excess reserves the Fed will need,” said Shuji Shirota, head of macroeconomic strategy at HSBC Securities in Tokyo.

Expectations of a dovish Fed have dented the U.S. dollar, which has already been under pressure this year after Powell all but signaled a pause to the tightening cycle at the previous meeting.

The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies hit 2 1/2-week low of 96.288 on Tuesday and last stood at 96.390.

The euro traded at $1.1354, near Tuesday’s two-week high of $1.1362.

The dollar fetched 111.41 yen, slipping from Friday’s nine-day high of 111.90.

The British pound remained hostage to headlines on Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to ask the European Union to delay Brexit by at least three months after her plan to hold a third vote on her deal was thrown into disarray by a surprise intervention from the speaker of parliament.

May had earlier warned parliament that if it did not ratify her deal, she would ask to delay Brexit beyond June 30, a step that Brexit’s advocates fear would endanger the entire divorce.

On the other hand, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said an extension would only make sense if it increased the chances of May’s deal being ratified by Britain’s House of Commons.

Sterling last stood flat at $1.3265, off its nine-month peak of $1.3380 hit a week ago.

Market players held on to hopes of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing as officials from both sides remained locked in negotiations.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plan to travel to China next week for another round of trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a Trump administration official said on Tuesday.

Oil prices held close to four-month highs on expectations that OPEC would continue production cuts through the end of the year and after data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a surprise draw-down on crude inventories.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures stood flat at $59.02 per barrel after touching its highest since November at $59.57 on Tuesday.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Source: OANN

0 0

Texas couple arrested after body of daughter, 3, found in acid-filled container, police say

A Texas couple was arrested and charged after their 3-year-old daughter’s body was found in a container of acid stashed inside a bedroom closet, police said.

Monica Dominguez, 37, and Gerardo Zavala Loredo, 32, were arrested in connection with the death of their daughter Rebecca Zavala, whose body parts were found decomposing in a five-gallon container that appeared to be filled with acid.

The couple faces charges of evidence tampering, endangering a child and abuse of a corpse, police said in a news conference.

Police began investigating the couple’s home in Laredo on Thursday after receiving a tip from a neighbor, KGNS reported. Authorities obtained a warrant and began searching the home about 5 p.m. and discovered the container in a bedroom closet.

TEXAS WOMAN SHOT DEAD IN $200 GAS STATION ROBBERY, POLICE SAY

Dominguez claimed the 3-year-old drowned in the bathtub when she left alone in the bathroom. She then allegedly recruited Zavala-Loredo’s help to dispose of the body, police said.

Police said they will be examining the child’s remains to determine whether she suffered injuries prior to her death.

“We are now going to rely on the forensic evidence…to examine the remains of the body to determine if there are any injuries consistent with a possible, with a possible murder,” police said in a Friday news conference.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The couple’s four other children, ages between 1 and 11, were turned over to Child Protective Services.

Martinez, who is being held on a $175,000 bond, was previously charged with injury to a child. Zavala Loredo, who is reportedly in the U.S. illegally, is being held on $125,000 bond.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Florida woman, 20, caring for 5 siblings after parents’ death, gets gift of a new car

A story that captured the hearts of many back in December has gone viral again after a Florida community raised money to buy a new car for 20-year-old Samantha Rodriguez, who became the caretaker for her five younger siblings after the tragic deaths of both parents.

Samantha and her five siblings, ages 6 to 15, lost both parents to cancer over the last few years. When the the Orange County Sheriff's Office heard that Samantha became the caretaker for her younger siblings, they wanted to ensure that the family had a special Christmas.

Officers with the OCSO Aviation Unit invited the Rodriguez children to the station, where they thought they were receiving a tour of the facility, but when they arrived they were met with a room full of gifts.

The initial story touched the community so much so that over the months that followed, several donors reached out to the sheriff’s office with a way to help the family.

On April 4, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office presented Samantha with a new 2018 Nissan Versa sedan.

“You don’t know how much this means to us and it’s such a big help, really,” she said with total shock. “Doing everything on my own is very hard but I’m so glad to have people like you guys in my life.”

A video posted to the OCSO Facebook page showed the moment Samantha surprised her siblings with generous gift.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“This is our car guys!” she said her brother and sisters were heard shouting with excitement.

“This is ours?” one of the Rodriguez children can be heard saying.

“We love you guys!”

Source: Fox News National

0 0

America’s 1st Female Astronaut Candidate, Jerrie Cobb, Dies

America's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, who pushed for equality in space but never reached its heights, has died.

Cobb died in Florida at age 88 on March 18 following a brief illness. News of her death came Thursday from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men.

None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.

"We seek, only, a place in our nation's space future without discrimination," she told a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts.

Instead of making her an astronaut, NASA tapped her as a consultant to talk up the space program. She was dismissed one week after commenting: "I'm the most unconsulted consultant in any government agency."

She wrote in her 1997 autobiography "Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot," ''My country, my culture, was not ready to allow a woman to fly in space."

Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle.

"She should have gone to space, but turned her life into one of service with grace," tweeted Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and a former NASA scientist.

The Soviet Union ended up putting the first woman into space in 1963: Valentina Tereshkova. NASA didn't fly a woman in space — Sally Ride — until 1983.

Cobb and other surviving members of the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins, NASA's first female space pilot and later its first female space commander.

"Jerrie Cobb served as an inspiration to many of our members in her record breaking, her desire to go into space, and just to prove that women could do what men could do," said Laura Ohrenberg, headquarters manager in Oklahoma City for the Ninety-Nines Inc., an international organization of licensed women pilots.

Still hopeful, Cobb emerged in 1998 to make another pitch for space as NASA prepared to launch Mercury astronaut John Glenn — the first American to orbit the world — on shuttle Discovery at age 77.

Cobb maintained that the geriatric space study should also include an older woman.

"I would give my life to fly in space, I really would," Cobb told The Associated Press at age 67 in 1998. "It's hard for me to talk about it, but I would. I would then, and I will now."

"It just didn't work out then, and I just hope and pray it will now," she added.

It didn't. NASA never flew another elderly person in space, male or female.

Geraldyn Cobb was born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma, the second daughter of a military pilot and his wife. She flew her father's open cockpit Waco biplane at age 12 and got her private pilot's license four years later.

The Mercury 13's story is told in a recent Netflix documentary and a play based on Cobb's life, "They Promised Her the Moon," is currently running in San Diego.

In her autobiography, Cobb described how she danced on the wings of her plane in the Amazon moonlight, when learning via radio on July 20, 1969, that Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed on the moon.

She wrote: "Yes, I wish I were on the moon with my fellow pilots, exploring another celestial body. How I would love to see our beautiful blue planet Earth floating in the blackness of space. And see the stars and galaxies in their true brilliance, without the filter of our atmosphere. But I'm happy flying here in Amazonas, serving my brethren. 'Contenta, Senor, contenta.' (I am happy, Lord, happy.)"

Source: NewsMax America

0 0

Zara founder’s real estate arm buys Amazon offices in Seattle

People shop at a Zara store during the grand opening of The Hudson Yards development in New York
People shop at a Zara store during the grand opening of The Hudson Yards development, a residential, commercial, and retail space on Manhattan's West side in New York City, New York, U.S., March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 28, 2019

MADRID (Reuters) – Pontegadea Inmobiliaria, the real estate arm of the founder of fashion group Inditex, Amancio Ortega, this week completed the purchase of two Seattle office blocks leased to Amazon, a Pontegadea spokesman said on Thursday.

Pontegadea bought the buildings from U.S. investment fund USAA Real Estate, the spokesman said, adding it was the Spanish fund’s biggest ever deal in the United States.

The buildings were sold for $740 million, according to the Seattle Times. Pontegadea declined to comment on the transaction value.

Ortega has made largely debt-free purchases of prime buildings from London to New York, becoming a major commercial real estate player, using the cash from massive dividend payouts from Inditex.

Europe’s richest man, who holds a 59.29 percent stake in Inditex, not only rents out his commercial property to Inditex stores like Zara and Massimo Dutti at market rates but also to rivals such as H&M of Sweden and Gap Inc of the United States.

Pontegadea bought the Adelphi building in Westminster, London, in the second half of last year, home to the music-streaming service Spotify and media company Conde Nast.

Other properties include a stretch of London’s prime shopping drag Oxford Street and the historic E.V. Haughwout Building in SoHo, New York.

(Reporting By Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Paul Day and Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

0 0

Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey: Democrats Are Delusional

Instead of continuing the collusion "delusions," Democrats should be investigating how the Justice Department got the investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling "so wrong" with "prosecutorial abuse," according to a Democratic former Nebraska senator and governor.

"Delusions fascinate me in part because I have so many of my own," ex-Gov./Sen. Bob Kerrey wrote in an Omaha World-Herald op-ed. "Most often delusions are harmless. Sometimes they are not.

"At the moment my fellow Democrats are suffering from two that are harmful.

"The first is that Americans long for a president who will ask us to pay more for the pleasure of increasing the role of the federal government in our lives."

Americans just do not favor the Green New Deal, a tax on wealth or Medicare for all, he wrote.

"The second Democratic delusion is that Americans were robbed of the truth when special prosecutor Robert Mueller and Attorney General William Barr concluded that President Trump did not collude with Russia in 2016," Kerrey continued. "All evidence indicates that the full report will not change the conclusion that Donald J. Trump did not collude with Vladimir Putin to secure his victory in 2016.

"Rather than investigating the president further, Congress needs to investigate how the Department of Justice got this one so wrong. If the president of the United States is vulnerable to prosecutorial abuse, then God help all the rest of us."

Like legal expert Alan Dershowitz has maintained from the start, Congress needs a "nonpartisan commission" to investigate the failings of the justice system in searching for a crime that was not found in the Mueller Report.

"Find out what went wrong and to tell us what needs to be done to make certain it never happens again," Kerrey wrote, pointing to four key questions:

  1. Is the FBI Director free of political pressure to investigate candidates or elected officials on a partisan basis?
  2. Can we write rules to govern candidate and officeholders?
  3. How does the FBI decide to open an investigation? "A single campaign official suggesting the possibility of collusion with a foreign power or a document written as opposition research or a demand from a member of Congress are very thin reeds upon which to challenge the legitimacy of an elected official," Kerrey wrote.
  4. "Are federal pardons justified?"

"Our democracy will survive the hostility of Vladimir Putin," Kerrey concluded. "What it may not survive is distrust of our system of justice. At the moment that distrust is deep and wide.

"We need a nonpartisan national commission to tell us what has just happened and to advise us on what we need to do to keep it from happening again."

Source: NewsMax Politics

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Real News with David Knight

9:00 am 12:00 pm



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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

“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.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist