FILE – In this July 4, 2018, file photo, the Huawei logo is seen in a
shopping mall in Beijing. China’s latest propaganda broadside in its
trade war with the U.S. features an unusual star: Trevor Noah of the
Daily Show. A recent clip from the popular comedy tv show discussing
Chinese equipment maker Huawei’s dominance in 5G mobile technology ran
on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV’s national lunchtime news on Monday as
part of a package of stories attacking the U.S. position in the ongoing
trade war. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
The founder of Chinese Telecom Huawei says he is prepared for a drawn out fight with the U.S.
During a recent interview, the tech CEO remained defiant that the
recent black list against the company will ultimately not effect
business.
He did concede however, the Trump administration’s trade tariffs will
make it more difficult for Huawei to compete with it’s rival companies.
He also said he was not prepared to back down in the face of American trade pressure.
“There is the possibility this may become long-lasting,” said Ren
Zhengfei. “We’ve prepared for a protracted battle, not for a short one.
Maybe we will become stronger through the long-term fight. After we go
through the break-in period of our products, we may become stronger.”
The founder also went on to reject claims Huawei would be a part of
sanctions negotiations between Washington and Beijing, implying he has
no interest in negotiating with the White House.
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a news conference with Japan’s
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on
Monday, May 27, 2019. (Kiyoshi Ota/Pool Photo via AP)
President Trump says “everybody wants” the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
The president made the remark on the USMCA during a press conference
in Japan Monday, and called it a “deal that’s gotten universal praise.”
President Trump made the agreement with then-Mexican president
Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back in
2018, however it still needs to be ratified by Congress.
The president said he will work with congressional Democrats on the deal and suggested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will back it.
“Unions love it. Farmers love it. Manufacturers love it. You won’t
have companies leaving and going to Mexico and going to Canada and going
like they were for many, many years,” said President Trump. “It’s a
great deal. I would imagine that Nancy Pelosi would approve that. I
would think it would be very hard not to, but we’ll see.”
Pelosi is reportedly seeking to have stronger enforcement provisions negotiated into the deal.
The President has yet to submit the agreement to Congress for
ratification, but once he does lawmakers must vote on it within 60 days.
Rep. Duncan Hunter admitted that he took a picture with a dead combatant during his time as a Marine.
The California Republican made the admission during his defense of a Navy SEAL
charged with multiple war crimes, including killing a teenage fighter,
at a town hall on Saturday in his San Diego-area district.
FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018 file photo Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, center, leaves court in San Diego..
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Hunter advocated
for a pardon for Edward Gallagher, who has been charged with stabbing
to death a teenage Islamic State fighter under his care in Iraq in 2017,
shooting two civilians in Iraq and opening fire on crowds.
Prosecutors
say Gallagher texted a photograph of himself next to the dead fighter
and wrote that he “got him with my hunting knife.”
The Republican
told his constituents that he also once posed for a photo next to a dead
combatant but noted that he did not text it or post it to social media.
His admission was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
He said “a lot of us have done the exact same thing,” referring to fellow service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"A lot of us have done the exact same thing." — Rep. Duncan Hunter
He
then slammed the military justice system as “corrupt” and said it was
run by lawyers and bureaucrats intent on pursuing “warfighters.”
Gallagher
has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Hunter’s office did not
immediately respond to Fox News’ request for a comment.
The
legal team of the Navy SEAL said disgruntled SEALs made the accusations
because they wanted to get rid of a demanding platoon leader.
They
also accused the prosecutors of impropriety, including tracking
software in emails in an apparent attempt to find out who is leaking
information to the media about the case.
President Trump and
Republican lawmakers have been somewhat receptive to the idea of
pardoning Gallagher, suggesting that he is an innocent war hero being
unfairly prosecuted.
Trump recently got him moved from the brig to better confinement in a military hospital with access to his lawyers and family.
Gallagher’s court-martial is set to begin this week at Naval Base San Diego. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Officials
say newly declassified intelligence, shared exclusively with Fox News,
shows Iran-backed militias across the Middle East are strapped for cash;
State Department correspondent Rich Edson reports.
President Trump
on Monday appeared to tone down his rhetoric on Iran and said the U.S.
is not seeking a regime change just a week after he warned Tehran that a confrontation between the two countries would lead to its demise.
Trump made the comments during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Some Democrats—including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders— took the president to task over his recent comments.
Trump
said earlier that he backed Abe’s interest in leveraging his country’s
good relations with Iran to help broker a possible dialogue between the
U.S. and its nemesis in the Middle East. Abe said he is willing to do
whatever he can to help to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
“I
do believe Iran would like to talk and if they’d like to talk, we’ll
talk also. . . . Nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially
me,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post.
Trump told reporters Friday that the 1,500 troops
would have a “mostly protective” role as part of a build-up that began
this month in response to what the U.S said was a threat from Iran.
The
announcement caps three weeks of elevated tensions with Iran, as the
administration hurled accusations of an imminent attack and abruptly
deployed Navy warships to the region. The moves alarmed members of
Congress, who demanded proof and details, amid fears the U.S. was
lurching toward open conflict with Iran.
Sanders
told a crowd in Warner, N.H., on Monday that a military confrontation
between the two countries would be more disastrous than the Iraq war.
“Right
now if you can believe it, Trump and his people in his administration
apparently have learned nothing from that horrific war in Iraq," Sanders
said. "And you have (national security adviser) John Bolton and others
talking about the need to go to war in Iran.”
Sanders,
said, “If you think the war in Iraq was a disaster, my strong belief is
a war with Iran would be much worse…Not only would a war with Iran be a
disaster, it happens to be unconstitutional.” Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and the Associated Press contributed to this report
Senate Republicans are vowing to crush the impeachment effort if the Democrat-controlled House passes articles of impeachment of President Trump.
Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to ensure that the measure, which
has caused some friction even among Democrats, would be over before it
could gain traction.
Democrats in the Senate will remain largely
powerless as although McConnell will have to act on the impeachment
articles, it also requires 67 votes – a two-thirds majority – to convict
the president.
“I think it would be disposed of very quickly,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham told The Hill
on the viability of the impeachment process. “If it’s based on the
Mueller report, or anything like that, it would be quickly disposed of.”
Other
Republicans echoed Graham’s comment. Texas Sen. John Cornyn told the
outlet that the impeachment articles passed by the House would lead to
“nothing.”
“It would be defeated. That’s why all they want to do
is talk about it,” he added, suggesting Democrats are more interested in
talking about impeaching Trump than actually trying to do that. “They
know what the outcome would be.”
“It would be defeated. That’s why all they want to do is talk about it. They know what the outcome would be.” — Texas Sen. John Cornyn
Senate Republicans also say an impeachment trial of Trump would also get just the bare minimum time on the floor.
“Why
on earth would we give a platform to something that I judge as a purely
political exercise?” Sen. Thom Tillis told The Hill.
“We have to
perform our constitutional duty, but if people think that we’re going to
try and create a theater that could give you the perception that this
is a matter that rises to the level of Watergate, that’s nonsense.”
“Why on earth would we give a platform to something that I judge as a purely political exercise?” — Sen. Thom Tillis
He added that an extended trial would be “rewarding what I view as bad behavior on the part of the House.”
Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib said Sunday that the House is “moving towards” supporting the measure to impeach Trump.
“I
think it’s moving towards that. It's going to demand it, it already
is," Tlaib said on “Meet the Press,” listing several actions in which,
according to her, the president acts as if he were “above the law.”
This
comes despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s efforts to quell talks
impeaching the president and have repeatedly warned the Democrats
against proceeding with such move.
A
one senior Democrat told Fox News that Pelosi won’t be “able to hold
off on impeachment much longer” as the impeachment talk in her party is
gaining traction and embraced by the voter base.
Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of
May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S.
military. Memorial Day 2019 occurs on Monday, May 27.
Originally
known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil
War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans
observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family
gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the
beginning of the summer season.
Early Observances of Memorial Day
The Civil War,
which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict
in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first
national cemeteries.
By the late 1860s, Americans in various
towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these
countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and
reciting prayers.
It
is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different
communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings.
Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
Waterloo—which
first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an
annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and
residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
Decoration Day
On May 5, 1868, General
John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War
veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month.
“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with
flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in
defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now
lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,”
he proclaimed.
The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.
Many
Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the
tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day
an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued
to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.
History of Memorial Day
Memorial
Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored
only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I
the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and
the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died
in all wars.For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date
Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress
passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as
the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for
federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law
also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.
Memorial Day Traditions
Cities and towns
across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often
incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations.
Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
Americans
also observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some
people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a
tradition that began with a World War I poem.
On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties
and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because it unofficially marks the
beginning of summer.
The words Illegal Alien has all of a sudden become Illegal Immigrant and is used by Fox News and others.
"Burglars Are Not Uninvited House Guests. Car-jackers Are Not
Under-rated Drivers. Bank Robbers Are Not Making Unauthorized
Withdrawals. Illegal Aliens Are Not Undocumented Immigrants":
Democrats responded Tuesday to the border crisis by suggesting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stop trying to deter illegal aliens and instead quickly process those seeking asylum.
"It
is obvious from your letter to Congress last week that the Trump
administration still does not understand the factors driving people to
seek refuge in this country and refuses to take responsibility for its
failed policies that are making the situation at the border worse,"
leading House Democrats wrote to Nielsen Tuesday. "Instead of pushing ill-advised, ineffective proposals to detain and deport all families and unaccompanied minors, the administration needs to engage Congress on policies designed to promote safe and orderly migration flows..."
Nielsen
has refused to do that. She said statistics show that up to half of
illegal alien families never complete their applications or appear
in court. By contrast, she wants Congress to toughen asylum laws and
allow the Trump administration to more easily detain and remove Central
American families and children.
Eliminating birthright citizenship and forcing employers to verify employees are legal U.S. residents is “on the table,” she told Tucker Carlson Tuesday night.
“The
only way we fix this crisis is if Congress closes the loopholes, fixes
the misguided court decisions, and gives us relief from the
extraordinary pull factors that our laws and those court decisions have
created,” a senior DHS official told reporters Monday in a conference
call.
As the border issue keeps worsening, with the number of
people illegally crossing the border climbing significantly, there has
been no solution to the problem -- and the border bills in Congress keep
stalling.
Lawmakers
from each party see the immigration problem differently. Both parties
provided Fox News this week a list of bills designed to address the
problem. Republican bills focused on building a wall. Democratic bills provided illegal aliens more protections from deportation and legal rights.
A
variety of push-and-pull factors influence illegal immigration. In
their letter to Nielsen, Democrats said they want the administration,
"engaging in real efforts to address the crime, insecurity, and
lawlessness that is causing people to leave Central America in the first
place. The administration cutting foreign assistance just when these
countries need it most only makes the situation worse.”
Republicans
counter with evidence showing a falling murder rate in Honduras,
Guatemala and El Salvador the last three years, yet illegal immigration
is increasing.
"We're facing an unprecedented unmitigated crisis
on the southwest border," said former chief of the Border Patrol and
current acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ron
Vitiello. "There is nothing dissuading these people from bringing their
people their kids to the border."
Even executives actions or legal rulings have helped address the issue.
After
President Obama announced DACA, protections from deportation for
children of illegal immigrants, child apprehensions soared.
Also
when a federal judge in 2015 reinterpreted the Flores decision to
protect not just children, but adults traveling with children, from
detention longer than 20 days, families apprehended crossing illegally
more than doubled.
Administration officials argue those court and executive actions help drive illegal immigration.
"I
think the most important thing that has to happen is we need to close
these loopholes," Vitiello said. "That'll make all of this work smaller.
It'll make this problem smaller. The crisis will abate if we can close
the loopholes. That's what needs to happen first.
Other “loopholes” considered critical to shutting down growing numbers of asylum seekers are internal.
A
GOP-bill sponsored by House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins,
R-Ga., tightens the credible fear standard so there are fewer baseless
asylum claims, thereby reducing the number of families getting released.
It also allows the U.S. to deport Central American children who are not
victims of trafficking, to their home countries.
"These loopholes
provide perverse incentives for adults to send children on the
hazardous journey across the border, often in the company of dangerous
people," said Collins. "At the same time, our asylum system is not
serving people fleeing persecution like it should because it is weighed
down with frivolous claims."
The
Collins bill fixes the Flores settlement by requiring DHS to keep
children and parents together while their cases are handled in
immigration court. A former immigration judge says 40 to 60 days should
be enough.
"Forty days is the standard for custody removal
proceedings," said Art Arthur, now an analyst at the Center for
Immigration Studies. "So, just more than a month is all the time that an
immigration judge needs to adjudicate those cases. The Flores
settlement agreement encourages parents to bring their children with
them to the United States knowing that they're going to be released
within 20 days if they show up with the child, and that's why we see
such a large number of family units showing up at the border right now."
U.S.
officials expect March apprehensions to exceed 100,000, up to 65
percent could be unaccompanied minors and families. Yet, the U.S. only
has detention beds for 3,000 families. The excess will be released with
Notice to Appear in court – sometime in the future. But with a backlog
of more than 830,000 cases, many will not see a judge for years. Their
lives change, they get married, have children, work. As their American
roots grow deeper, Arthur said they get more difficult to deport. He
blames Congress for seeing the problem but doing nothing.
"Quite
frankly Congress is in denial about the situation at the border. They
don't even recognize that there's an emergency," he said. "What is now a
crisis is going to be a disaster in just a few weeks time. Congress is
going to have to act then. But they seem to be too busy doing other
things to understand the human element of what's going on along the
border."
FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018 file photo Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, center, leaves court in San Diego..
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
