Saudi Arabia said two of its oil tankers were attacked while sailing toward the Persian Gulf, adding to regional tensions as the U.S. increases pressure on Iran.
The Saudi tankers were damaged in “a sabotage attack” off the United Arab Emirates coast on Sunday, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The vessels were approaching the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil shipments. The U.A.E. foreign ministry on Sunday reported an attack on four commercial ships near its territorial waters. No one has claimed responsibility.
The precise nature of the incident remained unclear — neither Saudi Arabia nor the U.A.E. said exactly what happened — but the report comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Gulf. The U.S. has deployed an aircraft carrier, bomber planes and defense missiles to the region amid worsening friction with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said the incident aims “to undermine the freedom of maritime navigation, and the security of oil supplies to consumers all over the world,” according to SPA. He urged the international community to ensure the security of oil tankers “to mitigate against the adverse consequences of such incidents on energy markets, and the danger they pose to the global economy.”
Antagonism between the U.S. and Iran intensified this month after President Trump ended exceptions to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil sales. The Islamic Republic has threatened to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. halts Iranian energy exports and threatened to scale back its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the maritime incident as “concerning and regrettable” and called for efforts to shed light on what exactly happened, the semi-official Tasnim News reported. He warned against “foreign seditious plots to upset the region’s security and stability.”
Crude Rises
Global crude benchmark Brent for July settlement rose as much as 71 cents, or 1%, to $71.33 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Monday. Oil had been losing ground since late last month on signs that Saudi Arabia would pump more to make up for lost Iranian barrels and a looming trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and China.
Rising geopolitical tension has also weighed on stock markets in the Gulf this week. Dubai’s benchmark dropped 1.5 percent at 11:06 am local time, outpacing losses on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index retreated 0.9 percent, heading for the lowest close since March 17.
The U.A.E.’s foreign ministry said it’s investigating the tanker incident with local and international parties. No one was hurt, and no fuel or chemicals were spilled, the state-run WAM news agency quoted the ministry as saying. One of the two Saudi tankers was on its way to the port of Ras Tanura to load oil for shipment to the U.S., according to SPA.
Tanker War
Attacks on oil tankers in the turbulent Gulf have been rare since 1991. Saudi Arabia continued shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the so-called tanker war, a phase of the 1981-88 conflict between Iraq and Iran when both foes attacked vessels in the Gulf. Oil exports flowed also during the first Gulf War in 1990-91.
A Japanese tanker, the M. Star, was damaged in a bomb attack in 2010 when it was docked about 14 miles (22 kilometers) off the U.A.E. coast near the port of Fujairah. The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, a militant jihadist group, claimed responsibility.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Iran lies is to the north and the U.A.E. and Oman to the south. Hormuz is the single most important waterway for global oil shipments, with tankers hauling about 40% of all the crude traded internationally every day. All oil exports from Kuwait, Iran, Qatar and Bahrain, more than 90% of those from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and 75% of shipments from the U.A.E. pass through the strait.
In Monday’s footnote, Justice Alito wrote that the Muslim inmate, Domineque Ray, had also waited too long to object.
“In both Ray and this case,” he wrote, “the court was presented at the last minute with claims that raised complicated issues that cannot be adequately decided with hasty briefing and an inadequate record.”
In a third opinion on Monday, Justice Thomas, joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch, wrote to “set the record straight” about why they had voted last month to allow the execution of an Alabama inmate, Christopher Lee Price, a move that had prompted an anguished middle-of-the-night dissent from Justice Breyer.
The majority, in a brief, unsigned opinion last month, said Mr. Price had waited too long to raise his claim that Alabama’s method of execution, a lethal injection of three chemicals, could subject him to excruciating pain. Mr. Price asked to be executed using nitrogen gas, a method allowed by Alabama law.
Justice Breyer’s request that the justices discuss the matter the next morning was refused.
“To proceed in this way calls into question the basic principles of fairness that should underlie our criminal justice system,” Justice Breyer wrote. “To proceed in this matter in the middle of the night without giving all members of the court the opportunity for discussion tomorrow morning is, I believe, unfortunate.”
The dispute among the justices lasted long enough that Alabama officials postponed the execution, and Mr. Price remains on death row.
On Monday, Justice Thomas wrote that Justice Breyer’s legal analysis last month did not “withstand even minimal legal scrutiny.” Mr. Price’s strategy was to delay the inevitable, Justice Thomas wrote.
By contrast, China left unchanged at 5 percent its tariffs on about a tenth of the product categories in the $60 billion. These included its tariffs on imports of American tires, light bulbs and certain paper products.
Neither the American tariffs nor China’s retaliation will go into effect right away. Despite the rising tensions, the Trump administration structured its tariff increase on Friday so that it won’t take effect for a few weeks, giving both sides a bit more room to reach a deal. In a departure from the usual practice of assessing tariffs on goods based on the date when they reach American seaports and airports, the Trump administration declared that the increased tariffs on $200 billion a year in goods would be applied only to shipments that left China from Friday onward.
Goods that travel by sea take two to four weeks to reach the United States from China, depending mainly on whether the ship sails to the East or West Coast and how fast the ship travels. That means the effect won’t be felt for a few weeks except for the small share of goods moving by air.
Chris Rogers, a trade analyst at Panjiva, a trade data firm, said that roughly 90 percent of all American imports from China come by sea, and the rest by air. An even higher proportion of the $200 billion in goods being hit by the latest tariff increase is likely to come by sea, he said, because the higher tariffs do not cover big categories like iPhones that come to the United States almost entirely by air.
There is also a practical reason for the Trump administration not to have imposed the tariff increase right away: Updating customs procedures can be slow. The Trump administration “wanted to start the clock but be realistic about implementation,” said James Green, the top trade official at the United States embassy in Beijing until August and now a senior adviser at McLarty Associates, a Washington consulting firm.
The question now is whether another round of tit-for-tat tariff increases portends an economic struggle between the United States and China that could last for many years. Since President Trump was elected, the two sides have repeatedly seemed close to a deal only for it to fall apart. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross seemed to have the outlines of a deal in 2017. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talked of a deal being at hand a year ago.
President Trump himself was upbeat about the prospects for a deal last month. Chinese officials have been consistently encouraging about progress toward a deal for the past two years, even though a hardening of China’s stance last week appears to have contributed to Mr. Trump’s decision this week to raise tariffs.
Former Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz gives his take on the biggest news of the day coming out of Congress.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D, Mich., has drawn criticism for comments she made about the Holocaust last week, and former congressman Jason Chaffetz has joined a chorus of politicians condemning her statements.
During a discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast released on Friday, Tlaib commented that thinking about the Holocaust gives her a “calming feeling.” Chaffetz told “America’s Newsroom” hosts that Tlaib’s remarks were “antisemitic and anti-Jew,” before calling on her to clarify her statements.
“She has to take account for her own words,” Chaffetz said on Monday morning. “Millions of Jews were slaughtered and were killed and that gives her comfort?”
Tlaib went on to discuss the involvement of her Palestinian ancestors who were impacted by the Holocaust, while defending the one-state solution to resolve tensions between Palestinians and Israelites.
“There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” she said on the podcast.
Tlaib defended her statements in a tweet on Sunday and accused her detractors of politicizing her statements and mischaracterizing her words.
Chaffetz slammed her comparison of the plight of Palestinians to that of Jewish people during the Holocaust and insinuated that she should not be able to serve on House committees. Tlaib currently resides on committees for Oversight and Reform and Financial Services.
“She can go to the floor of the House right now and clarify and she won’t and she hasn’t,” Chaffetz said.
“The good people of Michigan can send whoever they want to Congress, but once she gets there Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have a duty and obligation to make a decision on who serves on committees,” he continued.
Tlaib, who represents districts in Detroit, drew ire just hours after being sworn in when she expressed her desire to impeach President Trump using explicit language.
“We’re going to impeach this motherf—er,” she said.
One of the most popular and enduring stars of film, music and television was Doris Day (1922-2019), who in later years retreated for the most part from the public eye, devoting her life to animal rights causes. In this “Sunday Morning” report which originally aired July 13, 2008, correspondent Jerry Bowen talked about Day’s career, her Hollywood legacy, and her privacy with biographer David Kaufman, author of “Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door”; cabaret singer Mary Cleere Haran, who created a one-woman show dedicated to the songs of Doris Day; and Day’s friend and frequent co-star Kaye Ballard.
“‘The Democrat Party apparatus-has been caught using donor Dollars to Collude with Russian Intelligence to attack a domestic political opponent (me). The FBI has no leadership. The Director is protecting the same gang…..that tried to……..overthrow the President through an illegal coup.’”
“Just another abuse of power in a long series of abuses of power by the Democrats that began during the Obama Administration, continued through the Mueller FBI operation, & now the baton has been passed to Jerry Nadler to continue to abuse power to harass President Trump..
Wray, however, said last week that he wouldn’t use the term “spying” to describe the FBI’s monitoring of some Trump campaign members.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is currently reviewing whether the FBI followed procedures in applying for a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Republicans have said the FBI improperly relied on details from a dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele for the warrant.
The surveillance activity was part of the early investigation into Russian election interference and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow that eventually spawned Mueller’s probe, which ultimately did not find evidence of collusion.
Saudi Arabia said two of its oil tankers were attacked while sailing toward the Persian Gulf, adding to regional tensions as the U.S. increases pressure on Iran.
The Saudi tankers were damaged in “a sabotage attack” off the United Arab Emirates coast on Sunday, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The vessels were approaching the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil shipments. The U.A.E. foreign ministry on Sunday reported an attack on four commercial ships near its territorial waters. No one has claimed responsibility.
The precise nature of the incident remained unclear — neither Saudi Arabia nor the U.A.E. said exactly what happened — but the report comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Gulf. The U.S. has deployed an aircraft carrier, bomber planes and defense missiles to the region amid worsening friction with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said the incident aims “to undermine the freedom of maritime navigation, and the security of oil supplies to consumers all over the world,” according to SPA. He urged the international community to ensure the security of oil tankers “to mitigate against the adverse consequences of such incidents on energy markets, and the danger they pose to the global economy.”
Antagonism between the U.S. and Iran intensified this month after President Trump ended exceptions to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil sales. The Islamic Republic has threatened to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. halts Iranian energy exports and threatened to scale back its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the maritime incident as “concerning and regrettable” and called for efforts to shed light on what exactly happened, the semi-official Tasnim News reported. He warned against “foreign seditious plots to upset the region’s security and stability.”
Crude Rises
Global crude benchmark Brent for July settlement rose as much as 71 cents, or 1%, to $71.33 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Monday. Oil had been losing ground since late last month on signs that Saudi Arabia would pump more to make up for lost Iranian barrels and a looming trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and China.
Rising geopolitical tension has also weighed on stock markets in the Gulf this week. Dubai’s benchmark dropped 1.5 percent at 11:06 am local time, outpacing losses on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index retreated 0.9 percent, heading for the lowest close since March 17.
The U.A.E.’s foreign ministry said it’s investigating the tanker incident with local and international parties. No one was hurt, and no fuel or chemicals were spilled, the state-run WAM news agency quoted the ministry as saying. One of the two Saudi tankers was on its way to the port of Ras Tanura to load oil for shipment to the U.S., according to SPA.
Tanker War
Attacks on oil tankers in the turbulent Gulf have been rare since 1991. Saudi Arabia continued shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the so-called tanker war, a phase of the 1981-88 conflict between Iraq and Iran when both foes attacked vessels in the Gulf. Oil exports flowed also during the first Gulf War in 1990-91.
A Japanese tanker, the M. Star, was damaged in a bomb attack in 2010 when it was docked about 14 miles (22 kilometers) off the U.A.E. coast near the port of Fujairah. The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, a militant jihadist group, claimed responsibility.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Iran lies is to the north and the U.A.E. and Oman to the south. Hormuz is the single most important waterway for global oil shipments, with tankers hauling about 40% of all the crude traded internationally every day. All oil exports from Kuwait, Iran, Qatar and Bahrain, more than 90% of those from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and 75% of shipments from the U.A.E. pass through the strait.
Rapper NBA Youngboy’s girlfriend was injured in a deadly shootout in Miami. The melee reportedly occurred outside of a Trump resort. (Getty)
Miami area law enforcement agencies are looking for connections between a series of weekend shootings that killed one rapper, wounded another rapper’s girlfriend and hit three bystanders, killing a man who was leaving work to be with his family on Mother’s Day.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” Miami-Dade police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta told reporters.
By Monday morning, police were questioning at least seven people detained after the Sunday afternoon shooting outside Trump International Beach Resort Miami, where 19-year-old Kaylyn Marie Long was wounded. The Miami Herald cited a witness in identifying her as the girlfriend of NBA YoungBoy.
The gunfire in Sunny Isles Beach also killed 43-year-old Mohamad Jradi, who was sitting in his van across the street from the resort. The Herald reported that Jradi was just leaving work to celebrate the day with his family when a bullet struck him in the head. Another bullet grazed a 5-year-old boy who was treated and released by paramedics at the scene. Long was taken to a hospital for treatment.
NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, was on Sunday’s lineup of performers at the weekend’s Rolling Loud Music Festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Sunny Isles Beach police officers work near the entrance to the Trump International Beach Resort as they investigate a shooting that reports say involved rapper NBA Youngboy on the street in front of the resort on Sunday. Police continue to investigate the scene. (Getty)
Investigators seized several firearms found at the resort and issued a Be On the Lookout bulletin for a silver GMC Yukon seen at the site of the shooting, Zabaleta said in a news release. Later Sunday, the vehicle was stopped as it tried to enter the parking lot at the music festival, and police detained four men inside.
In a separate but nearby shooting about the same time as the gunfire at the Trump resort, one person was wounded by bullets at the entrance of the William Lehman Causeway, which spans the Intracoastal Waterway and links Sunny Isles Beach to Aventura.
Detectives said several cars also were struck by bullets outside the Trump resort.
The multiple crime scenes jammed traffic on a busy Mother’s Day, and capped a busy weekend for police.
On Saturday, Chicago rapper AAB Hellabandz, 24, whose real name was Ameer Golston, was fatally shot outside the Cameo nightclub on Miami Beach. A second person was taken to the hospital in that shooting. So far, no arrests have been made.
Other incidents at the festival included the Saturday arrest of rapper Kodak Black, whose real name is Bill Kapri, on a weapons charge, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. It adds to a lengthy rap sheet for Kapri, 21, whose initial appearance was scheduled for Monday in federal court in Miami. Black was most recently arrested last month on drugs and weapons charges as he crossed from Canada into the U.S. near Niagara Falls, N.Y. Court records don’t list a defense attorney.
Meanwhile, rapper Lil’ Wayne said on social media that he refused to perform to avoid a search by security personnel or police outside the venue.
Lil’ Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
“To all my fans who came to see me at Rolling Loud, I’m sorry but I won’t be performing. The Festival Police (not Rolling Loud) made it mandatory that I had to be policed and checked to get on the stadium grounds. I do not and will not ever settle for being policed to do my job,” Lil’ Wayne said on Twitter.
According to his Twitter post, Lil’ Wayne later performed at the Story nightclub in Miami Beach.
The United States’ request to extradite Mr. Assange is being handled by the British courts, but his fate could ultimately lie with Sajid Javid, Britain’s home secretary.
In the case of multiple extradition requests for one individual, the home secretary may defer proceedings on one of the requests until the other has been completed, after taking into account several issues, according to a document published by the British Home Office last month: the seriousness of the offenses, the place where they were committed, and the date when each extradition request was filed are among the factors he would have consider.
Assuming Sweden submits a European arrest warrant, its claim would most likely take precedence, said Michael O’Kane, a British extradition lawyer.
“Arguably the rape allegation is more serious,” Mr. O’Kane said. In addition, although the American extradition request would technically precede a new filing from Sweden, prosecutors there initially requested that he be turned over long before the Americans did.
The arrest warrant and extradition requests will first proceed through the British court system, a process that could take six months to a year, and both requests will probably move together in parallel through the British courts. The United States could challenge a prioritized extradition to Sweden, although Mr. O’Kane said that was unlikely.
One of Mr. Assange’s accusers in Sweden has publicly identified herself, and the woman, Anna Ardin, told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Mr. Assange was “a man who has a twisted attitude toward women and a problem taking no for an answer.”
Last month, Ms. Ardin tweeted that she would be “very surprised & sad if Julian is handed over to the US.” She added, “For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this.”
BEIRUT — Two Saudi oil tankers have been attacked and damaged in coastal waters near the Persian Gulf, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said on Monday, further heightening tensions with Iran.
The tankers were subjected to an “act of sabotage” early Sunday morning in waters off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement by the Saudi Minister for Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khalid Al-Falih carried by the official Saudi news agency.
Saudi Arabia did not say who was responsible for the attack, which caused no casualties or oil spill but inflicted “significant damage” on the vessels, the statement said.
It coincides with a surge of tensions between the United States and Iran, after the U.S. said last week it had received intelligence Iran was planning some kind of attack against U.S. forces in the Middle East.
In response to the threat, the Pentagon has dispatched naval reinforcements to the Persian Gulf, including an aircraft carrier, a Patriot missile battery and a squadron of B-52 bombers, prompting warnings from Iran that it was prepared to retaliate if it comes under attack.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the shipping attack as “alarming and regrettable” saying it would have a “negative effect” on shipping safety and maritime security, according to the Iranian ISNA news agency.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi hinted that the sabotage may have been carried out as part of a conspiracy to ignite conflict in the region. He cautioned against what he called “plots by ill-wishers to disrupt regional security” and called for an inquiry.
Iran also announced last week that it would pull out of parts of the nuclear deal and resume uranium enrichment, sparking concerns among the accord’s remaining signatories that it will soon collapse altogether.
Speaking in Brussels, the British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt warned of the risk that the tensions could trigger an unintended conflict in the region.
“We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident with an escalation that is unintended,” he told reporters, ahead of a European Union meeting later Monday on ways to salvage the deal.
The spike in tensions follows the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions waivers from eight countries that import Iranian oil, in a bid to bring Iran’s exports down to “zero,” according to U.S. officials. Iran had already seen its exports plunge after the reimposition of U.S. sanctions last November, following the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear accord. The expiration of the waivers is expected to inflict further pain on Iran’s already reeling economy.
It was not immediately clear whether the two Saudi vessels that were attacked were among four ships that the United Arab Emirates had said on Sunday were sabotaged in the same area. The Saudi statement said the tankers were positioned off the emirate of Fujairah at the time and one was on its way to the Saudi port of Ras Tanura to be loaded with oil for delivery to the United States.
The United States maritime authority reissued a warning early Monday that Iran might seek to target commercial shipping in the area, the Associated Press reported.
“Since early May, there is an increased possibility that Iran and/or its regional proxies could take action against U.S. and partner interests, including oil production infrastructure, after recently threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz,” said an earlier warning issued last week. “Iran or its proxies could respond by targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers, or U.S. military vessels in the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait or the Persian Gulf.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. speaks during an event with activist groups to deliver over ten million petition signatures to Congress urging the House of Representatives to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill May 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. speaks during an event with activist groups to deliver over ten million petition signatures to Congress urging the House of Representatives to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill May 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
If House Democrats ultimately begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, last week will be remembered as one of the pivotal turning points.
President Trump’s decision to invoke executive privilege over the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller is prompting impeachment skeptics like Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., to reconsider.
“I have to be honest with you, I once said I would be the last person standing against impeachment, and now, I’m squatting,” Cleaver told NPR.
While some Democrats hope the Judiciary Committee’s decision to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt will force the administration back to the negotiation table, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders made clear the president will not budge on his executive privilege claim over the Mueller report. “This is fully consistent with that precedent and it is fully consistent with the president actually upholding the law,” Sanders told reporters last week.
The administration’s apparent hard-line on this is giving impeachment proceedings a new urgency. “I think you have to look at impeachment as a mechanism to get what we want,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
More Democrats are warming to the idea that beginning impeachment proceedings could be an option if it’s not just about removing Trump from office. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said it’s also a formal legal proceeding, which could strengthen Democrats’ hand in securing testimony, documents and cooperation from the administration if they continue to stonewall congressional oversight.
“I think there are more people who look at impeachment not as a way to get the president, but as a process to begin to review what we know needs to be reviewed,” Pascrell told NPR.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, despite calling the situation a constitutional crisis, continues to urge a cautious approach. “Impeachment is one of the most divisive things that you do–dividing a country–unless you really have made your case with great clarity for the American people,” she said.
Most Democrats are hesitant to publicly call for impeachment, but no one is ruling it out. “I think impeachment is always on the table, I always think that’s a tool in the tool box, but one of the one’s that you use when you’ve run out of other options,” she said.
Politically, Democrats have been wary that triggering impeachment proceedings might ultimately benefit President Trump, who has long claimed to be the victim of a political “witch hunt.”
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., does not share that hesitation. “I understand the big picture is winning in 2020, and I don’t really understand totally the calculus about not proceeding with impeachment,” he said, “I think there’s merit to putting the scarlet letter ‘I’ on his breast, because he deserves it.”
Liberal activists agree. A group gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to deliver 10 million petition signatures to pressure the House to start impeachment proceedings. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Al Green, D-Texas, have both authored impeachment resolutions and addressed the crowd.
“I say that we have a duty, a responsibility and an obligation under the Constitution of the United States of America to do our duty,” he said, “We must impeach. Let the Senate do what they may, we have to do what we must!”
The week took a toll on Democrats in many ways. Rep. Jaime Raskin, D-Md., a member of the Judiciary Committee and vocal critic of the administration, had a busted blood vessel in his left eye by week’s end. “They’re not sure what caused it,” he said, when asked if it was stress-induced. “It’s just a tough time for everybody.”
Good morning and welcome to Fox News First. Here’s what you need to know today …
Rep. Tlaib sparks outrage with comments on Holocaust, Palestinians
House Republican leaders on Sunday called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to “take action” against Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for controversial comments she made about the Holocaust during a podcast. “There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said during an appearance on the most recent episode of the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.” “And, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., called Tlaib’s comments “twisted and disgusting.” House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer “to finally take action against Representative Tlaib and other members of the Democratic caucus who are spreading vile anti-Semitism.” Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress, has been accused of anti-Semitism several times since taking office in January. Tlaib’s spokesman accused Republican leaders and right-wing extremists of taking her words out of context to incite hate. Tlaib vowed to not be silenced. “Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work.” Pelosi is facing criticism from some fellow Democrats for allowing a Texas imam with a history of anti-Israel comments to deliver the noon prayer in the House of Representatives last week.
Kudlow: We expect China to retaliate for hiked tariffs
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he expects China to retaliate against the U.S. after President Trump increased tariffs last week on Chinese goods. “The expected countermeasures have not yet materialized,” Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday.” “[But] Yes, I reckon they will. We will see what they come up with. So far, we haven’t heard on that basis.” The U.S. increased tariffs Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent after trade negotiators from both countries failed to come to an agreement. In addition, Trump called for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin raising tariffs on “essentially all remaining imports from China, which are valued at approximately $300 billion.” Kudlow said trade talks will continue, though there are no set plans yet. The likelihood of Trump meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month during the G-20 summit in Japan is “pretty good,” he added.
Grim clues in search for missing Houston girl
Police investigating the disappearance of a four-year-old Houston girl reportedly found drops of what may be her blood in her home and uncovered evidence that someone tried to clean it up. According to the Houston Chronicle, court records reveal that blood was found in the bathroom and a hallway in the apartment where Maleah Davis lives with her mother Brittany Bowens, and her fiancé, Derion Vence. Police used DNA samples from Maleah’s toothbrush to match the blood to a “maternal offspring of Brittany Bowens.” A chemical spray revealed more traces of blood that had been cleaned up at some point in the apartment, police said.
Huffman to plead guilty in college admissions scandal Former ‘Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman is expected to formally plead guilty in Boston federal court Monday in the college admissions scandal that revealed an elaborate cheating scam involving several wealthy parents and their privileged children. Huffman agreed to plead guilty last month. She was one of the 11 defendants charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud who agreed to plead guilty. Huffman had been accused of paying $15,000 disguised as a tax-deductible charitable donation so her daughter could take part in an apparently rigged college entrance exam. More than four dozen people have been charged in the nationwide scam, which is alleged to have placed students in top-tier schools like Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, the University of Southern California, UCLA and the University of Texas. Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are also charged in the scam, but have not reached any plea deals.
#TheFlashback 1981: Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. 1973: In tennis’ first so-called “Battle of the Sexes,” Bobby Riggs defeats Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, Calif. (Billie Jean King would soundly defeat Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in September.). 1918: The first U.S. airmail stamp, costing 24 cents and featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, was publicly issued
“The Next Revolution” host Steve Hilton shows how President Trump is the first Western leader in 50 years to stand up to China – and how the establishment “got it wrong.”
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Fox News First is compiled by Fox News’ Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Have a good day! We’ll see you in your inbox first thing Tuesday morning.
Pompeo is scheduled to discuss “the full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges” with Putin and Lavrov, according to the State Department.
Pompeo is scheduled to discuss a number of issues, including Iran, with officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany while in Brussels, according to the State Department.
Iran responded to the announcement by saying it will reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal reached under the Obama administration, which the Trump administration withdrew from roughly a year ago.
The move of USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group into Central Command’s jurisdiction is part of an increasingly aggressive posture toward Iran, which includes labeling Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Iran responded in kind, designating all U.S. troops in the Middle East terrorists.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the only European Union government head to endorse Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. | Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Europe’s fiercest anti-immigration leader, visits the White House on Monday — but it’s unclear how friendly his welcome will be.
When Donald Trump became president, Europe’s fiercest anti-immigration leader saw an opportunity to garner international legitimacy for his policies.
But for more than two years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — the only European Union government head to endorse Trump’s campaign in 2016 — failed to get an invitation to visit the White House, despite Trump hosting numerous European leaders. With no White House visit coming, the Hungarian government lobbied its case to lawmakers, the State Department and the White House. And changes in leadership at the State Department started opening some doors for the Hungarian government.
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Finally, on Monday, Trump will host Orbán in the White House, the first time a Hungarian prime minister has visited the White House since 2005.
The visit “clearly raises his profile,” said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has met with Orbán and his top aides several times.
“The Obama administration and the State Department completely shut out Orbán. He’s an individual who Trump has tracked very closely,” he added.
But it’s unclear how friendly Orbán’s welcome will be.
While Orbán’s restrictive immigration policies and skepticism about international institutions mirror Trump’s own rhetoric, the Hungarian leader has faced criticism from the European Union, the State Department and civil society groups, which argue that Orbán’s leadership has eroded democratic values. Orbán has been denounced for limiting press freedom, undermining judicial independence, targeting independent nongovernmental groups, encouraging racist and anti-Semitic conspiracies and cracking down on the Central European University, an institution founded by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
“We urge you to raise these issues in your meeting with the prime minister,” a bipartisan group of senators, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho), wrote in a letter sent last week to Trump.
And concerns about Chinese and Russian influence in Hungary — a NATO ally and EU member — are also expected to hang over the get-together.
As a result, White House advisers are cautioning Trump against a full embrace of Orbán, despite the president’s own affinity for the leader.
One senior White House official said that while “Hungary is a great ally,” that does not mean Trump is not “troubled” by Hungary’s democratic backsliding.
Still, the official added, Trump is “excited for that meeting. … He loves hosting foreign leaders at the White House.”
Lobbying spree
Hungary has worked hard to win over the Trump administration since the president’s surprise victory.
Former Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who lobbied for Hungary’s government until last summer, helped set up a congratulatory phone call between Trump and Orbán in the weeks after the 2016 presidential election. He then spent much of the next 18 months working to set up a White House meeting between the two leaders, he said in an interview.
“It was something I worked on consistently,” he said. “I think we made a lot of strides and put them in this position.”
Publicly, Orbán has heaped praise on Trump.
“We have enthusiastically applauded the president of the United States for thinking precisely as we do when he says ‘America First.’ We say the same: ‘Hungary first, and then everyone else,’” the Hungarian leader said in a 2017 speech.
In its early days, the Trump administration was split into three camps when it came to Hungary: officials who wanted to stick to America’s existing policy of opposing Orbán’s dismantling of independent institutions, advisers who did not care much about Hungary and some advisers who admired Orbán.
So Mack called, emailed and met with dozens of members of Congress as well as State Department officials, congressional staffers and experts at the Hudson Institute and the Heritage Foundation, according to disclosure filings. He also spoke to Bill Stepien, then the White House political director, and met with Andrea Thompson, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser at the time.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), whom Mack lobbied, and 10 other lawmakerssent a letter to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, urging him to “organize appropriate high-level meetings between the leaders of our two countries in order to build mutual trust, reassure our ally of our support, and harmonize our approaches to our mutual goals.”
Mack made a point of reminding the people he lobbied that Orbán was the European leader most aligned with Trump, he said.
He also circulated four memos noting that Orbán was “the first and only European head of state to publicly endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States,” as well as dozens of emails promoting Hungary, including ones touting Orbán’s support for Israel, a key issue for Trump.
Hungary retains three Washington lobbying firms that are formally registered with the Department of Justice as representing a foreign government: Barnes & Thornburg, Munk Policy and Law and Policy Impact Communications. Hungary’s government has also funded Hungarian organizations in the U.S., some of which engage with Trump administration circles and conservative think tanks while not registering as foreign agents with the Department of Justice.
William Nixon, the chairman and chief executive of Policy Impact Communications, said Orbán’s White House visit was “the natural next step” after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s met with Orbán in Budapest in February.
“I don’t think the importance of this meeting can be overstated,” Nixon said.
“Coming after eight years of being largely ignored by the Obama administration, it is a welcome change,” he added.
Coming around
Bannon said he believes the Trump administration started warming to Orbán because of the confluence of three things: the appointment of David Cornstein, a close Trump friend, as ambassador to Hungary; Pompeo taking the reins at the State Department; and the rising influence of China in Europe.
“Tillerson didn’t make any changes when he was there and State continued to block Orbán,” Bannon said, a pattern that has changed under Pompeo.
And Cornstein does not hide his view that the president is a fan of the Hungarian prime minister’s leadership style.
“I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has, but he doesn’t,” Cornstein told The Atlantic in a recent interview.
Ahead of the trip, Orbán framed the visit as a chance to discuss shared views on migration.
“One of the most important issues in our meeting will be how we can cooperate at international forums in the future in the fight against migration,” the Hungarian leader said in a radio interview.
In a call with reporters on Friday, a senior administration official agreed — to an extent.
“I think what we want to focus on with our Hungarian counterparts and with the prime minister — and as we actually have in many of the meetings — is how one tackles some of the broader issues,” the official said.
But the official stressed that most immigration and border management conversations between the U.S. and Hungary are occurring at lower levels. Monday’s meeting is more symbolic.
“The point of this meeting is simply just to reinforce the strategic relationship between allies, NATO allies of U.S. and Hungary — not necessarily just thrash out every issue on the bilateral agenda, which we have been doing constantly for the last two years,” the official said.
Elephants in the room: Beijing and Moscow
For American diplomats, the Washington visit is not necessarily a gesture of goodwill to Orbán.
The meeting is “a routine visit that was bound to happen sometime,” one State Department official said.
It is also a chance to press Hungary over the growing Chinese and Russian influence in Hungary.
“Concern over Russia is genuine,” the official added.
Hungary has perplexed allies by repeatedly vetoing high-level ministerial meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, ostensibly over a Ukrainian language law that negatively affects Hungarian-speaking communities in Ukraine. “We’ve been very troubled by that,” the senior administration official told reporters on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is a frequent visitor to Budapest, one of the few places in the EU where he receives a warm welcome.
A State Department spokesperson said the administration is worried “Russia will continue to expand its malign influence in Hungary.”
The department is also warily eyeing Chinese investment in Hungarian infrastructure.
“The experience of states in the Asia-Pacific region shows that Beijing’s handshake sometimes comes with strings — strings that would leave Hungary indebted both economically and politically,” the spokesperson said.
However, “Hungary is a NATO ally,” the spokesperson added. “We do not agree on every issue, but we are committed to strengthening our partnership and achieving results on a wide range of important issues, including security and defense, energy security, trade and investment.”
There is also growing concern among experts about a potential uptick in Russian and Chinese intelligence activity in Hungary.
One former Hungarian government official told POLITICO that the main problem from a security perspective is that Budapest has opened the gates to Russian and Chinese influence to such a large extent that it has neither the ability nor the willingness to “at some level keep under control” the activities of Russian- and Chinese-state-owned companies in Hungary.
The former Hungarian government official is expecting Western intelligence agencies to become more active in Hungary as a result.
“If we cannot or do not want to fulfill these tasks, then someone else within the alliance will do it for us,” the official said. “But then we can’t sulk about it.”
During Orbán’s visit, American officials are expected to raise concerns about Chinese firm Huawei’s work on developing Hungary’s broadband network.
“My sense is this [visit] is not about President Trump loving Orbán,” said Ken Weinstein, president of the conservative Hudson Institute.
“Sure, we’ll have increased defense cooperation with Hungary, but the real subtext is likely China, on Orbán’s relations with the Chinese and trying to get greater cooperation on this issue,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Hungarian government declined to comment on American concerns regarding Hungary’s ties to Russia and China.
“The meeting between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has not taken place yet. We suggest that you get back to us after the meeting,” the spokesperson said.
The United States Navy’s 5th Fleet, which oversees the region, did not immediately offer comment. Emirati officials declined to answer questions from The Associated Press, saying their investigation is ongoing.
Earlier Sunday, Lebanon’s pro-Iran satellite channel Al-Mayadeen, quoting “Gulf sources,” falsely reported that a series of explosions had struck Fujairah’s port. State and semiofficial media in Iran picked up the report from Al-Mayadeen, which later published the names of vessels it claimed were involved.
The Associated Press, after speaking to Emirati officials and local witnesses, found the report about explosions at the port to be unsubstantiated.
Fujairah’s port is about 85 miles south of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil at sea is traded. The facility handles oil for bunkering and shipping, as well as general and bulk cargo. It is seen as strategically located, serving shipping routes in the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Africa.
Sunday’s incident comes after the U.S. Maritime Administration, a division of the United States Transportation Department, warned Thursday that Iran could target commercial sea traffic.
“Since early May, there is an increased possibility that Iran and/or its regional proxies could take action against U.S. and partner interests, including oil production infrastructure, after recently threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz,” the warning read. “Iran or its proxies could respond by targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers, or U.S. military vessels in the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait or the Persian Gulf.”
Early Sunday, the agency issued a new warning to sailors about the alleged sabotage, while stressing “the incident has not been confirmed.” It urged shippers to exercise caution in the area for the next week.
Publicly available satellite images of the area taken Sunday showed no smoke or fire.
It remains unclear if the previous warning from the United States Maritime Administration is the same perceived threat that prompted the White House to order the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the region on May 4.
“What has allowed Pete [Buttigeig] to be successful is that South Bend doesn’t have the same demands that a New York City or a Los Angeles mayor has,” said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. | Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
‘The irony is that the South Bend mayor is being taken seriously and the New York mayor’s not.’
LOS ANGELES — No mayor has ever ascended directly to the White House. So, Pete Buttigieg’s surprising performance in the Democratic primary has been met with a dose of excitement in the nation’s city halls — along with some humility.
Buttigieg, the mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city, has been steeped in television coverage, raised millions of dollars and been photographed with his husband, Chasten, for the cover of Time magazine.
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Meanwhile, New York’s Bill de Blasio, the mayor of the nation’s largest city, is having difficulty persuading anyone — the media, his own constituents — to take his potential run for president seriously.
“Everybody’s going to laugh at him” if he runs, said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. “The irony is that the South Bend mayor is being taken seriously and the New York mayor’s not.”
And it isn’t just de Blasio. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who considered running for president before demurring earlier this year, has been asked more than once whether Buttigieg’s success has made him reconsider his choices.
“Mayor Pete, somebody that is a veteran like you, is a mayor like you, is a Rhodes scholar like you, is a pianist like you,” a reporter asked Garcetti in Los Angeles recently, where he appeared alongside Buttigieg. “Do you think, ‘That could have been me?’”
Perhaps it could have been Garcetti. Or former mayors Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans or Michael Bloomberg of New York or any number of big-city mayors or former mayors sitting 2020 out. The Democratic primary once appeared likely to present an opening for a politician who could lean on a record of executive experience in a big, heavily Democratic city.
But what Buttigieg’s success brought to light more than anything is that the particulars of the position were never all that important — that the lane that once appeared to exist for mayors was, in fact, incidental to the office.
“He’s not carrying the flag for mayors,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant who advised Cynthia Nixon in her primary campaign against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year. “Mayor is part of his qualification, [but] he’s running as a millennial, he’s running as a veteran, he’s running a historic candidacy as the first LGBTQ candidate. So there’s a lot of things that make Buttigieg special.”
Still, she said, “I think when mayors, when other elected officials look at his actual qualifications, it’s easy to see how they could look in the mirror and say, ‘Why not me?’”
More than a year ago, when the Democratic primary field was first beginning to take shape, mayors began presenting themselves as credible contenders for the very reason that they were mayors. They pointed to their city hall executive experience and their burgeoning influence within the Democratic Party. With President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans running Congress before the midterm elections, large Democratic urban centers were a place of refuge for progressives.
“It’s definitely a season for cities,” Buttigieg said last year. “And it’s definitely a season for mayors.”
But then mayors started dropping from the 2020 landscape. Garcetti passed on a run. So did Landrieu and Bloomberg.
Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, is running. But he polled at about 1 percent in the most recent Morning Consult survey. So is John Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor and Denver mayor. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the former mayor of Newark, stands at 3 percent.
And de Blasio? More than three-quarters of New Yorkers think he shouldn’t run for president, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.
“Who Hasn’t told Bill de Blasio That He Shouldn’t Run for President?” a New York magazine headline read.
David Holt, the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City, said it is possible that Garcetti and de Blasio, among other high-profile mayors, were burdened by being known too well by Democrats. Buttigieg’s relative anonymity offered his supporters the excitement of discovering something new.
“Pete was a fresh face, and I think he significantly benefited from that in this process,” Holt said. “If they’d never heard of Cory Booker for some reason three months ago, then I think they’d be pretty excited about him, too. But he and other known candidates have been known quantities for a [long] time.”
On the other hand, Holt said, “For most people, my experience is they’ve never heard of Mayor Buttigieg in their lives.” His candidacy “was kind of an exciting development.”
While not widely known to Democratic voters, Buttigieg had gained some significant connections to party activists through his work with fellow mayors and during his long shot bid to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And Buttigieg was less encumbered by the baggage of government than some of his counterparts in bigger cities.
“What has allowed Pete to be successful is that South Bend doesn’t have the same demands that a New York City or a Los Angeles mayor has,” Herman said.
Buttigieg is governing a relatively small city — South Bend’s population is just more than 100,000 people — but his supporters do not care. When searching for identifiers, they are just as likely to mention that he is young, gay, a polyglot or a veteran as they are to define him as a mayor.
Bill Carrick, who managed former Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt’s 1988 presidential campaign and who advises Garcetti, said of Buttigieg’s success, “I don’t think it has anything to do with being a mayor.”
“That’s all attributable to him — his personality and the way he articulates a message,” Carrick said. “Here’s this guy who is very smart, articulate, interesting background. Yeah, sure, mayor, but also a veteran. … He seized the moment.”
Like most other Democrats, Buttigieg remains far behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in early presidential contest polls. But he is running with the top handful of candidates behind them, and he is raising money at a furious clip.
At a sold-out fundraiser at a West Hollywood gay bar this week, Buttigieg told supporters that, at this point in the campaign, he had expected to be “spending our time explaining how to say my name and convincing people that I ought to be somewhere in this process so that we could fight our way onto the debate stage and have a breakout moment maybe in June.”
“Instead, we qualified for the debates a long time ago,” Buttigieg said. “People are still trying to figure out how to say my name. But instead of trying to claw our way into the top 10, we are consolidating our position as one of the top candidates in the presidential race.”
Many mayors are glad to see it. Steve Benjamin, the Columbia, S.C., mayor and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said many mayors are excited about Buttigieg’s candidacy and are hopeful that he could help refocus Washington’s attention on America’s cities.
For years, Benjamin said, “We’ve been, to some degree, knocking our heads against a wall looking for a partner in Washington, D.C. … A lot of mayors are excited to see a peer running and finding some success.”
Garcetti, responding to a reporter’s question about whether Buttigieg’s candidacy made him second-guess his own decision not to run, answered quickly: “No, I think that this is a great candidate for president.
“I’ve never had an ounce of regret.”
Then Garcetti, who has not endorsed a candidate and is appearing with many of them as they come through Los Angeles, called Buttigieg a “kindred spirit.”
As a fellow mayor, he said, “He gets to be my avatar, and I get to run for president through him.”
CARACAS (Reuters) – A Venezuelan general called on the country’s armed forces on Sunday to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who has relied on the backing of the military to hold on to power despite an economic collapse.
Ramon Rangel, who identified himself as an air force general, said the Venezuelan government is being controlled by the “communist dictatorship” in Cuba – a key Maduro ally.
“We have to find a way to get rid of the fear, to go out into the streets, to protest, and to seek a military union to change this political system,” Rangel, dressed in a suit with a copy of the constitution in his hand, said in a video posted on YouTube. “It’s time to rise up.”
While Rangel’s pronouncement marks another blow to Maduro after a handful of similar defections by senior officers this year, there is little to indicate that he will tip the scales.
Officers who have disavowed Maduro have fled the country and the military top brass – most notably those who command troops – continues to recognize Maduro.
The information ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Reuters was also unable to obtain comment from Rangel.
Air Force Commander Pedro Juliac posted a picture of Rangel on Twitter on Sunday with the words “traitor to the Venezuelan people and the revolution” printed across the image.
Rangel was an active military officer who fled to Colombia last month, according to a source close to Venezuela’s military who asked not to be identified.
Unlike other officers who have made similar pronouncements, Rangel did not voice support for Juan Guaido – the opposition leader who invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was a fraud.
More than 50 nations, including the United States and most South American nations, call Guaido Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Guaido and a group of soldiers called on the armed forces on April 30 to turn on Maduro, but the military never joined and the uprising collapsed. The government called the event a coup attempt and accused a group of 10 opposition legislators of treason for joining rallies that day.
Venezuela is suffering a hyperinflationary collapse that has fueled a migration exodus of some 3.5 million people in the past three years.
Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Paul Tait
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