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The party’s challenge was crystallized last week in a Quinnipiac survey of voters in Pennsylvania, one of the states that helped Mr. Trump win in 2016. The poll found that 77 percent of voters described their own financial situation as “excellent” or “good” — but that Mr. Trump would lose there by 11 percentage points against Joseph R. Biden Jr., one of the leading Democratic candidates.

Mr. Trump’s low approval ratings, which are at odds with normal ratings for a president in a humming economy, also point to the deep divisions in the country. The president’s erratic conduct and his gut instinct for issues of culture and identity, combined with the leftist energy in the Democratic Party and the chance that the Supreme Court could reconsider Roe v. Wade, will most likely further polarize an electorate that already cleaves along racial, gender and class lines when it comes to Mr. Trump.

“We’re pulling further apart, not together, and the traditional issues are being eclipsed — because if ‘peace and prosperity’ worked, there would still be a Republican majority in the House,” said Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, who envisioned “an impending clash out there with the two sides mobilized and demonizing the opposite side.”

It is, Mr. Cole added, “a long way from Ronald Reagan and ‘Morning in America.’”

Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign and congressional Republicans surely will highlight the country’s economic gains should they continue through 2020, of course, and will target Democrats over issues such as taxes and the size of government — particularly if a liberal like Senator Bernie Sanders or Senator Elizabeth Warren emerges as the Democratic nominee.

But both parties have overwhelming incentives to push next year’s election toward issues of the heart, not the head.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/us/politics/republicans-abortion-economy-issues.html

An accompanying release said the impact of more central bank intervention could impact “the future of [China’s] public debt ratio and China’s rating.”

Reductions in credit ratings often translate to higher interest rates for a country’s bonds. China’s debt is currently equivalent to $5.3 trillion in U.S. dollars, or about 43% of its GDP.

DBRS, the fourth-largest ratings agency in the world, has China rated “A,” which is its third-highest classification. However, it recently changed the outlook to negative as the tariff issues pile up.

“China remains a middle-income country that generally lacks the historic openness, institutional credibility and transparency of the major global financial centers,” the firm said in an earlier note.

Negotiators on both sides say they remain optimistic a deal can be reached, though markets have been focused on the more immediate impacts of existing tariffs and threats of ones to come.

The U.S. this month hiked its tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods. China retaliated by raising its tariff rate from 10% to 20%-25% on $60 billion of U.S. imports. The U.S. is seeking a number of concessions, particularly focused on opening Chinese markets and halting the theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfers.

Should the U.S. not get what it is seeking, President Donald Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports. The U.S. had a $419.2 billion trade deficit with China in 2018, on $539.5 billion in imports and just $120.3 billion in exports. The deficit through the first three months of 2019 was just shy of $80 billion.

Other ratings agencies have noted the danger to further intensifying relations.

“An abrupt breakdown in trade talks, if that were to occur, will inject considerable policy uncertainty, increase risk aversion and lead to an abrupt repricing of risk assets globally,” Moody’s analyst Madhavi Bokil said in a note. “In China, increased US tariffs will have a significant negative effect on exports amid an already slowing economy.”

Fitch said China could offset the additional tariffs with more monetary easing, but noted it expects GDP to fall to 6.1% this year from 6.6% in 2018.

Should the U.S. extend its sanctions, that could knock off another half-point from the growth figure, the agency said.

“But if trade tensions eventually lead to blanket U.S. tariffs on all Chinese goods, the potential rating impact could be greater, as it may tempt the authorities to abandon their restrained approach to policy easing, and adopt credit stimulus measures that exacerbate the country’s already significant financial vulnerabilities,” said Brian Coulton, Fitch’s economist.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/china-faces-possible-hit-to-credit-rating-if-the-trade-war-isnt-resolved.html

May 18 at 5:08 PM

President Trump’s 2020 campaign spokeswoman joined other Republicans in her disapproval of Alabama’s ban on almost all abortions, and suggested the president shared her view.

During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday, Kayleigh McEnany said she disagreed with Alabama’s decision not to allow exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest. The law will permit abortions only if the mother’s life is at risk.

“You know, I personally am for the exceptions,” McEnany said. “The president has been clear since the last campaign he’s for exceptions for rape and incest and life of the mother.”

When asked if the president would openly criticize the law, McEnany said she didn’t know, but reiterated that “he’s said repeatedly he’s for those three exceptions.”

Though the issue dominated headlines this week, Trump remained uncharacteristically silent. But other antiabortion conservatives have spoken out that the Alabama law goes too far. Those include televangelist Pat Robertson, who called it “extreme,” and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said it “goes further” than what he believes.

Other Republicans have tried to avoid the contentious issue with many dodging questions by saying it’s a states issue. The White House, when asked for Trump’s opinion about the law, changed the subject to focus on Democrats and late-term abortions.

“Unlike radical Democrats who have cheered legislation allowing a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth, President Trump is protecting our most innocent and vulnerable, defending the dignity of life, and called on Congress to prohibit late-term abortions,” the White House said in a statement.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/18/trump-spokeswoman-suggests-hes-opposed-parts-alabamas-abortion-ban/

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Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-19/the-world-agrees-with-trump-on-one-thing-when-it-comes-to-iran

(CNN)More than 50 million people are under threat of hail, heavy rain, strong winds and isolated tornadoes Sunday as several storms move east, according to the National Weather Center.

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    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/19/us/midwest-weather-sunday-wxc/index.html

    Former FBI Director James Comey fired back at President Trump in a tweet on Friday.

    “The president claiming the FBI’s investigation was ‘TREASON’ reminds me that a Russian once said, ‘A lie told often enough becomes the truth.’ That shouldn’t happen in America. Who will stand up?” Comey tweeted

    Earlier on Friday, Trump called the FBI’s early investigations into potential Russian influence in his 2016 campaign “treason.” 

    “My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,” Trump tweeted. “Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!” 

    RELATED: James Comey testifies on Russian interference in US election

    Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, center delivers opening remarks before the start of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 8, 2017. Comey in prepared remarks to the committee said U.S. President Donald Trump sought his loyalty and urged him to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images




    That accusation closely followed news that Attorney General William Barr has opened an inquiry into the matter.

    The Wall Street Journal reports: “Barr has tapped the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to study the origins of a 2016 counterintelligence investigation that conducted what he has called ‘spying’ on people affiliated with the Trump campaign, a person familiar with the decision said.”

    Trump has long been calling the integrity and intentions of the bureau’s leadership into question.

    “The rank and file of the FBI are great people who are disgusted with what they are learning about Lyin’ James Comey and the so-called ‘leaders’ of the FBI,” Trump noted via Twitter in January. “Twelve have been fired or forced to leave. They got caught spying on my campaign and then called it an investigation. Bad!”

    Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/05/18/comey-fires-back-at-trump-over-treason-accusation/23729424/

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/19/politics/trump-neocons-iran-venezuela-intl/index.html

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/18/us/columbine-survivor-found-dead/index.html

    As multiple states pass laws banning many abortions, confusion is swirling about what exactly that means for women. (May 17)
    AP

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/19/donald-trump-comments-on-abortion-laws/3731000002/

    Sean Jin is 31 and says he’d not washed a dish until he was in his sophomore year of college.

    “Literally my mom and my grandma would … tell me to stop doing dishes because I’m a man and I shouldn’t be doing dishes.” It was a long time, he says, before he realized their advice and that sensibility were “not OK.”

    Now, as part of the Masculinity Action Project, a group of men in Philadelphia who regularly meet to discuss and promote what they see as a healthier masculinity, Jin has been thinking a lot about what men are “supposed to” do and not do.

    He joined the peer-led group, he says, because men face real issues like higher rates of suicide than women and much higher rates of incarceration.

    “It’s important to have an understanding of these problems as rooted in an economic crisis and a cultural crisis in which there can be a progressive solution,” Jin says.

    In supporting each other emotionally, Jin says, men need alternative solutions to those offered by the misogynist incel — “involuntary celibate” — community or other men’s rights activists who believe men are oppressed.

    “Incels or the right wing provide a solution that’s really based on more control of women and more violence toward minorities,” Jin says.

    Instead, he says, he and his friends seek the sort of answers “in which liberation for minorities and more freedom for women is actually empowering for men.”

    Once a month, the Philadelphia men’s group meets to learn about the history of the feminist movement and share experiences — how they learned what “being a man” means and how some of those ideas can harm other people and even themselves. They talk about how best to support each other.

    Once a month, a men’s group in Philadelphia meets to exchange ideas and share their experiences. With the support of the group, Jeremy Gillam (third from right), who coaches an after-school hockey league, teaches his team nonviolent responses to aggression on the ice.

    Alan Yu for NPR


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    Alan Yu for NPR

    Once a month, a men’s group in Philadelphia meets to exchange ideas and share their experiences. With the support of the group, Jeremy Gillam (third from right), who coaches an after-school hockey league, teaches his team nonviolent responses to aggression on the ice.

    Alan Yu for NPR

    This spring, part of one of the group’s meetings involved standing in a public park and giving a one-minute speech about any topic they chose. One man spoke of being mocked and spit upon for liking ballet as a 9-year-old boy; another spoke of his feelings about getting a divorce; a third man shared with the others what it was like to tell his father “I love you” for the first time at the age of 38.

    The idea of such mentoring and support groups isn’t new, though today’s movement is trying to broaden its base. Paul Kivel, an activist and co-founder of a similar group that was active from the 1970s to the 1990s in Oakland, Calif., says men’s groups in those days were mostly white and middle-class.

    Today, the global nonprofit ManKind Project says it has close to 10,000 members in 21 nations, is ethnically and socioeconomically diverse and aims to draw men of all ages.

    “We strive to be increasingly inclusive and affirming of cultural differences, especially with respect to color, class, sexual orientation, faith, age, ability, ethnicity, and nationality,” the group’s website says.

    Toby Fraser, a co-leader of the Philadelphia group that Jin attends, says its members range in age from 20 to 40; it’s a mix of heterosexual, queer and gay men.

    Simply having a broad group of people who identify as masculine — whatever their age, race or sexual orientation — can serve as a helpful sounding board, Fraser says.

    “Rather than just saying, ‘Hey, we’re a group of dudes bonding over how great it is to be dudes,’ ” Fraser says, “it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re a group of people who have been taught similar things that don’t work for us and we see not working or we hear not working for the people around us. How can we support each other to make it different?’ “

    Participants are also expected to take those ideas outside the group and make a difference in their communities.

    For example, Jeremy Gillam coaches ice hockey and life skills at an after-school hockey program for children in Philadelphia. He says he and his fellow coaches teach the kids in their program that even though the National Hockey League still allows fighting, they should not respond to violence with violence. He says he tells them, “The referee always sees the last violent act, and that’s what’s going to be penalized.”

    That advice surprises some boys, Gillam says.

    “One of the first things that we heard,” he says, “is, ‘Dad told me to stick up for myself. Dad’s not going to be happy with me if I just let this happen, so I’m going to push back.’ “

    Vashti Bledsoe is the program director at Lutheran Settlement House, the Philadelphia nonprofit that organizes the monthly men’s group. She says men in the group have already started talking about how the #MeToo movement pertains to them — and that’s huge.

    “These conversations are happening [in the community], whether they’re happening in a healthy or unhealthy way … but people don’t know how to frame it and name it,” Bledsoe says. “What these guys have done is to be very intentional about teaching people how to name [the way ideas about masculinity affect their own actions] and say, ‘It’s OK. It doesn’t make you less of a man to recognize that.’ “

    Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association published guidelines this year suggesting that therapists consider masculine social norms when working with male clients. Some traditional ideas of masculinity, the group says, “can have negative consequences for the health of boys and men.”

    The guidelines quickly became controversial. New York magazine writer Andrew Sullivan wrote that they “pathologize half of humanity,” and National Review writer David French wrote that the American Psychological Association “declares war on ‘traditional masculinity.’ “

    Christopher Liang, an associate professor of counseling psychology at Lehigh University and a co-author of the APA guidelines, says they actually grew out of decades of research and clinical experience.

    For example, he says, many of the male clients he treats were taught to suppress their feelings, growing up — to engage in violence or to drink, rather than talk. And when they do open up, he says, their range of emotions can be limited.

    “Instead of saying, ‘I’m really upset’, they may say, ‘I’m feeling really angry,’ because anger is one of those emotions that men have been allowed to express,” Liang says.

    He says he and his colleagues were surprised by the controversy around the guidelines, which were intended for use by psychologists. The APA advisory group is now working on a shorter version for the general public that they hope could be useful to teachers and parents.

    Criticism of the APA guidelines focused on the potentially harmful aspects of masculinity, but the APA points to other masculine norms — such as valuing courage and leadership — as positive.

    Aylin Kaya, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at the University of Maryland, recently published research that gets at that wider range of masculine norms and stereotypes in a study of male college students.

    Some norms, such as the need to be dominant in a relationship or the inability to express emotion, were associated with lower “psychological well-being,” she found. That’s a measure of whether students accepted themselves, had positive relationships with other people and felt “a sense of agency” in their lives, Kaya explains. But the traditional norm of “a drive to win and to succeed” contributed to higher well-being.

    Kaya adds that even those findings should be teased apart. A drive to win or succeed could be good for society and for male or female identity if it emphasizes agency and mastery, but bad if people associate their self-worth with beating other people.

    Kaya says one potential application of her research would be for psychologists — and men, in general — to separate helpful ideas of masculinity from harmful ones.

    “As clinicians,” she says, “our job is to make the invisible visible … asking clients, ‘Where do you get these ideas of how you’re supposed to act? Where did you learn that?’ To help them kind of unpack — ‘I wasn’t born with this; it wasn’t my natural way of being. I was socialized into this; I learned it. And maybe I can start to unlearn it.’ “

    For example, Kaya says, some male clients come to her looking for insight because they’ve been struggling with romantic relationships. It turns out, she says, the issue beneath the struggle is that they feel they cannot show emotion without being ridiculed or demeaned, which makes it hard for them to be intimate with their partners.

    Given the findings from her study on perceptions of masculinity, Kaya says, she now might ask them to first think about why they feel like they can’t show emotion — whether that’s useful for them — and then work on ways to help them emotionally connect with people.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/18/716350714/wheres-masculinity-headed-mens-groups-and-therapists-are-talking

    The unexpected victory of conservatives in Australia’s election Saturday is bad news for the future of global climate action, warn climate experts.

    Polls had suggested that the Labor Party, which supports strong climate action, held a narrow lead in recent days. But in the end, Prime Minister Scott Morrison won re-election as his Liberal Party (which is actually conservative) swept to victory.

    “Australians elected someone who once brought a lump of coal into Parliament urging us to dismiss the warnings from climate scientists, and to dig up more coal instead,” Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, an Australian cognitive scientist, told ThinkProgress in an email. “There is little doubt that his government will do precisely that.”

    “We have lost Australia for now,” warned Penn State climatologist Michael Mann in an email.  “A coalition of a small number of bad actors now threaten the survivability of our species,” he said.

    These include “the fossil fueled Murdoch media empire, which saturated the country with dishonest right-wing campaign propaganda” working with a few “petrostates including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Trump’s America, and now Australia.”

    Rupert Murdoch’s grip on the Australian media — and his support of climate disinformation around the world — led one Australian scientist to write in 2011, “The Murdoch media empire has cost humanity perhaps one or two decades of time in the battle against climate change.”

    In re-electing Morrison, a long-time opponent of climate action, Murdoch and his allies have triumphed again.

    In fact, Morrison first became prime minister back in 2015 following a party coup against then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who supported the climate action.

    Turnbull’s efforts to cut carbon pollution and promote clean energy rankled right-wing members of his ruling Liberal Party, whose stances were closer to President Trump’s pro-coal (and anti-immigrant) policies.

    Ironically, 2019 has already seen the hottest summer on record for Australia. The temperatures have been so brutal in South Australia, in fact, that heat-stressed bats are literally falling out of trees.

    Australia is one of most vulnerable countries to climate change, since much of it is already very hot and dry — and so much of its population lives along the coast, which is threatened by rapidly rising sea levels.

    Morrison’s reelection is thus a disaster for the future of the country — and the world, since avoiding catastrophic climate change requires a collective effort.

    And so “we must redouble our efforts to make sure that the rest of the world works even harder to act on climate,” said Mann. “The stakes are too great to simply give up.”


    Source Article from https://thinkprogress.org/we-have-lost-australia-warns-climate-scientist-scott-morrison-upset-92008fabb597/

    U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan on Saturday became the first Republican lawmaker to say President Trump had “engaged in impeachable conduct.” In a series of tweets, Amash wrote he had read the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller and had concluded there is a “threshold for impeachment.” 

    “Under our Constitution, the president ‘shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,'” Amash wrote Saturday. “While ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ is not defined, the context implies conduct that violates the public trust.”

    Amash also wrote that impeachment does not require “probable cause” has been committed, but rather “simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt or otherwise dishonorable conduct.”   

    After Mueller concluded his report in mid-March, Attorney General William Barr released a four-page summary, which Amash said “deliberately misrepresented” the full 448-page report. “Barr’s misrepresentations are significant but often subtle, frequently taking the form of sleight-of-hand qualifications or logical fallacies, which he hopes people will not notice,” he wrote.   

    Amash wrote that, contrary to Barr’s initial assessment of Mueller’s report, Mr. Trump had “engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment. 

    Congress, too, was not spared from criticism by Amash. He called out the partisanship of many lawmakers, saying they shift their perceptions “180 degrees” when discussing former President Bill Clinton and Mr. Trump.

    “Few members of Congress even read Mueller’s report; their minds were made up based on partisan affiliation — and it showed, with representatives and senators from both parties issuing definitive statements on the 448-page report’s conclusions within just hours of its release,” Amash wrote. 

    Amash, who has been described as the “new Ron Paul” due to his Libertarian beliefs, has broken ranks with the Republican party before — and especially against Mr. Trump, whom he did not endorse in 2016. Earlier this year, he was one of 14 Republican representatives who tried to override Mr. Trump’s veto over an emergency declaration for the border wall. In March, Amash did not rule out running for president as a Libertarian in 2020. 

    Several of the Democrats running for president have called for Mr. Trump’s impeachment. 

    Read the full tweet thread below: 

    Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justin-amash-michigan-republican-congressman-becomes-first-gop-member-to-call-for-trump-impeachment/

    Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan penned a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday afternoon, concluding that — after having read the full report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller — “President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct,” and “Attorney General [William] Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.”

    These were the top two of of four “principal conclusions” listed by Amash after what he described as a careful and compete reading of the full, but redacted 448-page Mueller report on the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and allegations the president obstructed justice.

    Amash’s two other topline conclusions were that “Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances,” and “Few members of Congress have read the report.”

    While the congressman from Michigan does not appear to directly call for Trump to be impeached, Amash does make the argument that the president could be impeached and removed from office based on what he read in the report.

    “Under our Constitution, the president ‘shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,'” wrote the representative. “While ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ is not defined, the context implies conduct that violates the public trust.”

    He continued: “Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.”

    The Twitter thread noted the multiple examples given in the Mueller report where Trump may have attempted to obstructed the special counsel’s investigation, including his attempts to have Mueller removed. According to Amash’s take, “undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”

    He then went on to claim that impeachment “does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct.”

    Contrary to some who have argued that impeachment attempts will likely only grow more frequent as a nations grows more partisan, Amash countered that “the risk we face in an environment of extreme partisanship is not that Congress will employ [impeachment] as a remedy too often but rather that Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct.”

    The congressman, who was a member of the Michigan state legislature before being elected to federal office in 2010, criticized his colleagues for what he views as changing their views depending on the prevailing political wind.

    “We’ve witnessed members of Congress from both parties shift their views 180 degrees—on the importance of character, on the principles of obstruction of justice—depending on whether they’re discussing Bill Clinton or Donald Trump,” he explained.

    According to Amash, this partisanship also resulted in few members of Congress actually reading the entire Mueller report.

    “[T]heir minds were made up based on partisan affiliation—and it showed,” he wrote, “with representatives and senators from both parties issuing definitive statements on the 448-page report’s conclusions within just hours of its release.”

    The congressman’s concluding statement was not a condemnation but an apparent call to arms for his fellow legislators to “uphold both the rules and spirit of our constitutional system even when to do so is personally inconvenient or yields a politically unfavorable outcome. Our Constitution is brilliant and awesome; it deserves a government to match it.”

    Newsweek has reached out to Amash’s office for further clarification on the congressman’s comments. If any further details are provided, we will update this story.

     

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    Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/republican-justin-amash-president-trump-engaged-impeachable-conduct-1429655

    UPLAND, Ind. (AP) — Dozens of graduates and faculty have protested the selection of Vice President Mike Pence as the commencement speaker at Taylor University in Indiana by walking out moments before his introduction.

    The Indianapolis Star reports the protesters in caps and gowns rose and quietly walked down the aisle and out of the auditorium in the Kesler Student Activities Center at the university in Upland, Indiana.

    The protest was planned and discussed prior to Saturday’s ceremony. Some faculty and students at the nondenominational Christian liberal arts school debated the appropriateness of the former Indiana governor at the commencement ceremony.

    Most of Taylor’s graduating class did not leave. Pence received a standing ovation.

    Graduate Laura Rathburn said Pence’s “presence makes it difficult for everyone at Taylor to feel welcomed.”




    Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/05/18/dozens-protest-pence-at-taylor-university-commencement/23729580/

    Austria‘s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for fresh elections after his ruling coalition collapsed following an apparent video sting that forced his deputy to step down.

    In a statement on Saturday, Kurz said he would ask the country’s President Alexander Van der Bellen to hold a new vote “as soon as possible”.

    The call came hours after Heinz-Christian Strache, the vice chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) resigned over a covert video that appeared to show him offering government contracts to a Russian woman in exchange for campaign help. 

    Kurz, a conservative who formed a coalition with the FPO a year and a half ago, said the sting was the last straw in the relationship.

    “Enough is enough … The serious part of this was the attitude towards abuse of power, towards dealing with taxpayers’ money, towards the media in this country,” said the chancellor, who heads the centre-right People’s Party.  


    Kurz said he could not reach an agreement with the leadership of Strache’s FPO on carrying forward the coalition, adding that a possible coalition with the center-left Social Democrats would derail the government’s programme of limiting debt and taxes.

    Shortly after Kurz’s statement, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen expressed support for a snap vote and said he would meet with the chancellor again on Sunday to talk over the next steps.

    Opposition parties including the Social Democrats, the liberal Neos party and the Greens have also called for fresh elections in the wake of the scandal.

    ‘Catastrophic’

    The downfall of the Austrian coalition comes just a week before elections to the European parliament and is a blow to one of the most successful anti-immigrant, nationalist parties that have surged across the continent in recent years. The FPO is a major part of a new nationalist grouping that aims to score record gains in the European vote.

    Strache quit as vice chancellor and party leader earlier on Saturday after the video was released by two German news organisations. He acknowledged that the video was “catastrophic” but denied breaking the law.

    In the footage – aired by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and weekly Der Spiegel newspapers – Strache was seen meeting a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch in 2017,  shortly before the election that brought him to power. 

    Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus are heard telling the unnamed woman she could expect lucrative construction work if she bought Austria’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper and supported the Freedom Party. He is also seen discussing rules on party financing and how to work around them, although he also insisted on having to act legally.

    The German publications did not reveal the source of the video. 



    Heinz-Christian Strache resigned as vice chancellor on Saturday [Leonhard Foeger/Reuters]

    In his resignation statement, Strache apologised but said he was set up in a “political assassination.” He conceded his behavior in the video was “stupid, irresponsible and a mistake”.

    Strache, whose party has a cooperation agreement with Russia‘s ruling United Russia party, said no money changed hands during the 2017 meeting.

    He insisted the only crime that took place was illegally videotaping a private dinner party.

    Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from London, described the timing of the scandal as “very bad” for Strache’s party because of the upcoming European elections. 

    “This has been quite an extraordinary downfall for the leader of the Freedom Party … just only a week to go until the European elections,” Gallego said, adding the incident had raised “a lot of questions” about how the FPO “finances its own coffers”.

    EU parliamentarian Hans-Olaf Henkel said the FPO “as well as many other right-wing parties in Europe are apparently much-supported by Russia”.

    For the first time, with the Austrian far-right party, we have found a smoking gun and thats why Strache had to resign ,” Henkel told Al Jazeera from the German capital, Berlin.

    Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/austria-chancellor-kurz-announces-snap-election-190518170506716.html

    Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to party supporters flanked by his wife and daughters. Morrison’s conservative coalition won a surprise victory in the country’s general election.

    Rick Rycroft/AP


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    Rick Rycroft/AP

    Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to party supporters flanked by his wife and daughters. Morrison’s conservative coalition won a surprise victory in the country’s general election.

    Rick Rycroft/AP

    Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison won re-election on Saturday, stunning pollsters who had anticipated his defeat for several months. Morrison championed working-class economic stability during his campaign, and his victory is part of a populist trend, which now stretches across the U.S., Brazil, Hungary and Italy.

    At his victory party in Sydney, Morrison said, “Tonight is about every single Australian who depends on their government to put them first. And that is exactly what we are going to do.”

    In his speech, Morrison also paid tribute to “the quiet Australians” who voted for his coalition. “It has been those Australians who have worked hard every day, they have their dreams, they have their aspirations, to get a job, to get an apprenticeship, to start a business, to meet someone amazing,” he said. “To start a family, to buy a home, to work hard and provide the best you can for your kids. To save for your retirement. These are the quiet Australians who have won a great victory tonight!”

    Top issues in the Australian election included climate change, immigration, jobs and the economy. Morrison’s coalition of Liberal and National Parties maintained seats in contested suburbs, while also picking up support across Australia’s countryside. In the northeastern state of Queensland, the site of a controversial proposal to build a coal mine, several Liberal Party candidates also won, signifying that jobs are of more importance to Australian voters there than environmental concerns. If the Adani coal mine is built in Queensland, it will be one of the largest in the world.

    In a suburb of Sydney, however, the Liberal Party did suffer a setback. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott lost his race there, where voters are demanding action on climate change.

    In his concession speech, Abbott said, “It’s clear that in what might be described as ‘working seats,’ we are doing so much better. It’s also clear that in at least some of what might be described as ‘wealthy seats,’ we are doing it tough, and the Green left is doing better.”

    Morrison is an evangelical Christian, who has professed admiration for President Trump. During his campaign he promised voters he would lower energy prices, and cut costs for first-time homeowners.

    In 2013, as immigration minister, Morrison advocated denying asylum seekers arriving by sea the right to apply for settlement in Australia.

    Morrison’s opponent, Bill Shorten, the leader of the Labor Party, promised “real action” on climate change and the economy. On Saturday night he conceded defeat. “I know you’re all hurting,” he told supporters in Melbourne. “And I am, too.”

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/05/18/724620023/australias-prime-minister-scott-morrison-scores-surprise-election-victory

    President Trump is preparing to pardon Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher and other members of armed forces accused of war crimes, according to a published report.

    In a sign he is considering making the pardons on or around Memorial Day, Trump asked the Justice Department to prepare the requisite paperwork, the New York Times reported Saturday.

    Gallagher, a special operations officer, is scheduled to go to trial for allegedly stabbing a wounded prisoner of war to death in Iraq and shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.

    Trump recently ordered him transferred to a “less restrictive” prison. Republican lawmakers had called for Gallagher to be released before his trial.

    According to the Times, the president might also pardon Army Green Beret Mathew Golsteyn, who was accused of killing an unarmed civilian; Nicholas Slatten, a former Blackwater guard found guilty of shooting dozens of unarmed Iraqis; and a group of Marine snipers accused of defiling a dead Taliban fighter’s corpse.

    Earlier this year, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) called on Trump to dismiss Gallagher’s case.

    “Chief Gallagher stands accused of murder in the killing of a verified ISIS combatant in a warzone based on inconsistent testimony and without any physical evidence,” Hunter said in a January statement.

    “It is important to remember that this ISIS combatant was engaged in an extensive firefight with Chief Gallagher’s team and was already significantly injured when captured. No credible evidence has been provided that this ISIS fighter was murdered as opposed to dying from his terrorist actions.”

    The White House requested the Justice Department get going on the pardons on Friday, the Times reported, citing an unnamed military official.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/05/18/trump-expected-to-pardon-navy-seal-accused-of-war-crimes/

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for files to be prepared on pardoning several U.S. military members accused of or convicted of war crimes, including one slated to stand trial on charges of shooting unarmed civilians while in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

    Trump requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed, indicating he is considering pardons for the men around Memorial Day on May 27, the report said, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. Assembling pardon files normally takes months, but the Justice Department has pressed for the work to be completed before that holiday weekend, one of the officials said.

    One request is for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, scheduled to stand trial in coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.

    Also believed to be included is the case of Major Mathew Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010, the Times said.

    Reuters could not immediately identify a way to contact Gallagher and Golsteyn.

    The newspaper reported that the cases of other men are believed to be included in the paperwork, without naming them.

    The Department of Justice declined to comment on the report, while the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Legal experts cited in the report said that pardoning several accused and convicted war criminals, including some who have not yet gone to trial, has not been done in recent history, and some worried such pardons could erode the legitimacy of military law.

    Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Nandita Bose; editing by Michelle Price, Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-pardons/trump-may-pardon-military-men-accused-or-convicted-of-war-crimes-new-york-times-idUSKCN1SO0QH

    Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., broke with his Republican colleagues on Saturday when he claimed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election meddling showed President Trump engaging in “impeachable conduct.”

    Attorney General William Barr, Amash argued, “deliberately misrepresented” that report in not emphasizing clear evidence of obstruction on Trump’s part.

    JAMES COMEY BLASTS AG BARR, ACCUSES HIM OF ‘SLIMING HIS OWN DEPARTMENT’

    “In comparing Barr’s principal conclusions, congressional testimony, and other statements to Mueller’s report,” Amash said, “it is clear that Barr intended to mislead the public about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s analysis and findings.”

    Barr has, for weeks, faced criticism for allegedly shielding Trump through congressional testimony and his summary of the Mueller report. Although the report did not conclude that Trump committed obstruction or conspired with the Russians, its findings have fueled Democratic investigations and led some to call for impeachment.

    Impeachment, Amash indicated, was appropriate even in the absence of probable cause or a formal indictment.

    AG BARR DETAILS HIS HUNT FOR THE TRUTH ON WHAT REALLY WENT ON WITH THE RUSSIA PROBE: LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW

    “Impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct,” he said.

    In another tweet, he referenced the constitutional language surrounding impeachment — “high crimes and misdemeanors” — as implying that the president only needs to violate public trust for Congress to consider his removal.

    Amash concluded by lamenting both parties’ apparent hypocrisy and inaction in responding to the Mueller investigation.

    “Few members of Congress even read Mueller’s report; their minds were made up based on partisan affiliation — and it showed, with representatives and senators from both parties issuing definitive statements on the 448-page report’s conclusions within just hours of its release,” he said.

    TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE OFFICIALS CAUGHT ‘ABUSING’ POWER MUST BE ‘HELD ACCOUNTABLE’: GOP LAWMAKER

    Some Democrats have expressed hesitation — or outright rejected — towards impeachment but others — like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — have boldly advanced that as an option.

    While many have dismissed those calls as overreaction, Amash indicated that Congress wasn’t pursuing impeachment as much as it should.

    “While impeachment should be undertaken only in extraordinary circumstances, the risk we face in an environment of extreme partisanship is not that Congress will employ it as a remedy too often but rather that Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct,” he tweeted.

    Amash appeared to be the only elected Republican seriously pushing impeachment. He’s publicly criticized the president and indicated he was open to challenging Trump on a third-party ticket in 2020.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Republicans and the administration have responded to Mueller’s report by questioning the origins of what they suggested was an illegitimate investigation.

    During an interview with Fox News, Barr vowed to uncover exactly what happened when the DOJ investigated Russian influence and the Trump campaign.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmaker-breaking-with-gop-accuses-trump-of-obstruction-impeachable-conduct

    But, as Harry Enten of CNN, among others, has been insisting for some time, the average Democrat is older, more moderate or conservative, and less likely to have a college degree than you’d guess from following Twitter or cable TV.

    Source Article from https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/05/18/rich-lowry-what-if-trump/