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April 18, 2018 at 9:17 pm
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday they had failed to reach a deal that would exempt Japan from new U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, as Abe had wanted.
Instead, the leaders announced they had agreed to start talks on a new "free, fair and reciprocal" trade agreement between the two countries following two days of talks.
"If we can come to an arrangement on a new deal, that would certainly be something we would discuss," Trump said when asked about the tariffs during a joint press conference at his private Mar-a-Lago club.
But he said the current trade deficit between the two countries was too high to merit an exemption now. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the trade deficit was $56.1 billion last year.
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April 18, 2018 at 7:26 pm
BOERNE, Texas (AP) — The Southwest Airlines pilot being lauded as a hero in a harrowing emergency landing after a passenger was partially blown out of the jet's damaged fuselage is also being hailed for her pioneering role in a career where she has been one of the few women at the controls.
Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy, was the captain and piloting the Dallas-bound Flight 1380 when it made an emergency landing Tuesday in Philadelphia, according to her husband, Dean Shults.
One of the engines on the Boeing 737 exploded while the plane was traveling 500 mph (800 kph) at 30,000 feet (9144 m) with 149 people on board. Shrapnel hit the plane and passengers said they had to rescue a woman who was being blown out of a damaged win...
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April 18, 2018 at 7:26 pm
PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — President Donald Trump is passing up a chance to say whether he will fire special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Trump says there's been speculation that he would get rid of the two men for months but "they are still here."
But Trump also says he wants the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian officials "done with."
Trump said Wednesday he has cooperated with Mueller's investigators and his team has turned over more than a million documents.
The president adds that he hoped the probe was "coming to an end."
Trump spoke alongside Japanese Prince Minister Shinzo Abe at a news conference at his Florida resort.
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April 18, 2018 at 7:25 pm
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's police could start using drones to tackle a five-year surge in cocaine production that has jeopardized relations with the United States.
State contracting documents show that anti-narcotics police in the South American country have hired a local company to test drones for spraying herbicides on fields of coca, the base material for cocaine.
The remote-controlled devices would be expected to eradicate 8 hectares (20 acres) of coca a day. Coca cultivation has doubled in Colombia since 2012 and now exceeds 188,000 hectares, according to U.S. estimates.
Three years ago Colombia decided to ban the aerial spraying of coca crops over environmental and health concerns. But drones fly at lower altitudes than spray planes and are expected to have a sm...
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April 18, 2018 at 5:08 pm
"This year Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary.
That's 70 years of freedom.
70 years of democracy.
70 years of bettering the world.
Israel's success didn't happen overnight.
Men and women from every walk of life – young and old, Jew, Christian, Muslim, religious and secular, men and women that have worked hard to build our nation.
As I travel around the world meeting other leaders, I am struck by their appreciation and admiration for Israel.
They seek Israel's technology.
They seek Israel's ingenuity.
They seek Israel's genius.
I am proud that Israel is helping people in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia and in many other places to live healthier and safer lives.
Here's the best part.
We're just getting started.
70 years is th...
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April 18, 2018 at 4:52 pm
US stocks finished broadly higher Wednesday, giving the S&P 500 its third gain in as many days.
Energy companies rose more than the rest of the market, riding a big upturn in crude oil prices. Solid gains in industrial stocks and retailers outweighed losses among food and beverage companies, technology stocks and banks.
Investors continued to bid up companies that reported positive earnings or outlooks. Not all companies delivered welcome results. IBM slumped 7.5 percent, single-handedly pulling the Dow Jones industrial average into the red.
"Earnings are the principal thing this week," said Paul Christopher, head of global market strategy for Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "The market wants to see more consistent evidence of strong earnings."
The S&P 500 index rose 2.25 poi...
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April 18, 2018 at 4:52 pm
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday sharply condemned a street assault in Berlin on two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps that has stoked the debate about anti-Semitism in the country.
A video of the attack Tuesday showing one of the victims being whipped with a belt quickly went viral.
Merkel called attack in the city's trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood "a very horrible incident" and vowed the government would respond "with full force and resolve" against growing anti-Semitism in Germany.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that "Jews shall never again feel threatened here."
"It's our responsibility to protect Jewish life here," he wrote in reference to the killing of six million European Jews by Germany under the Nazis in the Holocaust...
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April 18, 2018 at 3:07 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors say they can give President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, copies of materials seized from him by the FBI by May 11.
The U.S. attorney's office in New York told a federal judge Wednesday that it can begin turning over materials on April 27. It expects most of the items to be shared within two weeks, though it could take longer to extract information from seized telephones.
Prosecutors have disclosed that they are investigating Cohen's personal business dealings but haven't said what crime they believe he has committed. Cohen's lawyers have called the raid an assault on attorney-client privilege.
U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said she might appoint a neutral lawyer to help resolve conflicts over attorney-...
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April 18, 2018 at 3:03 pm
HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George W. Bush said Wednesday that his mother, Barbara Bush, didn't fear death because she believed in an afterlife and that she would be "wonderfully received in the arms of a loving God."
Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday at age 92 at her home in Houston, was "warm and wonderful, until you got out of line," her son added while appearing with his wife, Laura Bush, on the Fox Business Network. Other relatives also described her as the family "enforcer" while her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, pursued careers in the Texas oil business and, later, politics and public service.
Tributes rolled in from around the world, heralding the former first lady as a warm woman of strength devoted to not only her family, but to child and adult literac...
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April 18, 2018 at 3:00 pm
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — An island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the U.S. territory struggles to repair an increasingly unstable power grid nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria. Officials said an excavator accidentally downed a transmission line.
Officials said it could take 24 to 36 hours to fully restore power to more than 1.4 million customers as outrage grew across the island about the state of Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority. It is the second major outage in less than a week, with the previous one affecting some 840,000 customers.
"This is too much," said Luis Oscar Rivera, a 42-year-old computer technician who just got normal power back at his house less than two months ago. "It's like the first day of Maria all over again."
Several ...
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April 18, 2018 at 2:58 pm
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has raised nearly $113 million — mostly from Musk himself.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the tunnel-digging company doesn’t say what the funding is for. But the Boring Company is designing and planning to build a network of high-speed tunnels for mass transportation, which Musk has referred to as “an urban loop system.” Read more at CNN.
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April 18, 2018 at 2:57 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thwarted a bipartisan effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job, saying he will not hold a floor vote on the legislation even if it is approved next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
McConnell said Tuesday the bill is unnecessary because President Donald Trump will not fire Mueller.
"We'll not be having this on the floor of the Senate," McConnell said on Fox News.
His comments came amid widespread opposition to the bill among members of his caucus, with several GOP senators saying the bill is unconstitutional. Others said it's simply not good politics to try and tell Trump what to do, likening the legislation to "poking the bear."
The bipartisan legislation was introduced last week as T...
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April 18, 2018 at 2:45 pm
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump has given his "blessing" for North and South Korea to discuss the end of the Korean War amid a diplomatic push to end the North Korean nuclear standoff. One problem: There can be no real talks without the involvement of the other countries that fought the 1950-53 war, and especially the United States.
The reason is that South Korea wasn't a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting but left the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.
There's widespread interest in what South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will talk about at their summit on April 27, which would be only the third such meeting between the countries' leaders. A separate meeting between Kim ...
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April 18, 2018 at 2:40 pm
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday issued a veiled warning to Iran, saying in a Memorial Day speech that his country will defend itself against anyone that tries to harm it.
The premier's remarks on Israel's national day of mourning come amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran over an alleged Israeli airstrike targeting a Syrian air force base last week that left at least four Iranian military personnel dead.
Iran has threatened to retaliate, casting a shadow over Israel's celebration of its 70-year Independence Day celebrations, which were to begin at sundown.
Netanyahu said Israel is "determined to stand strong" in the face of "continued incitement by our neighbors, a great many of whom refuse to come to terms with our exi...
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April 18, 2018 at 1:29 pm
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on developments related to Israel's Memorial Day (all times local):
8:25
President Donald Trump is sending his best wishes to the Israeli people and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the nation marks 70 years of independence.
Trump tweeted Wednesday that "We have no better friends anywhere." Trump was in Florida playing hosting to the prime minister of Japan.
The president added that he was looking forward to moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem next month.
Trump overturned decades of U.S. policy last year by announcing the U.S. would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The controversial step has infuriated the Palestinians, who claim part of Jerusalem for the capital of a future state and have now rejected U.S. mediation in efforts t...
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April 18, 2018 at 1:22 pm
CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati councilman has apologized for telling the family of a 16-year-old boy who became trapped and died in a minivan that "there's no amount of money that's going to make you happy."
The family of Kyle Plush stood up and left a meeting Tuesday after Councilman Wendell Young made his remark. The teen's father, Ron Plush, firmly told Young before leaving: "It's not about money."
Young on Wednesday told The Cincinnati Enquirer he never meant to offend anyone and understands why the family is upset.
Cincinnati officials are trying to determine how two police officers failed to find Kyle Plush last week after he made two 911 calls from inside the minivan last week begging for help and providing a dispatcher with a description and l...
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April 18, 2018 at 11:57 am
Jerusalem - Behind the high concrete walls of Baghdad’s Jewish cemetery, Violette Saul lies at rest under a weathered and cracked tombstone, one of the last memorials to an ancient community that is now all but extinct.
The Iraqi nurse was buried a decade ago alongside thousands of others in the sands of a country where her community thrived for more than 2,500 years.
Drive west to the shores of the Mediterranean - just a day’s journey geographically but a world away politically - and there is a lament inscribed at the entrance to the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre in Israel - “The Jewish community in Iraq is no more”.
It is no accident that such a somber epitaph to Iraq’s Jews should be found in Israel, where tens of thousands of them fled after 1948 ami...
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April 18, 2018 at 11:54 am
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon is expanding its dominance globally by giving overseas customers access to more than 45 million items via its app.
The online powerhouse also announced Wednesday that it's teaming with rival Best Buy on new Fire TV Edition smart TVs.
Amazon.com Inc.'s "International Shopping" will be available through a mobile browser or app and goods will be shipped globally from the United States. There's five languages to choose from and Amazon is accepting 25 currencies. Customers can also choose from different shipping options and delivery speeds.
Amazon operates largely in North America, Western Europe, parts of Asia, and Australia. The app allows people living outside of regions where Amazon operates to order goods.
Amazon said that its "International S...
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April 18, 2018 at 11:51 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A bird strike forced a Southwest Airlines jet to make an emergency landing in Nashville, Tennessee.
The airline said in a statement that the pilot of Flight 577 from Nashville to Phoenix declared an emergency after the bird strike Wednesday morning and safely landed the plane at Nashville International Airport. No injuries were reported.
Southwest said the aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance and local employees are working to get passengers on a new flight.
The emergency occurred a day after a Southwest plane's engine exploded during a flight and a businesswoman was sucked halfway out of a window broken by pieces of shrapnel.
The woman later died, and seven others were injured.
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April 18, 2018 at 11:49 am
Washington - President Donald Trump wasted no time before seizing on last week’s report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog on misconduct allegations against the FBI’s former No. 2 official, Andrew McCabe. Trump tweeted it was proof that his archrival James Comey, the former FBI director, “totally controlled” McCabe.
But the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz said no such thing. In fact, it depicted clashing accounts of a conversation they had that contributed to McCabe’s dismissal.
It wasn’t unusual for Horowitz to see his actions — or his own credibility — caught up in Washington’s political storms, despite the apolitical reputation he has cultivated over six years on the job. Trump has disparagingly called...
