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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — Payday will come Friday without any checks for about 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown, forcing workers to scale back spending, cancel trips, apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to stay afloat.
IRS employee Krystle Kirkpatrick and her family, including her two children, ages 6 and 12, aren’t eating out, buying brand-name foods or getting drinks at the gas station. Her husband is working overtime in his job as a machinist to try to make up for her lost paycheck.
Her mortgage company informed her it won’t let her skip a payment, and she still has to pay daycare even though her children aren’t going or she will lose their spot to another family on the waiting list. She has applied for unemployment but does...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, will testify publicly before Congress next month.
Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee will be the first major public hearing for Democrats, who have promised greater scrutiny of Trump.
Cohen is a pivotal figure in investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and by federal prosecutors in New York into campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who say they had sex with Trump. Trump has denied it.
Cohen has pleaded guilty in both investigations and was sentenced last month to three years in prison.
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Washington - Sen. Bernie Sanders is apologizing to women who’ve shared experiences of harassment by male supervisors while working on his 2016 presidential campaign.
The Vermont independent says alleged misconduct by male aides “was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about.”
He says rhetoric about “ending sexism and ending all forms of discrimination ... cannot just be words.”
Sanders’ comments follow a Politico report that a former Sanders adviser, Robert Becker, had assaulted a female subordinate. Becker denies the allegation. The New York Times also has detailed allegations of unwanted sexual advances and pay inequity on Sanders’ 2016 campaign.
Sanders says he was unaware of Becker...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Berlin - German media report that Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who spent decades leading an unassuming life in New York City until his past was revealed, has died.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten newspapers quoted German officials on Thursday confirming that Palij, who was deported to Germany in August, died in a care home in the town of Ahlen. He was 95.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who lobbied for Germany to take Palij, said he’d been informed.
Grenell credited U.S. President Donald Trump with seeing through a deportation that was stalled for a quarter-century.
Palij, an ethnic Ukrainian born in a part of Poland that is now Ukraine, entered the U.S. in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act, a law meant to help refugees ...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:22 pm
Seattle - A Seattle TV station has fired an editor after airing video footage of President Donald Trump’s Oval Office address on immigration that appears to be altered.
The Seattle Times reports that FOX affiliate Q13 broadcasted video from the Tuesday night speech that showed a more orange-toned Trump with his tongue hanging out languidly of his mouth after making a statement.
The video’s filtered colors look more saturated and the tongue appears doctored.
Q13 news director Erica Hill said: “This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the president in a negative light.”
Hill also confirmed on Thursday that the station investigated the incident and fired the editor involved.
Trump in his televised address had urged for b...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt slammed the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, saying it has not come to terms with reality.
“PA officials criticize…@AmbJohnBolton and @USAmbIsrael visit to historic Jewish areas of Jerusalem. Will these officials ever realize that peace can only be built on truth and reality?” Greenblatt tweeted.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman were given a guided tour of the Western Wall and the adjacent tunnels earlier this week, drawing condemnation from P.A. officials who said this was in contravention of international law.
“You cannot wipe away truth or history. Time to get serious!” Greenblatt continued in his tweet.
In December 2017, ...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara reportedly received $300,000 in funding for their legal criminal defense from a wealthy American businessman despite the permits committee’s rejection of their request.
The Netanyahus’ lawyer submitted a request last month to receive financing from Netanyahu’s cousin Nathan Milikowsky and US tycoon Spencer Partrich, but was rejected by the State Comptroller’s Office’s permissions committee, which is charged with vetting conflicts of interest for cabinet minister in deciding whether certain activity is permissible.
This week Netanyahu re-submitted the request — this time for a reported $2 million according to Guy Peleg of the Israel Television News Company — which disclosed that he had al...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
The military police arrested an Israeli platoon commander and four combat soldiers Wednesday under suspicion of beating two Palestinian detainees whom they had caught.
One of the detainees was so badly pummeled that he could not be interrogated, and needed medical care.
The military police is checking whether the soldiers were motivated by revenge following the shooting attack in Givat Assaf, where two soldiers from their battalion were killed.
Read more at Ha’Aretz.
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January 10, 2019 at 3:23 pm
Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, compared the ongoing prime minister’s corruption investigations to the 2016 Turkish coup attempt, Hadashot News reported.
“Does someone still not understand that there is a legal putsch taking place here? In Turkey they are taking tanks out into the streets, here they have no need because they control the police and the prosecutor’s office,” the social media post, which has since been deleted, reportedly read.
In early December, Israel Police recommended indicting Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on bribery, fraud and breach of public trust charges in the corruption investigation known as Case 4000.
Read more at JPOST.
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January 10, 2019 at 3:19 pm
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged during his two-day visit to Beijing to achieve “results” that would be welcomed by the international community after his potential next summit with President Trump, China’s state-run media said Thursday.
In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, Kim also repeated that North Korea will stick to its goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, according to the reports.
For his part, Xi told Kim he hopes North Korea and the United States can meet each other halfway, Xinhua said. The remark hinted at the depth of the differences that remain between Pyongyang and Washington.
“The political settlement of the peninsula issue faces a rare historic opportunity,” Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying. Beijing ...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:18 pm
Croatia - Israel has failed to overcome U.S. objections to its plan to sell 12 used fighter jets to Croatia and the $500 million deal will likely be canceled, Croatia’s defense minister said Thursday.
Israel reached a tentative deal with Croatia in March for the sale of the upgraded F-16 Barak fighters, pending U.S. approval that would allow the American-made technology to be purchased by a third party.
Croatian Defense Minister Damir Krsticevic said after meeting with Israeli defense officials in Zagreb on Thursday that “despite accepted obligations,” Israel failed to obtain the needed consent and his ministry “will propose to the government to make appropriate decisions.”
The deal ran into trouble after Washington said that Israel needed to strip off the ...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:17 pm
Hidalgo, TX - As President Donald Trump travels to the border in Texas to make the case for his $5.7 billion wall , landowner Eloisa Cavazos says she knows firsthand how the project will play out if the White House gets its way.
The federal government has started surveying land along the border in Texas and announced plans to start construction next month. Rather than surrender their land, some property owners are digging in, vowing to reject buyout offers and preparing to fight the administration in court.
“You could give me a trillion dollars and I wouldn’t take it,” said Cavazos, whose land sits along the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico in Texas. “It’s not about money.”
Trump is scheduled to visit the border Thursday in McAllen...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:16 pm
Detroit - Ford’s aging Explorer big SUV is getting a major revamp as it faces growing competition in the market for family haulers with three rows of seats.
The company unveiled the new version Wednesday night at Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions. It comes just before next week’s press days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where the new SUV will be on display.
The Explorer, last reworked for the 2011 model year, gets a top-to-bottom update that includes a switch from front- to rear-wheel-drive, as well as updated engines and transmissions, some nice standard safety features and even high-performance and gas-electric hybrid versions. The switch to rear drive will boost towing capacity and off-road performance, Ford says.
Sales of the v...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Helena - A Montana politician is proposing the state give more than $8 million to help build President Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the Mexican border as a government shutdown over the $5.7 billion project continues. The proposal seems unlikely to pass in a state with a Democratic governor exploring a run for president.
At least one other state, South Dakota, is considering voicing support for Trump’s wall. But Montana, which last year faced a massive budget shortfall, appears to be the first to propose spending its own money on the project.
Scott Sales, a fiscally conservative Republican who leads the state Senate, says his proposal is a “small token” to show border security “is of vital interest to all citizens regardless of what state they live in.&rdq...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Washington - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his planned trip later this month to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, amid the ongoing partial shutdown of the U.S. government.
“Because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation, I am respectfully cancelling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum,” Trump tweeted. Read more at Reuters
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January 10, 2019 at 3:12 pm
Miami - Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas is returning to a Florida port a day early and giving passengers full refunds of their fare after 277 guests and crew members were hit with an outbreak of Norovirus as it sailed to Jamaica.
Cruise line spokesman Owen Torres told The Associated Press “we think the right thing to do is get everyone home early rather than have guests worry about their health.”
He says the ship will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday. It sailed from there Sunday on a seven-day Caribbean cruise.
Passengers took to social media on Wednesday, tweeting they were forced to stay onboard after docking in Falmouth, Jamaica, for what was supposed to be a day of excursions.
Torres says returning a day early gives the cruise line “more time to comp...
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January 10, 2019 at 12:30 pm
Jerusalem - Israel inaugurated a new highway in the West Bank on Thursday that features a large concrete wall segregating Israeli and Palestinian traffic.
One side of Route 4370 — located northeast of Jerusalem — will be open to Israeli vehicles only, while the other half will only be open to Palestinian traffic. Critics have branded it an “apartheid” highway, saying it is part of a segregated road system that benefits Jewish settlers.
The highway was built as part of a planned ring road east of Jerusalem that would connect the northern and southern West Bank. Construction began in 2005, but the 5-kilometer (3-mile) road lay unfinished for years until 2017.
Israeli officials inaugurating the new road on Wednesday touted it as a means of better connecting West Ban...
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January 10, 2019 at 12:29 pm
A trip to Moscow next week by the leader of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has been canceled, Interfax news agency quoted the ambassador for the Palestinian Authority to Russia as saying on Thursday.
The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had been expected to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Jan. 15.
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January 10, 2019 at 12:27 pm
The oldest synagogue in Washington, D.C. was literally picked up and physically moved to a new location Wednesday.
A historic section of the Adas Israel synagogue was loaded onto a remote-controlled platform and moved, in a process that takes several hours.
It was taken from its spot near the Supreme Court and Capitol building to the corner of 3rd and F Streets, about a mile away, where it will become part of the new Capital Jewish Museum.
Read more.
