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McALLEN — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said Wednesday that he would not vote to impeach President Trump following building pressure on House Democrats to move forward with impeachment proceedings, especially after Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III spoke publicly for the first time following his two-year-long investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. “The short answer is: Would I vote right now to impeach the president? No,” Cuellar said at a luncheon at the DoubleTree hotel in McAllen during a legislative update panel alongside Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez and moderator Davis Rankin, the KURV radio host....

Steve Zelnak, the former CEO and chairman of the board at Raleigh-based Martin Marietta Materials, donated $5,000 to Sen. Thom Tillis in February. The donations weren’t shocking: He’d given to Tillis in 2014 and 2018. On Wednesday night, however, Zelnak and his wife Judy will serve as chairmen for the first fundraiser for Tillis’ 2020 Republican challenger — Garland Tucker. It costs $5,600 per couple to be listed as a chairman for the event at the Carolina Country Club in Raleigh, according to an invitation obtained by McClatchy.

TOKYO -- As Japan buys more U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, domestic jet engine builder IHI faces a risk to its most lucrative business. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has budgeted 701.3 billion yen ($6.41 billion) in fiscal 2019 for purchases through the U.S. foreign military sales program, up 70% from the previous year. Much of the outlay will go toward 105 Lockheed Martin F-35s, a transaction highlighted by President Donald Trump during his recent visit to Japan. "This purchase would give Japan the largest fleet of F-35s of any of our allies," Trump said Tuesday aboard the Kaga, a...

Qualifying for the first Democratic presidential debate was the easy part. Now comes the challenge of preparing for it. With the debate in Miami less than a month away, at least a half-dozen major candidates have begun to block out time or lighten their schedules to prepare. On telephone calls and in conference rooms, advisers are peppering them with potential questions. The candidates are practicing tightening their answers, cognizant of the 7 to 10 minutes of total speaking time they expect to be allotted. And they are watching clips of the 2016 Republican presidential primary debates to familiarize themselves with...

Netflix is threatening to “rethink” its Georgia productions after the state approved new restrictions on abortion. But, in a country that’s split on the issue of abortion, the streaming giant may want to “rethink” its proposition.In light of its past decisions, Netflix’s warning comes as no surprise. The company has a history with abortion and, in particular, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Not only have multiple Netflix shows worked together with Planned Parenthood, but also, Netflix employees have donated tens of thousands to the organization.Netflix’s Georgia comments came shortly after Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a bill prohibiting abortion...

Televangelist Todd Coontz has a well-worn routine: he dresses in a suit, pulls out a Bible and urges viewers to pledge a very specific amount of money. "Don't delay, don't delay," he urges, calmly but emphatically. It sounds simple, absurdly so, but Coontz knows his audience extremely well. He broadcasts on Christian cable channels, often late into the night, drawing in viewers who lack financial literacy and are desperate for change. "I understand the laws that govern insurance, stocks and bonds and all that is involved with Wall Street," he once said, looking directly into the camera. "God has called...

The suspect in last Friday's parcel bombing in Lyon, France has confessed to police that he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State..... A terrorist attack in the Old City of Jerusalem Friday morning...... Wikileaks expressing: "grave concern" about the health of its founder, Julian Assange, who's been transferred to the medical ward of a British prison..... Stymied by Congress and the courts in his efforts to control migration across the nation's southern border, President Trump announcing plans for tariffs on Mexico..... The governor of Louisiana, Democrat John Bel Edwards, signing Pro-Life legislation Thursday...... Pro-government sources in Syria say a cease-fire...

Louisiana has become the latest state to have a controversial abortion ban signed into law. The Louisiana House of Representatives passed the bill on Wednesday, sending it to the governor's desk for signature in order for it to become law. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has been vocal in his support for an abortion ban and signed the bill Thursday afternoon, his press office confirmed to ABC News.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A recent burst of seismic activity along the West Coast has scientists taking notice. They believe these small tremors could potentially be a precursor to something larger. Over the last few weeks, these small tremors have been reported along the coast of northern California, up to Washington. Scientists said it’s due to the phenomenon called “slow-slip,” and it’s happening north of us out in the Pacific. “The Juan de Fuca plate, is what it’s called, is sliding under North America, and sometimes it’s locked, and sometimes it slips. But when it slips, it’s building up stress elsewhere...

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One of the victims in Friday morning’s terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem has been identified as a 16-year-old boy, who was attacked as he made his way from morning prayers at a local synagogue back to his yeshiva. “On his way back from the Hurva synagogue to the yeshiva, someone jumped him from one of the courtyards,” the victim’s father told Reshet Bet. “The ridiculous thing is that at the beginning, the police told him to ‘Get out of here’, they didn’t understand that he was wounded. He walked to the synagogue to call for help.” The...

Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh is calling on members of the US Congress to sound their voices in order to save the two-state solution. In a meeting in Ramallah on Thursday with Congressman Eliot Engel, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Shtayyeh stressed the importance of congressional pressure on the Trump administration to lift the sanctions on the PA and put an end to what he called the “economic war” against the PA. […] Israel, he claimed, has violated all the agreements it signed, and in particular the Paris Agreement (the economic agreement), when it offset the...

“We are now entering into a period of great power rivalry. The outcome is unclear, but it is critical that we stabilize the system.” That was the warning on Thursday from Singapore’s Heng Swee Keat, the man set to be the city-state’s next prime minister. China’s rapid ascent over the past decade, he said, has caused a clear shift in global politics, and those changes need to be addressed. The Singaporean deputy prime minister’s sentiment was echoed by other political figures and experts gathered in Tokyo for a conference on the future of the region. At the event, which was...

WASHINGTON — President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” into a punch line rather than a prognosis. Now, after two years spent unraveling the policies of his predecessors, Mr. Trump and his political appointees are launching a new assault.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a commencement speech to Harvard graduates on Thursday after being greeted with rousing applause when introduced as “one of the most respected and influential leaders of the postwar era.” Addressing students at the Ivy League school’s 368th commencement ceremony, Merkel began in English, yet quickly switched to German. Merkel, speaking through a translator, touched on a number of topics throughout the speech — beginning with her own upbringing in East Germany under the shadow of the Berlin Wall. The idea of the wall was one that she would return to throughout the speech. She would...

You may be wondering how I came up with this piece. That makes two of us.

While on a preaching tour in Vermont a few weeks ago, Franklin Graham got an idea: God had helped Donald Trump reach the White House, and now the President needed divine aid again. Like no President before him, Trump was under attack, Graham said. From Democrats, Republicans, the media, even powers and principalities beyond the human realm. His presidency was in peril, the country at a moral crossroads. So Graham decided to do what evangelists do: pray, preferably with lots of other people. After calling evangelical allies, he announced plans to name this Sunday, June 2, as a “special day...

Cher has apologised to fans for making light of prison rape in her latest rant against U.S. leader Donald Trump. Cher took to Twitter on Wednesday night after Special Counsel Robert Mueller staged a news conference about his investigation into the President’s alleged election tampering. Mueller revealed federal rules prohibited him and his team from charging a sitting President with a crime but added, “If we had had the confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” Cher ran with the comment and called for an abrupt end to Trump’s presidency, tweeting: “I...

Poland plans to buy 32 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters to replace Soviet-era jets, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Tuesday, amid the growing assertiveness of neighbour Russia. "Today we sent a request for quotation (LOR) to our American partners regarding the purchase of 32 F-35A aircraft along with a logistics and training package," Blaszczak tweeted. The US is expected to expand sales of F-35 fighters to five nations including Poland as European allies bulk up their defenses in the face of a strengthening Russia, the Pentagon said last month. Poland is among NATO member countries that spend at least...

A SHOCK poll has suggested the Liberal Democrats are on course to get the most votes in a general election, ahead of the Brexit Party, raising fresh concerns anti-Brexit activists will be able to block the UK’s EU departure. The fiercely pro-EU Liberal Democrats have vowed to call a second referendum on Britain's EU membership. A YouGov poll for The Times put them on 24 percent of the vote, ahead of the Brexit party with 22 percent. The Conservatives and Labour are relegated to joint third position with 19 percent each. However according to the Electoral Calculus website Labour still...