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President Trump threatened Tuesday to have the military “build the remaining sections” of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, appearing to revive a call to use Pentagon money to finish the project ahead of a meeting with congressional Democratic leaders opposed to the president’s funding request. For their part, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer put out a joint statement Monday arguing Trump and his party will own a government shutdown if they can’t strike a deal. “People do not yet realize how much of the Wall, including really effective renovation, has already been built. If the...

An Oval Office meeting with President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and presumptive incoming speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Tuesday spiraled out of control — in Pelosi's words — over funding the border. With a potential government shutdown looming less than two weeks away, Pelosi told Mr. Trump, "you will not win" on the border wall. The president demanded border wall funding — and said he's not afraid the shut down the government over it.

President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to pressure Democratic congressional leaders into supporting his demand for billions of dollars to build his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening to have the military build it “if Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country.” Trump tweeted the threat hours before Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi were to meet with Trump at the White House in an effort to avert a partial government shutdown on Dec. 21, when funding for some agencies is scheduled to expire. In a series of tweets Tuesday, Trump...

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - A former Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, two sources said on Tuesday, and his current employer, the International Crisis Group, said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Michael Kovrig’s detention comes after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, a move that infuriated Beijing. It was not immediately clear if the cases were related, but the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has stoked fears of reprisals against the foreign business community in China.

Democratic leaders plan to offer President Trump $1.3 billion in funding for a border fence when they meet Tuesday at the White House, a bid that falls far short of the $5 billion Trump is demanding to fund a border wall. Democrats, Republicans and the White House have until Dec. 21 to reach a budget deal if they are to avert a partial government shutdown, but talks are deadlocked over funding for the wall. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) prepare for the Tuesday morning, Democrats and Trump are, if anything,...

A teacher at West Point High School in Virginia was fired recently over his religious objections to using male pronouns when referring to a student who is biologically female but identifies as male.The West Point School Board unanimously voted 5-0 Thursday to dismiss 47-year-old French teacher Peter Vlaming following a four-hour hearing. They argued that he was in “willful violation of school board policy.”“We do not and cannot tolerate discrimination in any form, or actions that create a hostile environment for any member of our school family,” they said in a statement. “Mr. Vlaming was asked repeatedly, over several weeks...

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the presumed incoming chairman for the House Armed Services Committee, voiced his extreme displeasure after the Department of Defense extended the deployment of active-duty service members on the U.S.-Mexico border. They will stay at the border until January 31.The Department of Homeland Security requested the extension due to the “ongoing threat” of large, and sometimes violent, migrant caravans.“I continue to strongly question the deployment of U.S. military service members at our southern border. Furthermore, the decision to extend this deployment to the end of January 2019 is not a responsible use of Department of Defense resources...

When it comes to alarming projections of global warming-induced sea level rise, veteran climate scientist Judith Curry says people need to cool it. “Projections of extreme, alarming impacts are very weakly justified to borderline impossible,” Curry told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Curry’s latest research, put together for clients of her consulting company near the end of November, looks in detail at projections of sea level rise. Curry’s ultimate conclusion: “Some of the worst-case scenarios strain credulity.” “With regards to 21st century climate projections, we are dealing with deep uncertainty, and we should not be basing our policies based on...

President Trump on Monday denied the hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election were campaign contributions, instead calling them a "simple private transaction.” “So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,” Trump tweeted. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, recently admitted in a plea deal to violating federal campaign finance laws by arranging payments to Daniels and McDougal on Trump's behalf, according to the plea. Prosecutors on Friday released a sentencing memo calling for Cohen to a “substantial term...

Theresa May is to make a statement to MP's at 15:30 GMT amid reports Tuesday's vote on her Brexit deal is being delayed. That will be followed by a statement from the Commons leader Andrea Leadsom-and then a statement from the Brexit secretary on Article 50. Two cabinet sources have told the BBC's Laura Keunssberg Tuesday's planned Brexit vote will be delayed. There is not yet any official confirmation of the move. Downing Street had been insisting the vote would go ahead, despite Mrs. May being widely expected to lose it.....

The United States became a net oil exporter last week for the first time in almost 75 years, a significant step toward achieving “energy independence and dominance,” as promoted by President Donald Trump. The United States had been a net oil importer since 1949. In the last week of November, however, weekly U.S. net imports of crude oil and petroleum products fell to minus 211,000 barrels per day (bpd), meaning the country became a net exporter of that amount, according to data from U.S. Energy Information and Administration. The news came on the back of a surge in crude exports...

The French government on Sunday (Dec 9) urged Mr Donald Trump not to interfere in French politics after the US president posted tweets about the protests rocking the country and attacked the Paris climate agreement. "We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told LCI television. "I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.

US prosecutors have charged Huawei's chief financial officer with fraud, saying she had used at least seven passports in 11 years. - ...she was charged with conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions between 2009 and 2014. It is alleged she used Hong Kong company Skycom to access the Iranian market in deals that violated US sanctions. She allegedly assured US banks that Huawei and Skycom were different companies but prosecutors say they were one and the same. - Mr Gibb-Carsley said she had been aware of the US investigation and had avoided entering the country since March 2017, despite the...

An attorney for President Trump requested the court obtain $800,000 in legal fees and penalties from porn star actress Stormy Daniels for her unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against the president. Attorney Charles Harder said his firm spent more than 500 hours and $390,000 in legal fees defending the president and asked the court to press for just as much money in sanctions to deter “frivolous defamation cases.” “This action is virtually unprecedented in American legal history,” Harder wrote in court papers. Daniels “not only brought a meritless claim for defamation against the sitting president of the United States, but she also...

President Trump was not aware of the unusual arrest of a major Chinese technology executive when he sat down to dinner recently with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 on a U.S. extradition warrant. Huawei is suspected of evading American sanctions on Iran, a possibility that U.S. prosecutors have been investigating since 2016. The arrest was made on the same day that Trump and Xi met for dinner amid high-level trade and national security talks in Buenos Aires. An unnamed...

<p>For Republicans in Virginia, it’s time to face facts. We’re slowly becoming Maryland. Yes, we may have a Republican state legislature, but majorities in both houses hang by a thread. The Northern Virginia suburbs, where I live, are chock full of insufferable liberals who drive the direction of the whole state. The days of this state going to the GOP are over. The Obamaites infested the Old Dominion and never left. The next gubernatorial election is not until 2021, but we already have one anti-gun voice that says he’s in: state Attorney General Mark Herring.</p>

French President Emmanuel Macron will address the country on Monday as he seeks to placate "yellow vest" anti-government protesters who wreaked havoc in Paris this weekend. On Sunday, workers in Paris and other cities swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars while the government warned of slower economic growth and the judiciary said it would come down hard on looting and attacks on police. On Saturday, protesters, for the fourth weekend in a row, threw stones, torched cars and vandalised shops and restaurants in a protest against Macron's economic policies. The Elysee palace said on Sunday that Macron,...

Republican Senator Ted Cruz has just upped the ante on the contentious battle with the newly-emboldened Democrats over President Trump’s proposed border wall.The Texan who is fresh off of his defeat of liberal rock star Beto O’Rourke just introduced a bill to fully fund the wall at $25 billion which will infuriate Democrats who are already engaged in a game of guts poker with Republicans over shutting down the government. Trump has been firm in his request for the funding of a key election promise and as recently as Friday blasted Democrats for “playing games” over what given the recent...

WASHINGTON—U.S. manufacturers increased their capacity for the 16th straight month in September, fresh evidence that a strengthening economy is helping to propel a U.S. industrial rebound. The Trump Administration has prioritized increasing manufacturing investment in the U.S. with tax cuts and tariffs on a range of imported goods.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that court filings in the Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen cases showed no collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. "We're very happy with what we're reading because there was no collusion whatsoever," Trump told reporters Saturday at the White House before boarding Marine One for the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. Trump told reporters he has not read the court filings, which detail alleged lies Cohen and Manafort told publicly and to investigators.