USA

Trump budget boosts defense by $54 billion, cuts from domestic spending

President Trump’s 2018 budget will slash foreign aid in order to boost defense spending, he said Monday morning, promising cuts to almost every non-security category. His budget envisions a $54 billion spike in defense, with the money coming from cuts to domestic discretionary programs. In remarks to the nation’s governors at the White House, Mr. […]

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International, USA

Trump: ‘Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump promised the nation’s governors Monday that his yet-to-be-revealed replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act would give states greater flexibility and thanked some Republicans in the room who advised him on health care. “It’s an unbelievably complex subject,” he said. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” The

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Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Statecraft requires talking to your enemies

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — It’s understandable, even if often immature, that individuals don’t speak to those they consider to be enemies. But it’s deplorable when states behave like that. That’s how I understood Ephraim Halevy, a former high ranking Israeli intelligence chief, when he spoke in Jerusalem earlier this week. His analyses based

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International, Middle East, USA

Ethics concerns lead second of Trump’s armed services secretary nominees to withdraw

WASHINGTON — For the second time, one of President Donald Trump’s appointees to head one of the nation’s armed services has withdrawn, citing difficulty in meeting ethics requirements. Philip Bilden, a former private equity investment manager who operated in Asia, had been nominated to be secretary of the Navy. He withdrew his nomination Sunday, three

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USA

Jimmy Kimmel blasts Trump as racist in Oscars opener

Jimmy Kimmel opened Sunday’s Academy Awards show by acknowledging the political divide and promptly called President Trump a racist. The host’s opening monologue acknowledged the importance of having a serious conversation with someone who disagrees with you, saying that “if we all do that, we can make America great again.” And then he went there.

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Transgender wrestler ended contentious weekend with title, but controversy isn’t going anywhere

CYPRESS, Texas — A few hours after winning a state championship on Saturday, Mack Beggs came walking out of a conference room, flanked by his coach, with the entire Euless Trinity girls team in tow. Beggs, a 17-year-old transgender wrestler from Euless Trinity, had been the topic of this weekend’s state championships. Debates rose up

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Sports & Competitions, USA

Judge Joseph Wapner, who presided over ‘The People’s Court,’ dies at 97

LOS ANGELES — He was a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who became an unlikely American TV icon, a white-haired jurist who was dubbed the “Solomon of Small Claims.” Judge Joseph A. Wapner, who presided over “The People’s Court” for 12 years in the 1980s and ’90s, has died, a family member told

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Obituaries & memorials, USA

Here’s the draft of the Obamacare repeal and what it could mean for your healthcare

Just before members of Congress return to Washington next week, Politico has acquired and published a draft of a House Republican Affordable Care Act repeal bill. (They host the document here). House Majority Leader Paul Ryan has said the bill is undergoing scoring and pricing by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the nonpartisan agency

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Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

New national Democratic chairman ridicules Trump’s assertion that party vote was ‘rigged’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that the race for Democratic National Committee chairman had been “rigged”—drawing a quick response from Tom Perez, who narrowly won the party’s leadership race. Trump insinuated that Perez’s election as chairman on the second ballot at a party conference in Atlanta on Saturday was because Hillary Clinton had

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USA

Another Jewish cemetery desecrated; what will the President say? Isn’t the government supposed to help?

‘…establish justice, insure domestic tranquility…’– From the preamble of the U.S. constitution By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Just Sunday afternoon, I was gazing at an internet photo of cemetery headstones, some overturned, bearing names like Singer, Weiss, Goldstein and Markowitz three miles southeast of my apartment in Northeast Philadelphia. The desecration of nearly

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USA

6 members of Congress, 4 MKs, 1 Palestinian negotiator, no top Republicans at J Street confab

Liberal group’s first conference of Trump era features Bernie Sanders, Saeb Erekat, Joint (Arab) List leader MK Ayman Odeh By Eric Cortellessa US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks as he debates with Democratic presidential candidates former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during their MSNBC Democratic Candidates Debate at the University of New Hampshire on February

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Middle East, USA