Top Stories Today – May 8, 2019
Top Stories Today – May 8, 2019
Trump tax returns show years of massive losses
Tax information obtained by The New York Times shows that from 1985 to 1994, President Trump’s businesses lost more than $1 billion — so much that he did not have to pay income taxes for eight of the 10 years. The Times received printouts of Trump’s Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with figures from his 1040 forms.
Based on the IRS’s annual sampling of high-income earners, the Times reports, “year after year,” Trump “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer.” In 1990 and 1991, Trump reported losses of more than $250 million each year, indicating that his core business losses “were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the IRS information for those years,” the Times reports. The New York Times via The Week
Iran partially withdraws from the nuclear deal
Iran threatened Wednesday to resume higher enrichment of uranium in 60 days if world powers fail to negotiate new terms for its 2015 nuclear deal a year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, raising tensions as a US aircraft carrier and a bomber wing deploy to confront unspecified threats from Tehran.
In a televised address, President Hassan Rouhani also said that Iran would stop exporting excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program, two requirements of the deal. He did not elaborate on the degree to which Iran was prepared to enrich uranium, which at high levels of enrichment can be used in nuclear weapons. The Associated Press
Asia Bibi flees Pakistan to safety
Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy, has left the country, officials have confirmed. Her conviction was overturned last year by the Supreme Court. She was originally convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a row with her neighbors.
Asia Bibi has always maintained her innocence in a case that has polarized Pakistan. Pakistani government officials did not reveal her destination, or say when she left. But her lawyer Saif ul Malook told the BBC she had already arrived in Canada, where two of her daughters are understood to have been granted asylum. BBC
DOJ warns Democrats over Mueller report
The US Justice Department threatened on Tuesday to completely withhold Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report from Congress if House Democrats decide to move ahead with plans to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt.
The department said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler any move by Democrats to hold Barr in contempt would compel Barr to “request that the President invoke executive privilege” over the unredacted materials in Mueller’s report that the Democrats previously subpoenaed. Reuters
Pompeo visits Iraq amid tensions
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made an unscheduled visit to Iraq, amid growing tensions with Iran after intelligence reports indicated that Iran moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores.
The move, first reported by CNN, was one of several clues that Iran might be considering or preparing to attack US forces in the region, a government official told AP. The official told the news agency that they were not sure whether the boats with missiles represented a new military capability or were only being moved to new locations. The Voice of America
1 dead, 8 hurt in Colorado school shooting
Two students opened fire Tuesday inside a charter school in an affluent suburban Denver community not far from Columbine High School, killing a teenager, wounding eight and spreading terror before they were taken into custody with no injuries, authorities said.
Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said the pair walked into the STEM School Highlands Ranch and began shooting students in two classrooms. Within minutes, deputies at a nearby sheriff’s department substation entered the school and arrested the two suspects after a struggle. The Voice of America