AFN NEWS

Thursday, June 20, 2019　

1) From ABC News, I’m Daria Albinger. Federal authorities say a terror plot in Pittsburgh has been thwarted. Prosecutors have charged a suspect to the ISIS sympathizer with terrorism offences. “Mustafa Alowemer came to the United States as a refugee from Syria two years ago. In recent months, court records said he came in contact with an FBI undercover and discussed a plan to bomb a church on the North Side of Pittsburg. Federal prosecutor said Alowemer wanted to support the cause of ISIS and take revenge for ISIS brothers in Nigeria. The FBI has been increasingly concerned that angry, disaffected people are considering attacks against houses of worship.” ABC’s Aaron Katersky.

2) Former Trump aide Hope Hicks has finished her closed-door testimony with the House Judiciary Committee investigating possible obstruction of justice by the President, but Democrats including California Congressman Ted Lieu expressed frustration with Hick’s claiming absolute immunity and refusing to answer questions about the Trump presidency. “There’s no such thing as absolute immunity. The White House is just making stuff up and they are not asserting executive privilege, which actually is a thing. They’re afraid to assert it, so we’re gonna go to court. We’re gonna win and then we just make Hope Hicks come back again.” President Trump tweeted that Democrats were putting Hicks to hell.

3) A House panel heard impassioned testimony earlier on the idea of slave reparations. Something, Republican Sen. Lindsey graham says, won’t help overcome America’s original sin. “We’re so far removed from the event. It was the original sin of the country, and I think let’s just make it more a perfect union rather than looking backward, because I don’t know where it stops.” It was Congress’ first hearing on reparations in more than a decade.

4) Mexico’s senators voted to ratify a new free trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada. It’s the first of the three countries to sign off.

5) Stocks rose modestly on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve signaled it could cut interest rates in the future. The Dow gained 38 points, S&P added 9. You’re listening to ABC News.

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From the Fox Business Network; on Wall Street, the major averages closing in the green after the Federal Reserve left its key interest rates unchanged and signaled that no cuts are coming for this year unless economic conditions weaken. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, “In light of increased uncertainties and muted inflation pressures, we now emphasize that the committee will closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion with a strong labor market and inflation near its 2% objective.” The Central Bank is also penciling in one interest rate cut for next year, with the Dow rising 38 points, NASDAQ up 33, S&P 500 up 9. // And Panera Bread making a move to expand beond the breakfast and lunch crowd. The chain announcing that they will be testing its new dinner-centric menu in restaurants in Lexington, Kentucky in July before expanding to locations in Providence, Rhode Island in September. With the Fox Business Report, I’m Hilarie Barsky.