COMING TOGETHER: Lawmakers reach deal on $1.07T spending bill to fund gov't through September

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have forged a $1.07 trillion spending package that would fund the government through the end of September, Fox News has learned.

The House and Senate have until 11:59 p.m. Friday to approve the bill, which would avert a government shutdown. If passed, the catchall spending bill would be the first major piece of bipartisan legislation to advance during President Donald Trump's short tenure in the White House.

The measure is assured of winning bipartisan support in votes this week, but it's unclear how much support the measure will receive from GOP conservatives and how warmly it will be received by the White House.

"This agreement is a good agreement for the American people, and takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-.NY., said in a statement. "The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren't used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders, and increases investments in programs that the middle-class relies on, like medical research, education, and infrastructure."

The proposed legislation has no funding for Trump's oft-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but does set aside $1.5 billion for border security measures such as additional detention beds. It does give Trump a $12.5 billion down payment on his request to strengthen the military, a figure which could rise to $15 billion should Trump present Congress with a plan for fighting the Islamic State terror group. The proposed $15 billion amounts to half of Trump's original $30 billion request.

It also rejects White House budget director Mick Mulvaney's proposals to cut popular programs such as funding medical research and community development grants.

Among the final issues resolved was a Democratic request to help the cash-strapped government of Puerto Rico with its Medicaid burden, a top priority of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pelosi and other Democrats came up short of the $500 million or so they had sought but won $295 million for the island, more than Republicans had initially offered.

"From the beginning, Democrats have sought to avert another destructive Republican government shutdown, and we have made significant progress improving the omnibus bill," Pelosi said in a statement.

The bill also maintains federal money for Planned Parenthood, and Democrats praised a $2 billion funding increase for the National Institutes of Health -- rejecting the steep cuts proposed by Trump -- as well as additional funding to combat opioid abuse, fund Pell Grants for summer school and additional transit funding.

A provision extending health care for 22,000 retired Appalachian coal miners and their families was on track to provide permanent health benefits, a priority of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Appalachia region lawmakers.

Republicans had pressed for policy wins with so-called riders related to other abortion-related issues and blocking environmental regulations such as Obama's sweeping expansion of the Clean Water Act. They also hoped to chuck new financial rules. But Democrats pushed back, rejecting a whopping 160 items they deemed "poison pills," though House Republicans succeeded in funding another round of private school vouchers for students in Washington, D.C.'s troubled school system.

The measure also taps $68 million to reimburse New York City and other local governments for costs involved in protecting Trump Tower and other properties, a priority of lawmakers such as Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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REVERSING COURSE? Biden tells NH Dems: 'Guys, I'm not running'

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, attempting to quell speculation raised by an early post-election visit to New Hampshire. 

Biden was in the first-in-the-nation primary state to honor the nation's first all-female, all-Democratic congressional delegation at the state Democratic Party's annual dinner in Manchester.

"When I got asked to speak, I knew it was going to cause speculation," he said to big applause. "Guys, I'm not running."

The crowd booed and at least one person shouted, "Run, Joe Run," before Biden continued with his speech. He said that he was ready to start raising money and campaigning to help get Democrats elected at every level of government. He also touted some of his post-White House policy work including heading up the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.

Biden told the crowd to abandon the false narrative that Democrats have to choose between progressive idealism and being a party that stands up for the working class. Instead, he said, there is nothing keeping the party from being both.

"What's the core reason why you're a Democrat?" he asked. "Because you abhor the abuse of power. Whether it's financial power, psychological power, physical power."

Biden also told those in attendance that they needed to remind "the 172,000 voters we needed" in the 2016 election that the Democratic Party has not forgotten them and understands them.

"A lot of them wonder whether we've forgotten them. They are being abused by the system. They are as decent as any one of us are," he said. "So folks, let's go win it back."

The former Delaware senator caused a minor furor in December when he told reporters, "I'm going to run in 2020. So, uh, what the hell, man?"

FLASHBACK: BIDEN SAYS 'I'M GOING TO RUN IN 2020'

When Biden was asked if his statement was serious, he initially said, "Yeah, I am. We're going to run again." He then appeared to backtrack, saying that he was "not commiting not to run. I learned a long time ago fate has a funny way of intervening."

Biden would be 77 years old on Election Day 2020. If he won the presidency, he would be 78 on Inauguration Day. 

Biden's visit comes just days after Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who unsuccessfully sought the 2016 GOP nomination, was in the state to promote his new book.

Biden has remained visible since his two terms as vice president ended, rallying with Democrats at the U.S. Capitol last month on health care and criticizing Republican President Donald Trump's coziness with Russia. He's also been promoting the Cancer Moonshoot effort.

Biden's possible late entry into the 2016 presidential race was a subject of fevered speculation. However, the vice president ultimately opted not to run, clearing the way for Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic nomination before losing to Republican Donald Trump in the general election.

Biden recently told students at Colgate University that he believed he could have won the 2016 presidential election had he run but didn't believe he was ready so soon after his son Beau's 2015 death from cancer. He said he regrets not having been president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Holiday railway traffic to peak on Monday

China's railway traffic during the International Labor Day holiday is expected to peak Monday with about 13 million passenger trips.

Windstorm disrupts train service in Xinjiang

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People enjoy Labor Day holiday across China

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Wa people, tourists celebrate 'Monihei' Carnival in SW China's Yunnan

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Scientists carry out 'body check' for Glacier No.1 in Tianshan Mountains

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APARTMENT SHOOTING Eight wounded, gunman dead in California spree

Eight people were shot at a Southern California apartment complex pool Sunday and the gunman was killed by police, authorities said.

San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said several of the victims were in critical conditions at various hospitals in the area. Zimmerman described the shooter as a white male who was wearing brown shorts, but she did not have any information about a the motive.

Police arrived at the La Jolla Crossroads Apartments at around 6:07 p.m. local time.

A witness told Fox 5 San Diego that he saw three people had been shot on a sidewalk at the apartment complex. He said he ran into the clubhouse and saw two other people bloodied.

"We looked at the pool area where the shooter was sitting there with a beer in one hand and a gun in the other," a witness told the station. "The suspect looked pretty relaxed, pretty relaxed."

Zimmerman said a police helicopter was the first to arrive at the scene and the pilot saw the shooter appear to reload his gun at the pool.

"We looked at the pool area where the shooter was sitting there with a beer in one hand and a gun in the other," a witness told Fox 5 San Diego. "The suspect looked pretty relaxed, pretty relaxed."

The witness said police moved into the area and the gunman shot at the police officers, but they shot back at him.

Another press conference was scheduled for 9 p.m. local time.

Click for more from Fox 5 San Diego.

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HK museum to offer mysterious, colorful aurora shows

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Hyundai Motor picks CATL as 1st battery supplier in China

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Famous Swiss climber killed near Mt. Qomolangma

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China claims title of mixed doubles at Badminton Asia Championships

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Child Model Show held in Fuzhou

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Highlights of AirShow Zhengzhou in central China

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People enjoy Labor Day holiday across China

People have a trip on the Changqiao Park on the West Lake in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, April 30, 2017.

Small plane crash kills two in north China

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Chinese team ranks 5th at international volleyball tournament in Vietnam

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Ministry of Public Security stresses traffic safety during holiday

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China's Long March-5 Y2 carrier rocket arrives at launch site

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Fire engulfs primeval forest in north China

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Chen Long takes first gold at Badminton Asia Championships

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Jiaolongbrings up seamount sample

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Saving pandas still a task

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Across China: Chinese workers strive to make better products

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Chinese naval fleet starts friendly visit to Philippines

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DPRK blames U.S., South Korea for tension on Korean Peninsula

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Economic Watch: China's manufacturing activity softens expansion

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Chinese films awarded at annual WorldFest-Houston in U.S.

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U.S.-led strike on IS kills at least 352 civilians: Pentagon

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Trump says being U.S. president 'big burden on the family'

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Workers on Labor Day: Serving people makes them happy

Saving pandas still a task

Releasing giant pandas into the wild is a tricky business. A giant panda born in captivity at the Chengdu Research Base of the Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province died in September 2016 after being attacked by an unknown animal.

'IT IS HEARTBREAKING' Storms in South, Midwest leave 10 dead, 2 missing

At least 10 people had died and two children were missing late Sunday as a result of tornadoes and flooding in the South and Midwest, brought by a storm that also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas on Sunday.

Four people were killed when tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas. Three people died in Arkansas due to flooding and high winds. Rushing water swept away a car, drowning a woman in Missouri and a death was reported in Sunday morning storms that raked Mississippi.

An Arkansas volunteer fire department chief was killed while working during storms in north-central Arkansas, state police said.

Cove Creek/Pearson Fire Chief Doug Decker died shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday after being struck by a vehicle while checking water levels on Highway 25 near Quitman, about 40 miles north of Little Rock, Trooper Liz Chapman said. It wasn't known if he will be included as a storm-related death, she said.

Rescuers in northwest Arkansas continued Sunday to look for an 18-month-old girl and a 4-year-old boy who were in a vehicle swept off a bridge by floodwaters in Hindsville, the Madison County Sheriff's Office said.

In northwest Arkansas, a 10-year-old girl drowned in Springdale and the body of a woman who disappeared riding an inner tube Saturday was found in a creek in Eureka Springs. Also, a 65-year-old woman in DeWitt in the eastern part of the state was struck and killed in her home by a falling tree, officials said.

In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton.

"It is heartbreaking and upsetting to say the least," Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett told reporters at a news conference Sunday morning.

The storms cut a path of destruction 35 miles long and 15 miles wide in Van Zandt County, Everett said. The largely rural area is about 50 miles east of Dallas.

The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes with one twister possibly on the ground for 50 miles.

The first reports of tornadoes came about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, but emergency crews were hampered by continuing severe weather, said Judge Don Kirkpatrick, the chief executive for Van Zandt County.

"We'd be out there working and get a report of another tornado on the ground," he said.

The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage. In Durant in central Mississippi on person died in the storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency didn't give details.

Alexa Haik went to bed Saturday night expecting just rain, but heard the sirens Sunday morning and turned on the television to see the tornado warning. She rounded up her pets and hid in a hallway with her family, then was stunned to emerge to trees down all in her neighborhood in Clinton, Miss., about 20 miles west of Jackson.

A trip up the road showed how isolated the worst of the storms were. "I really thought when we got out of our neighborhood, there would be damage everywhere. But our little subdivision was the only one hit," Haik said.

Near Clever in southwestern Missouri, a man tried to save his 72-year-old wife from floodwaters that swept away their vehicle Saturday, but her body was found when the water receded, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

A second death from weekend flooding was announced Sunday by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens but he did not release any details about the victim or the circumstances of the death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jiaolong brings up seamount sample

China's manned submersible retrieved a basalt sample from the South China Sea which scientists say could shed light on the evolution of seamounts in the area.

Battle for the brightest

Competition among domestic universities to attract talented young faculty members is heating up.

'HARDLY A SUCCESS': Schumer slams first 100 days after Trump says he's leading Democrats to 'doom'

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. slammed President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office Sunday, saying Trump had "broken promises to the working people of America."

"I'd say the president's first 100 days have hardly been a success," Schumer told "Fox News Sunday," adding that Trump had "campaigned as a populist against the Democratic and Republican establishments but he's governing like someone from the hard-right, wealthy, special interests."

Trump's marked his 100th day in office Saturday without a major legislative accomplishment. An initial effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare collapsed in the House of Representatives last month. Last week, the administration backed off a demand to provide for a wall along the southern border in a planned $1 trillion-plus spending bill.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that the Democrats were "without a leader" — an apparent shot at Schumer, the highest-ranking Democrat in Washington — and had become "the party of obstruction."

The Democrats, without a leader, have become the party of obstruction.They are only interested in themselves and not in what's best for U.S.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2017

The president also took aim at Schumer during a rally in Harrisburg, Pa. Saturday night, telling the raucous crowd that the New Yorker was "weak on crime and wants to raise your taxes through the roof.

"He is a poor leader — known him a long time — and he's leading the Democrats to doom," Trump added.

Schumer declined to directly answer Trump's words except to say, "Name-calling doesn't work. Let's look at values. Let's look at issues." He also blamed Trump for refusing to work with congressional Democrats.

"On the issue so far — taxes and health care — he doesn't consult us at all," Schumer said. "He puts together a plan that is very hard-right, special interest [and] wealth-oriented and says the way to be bipartisan is to just support his plan. That's not the way America works."

The Senate Democratic leader also refused to countenance the idea of repealing ObamaCare, the signature domestic achievment of Trump's predecessor. 

"[Republicans] ought to back off repealing Obamacare," Schumer said. "We've said over and over again, if [Trump] backs off repeal, we'll sit down and work with him to improve Obamacare."

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UNWELCOME GUEST? Trump invites controversial Philippine leader to WH

U.S. President Trump has invited Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte to Washington to "to discuss the importance of the the United States-Philippines alliance," the White House said late Saturday.

The administration's statement did not mention a timetable for a possible visit by Duterte, who has been criticized by human rights groups for presiding over extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users as part of Manila's drug war. However, Trump and Duterte are expected to meet in November at the East Asia Summit and the U.S.-ASEAN Summit.

Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Sunday the friendlier ties are needed due to the military threat posed by North Korea. 

"The purpose of this call is all about North Korea," Priebus told ABC's "This Week." "It doesn't mean that human rights don't matter."

Duterte has taken a friendlier attitude toward Trump than he had toward President Barack Obama, who he once asked to "go to hell" for criticizing the Philippine leader's bloody anti-drug crackdown. During Obama's final months in office, the Philippine president moved to build closer economic ties with China and Russia while repeatedly threatening to end his nation's longstanding military alliance with the U.S.

Duterte's apparent dislike for Obama began when the U.S. State Department expressed concern over his drug war — which has left thousands of suspects dead — and asked Philippine government officials to take steps to stop extrajudicial killings.

At one point Duterte suggested he may even move to abrogate a 2014 defense agreement that allows U.S. military access to five Philippine military camps.

He has walked back most of those threats but has proceeded with his efforts to align closer with China.

On Sunday, three Chinese navy ships, including a guided-missile destroyer and a guided-missile frigate, were welcomed in Davao city, Duterte's southern hometown, by officials, including presidential daughter and city Mayor Sarah Duterte, military officials said.

Asked if the rare Chinese naval visits were a sign that Duterte was backing away from Washington, Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong said: "We are not veering away from the U.S. but rather we are expanding our relations with our fellow nations in the global community."

Philippine presidential spokesman Ernie Abella said without elaborating that concern over North Korea came up in Trump's talk with Duterte.

Priebus indicated that the issue was Trump's primary concern, citing a North Korean threat "so serious" that it will require cooperation from Asian countries in the region. "So if something does happen in North Korea, ... we have everyone in line backing up a plan of action that may need to be put together with our partners in the area," he said.

Duterte suggested in a news conference Saturday that the Trump administration should back away from an intensifying standoff with North Korea, not in surrender, but to avoid risking a nuclear holocaust that could smother Asia.

"It would be good for America to just restrain a little bit and if I were President Trump, I'll just back out, not really in surrender and retreat, but just to let the guy realize that, 'Ah, please do not do it,'" Duterte said.

Washington, he said, should not play into provocations of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"It behooves upon America, who wields the biggest stick, just to really be prudent and patient. We know that we are playing with somebody who relishes letting go of his missiles and everything," Duterte said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nations urged by analysts to ease tensions on peninsula

Nations involved in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue should do what they can to de-escalate tensions and avoid a military conflict caused by miscalculation, analysts said on Sunday.

'F--- THA POLICE' Outrage after workers sing anti-cop song to officers

A police union's Facebook post claiming officers were treated disrespectfully at a North Carolina BBQ joint has gone viral, according to a report Sunday.

The Raleigh Police Protective Association on Friday accused workers at a Smithfield's Chicken 'N Bar-B-Q in Garner of singing N.W.A.'s song "F--- Tha Police" to the officers as they were having a meal, WTVD reports.

The post went viral and has been shared more than 2,000 times, the station reported. The post sparked comments online calling for a boycott of the restaurant.

"THANK YOU Smithfields Chicken & Barbeque Jones Sausage location for the class and professionalism as you sang "F- the police" as my brothers at Raleigh Police Department attempted to eat at your restaurant," the union's Facebook post union president Matthew Cooper wrote Friday on Facebook. "The manager sang along as well. Do you really feel that was appropriate?"

A police officer's post prompted the union's post, according to the station.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported Saturday that Cooper said in an interview that there were a couple of officers who were sung to, though he would not give the exact number.

He said the police association spoke to the owner of the restaurant, David Harris, and accepted his apology.

Harris promised on Facebook a "thorough investigation and terminate anyone employed that doesn't share our RESPECT of ALL law enforcement."

The Raleigh Police Department said late Saturday that it was working with the restaurant to "resolve the issue."

"The Raleigh Police Department appreciates the long term and strong relationship it continues to have with Smithfield's," it said.

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Workers on Labor Day: Serving people makes them happy

May 1 marks the annual International Labor Day. Let's have a look at the daily life of some of the most common workers in China.

Cooking at home is healthier, study finds

The best culinary paths to better health are not always paved with cash, as cooking at home can provide the most bang for the buck nutritionally as well as financially, a new study suggests.

PMI growth slows; signs promising

China's manufacturing growth slowed in April as the government tightened supervision of financial risks, but still maintains momentum, according to analysts.

China's Long March-5 Y2 carrier rocket arrives at launch site

China's Long March-5 Y2 carrier rocket arrived at the launch base in Hainan, South China, on Sunday.

'IT IS HEARTBREAKING' Storms in South, Midwest leave 9 dead, 2 missing

At least nine people have died as a result of weekend tornadoes and flooding in the South and Midwest by a storm that also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas on Sunday.

Four people were killed when tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas. Two people died in Arkansas due to flooding, and officials there said that two children were missing after a vehicle was swept off a bridge. Another woman was killed when a tree fell on her house. Flooding swept away a car, drowning a woman in Missouri and a death was reported in Sunday morning storms that raked Mississippi.

Flooding closed part of Interstate 44 near Hazelgreen, Mo., and officials expected it would be at least a day before the highway reopened. Interstate 70 in western Kansas was closed because crews were waiting for snow falling at 3 to 4 inches an hour being blown by 35 mph winds to subside.

In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton.

"It is heartbreaking and upsetting to say the least," Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett told reporters at a news conference Sunday morning.

The storms cut a path of destruction 35 miles long and 15 miles wide in Van Zandt County, Everett said. The largely rural area is about 50 miles east of Dallas.

The first reports of tornadoes came about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, but emergency crews were hampered by continuing severe weather, said Judge Don Kirkpatrick, the chief executive for Van Zandt County.

"We'd be out there working and get a report of another tornado on the ground," he said.

The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage. In Durant in central Mississippi on person died in the storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency didn't give details.

Alexa Haik went to bed Saturday night expecting just rain, but heard the sirens Sunday morning and turned on the television to see the tornado warning. She rounded up her pets and hid in a hallway with her family, then was stunned to emerge to trees down all in her neighborhood in Clinton, Miss., about 20 miles west of Jackson.

A trip up the road showed how isolated the worst of the storms were. "I really thought when we got out of our neighborhood, there would be damage everywhere. But our little subdivision was the only one hit," Haik said.

More storms hit Arkansas on Saturday, killing a 65-year-old woman in DeWitt in the eastern part of the state who was struck in her home by a falling tree, officials said.

Farther north, the storms were causing massive flooding. Near Clever in southwestern Missouri, a man tried to save his 72-year-old wife from floodwaters that swept away their vehicle Saturday, but her body was found when the water receded, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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PRESIDENTIAL PRESCRIPTION: Trump vows ObamaCare replacement will cover pre-existing conditions

President Trump said Sunday that Americans with pre-existing medical conditions will be covered under Republicans' new ObamaCare overhaul, as House GOP leaders try to pass the measure as early as this week.

"Health care plan is on its way," Trump tweeted. "Will have much lower premiums & deductibles while at the same time taking care of pre-existing conditions!"

Trump's tweet came several hours after he told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the measure has a clause that "guarantees" people with pre-existing conditions will be covered and that it will lower the cost of ObamaCare insurance premiums.

However, House Republicans' latest overhaul plan appears to allow states not to include the pre-existing requirement in standard ObamaCare insurance policies, under certain circumstances.

The White House appeared eager last week to get the House to approve the measure, allowing Trump to tally a major legislative achievement during his first 100 days in office, which concluded Saturday.

But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his leadership team were more intent upon passing a spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown by midnight Friday.

Whether Ryan can pass a bill this week remains uncertain, considering the spending bill passed last week kept the government fully operational for just one additional week. And support for the plan from rank-and-file House Republicans appears tepid.

House Republicans' first overhaul attempt failed dramatically last month, with Ryan scrapping the vote at the last minute amid flagging support.

Ryan would need 217 yes votes from the chamber's 238 Republicans, with about 17 purportedly in opposition. (No Democrats have supported the effort to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature health care law.)

An amendment last week by New Jersey GOP Rep. Tom McArthur appeared to be a breakthrough in garnering support from moderate House Republicans and members of the chamber's ultra conservative House Freedom Caucus.

However, no vote was scheduled.

Still, Trump appears intent upon fulfilling a major campaign promise to overhaul ObamaCare, struggling under rising premium costs while offering customers fewer insurance coverage options.

"We're going to get this damn thing passed quickly," Trump said Saturday night at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on "Fox News Sunday" dismissed Trump's arguments that Democrats have blocked efforts to fix ObamaCare, arguing the president's GOP-controlled House doesn't need Democratic votes to pass an overhaul measure.

"He couldn't do it, twice," said the New York Democrat, while saying that his party will work with Trump to improve ObamaCare if Republicans "back off" a full repeal of the 2010 health care law.

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'CONFRONT THIS REGIME' McMaster says US must be prepared for military operations in North Korea

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster attempted to make clear Sunday that President Trump is seeking international support in trying to stop North Korea's pursuit of a nuclearize weapon, reasserting Trump's vow that the U.S. will no longer be the world's policeman.

"It's an open defiance of the international community," McMaster, a retired Army general, told "Fox News Sunday." "It's important for all of us to confront this regime… . None of us can accept a North Korea with a nuclear weapon."

From essentially the start of Trump's winning presidential campaign, he has criticized previous administrations about the financial and geo-political consequences of leading efforts to police or overthrow foreign regimes. He even threatened to resign from NATO unless other countries started paying their fair share for such efforts.

"We cannot be the policeman of the world," Trump said in a September 2016 presidential debate. "We cannot protect countries all over the world, where they're not paying us what we need."

When asked whether the United States has to do something regarding North Korea, McMaster said, "Well yes, we do have to do something, and so we have to do something, again, with partners in the region and globally, and that involves enforcement of the UN sanctions that are in place.

"It may mean ratcheting up those sanctions even further, and it also means being prepared for military operations if necessary," he said. 

Trump has, since in office, attempted to form alliances with world leaders to solve such global crises as the Syrian civil war and the North Korea nuclear threat, including an outreach to China President XI Jinping.

"The president, I think, has been masterful in terms his development of a relationship with President Xi and in the discussions that led them to the place where the United States and the Chinese understand their interests overlap."

Trump, who last week warned about the potential for a "major conflict" with North Korea, has also tried to strength relations with U.S. ally Japan. In February, he hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with the two playing golf at Trump's course in Jupiter, Fla.

McMaster on Sunday set out several options toward ending North Korea's efforts -- a combination of nuclear tests and trying to develop a rocket that could carry a nuclear weapon.

He said world leaders could enforce existing economic sanctions, impose additional ones or possibly military action.

McMaster said China, essential to North Korea's economy, has shown a "willingness to act and resolve this conflict short of military conflict."

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'SWISS MACHINE' DIES Famed climber Ueli Steck killed near Mount Everest

Famed Swiss climber Ueli Steck was killed Sunday in a mountaineering accident Sunday near Mount Everest in Nepal, expedition organizers said.

Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told the Associated Press Steck was killed at Camp 1 of Mount Nuptse.

Steck's family said in a statement on his website the exact circumstances of his death were still unclear.

"The family is infinitely sad and asks that the media refrain from speculating about his death out of respect and consideration for Ueli," the statement read. "As soon as reliable information about Ueli Steck's death becomes available, the media will be informed."

His body has been recovered from the site and been taken to Lukla, where the only airport in the Mount Everest area is located.

Related stories...

Steck was planning to climb the 29,035-foot Mount Everest and nearby Mount Lhotse next month.

He was the first casualty in the spring mountaineering season in Nepal that began in March and will end in May. Hundreds of foreign climbers are on the mountains to attempt scale Himalayan peaks in May when there are a few windows of favorable weather.

The 40-year-old Steck was one of the most-renowned mountaineers of his generation. He was best known for his speed-climbing, including setting several records for ascending the north face of the Eiger, a classic mountaineering peak in the Bernese Alps that he climbed in two hours and 47 minutes without using a rope.

In 2013 he achieved the first solo climb of the Annapurna south face in Nepal after almost losing his life in a fall there in 2007. For that he received the "Piolet d'Or" — considered the Oscar of mountaineering — the following year.

In 2015, Steck decided to climb all 82 peaks in the Alps higher than 4,000 meters traveling between mountains by foot, bike and paraglider only. He completed the feat in 62 days, helping cement his reputation as the "Swiss Machine."

In a recent post on his website, Steck mused about the transience of success in mountaineering and the inevitable decline that comes with age.

"A record is broken again and again, and the world keeps on turning," he wrote. "You are getting older and there comes a time when you have to adjust your projects to your age."

Steck suffered a setback during his last trip to Everest, in 2013, when he became involved in a violent altercation with a group of local guides.

On his return this year, he aimed to perform a quick climb of Everest and Lhotse, including an overnight stop at more than 8,000 meters, an altitude that's known as the "death zone" because the human body's performance is reduced to 20 percent of its normal rate.

Asked about the upcoming expedition, Steck told Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger in an interview last month:

In an interview last month with the Swiss publication Tages-Anzeiger, Steck said when he was on Everest, he could "stop at any point."

"The risk is therefore quite small. For me it's primarily a physical project," he told the daily. "Either I get through, or I don't have the strength for the whole traversal."

"Of course I want to climb Everest and Lhotse," Steck told the paper when asked about his measure of success. "But that's a very high goal. Failure for me would be to die and not come home."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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PICKING UP THE TAB McMaster assures S. Korea US will pay for THAAD

South Korea said Sunday the U.S. reaffirmed it would pay for the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system, days after President Trump said Seoul should pay for the near $1 billion-battery.

The South Korean presidential office said Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster reassured South Korea's chief national security officer Kim Kwan-jin that the U.S. alliance with South Korea is its top priority in the Asia-Pacific region, Reuters reported.

The report reassurance comes after Trump said Thursday that he wanted Seoul to pay for the THAAD deployment, which immediately raised questions about the relationship between the two nations.

South Korea said it was Washington's cost to bear under the bilateral agreement.

"National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster explained that the recent statements by President Trump were made in a general context, in line with the U.S. public expectations on defense cost burden-sharing with allies," Seoul said in a statement.

The anti-missile system is set to be operational soon. Major elements of the system were being moved into Seonjgu, located in the southern part of the country, this week. The U.S. and South Korea contend that the battery is only to guard against North Korean missiles, despite concerns expressed in China.

Meanwhile, North Korea attempted to launch another ballistic missile early Saturday, but it appeared to have failed. The test drew international condemnation.

Click for more from Reuters.

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GRUESOME DISCOVERY Body of missing Arkansas boy found in woods

Authorities in Arkansas said Saturday they found a body they believe belongs to a missing 9-year-old boy who had been missing since earlier in the week as the bodies of at least three other relatives.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that officials found the body they believe to be Reilly Scarbrough in a "heavily wooded area" near Hatfield. The boy's mother, sister and great uncle were all found dead this week.

Authorities said they found the body with help from Brian Bliss Travis, who is currently behind bars in the Polk County Jail. Polk County Sheriff Scott Sawyer said he expects Bliss will face capital murder charges in the boy's case, but it was unclear if he would face the same charges in the related deaths.

Crews found the body of his mother, 43-year-old Bethany Jo Wester, in a creek Tuesday near the town of Cove in far western Arkansas. On Thursday, they found the body of the boy's great-uncle, 66-year-old Steven Payne, in Hatfield, Fox 16 reported.

On Friday, the search took another grim turn, when the body of 2-year-old Acelynn Wester turned up in the woods not far from where they found the mother's remains, Sawyer said.

Click for more from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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CALLS FOR CALM Pope: Humanity could not bear war with North Korea

Pope Francis said Saturday that he does not think "humanity today could bear" a war with North Korea, and called for diplomacy and a revived United Nations to take the lead in negotiating a resolution.

"Today, a wider war will destroy not a small part of humanity, but a good part of humanity and culture. Everything. Everything, no? It would be terrible. I don't think humanity today could bear it," he told reporters while travelling back to Rome from Egypt.

The pope was asked specifically what he would tell President Trump, who has sent a U.S. carrier to conduct drills near the Koreas, and other leads to try to diffuse the tensions. Francis said he would urge them to use diplomacy a negotiation "because it's the future of humanity." He added that the U.N. should regain its leadership in conflict resolution, saying it had been "watered down" over time.

Trump has sent a nuclear-powered submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters, and North Korea this week conducted large-scale, live-fire exercises on its eastern coast. The U.S. and South Korea also started installing a missile defense system that is supposed to be partially operational within days, and their navies began joint military drills on Saturday.

Tensions with the North presumably would be on the agenda of a Trump-Francis meeting. The White House has said it would reach out to the Vatican to arrange an audience when Trump travels to Sicily at the end of May for a G7 summit.

Francis' comments came hours after North Korea tested a mid-range ballistic missile, but it apparently failed – the third flop of the month.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang's escalating weapons program. North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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ASEAN welcomes progress on South China Sea COC amid cooling tensions

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said it welcomed the progress on a framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, according to a chairman's statement following an ASEAN summit in the Philippine capital of Manila on Saturday. ...

"Fast 8": China's all-time top-grossing imported film

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- "The Fate of the Furious", or "Fast 8", became the all-time top-grossing imported film in China on Saturday, with ticket sales of 2.44 billion yuan (around 350 million U.S. dollars) since its opening on April 14. ...

30th summit focuses on promoting ASEAN as model for regional integration, global player

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TWISTERS TORTURE TEXAS: At least 5 killed, dozens injured as spate of severe storms sweep parts of state

At least five people were killed and dozens were injured after tornadoes ripped through parts of Texas Saturday night.

The Canton Fire Department Capt. Brian Horton said that at least five were dead, including one person who was in a vehicle when a tornado tossed it along Highway 64 in Canton. Horton said the number of fatalities was expected to rise as dawn breaks.

"We still may have people unaccounted for," Horton said.

Horton asked that people who didn't need to be in the area to stay out, "so that our teams can do what they need to do to take care of these people who are in need." He noted that a triage center was set up at the local high school.

ETMC Regional Healthcare Systems hospitals in the region received at least 54 patients following the storm, including one person in critical condition, spokeswoman Rebecca Berkley said. She said the other patients suffered injuries that were non-life threatening.

The extent of the damage in the area wasn't immediately clear. But video from local television stations showed uprooted trees and overturned cars along rural, wet roadways, along with at least two flattened homes. The tornado flipped pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton and tore through the business.

The National Weather Service confirmed that at least three tornadoes touched down and passed through Canton, Eustace and Canton City, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The tornado that struck Canton grew to up to a half-mile wide as it teared up a 40-mile path, also hitting Fruitvale and Emory, KXAS-TV reported.

Local resident Ernestine Cook told WFAA-TV that she rushed to a storm center just in time.

"It hit so hard, so fast. It just kept moving," she said. "I've never seen anything like it after 22 years of living here."

A dispatcher at the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office said officers were chasing numerous injury reports and declined further comment

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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'CAN'T TAKE A JOKE' Host slams absent Trump at Correspondents' Dinner

Hasan Minhaj, of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," ended the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night by blasting President Trump in a night that mostly focused on the First Amendment.

"We've got to address the elephant that's not in the room," Minhaj said. "The leader of our country is not here. And that's because he lives in Moscow. It's a very long flight. As for the other guy, I think he's in Pennsylvania because he can't take a joke."

.@hasanminhaj: "I think he's in Pennsylvania because he can't take a joke." #WHCD#WHCD2017http://pic.twitter.com/fXs33fdNjI

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 30, 2017

Trump's tweeting habits and his administration were not off limits in Minhaj's final speech of the night.

"Jeff Sessions couldn't be here tonight" Minhaj said. "He was busy doing a pre-Civil War re-enactment."

Minhaj took a turn at lecturing journalists who were seated for the dinner and told them that "Donald Trump doesn't care about free speech."

"We're living in this strange time where trust is more important than truth," Minhaj said.

He said later "in the age of Trump, I know that you guys have to be more perfect now than ever. Because you are how he gets his news."

Aside from Minhaj's jokes, speakers, including reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, promoted freedom and responsibility and challenged Trump's accusations of dishonest reporting.

"Like politicians and presidents sometimes, perhaps too frequently, we make mistakes and go too far," Woodward said. "When that happens we should own up to it. But the effort today to get this best obtainable version of the truth is largely made in good faith. Mr. President, the media is not 'fake news.'"

Trump became the first president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 to skip the event.

Instead, the president held a rally in Harrisburg, Pa. to celebrate his first 100 days in office. Trump told rally-goers that he was happy he was not in Washington.

"A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation's capital right now," Trump said. He added: "And I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington's swamp, spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd and much better people, right?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Foreigners in China feel dynamics of Internet economy

Before heading to his favorite restaurants or smaller eateries, Roberto, an Argentine in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang province, usually goes online first.

Foreigners in China feel dynamics of Internet economy

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New ferris wheel put in use at Shijingshan Amusement Park in Beijing

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'IT WAS AMATEUR HOUR' Jimmy John's clerk recalls intense armed robbery

Security footage of a gun point robbery at a Kansas City Jimmy John's has gone viral with millions of views. The employee stands completely calm with a gun in his face while everyone was wondering, what was going through his mind?

Tuker Murray says he was working behind the cash register when a man walked in asking what type of cheese they had, then pulled out a gun. Murray spoke with BBC in a Skye interview.

"I just looked at it then looked back at him, he told me to open the drawer quietly, he whispered it to me," Murray recalled

"I just stared at him and he said it again, open the drawer quietly. I still just stared at him. Then he put it in my face, and told me to open the (bleep) drawer. I didn`t want to give it to him, but my manager was behind me and was like, 'we`ll give it to you, we`ll give it to you,'" he continued.

Suspect Terry K. Rayford was on parole in Missouri for another armed robbery, and is accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a federal offense. Court documents say that he told investigators he was committing robberies to pay his crack cocaine supplier, whom he owed money to. He added that he had considered violating his parole so he could complete his sentence, saying that parole conditions were hard to follow.

Murray said Rayford wanted every last bit of what was in the register.

"I gave it all to him, and there was a dollar still sitting on there, and he said give me all of it! I picked up the till and tried to give it to him. I was actually surprised that the detective told me today that he did a whole bunch of robberies, because it was amateur hour," Murray said.

After Kansas City police tweeted Friday morning that the suspect was in custody, Jimmy John's responded with their well known slogan saying: "Wow freaky fast capture, KC police are rockstars!"

Rayford faces up 10 years in a federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Click for more from Fox 4 KC.

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G-Festival of Global Mobile Internet Conference kicks off

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Ming dynasty bowl and imperial tangka exhibited in Shanghai

The exhibition "Emperor Yongle's World" kicked off on Friday at the Shanghai-based Long Museum, depicting the peak of the imperial history of the Ming dynasty (1368 AD - 1645 AD) via brilliant antiques of the time. ...

5.0-magnitude quake jolts Taiwan sea area

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A 5.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the sea area off the coast of Taidong County in Taiwan, at 9:57 a.m. Sunday, according to the measurement of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). ...

ONLINE MAKEOVER EPA scrubs climate change information from website

The Environmental Protection Agency's website is getting a climate-change makeover.

The heavy edits came hours before tens of thousands of climate-change activists marched to the White House during a Saturday protest.

The agency eliminated EPA.gov pages relating to climate science, projections of the future impacts of human-caused climate change, and descriptions of the Obama administration's signature climate program, the Clean Power Plan.

"Our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency," said spokesman J.P. Freire.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general, led 14 lawsuits against the agency in his former post.

Pruitt made waves in March when he said he is not convinced that carbon dioxide from human activity is the main driver of climate change.

'"I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do," he said on CNBC."So no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see."

Screenshots of the Obama administration's EPA web pages are being archived and can still be found online, the agency noted in a press release.

Click for more from the New York Post.

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5.0-magnitude quake jolts Taiwan sea area

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the sea area off the coast of Taidong County in Taiwan, at 9:57 am Sunday, according to the measurement of the China Earthquake Networks Center.

ASEAN leaders urge DPRK to comply with int'l obligations

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Scene of cattle moving across river attracts tourists in SW China

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Bridge across Yellow River of Yuncheng-Lingbao Expressway under construction

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China's manufacturing activity expands for 9th straight month

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- China's manufacturing sector continued to expand in April, though at a slower pace, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Sunday. ...

Night view of Hangzhou in east China

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Premier urges help to get farmers disaster insurance

Undersea tunnel of HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to be joined together

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NE Asia digital carnival held in Shenyang

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Police dogs trained at training base in SW China

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'JUST BEGINNING OUR FIGHT' Trump touts achievements, slams media at packed Pennsylvania rally

President Trump hosted a patriotic rally in Harrisburg, Pa. on Saturday with thousands of supporters to mark the promises made and promises kept during his first 100 days of action in the White House.

"There is no place I would rather be than right here in Pennsylvania to celebrate our 100-day milestone to reflect on an incredible journey together and to get ready for the great, great battles to come and that we will win in every case," the President said. "Make no mistake, we are just beginning in our fight to make America great again!"

Vice President Mike Pence introduced the President as "a man of his word and a man of action," acknowledging their 2016 "big, beautiful victory" in the blue-leaning state.

This was, of course, miles away from the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, which Trump ceremoniously said he would not attend, amid his repeated accusations about "fake news" and a press corps of "dishonest media" eager to challenge his agenda. At the start of the rally, Trump told the roaring crowd that more than half of Americans say that the media is out of touch with everyday people.

His return to Pennsylvania was a thank you, like the one he delivered to Florida voters last month in Tampa. To screams and cheers, the President said "now arrives the hour of action" –rallying his base with the credo: "Buy American and hire American!"

"For the last 100 days my administration has been delivering every single day for the great citizens of our country, whether it's putting our coal miners back to work, protecting America's steel and aluminum workers, or eliminating job killing regulations, we are keeping one promise after another and frankly the people are really happy about it," Trump said.

"The previous administration gave us a mess. For decades our country has lived through the greatest jobs' theft in the history of the world. Our factories were shuttered. Our steel mills closed down," he said. "Our jobs were stolen away and shipped far away to other countries, some of which you have never even heard of. Politicians sent troops to protect the borders of foreign nations but left America's borders wide open for all to violate."

Trump also listed several accomplishments including getting nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch appointed to the Supreme Court with relative ease in a politically divided Senate as well as approval of the Keystone pipeline.

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China, Britain urge peaceful solution to DPRK nuclear issue

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, agreed Friday that the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be resolved peacefully. ...

Chinese submersible retrieves seamount sample in South China Sea

ON BOARD SHIP XIANGYANGHONG 09, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Jiaolong, China's manned submersible on Saturday retrieved a basalt sample from the Zhenbei Seamount in the South China Sea which scientists say could shed light on the formation and evolution of seamounts in the area. ...

China Focus: CPC creates four-tier system to measure political discipline

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Communist Party of China (CPC) is creating ways to gauge the political soundness of its more than 88 million members, a move experts believe could help the ruling party to maintain a clean political system. ...

China-made large amphibious aircraft finishes first glide test

China's large amphibious aircraft AG600 on Saturday successfully conducted its first glide test in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai as it is preparing for its maiden flight. ...

'NO PLANET B' Tens of thousands protest Trump's climate policies

SEATTLE –  Tens of thousands of people across the U.S. marched in rain, snow and blistering heat to demand action on climate change in mass protests that fell on President Trump's 100th day in office and blasted his administration for rolling back environmental protections.

At the marquee event, the Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., approximately 150,000 to 200,000 people made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to encircle the White House. Organizers had secured a permit for 100,000 but video and photos on social media showed a larger turnout.

It's official! The march extends over 20 blocks, far exceeding our NPS permit for 100,000! https://t.co/s2G1vYCiU4

— Jamie Henn (@Agent350) April 29, 2017

Organizers said about 300 sister marches or rallies were being held around the country, including in Seattle, Boston and San Francisco. A wet spring snow fell in Denver, where several hundred activists posed in the shape of a giant thermometer for a photograph and a dozen people rode stationary bikes to power the loudspeakers. In Chicago, a rain-soaked crowd of thousands headed from the city's federal plaza to Trump Tower.

"We are here because there is no Planet B," the Rev. Mariama White-Hammond of Bethel AME Church told a rally in Boston.

The demonstrations came one week after supporters of science gathered in 600 cities around the globe, alarmed by political and public rejection of established research on topics including climate change and the safety of vaccines.

Participants Saturday said they object to Trump's rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things. Trump has called climate change a hoax, disputing the overwhelming consensus of scientists that the world is warming and that man-made carbon emissions are primarily to blame.

Among those attending the Chicago rally were members of the union representing Environmental Protection Agency employees. Trump has proposed cutting the EPA's budget by almost one-third, eliminating more than 3,000 jobs.

John O'Grady, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, called the march "a chance to speak out in unity against this administration" and its "ridiculous gutting of the EPA budget and staffing."

More than 2,000 people gathered at the Maine State House in Augusta. Speakers included a lobsterman, a solar company owner and members of the Penobscot Nation tribe.

"I've seen firsthand the impacts of climate change to not only the Gulf of Maine, but also to our evolving fisheries, and to the coastal communities that depend upon them," said lobsterman Richard Nelson of Friendship, Maine.

People in the crowd spoke about the importance of addressing climate change to industries such as renewable energy, forestry, farming and seafood. Saharlah Farah, a 16-year old immigrant from Somalia who lives in Portland, talked about how climate change could have a bigger toll on marginalized groups that have less financial resources.

"But I see untapped power here today," she said.

A demonstration stretched for several blocks in downtown Tampa, Florida, where marchers said they were concerned about the threat rising seas pose to the city.

People gathered on the Boston Common carried signs with slogans such as "Dump Trump." Handmade signs at Seattle's march included the general — "Love Life" — and the specific — "Don't Kill Otters."

Some of the marches drew big-name attendees, including former Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the nation's capital. In Montpelier, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called the marches part of a fight for the future of the planet.

"Honored to join Indigenous leaders and native peoples as they fight for climate justice," DiCaprio tweeted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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'AMERICAN RESURGENCE' Donald Trump Jr. on his father's first 100 days

One hundred days ago, when my father stood in front of the American people and took the oath of office, an American resurgence began.

After eight years of endless talk and speeches, sluggish growth at home and weakness abroad, a sense of optimism and opportunity is taking hold. In the first one hundred days of my father's presidency, the country is witnessing something I've been lucky enough to experience firsthand my entire life—a man of action, who keeps his promises and gets results.

This is the good news story of my father's administration that the mainstream news media won't report because they don't understand it. My father is not a creature of Washington and he's not going to do things the way they've always been done. He rejects business as usual because his number one priority is to make this country great again by bringing jobs, prosperity, opportunity and security back to the United States.   

The first one hundred days have restored confidence in the American economy. The stock market is up, unemployment is going down, and across the board, economic indicators are showing optimism for the future and predicting growth across sectors. My father's focus on American jobs and manufacturing has led to major announcements from companies like GM, Boeing, Carrier, and T-Mobile, all announcing they will keep jobs here and expand employment in the U.S. 

Through an aggressive push using 28 Executive Orders and the 13 Congressional Review Act bills -- a record breaking number since the CRA became law -- Obama-era regulations with a $10 billion chokehold on our economy have been wiped out, easing the burden on small businesses and opening opportunities for job growth. He acted quickly to freeze regulations, and announced that for every new regulation, two regulations would have to be removed. 

My father has already signed 28 bills into law, on important issues that promote women in STEM fields, increasing government transparency, and reducing the government's massive regulatory reach. Regulations that would crush family farms, shudder power plants, and raise the cost of electricity for families have all been stopped. The Wall Street Journal has noted that as president, my father is "rolling back more regulations than any president in history."

This President is taking common sense actions that benefit the American people. The appointment of the eminently qualified Justice Neil Gorsuch ensures a conservative voice on our Supreme Court, restricting judicial activism. A restored focus on the rule of law has already resulted in a substantial drop in illegal border crossings, improving the security at our borders. He is lifting the restrictions on American energy, finally approving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline; addressing bad trade deals to make them work for Americans; and signing executive orders that takes on steel and aluminum dumping. He is working to slash taxes to jumpstart the economy, and provide relief for the millions of American families getting crushed by increasing ObamaCare premiums. The Trump Administration is working every day to take power away from big government and faceless bureaucrats in Washington and give it back to the American people.

My father's leadership doesn't end at America's shores. Both our allies and our enemies are remembering what American resolve looks like. We know from the last Administration, when you draw red lines and then do nothing when they're crossed, adversaries on the global stage will fill the void, undermining the United States and our allies. That's what leading from behind got us, but that is all over now.

As Commander in Chief, my father took decisive action against Syrian President Bashar al Assad after he turned chemical weapons against his own people. America is confronting ISIS everywhere from the caves of Afghanistan to the city of Mosul. And the United States is finally dealing with the threat of North Korea. President Trump is committed to rebuilding the U.S. military and empowering our commanders to fight our enemies and keep Americans safe. 

Hard-working, middle class Americans who spent the last eight years struggling to make ends meet while Washington ignored them finally have a champion in this White House. We've had enough of bureaucrats and Washington insiders writing laws and regulations that benefit them and their special interest buddies but put hard working Americans out of work. 

The next four years--like the last one hundred days--are going to be about keeping promises to the American people. This President is going to make the government work for all of the people of this country, not just the well-connected insiders. Jobs and prosperity will return to this country, and my father will continue to lead with the strength and conviction that I have seen him live out every day in life and in business. He will never shirk from the tough calls, because he knows how to fix the problems facing this country and ensure a better, stronger more optimistic future for all of us today and for the next generation.    

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SHARK ATTACK Trained watcher killed two months after friend's death

A bodyboarder was mauled to death by a shark just two months after one of his best friends was killed in almost identical circumstances.

MASSACHUSETTS TEEN SURVIVES FALLING 200 FEET OFF CLIFF IN SWITZERLAND

Adrien Dubosc, 28, was bitten in the leg in shark-infested waters off Pointe au Sel, Reunion, on Saturday morning.

The trained shark-spotter was dragged to shore and given CPR in front of his horrified family members, but rescuers could not save him.

LOST NEPAL TREKKER FOUND AFTER 47 DAYS; HIS GIRLFRIEND DIED AFTER 44

His death comes weeks after his friend Alexandre Naussac, 26, died on a nearby beach on the French island, which lies off the coast of Madagascar.

More from The Sun

Dubosc was a member of Shark Watch Patrol which is dedicated to cutting down spiralling shark deaths on the island.

Police said the experienced bodyboarder was in the water with two friends when he was attacked.

A police spokesman said: "The young man was in the water with two friends,when a shark attacked him, biting his right thigh, and his groin area.

"The victim was pulled out of the water, and emergency workers arrived very quickly. Despite cardiac massage, he died within half an hour of the attack."

Click for more from The Sun.

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'Spidermen' getting busier as tourist peak comes

Like "Spidermen", cleaners here have to climb up and down the mountain to pick up rubbish left by tourists. Helped by two security staff members, a "Spiderman" has his waist tied with a rope and collects trash with tongs or broom. Even a small piece of paper will be picked up. These "Spidermen" are getting busier lately as a tourist peak comes.

China-made large amphibious aircraft finishes first glide test

China's large amphibious aircraft AG600 on Saturday successfully conducted its first glide test in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai as it is preparing for its maiden flight.

Chinese submersible retrieves seamount sample in South China Sea

Jiaolong, China's manned submersible on Saturday retrieved a basalt sample from the Zhenbei Seamount in the South China Sea which scientists say could shed light on the formation and evolution of seamounts in the area.

An explorer in the world of science

Scientific research might not be everyone's idea of fun, but for physics professor Zhou Shuyun spending time in the lab is just that.

'THE MOST SUCCESSFUL' Trump to tout accomplishments, thank voters in Pennsylvania rally

President Trump goes to Pennsylvania on Saturday to host a rally to mark his first 100 days in the White House -- acknowledging his 2016 win in the blue-leaning state and a presidency largely untethered to Washington pomp and convention.

To be sure, the rally in Harrisburg, Pa., starts at about the same time as the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, which Trump ceremoniously said he would not attend, amid his repeated accusations about "fake news" and a press corps eager to challenge his agenda.

"From the first day of my administration, I have governed by a simple idea: My only allegiance is to you, our wonderful citizens," Trump said in his weekly, weekend address, a likely preview of what he'll say at the rally.

Trump has indeed tried to deliver his message to the people, often sidestepping the conventional method of going through reporters and the mainstream news media.

"Mainstream (FAKE) media refuses to state our long list of achievements, including 28 legislative signings, strong borders & great optimism!" Trump tweeted Saturday.

Whether his early presidency has been a success largely depends on the chosen measures -- with a sharp division between critics and supporters of the insurgent Trump campaign that upset Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"I truly believe that the first 100 days of my administration has been just about the most successful in our country's history," Trump also says in his weekly address. "Most importantly, we're bringing back jobs. You asked the people of Michigan; you asked the people of Ohio; you can ask the people of Pennsylvania."

Mainstream (FAKE) media refuses to state our long list of achievements, including 28 legislative signings, strong borders & great optimism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 29, 2017

Trump's victory indeed was made possible by wins in those swing states, with Pennsylvania and Michigan not having voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988.

His return to Pennsylvania is a thank you, like the one he delivered to Florida voters last month in Tampa. But it's also a likely nod to 2020, with Trump's reelection effort having already raised roughly $13 million.

Trump is also likely Saturday to list several other accomplishments including getting nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch appointed to the Supreme Court with relative ease in a politically divided Senate.

Other accomplishments expected on Trump's list include approval of the Keystone Pipeline and renegotiating a contract for the U.S. military's F-35 fighter jet program that is intended to save hundreds of millions of dollars.

However, Democrats and other critics argue Trump's early presidency has sputtered, pointing to his failure to get an ObamaCare overhaul plan or any other major legislation passed in Congress, despite a GOP majority in both chambers.

"At the 100-day mark, the Republicans' biggest success has been energizing Democrats, disappointing Independents and demoralizing Republicans," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Saturday. "Trump and the GOP have shown that they are wholly unable to deliver results, failing to fulfill their promises on everything from health care to tax reform."

Critics also point out that Trump's early efforts to tighten national security by limiting visitors from mostly Muslim nations was a failure, the result of at least one executive order that was signed with what appeared to be little advance notice to federal immigration officials and legal challenges that have held up the orders in court.

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NEWT GINGRICH Democrats turn to red tape to stop President Trump

When Neil Gorsuch won long-overdue confirmation this month to serve on the United States Supreme Court, Republicans in turn won control of judiciary. This meant they led all three branches of the federal government – at least the three envisioned by our Founding Fathers – for the first time in a decade.

As a consequence, Democrats have pinned their hopes to stifle President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda on the unprecedented insurrection of an unchecked, de facto branch of government: the bureaucratic state.

Now that Alexander Acosta is confirmed as secretary of labor, President Trump has a better ability to reign in the bureaucracy.

Through executive orders, President Trump immediately began cutting needless red tape draped across the federal government by his predecessor. This led deliberately resistant entrenched civil servants to wage a campaign to subvert the administration's clear intention of deregulation.

Consider this: In February, the president ordered the Department of Labor – previously run by Tom Perez, who is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee –  to review and re-evaluate the implementation of the so-called fiduciary rule, a controversial Obama-era rule that would deny middle-class Americans access to sound investment advice.

The order's intention was clear-as-day. It aimed to indefinitely delay or outright kill this bad rule before it could hurt middle class American investors. Instead, Perez's faithful holdovers at the Department of Labor effectively expedited the rule with minimal changes. This was exactly the opposite of President Trump's instructions.

Now, the department will make the rule effective on June 9, before completing the president's review, and argued that "the Fiduciary rule and Impartial Conduct Standards … are among the least controversial aspects of the rulemaking process."

Nothing about this rule is uncontroversial. It would be the single largest government expansion over individual savings in four decades and the second-most expensive regulatory regime crafted in the last 12 years that doesn't deal with environmental issues.

The rule changes the law to give the Department of Labor direct authority over individual retirement accounts, which are already regulated by the Securities and Exchange Committee, the federal agency responsible for protecting investors. For the first time, IRAs would be pulled into a complex Labor Department system created 43 years ago to regulate employee pension and health plans. Seizing control over IRAs by the Labor Department leads to bigger government, less competition, fewer jobs, and diminished savings for the American worker.

Disingenuously marketed as a way to raise the standards of advice provided to retirement investors, the rule would result in the "orphaning" of most ordinary American savers, left to seek advice on saving for their golden years from an online computer program using algorithms no investor would know about or understand.

The rule has received extensive criticism from those who've historically regulated the securities market. Acting SEC Chair Michal Piwowar called the rule a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rule," adding that it was a "highly political" move that was "never about investor protection."  President Trump and the Congress want the rule gone. Business wants the rule gone. Ordinary Americans want the rule gone.

But none of that matters to the bureaucratic state. They've lost the battle over the Supreme Court and the president's cabinet. More than anything, the swamp wants to win this battle. That's why it's so important that President Trump and Secretary Acosta implement the president's instructions in a timely way.

President Trump's first order wasn't enough to reign in Tom Perez's faithful deputies, and only now did Senate Democrats stop obstructing Acosta's confirmation.

So, the president and the secretary must work quickly to delay indefinitely or completely rescind the fiduciary rule under the secretary's statutory authority.

More than that, the president needs to fully drain the swamp – especially by getting rid of the mutineers at the Department of Labor.

Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich.

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PROMISES KEPT? Where Trump stands 100 days into pledge to 'make America great again'

Candidate Donald Trump made big promises on the campaign trail for what he'd do to "make America great again" in his first 100 days. 

In a series of campaign rallies, speeches, and a contract with voters last year, Trump made sweeping pledges to "drain the swamp" and "bring change to Washington."

So how did he do? 

Here's where he stands on holding to those promises:

Promises kept

·         Trump imposed a hiring freeze on the federal workforce, with the exception of military, public safety and public health officials. While he promised to do this on day one, he implemented it Jan. 23. The freeze expired on April 12.

·         Trump signed a "Two-for-One" regulation executive order, as promised, that would require agencies to eliminate two regulations for every new regulation passed. This was another item Trump promised for day one, though it slipped a bit.  

·         Trump signed an executive order to impose a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists when they finish work in government. 

·         Trump signed an executive order to institute a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

·         Trump signed a presidential memorandum notifying a withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

·         Trump ordered a study to identify and investigate all foreign trading abuses. 

·         Trump granted approval for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, following through on a vow to move forward on energy infrastructure projects.

·         Trump nominated, and won confirmation, for a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.

·         Trump signed a bill to extend the Veterans Choice Program to deliver on a promise to give veterans the ability to receive public VA treatment, or see a private doctor of their choice. 

·         Trump signed multiple executive orders to create new task forces to fight crime and drug cartels.

·         Trump directed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to order embassies to increase scrutiny and security checks before issuing visas to ensure new screening procedures for immigration to the U.S.

·         Trump signed ethics policies to "drain the swamp" by making it harder for people to profit from their time in government.

·         Trump ordered departments and agencies to identify wasteful spending on programs and asked for recommendations for potential improvements.

*Many of the above items were promised for day one of Trump's presidency, but not completed until later

Promises broken/No action taken

·         Despite Trump's promise to cancel visas, on his first day in office, to and from foreign countries that do not allow criminal and illegal aliens back into their countries, he did not follow through. China, Jordan and India do not take back criminal aliens. 

·         Trump promised to propose a constitutional amendment, on his first day in office, to impose term limits for all members of Congress. No such proposal exists.

·         Trump promised to get rid of gun-free zones that exist at schools and military bases on his first day, but gun-free zones still exist.

·         Trump promised to direct the secretary of the Treasury to designate China as a currency manipulator, but Trump changed his mind and said China is not a currency manipulator.

·         Despite his promise to cancel billions of dollars, on his first day in office, in payments to U.N. climate change programs, he did not. Trump's budget proposal does cut funding for climate change programs, but it doesn't stop funds that have already been approved.

·         Trump promised to save and protect Social Security and Medicare, but there haven't been any changes to these programs. 

·         Ending Common Core was among "first 100 day" promises, but it still exists. 

·         Trump promised to increase funding for local police programs, but no additional funds have been directed to those programs. In fact, under Trump's budget proposal, local counterterrorism programs would see cuts. 

·         Despite his promise to have the "great, big, beautiful wall" fully funded, and paid for by Mexico, the plan to fund the U.S.-Mexico border wall is unclear, and Mexico has denied any suggestions that it would pay for the construction.

·         Trump planned to enhance penalties for those who overstay their visas, but current penalties have not changed

·         Trump promised to appoint a team to create a cybersecurity plan within 90 days, but there has yet to be a team appointed, and no such plan exists. Trump also promised to have a full report on hacking within 90 days, but no such report exists.

·         Trump promised to ban foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections, but no action has been taken—it is already illegal for foreign nationals to contribute money to American elections.

·         Trump continues to promise to speed the approval of life-saving medications, but the administration has yet to address this.

Working on it

·         Trump vowed to secure U.S. borders to eliminate illegal immigration, and while unlawful crossings still exist, the volume of these border crossings has dropped significantly in the first 100 days.

·         The administration has yet to sign a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare as vowed, but they're working on it. The first Republican health care plan failed to get the support necessary to even take it to the House floor for a vote. Republicans are now considering new legislation, but it has not yet been slated for a vote. 

·         Trump promised to begin the "very, very, very fast" removal of more than 2 million criminal illegal aliens. In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said they arrested 21,362 since January.

·         Trump issued executive orders and signed Congressional Review Acts to roll back Obama-era policies, but did not cancel "every unconstitutional" executive action issued by Obama, as promised.

·         Trump vowed to cut funding for "sanctuary cities," which has not yet happened. Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned the cities that funding would be cancelled if they resisted federal immigration law and enforcement—but a U.S. judge blocked the executive order.

·         Trump promised to begin building the U.S.-Mexico border wall in his first 100 days. Construction has not started, but Customs and Border Protection have requested and received bids from companies interested in building the wall

·         Trump attempted to suspend the Syrian refugee resettlement program and suspend immigration from terror-prone regions by signing two "travel ban" executive orders. The first order specifically banned Syrian refugees, and targeted seven predominantly Muslim countries for a 90-day suspension of entry to the U.S. Federal courts blocked the order. A revised version is still tied up in the courts. 

·         Trump signed an executive order to roll back Obama-era coal leases in an effort to produce "clean coal," and has signed an order that could lead to lifting restrictions on offshore drilling. 

·         Trump's budget proposal directed a massive increase in defense spending, as promised, but did not eliminate the defense sequester.

·         Legislation to establish a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for those who illegally re-enter the U.S. after a previous deportation has been introduced to Congress, but has not passed.

·         Trump is talking about a $1 trillion infrastructure package, but nothing has been implemented yet.

·         Just before the 100-day mark, Trump announced a plan to renegotiate NAFTA. 

·         Trump also announced the blueprint for a tax plan just before his 100-day mark, which the administration says would provide "massive tax cuts" for the middle class. Congress must still draft and debate an actual bill. 

Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

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GREGG JARRETT The Big Lebowski, Esq., takes up Gen. Flynn's case

The great American philosopher, Jeffrey Lebowski, once said, "This is a very complicated case.  You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous."

His Dudeness wasn't talking about national security or, certainly, the strange case of General Michael Flynn. But his observation is no less relevant.

Indeed, the hysteria surrounding Flynn, President Trump's fired national security adviser, might make for an interesting sequel to "The Big Lebowski." Instead of crazy German nihilists attacking El Duderino, how about Congress and the mainstream media mugging a distinguished former three-star general? The parallels are striking.    

Given the myriad of accusations leveled against Flynn, here is a primer to help untangle the torturous plot and determine what laws may have been violated, if any at all. 

Because it is complicated.  Lotta ins, lotta outs, etcetera. 

The Paid Speech

In December of 2015, Flynn traveled to Moscow to deliver a paid speech to a Kremlin-backed news organization called Russia Today. He insists he met with Pentagon officials both before and after the speech which the Defense Intelligence Agency appears to concede. Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, issued this statement:

"DIA's letter actually confirms, in a terse section that is partly redacted, that General Flynn provided information and documents on a thumb drive to the Department of Defense concerning the RT speaking event in Moscow, including documents reflecting that he was using a speakers bureau for the event. The Department was fully aware of the trip."    

It should have been obvious to the Pentagon that Flynn was getting paid. Speakers bureaus don't provide services for free speeches. 

But did Flynn specify the exact amount of money he earned? It is unclear and disputed. If it is true that Flynn met with Pentagon officials and they did not object to what he was doing, that can be considered tacit, if not express, approval… which is all he needed, legally, to deliver his paid speech. (See 37 USC 908) 

While a strict reading of the law seems to prohibit retired military officers from taking pay from a foreign government without approval, Flynn maintains he received his speaking fee from RT, not the government itself. Therefore, his decision to advise the Pentagon was technically unnecessary.    

However, even if the law is contorted such that Flynn is found in violation of the disclosure/approval rule, it is a civil violation, not a criminal one. The penalty is usually a forfeiture of the payment and, in some extreme cases, a suspension of retirement benefits for a period of time.  

Security Clearance

Representatives Jason Chaffetz (R.) and Elijah Cummings (D.) who preside over the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee claim Flynn may have violated a different federal law by not fully disclosing his speech income from Russia when, later, he sought security clearance to work for President Trump as his NSA. 

If true, then it might be considered a crime to "knowingly falsify or conceal" information in a security clearance form, punishable by a fine or up to 5 years behind bars. But people are rarely prosecuted because it is exceedingly difficult to demonstrate that the failure was "knowingly." It is not a strict liability crime. The feds would have to prove "specific intent." That is, Flynn tried to deliberately deceive the government. Good luck with that.

It does appear that Flynn was sloppy when it comes to paperwork. But that is normally not a crime.     

And then there is the practical aspect to consider. Do prosecutors really want to criminally charge a retired three-star general for giving a speech? It seems not only excessive, but anathema to our cherished right to free speech under the First Amendment. Not to mention the right to earn a living.   

The Emoluments Clause

Rep. Cummings and others claim Flynn may have violated the "Emoluments Clause" of the Constitution. What is that? It's the controversial, albeit obscure, provision in the Constitution which forbids office holders from accepting "emoluments." Unfortunately, the Framers did not define an emolument. So, that's problem number one. 

Legal scholars say it means using a government office to confer a benefit to a foreign government in exchange for money. In other words, bribery. But here, what real benefit did Flynn confer? Giving a speech hardly constitutes much of a meaningful benefit. 

Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that ordinary business transactions are not emoluments. The Flynn speech sure looks like a fairly ordinary business transaction. He gave a speech and got paid for it. 

Also, bribery is a transaction cloaked in secrecy. Flynn appears to have told the Pentagon all about his speech.

Problem number two is Flynn was not a government employee when he gave the speech. He was retired. Yes, the Department of Justice has interpreted the Emoluments Clause as applying to all retired military, but that opinion has never been upheld by federal courts in a way that would apply to someone like Flynn. 

Just because DOJ says it applies, doesn't make it so under the law. Flynn could argue that "emoluments" were never intended to include former office holders or the Framers would have chosen to write it that way.   

Finally, in the history of this country, no one has ever been criminally prosecuted under the Emoluments Clause. Mostly because it's vague and ambiguous, but also because the clause does not identify a penalty for its violation. 

Other Investigations

Flynn still faces endless questions about his conversation with Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and whether he gave a truthful accounting of it to the FBI. Again, "specific intent" to deceive comes into play. If Flynn interpreted his conversation with Kislyak differently than the FBI, there is no crime of perjury or obstruction of justice.        

The persistent claims that Flynn violated the Logan Act are preposterous. Passed in 1799, it prohibits private citizens from interfering in diplomatic disputes with foreign governments. But no one has ever been prosecuted under the Act, largely because it's regarded as a patently unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Besides, Flynn was not acting as a private citizen.    

While Flynn's request for congressional immunity may strike some as implying guilt, we should remember that innocent people often seek immunity, too. He was likely following the sage advice of his lawyer who fears his client could become the target of overzealous prosecutors determined to conjure erroneous charges. It happens.

And so… the case against Michael Flynn is, in many ways, like "The Big Lebowski." Bizarre and overwrought, with a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant. A comedy in search of a crime. 

In keeping the wolves from the door, Flynn can take comfort in the wisdom of Jeffrey Lebowski: "This aggression will not stand, man!"

Well said, Dude.    

Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News Anchor and former defense attorney.

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'TUCKER TONIGHT' Host debates immigration lawyer on MS-13 gang

Tucker Carlson debated an immigration attorney tonight over what steps can or should be taken to combat illegal immigrant crime.

Patrick Young was one of the protesters who gathered on Long Island Friday to protest Attorney General Jeff Sessions as he delivered remarks to law enforcement on gang violence.

Sessions said he plans to eradicate the violent MS-13 gang by cracking down on illegal immigration.

Young argued that the proper way to fight MS-13 is to have the immigrant community work with law enforcement, and that won't happen if Sessions and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) get involved.

He said if we "stigmatize" all immigrants - legal or illegal - it only makes those communities and all Americans less safe.

Tucker pointed out that 92 percent of MS-13 members are illegal immigrants, so it's simply false to argue that immigration has nothing to do with the gang.

"I'm not blaming all immigrants," Tucker said. "I'm merely saying we wouldn't have this problem in the first place if these people weren't here. They don't have a right to be here, they're here illegally, and in this case - in the case of MS-13 - they're murdering people!"

He added that the Obama administration certainly did not "stigmatize" immigrants over the past eight years, yet MS-13 grew during that period.

Young insisted that we must work together to oppose MS-13, and we won't make progress against the gang if communities are divided.

Tucker said Young is so committed to his pro-immigration worldview that he's become "impervious to facts."

Watch the back-and-forth above.

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Judge Jeanine: Obama's Big-Money Wall St. Speech Is the 'Ultimate in Hypocrisy'

'This Madness Has to Stop': Hannity Says the Left Is Stifling Free Speech

Coulter on Berkeley Speech: 'They Were Hoping I Would Cancel'

Trump's Best and Worst Moments From His First 100 Days

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World's closest glacier to a city continues to shrink

The world's closest glacier to a city shrank quickly in the past year and may completely vanish in half a century, according to a Chinese scientist Saturday.

CPC creates four-tier system to measure political discipline

China's Communist Party of China (CPC) is creating ways to gauge the political soundness of its more than 88 million members, a move experts believe could help the ruling party to maintain a clean political system.

HUNT FOR MISSING BOY Mother, baby sister found dead in Ark. woods

Search teams in western Arkansas were scouring Saturday for any sign of a 9-year-old boy missing for nearly a week -- as investigators found the bodies of at least three relatives killed, including his mother and baby sister.

The missing boy, Reilly Scarbrough, is "in immediate danger" and hasn't been seen since at least Sunday, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 

BOY, 5, MISSING FOR WEEK AFTER FATHER WAS FOUND UNCONSCIOUS AT CALIFORNIA PARK

Crews found the body of his mother, 43-year-old Bethany Jo Wester, in a creek Tuesday near the town of Cove in far western Arkansas. On Thursday, they found the body of the boy's great-uncle, 66-year-old Steven Payne, in the nearby town of Hatfield, Fox 16 reported.

On Friday, the search took another grim turn, when the body of 2-year-old Acelynn Wester turned up in the woods not far from where they found the mother's remains, according to Polk County Sheriff Scott Sawyer.

FLORIDA DEPUTIES: EX-COP WAS DRUNK WHEN HE HIT FIVE KIDS, KILLING ONE

The deaths are being investigated as homicides, said Sawyer, who choked back tears at a news conference late Friday as he promised to "seek justice for the families" of the victims.

Officers from eight agencies are searching for the boy, Sawyer said, adding that he was keeping up hope that the child was alive.

"Somebody knows where he's at. Someone has information," Sawyer said. "We need to find Reilly. We're going on the premise Reilly is alive."

The sheriff did not say how the three were killed or name any possible suspects or motives in the deaths. The sheriff also didn't provide information on where the children's other relatives, including a father, might be.

"With their mother being found dead and their uncle being found dead, that ups the criticalness of the case," said Rebecca Kovar, the senior program manager at the national nonprofit. "The longer a child is missing, the more critical the situation becomes."

Click for more from Fox 16.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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100 DAYS OF DISRUPTION How Trump rewrote the presidential script

With Donald Trump on the verge of clinching the Republican nomination, Sarah Palin stood in front of a San Diego crowd in May 2016 searching for a worthy way to describe just how politically earth-shaking his transition was from real estate magnate to party standard-bearer.

Then she found her phrase: "He was like a golden wrecking ball," Palin said. "He wrecked what needed to be wrecked … in order to allow us to rebuild."

Nearly a year since, and at the "100 days" mark of his administration, President Trump has brought that "wrecking ball" to Washington – tearing up the usual script for early presidencies by installing controversial outsiders in top posts, shunning political orthodoxy and signing a slew of executive orders in a bid to speedily wash away the legacy of his predecessor. He uses social media like no president before to directly speak to voters, often setting the day's news cycle with pre-dawn tweets. He gets personally involved in defense contracts. He openly needles U.S. allies, in hopes of a better "deal" – on NAFTA, NATO and more.

His presidency, like his former reality show, has become a must-see event. And if the first 100 days are any gauge, the Trump effect will render Washington a nonstop, unpredictable political battle zone for the rest of his term. Politics, and the presidency, may never be the same.

D.C., after all, has wrecked back.

Several of Trump's more ambitious initiatives have met with full-on revolts from Democrats in Congress and disparate judges across the country, dealing the Donald numerous blows early on. Protests in the nation's capital are a routine affair.

The constant action, whether it produces successes or setbacks, has seemingly given Trump and his legion of like-minded disrupters a quick education in what awaits them. It's a stunning lesson for someone who once told The New York Times he didn't see much of a difference between his success in business and potential political victories.

"Making business decisions and buying buildings don't involve heart," he recently told Politico. "This involves heart. These are heavy decisions."

Trump may be moderating, but his early months had all the hallmarks of the disrupter-in-chief.

Trump's first week involved a flurry of activity – withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal; allowing the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline and the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline; penalizing so-called "sanctuary cities" by denying federal funds. (The latter is now on hold by the courts.)

Trump may have benefited for a time from opponents still shell-shocked by his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he pushed his nationalist-populist agenda into action. However, the self-described "resistance" fully rallied when on Jan. 27 Trump signed an order temporarily banning travel by non-U.S. citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. Protests sprung up in airports around the nation and federal judges blocked the order.

"If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken," White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "Every day, it is going to be a fight."

And so Trump continued hammering away at Bannon's termed "deconstruction of the administrative state" – if at a slightly less frenetic pace than had previously been attempted.

He nominated and saw confirmed to the Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, largely viewed as a reliable conservative vote to help swing the court rightward, and issued a revised, less overbroad travel ban (which was again protested and blocked in the courts).

All the while, Democrats worked to derail his plans.

An investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election ensnared his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, ultimately resulting in Flynn's February firing for lying to Vice President Mike Pence. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was caught up in the heavily politicized probe, too. Sessions ultimately recused himself from any subsequent investigation; however, the media storm enveloping his AG had overshadowed Trump's well-received Feb. 28 address to Congress.

And perhaps his biggest defeat came when the "golden wrecking ball" couldn't crack the Freedom Caucus.

Repealing ObamaCare had been at the top of the Republican priority list for four election cycles, and Trump had campaigned on replacing the unpopular legislation. But his team handed off writing the details to House Speaker Paul Ryan, and the eventual bill was highly unpopular with the American public, conservative media and various factions in the House of Representatives. Still, it appeared Trump and Ryan could pull out a win if they managed to convince the members of the House Freedom Caucus to vote for the bill. Trump, who routinely boasted about his ability to make deals, tried both sweet-talking and, more so, strong-arming the members along. Neither approach worked. Just before it was set to be introduced for a vote that would have been an embarrassing failure, Trump, on Day 64 of his presidency, instructed Ryan to pull the bill.

Given the humbling defeat in Congress, the daily whispers regarding Russia and the snowballing opposition to signature policies, Day 64 may have been the low point of Trump's first 100 days.

It was also the point at which Trump adapted and changed the narrative.

He laid low for a few days (by Trumpian terms), but by Day 73 the constant disrupting and disruptions seemed to have gotten old.

The dealmaker-in-chief emerged, with Trump taking Sen. Rand Paul on a golf outing to discuss health care; holding back on plans to label China a currency manipulator in exchange for their help dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions; appearing to relent on some hardline budget positions in order to prevent a government shutdown; unveiling a vague yet ambitious tax plan that appeals to much of his constituency and leaves plenty of room for congressional haggling.

Trump was also seen in an entirely new light – commander-in-chief – when he launched a strike on a Syrian airfield that had been used to carry out a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people; when he ratcheted up the U.S. military posture against Kim Jong Un's dictatorship; when he started criticizing Russia; when he presided over the dropping of the so-called "Mother Of All Bombs" on ISIS militants in Afghanistan.

The first 100 days have been a densely packed period of on-the-job learning for Trump, seeing him move from an unaccommodating swamp drainer to someone resigned to skimming the muck out of the water.

More opportunities for change and disruption await, and he still aims to replace ObamaCare soon. 

Trump's most identifiable campaign promise was his vow to build a "big, beautiful" wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. But the inclusion of money to build that wall potentially could have led to a government shutdown due to Democratic opposition. Trump ultimately decided to concede the cash allocation in April with plans to fight for the funds another day.

It's unclear what form the "golden wrecking ball" will take by then.

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