UCLA basketball players are leaving China after Trump intervenes

-Mark Moore, New York Post

Mark Moore reports in the New York Post that three UCLA basketball players who were detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting are headed back to the United States, after President Trump “lobbied for their release with China’s leader.” The UCLA basketball team had been in China to partake in the annual Pac-12 China game when three of the Bruins players were detained for questioning following allegations of shoplifting. On Tuesday, President Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the status of the three players, and they are now on their way back to Los Angeles. Moore remarks Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott thanked President Trump, the White House, and the State Department for their efforts in resolving what he called, “the incident with authorities in Hangzhou, China.”
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Regarding immigration reform, Brian Lonergan, director of communications at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, writes in The Hill, “The time to act is now,” to end the Visa Lottery, stating we have to stop the program, “before any more innocent blood is shed,” following the Halloween day attack perpetrated by a man who entered the United States through the visa lottery just ten years before.

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On tax reform, the Wall Street Journal’s Peter Nicholas reports on economic adviser Gary Cohn’s confidence in Congress to pass “a sweeping tax overhaul,” and his belief in both the House and Senate tax bills, saying that whatever the differences, “both will deliver financial relief to middle-class households.” Mr. Cohn also emphasized the short timeline for lawmakers in order to have a bill signed by Christmas, stating, “We’ve got to get taxes done this year.”

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Investor Business Daily’s editorial board countered the Democratic narrative that Republican tax cuts will explode the deficit, writing “after eight years of silence” during President Obama’s term, “Democrats are suddenly fretting about deficits.”

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In foreign policy and economic news, Irwin Stelzer of The Weekly Standard praises President Trump’s approach to free trade with China that attempts “to bring down the rigged trade system,” and comments that those who support the current system should not call it, “free trade” or “globalization,” as it greatly disadvantages the United States’ position in the international market.