American conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has admitted he was “destroyed” in a TV interview this week with British journalist Andrew Neil after being widely mocked for storming out of the debate and telling Neil: “I’m popular, and no one has ever heard of you.”
“I’m not inclined to continue an interview with a person as badly motivated as you,” Shapiro said, cutting the interview short despite earlier telling Neil he had “reached out to so many people across the aisle to have conversations with them.”
Responding to the criticism, Shapiro wrote on Twitter: “(Andrew Neil) DESTROYS Ben Shapiro! So that’s what that feels like https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f609.png" alt="

Apple is headed for its biggest weekly decline this year as the iPhone maker’s profits are seen as particularly vulnerable to a flare-up in the trade war given its reliance on China for production and sales.
The shares were down as much as 9% for the week as of 10:45 a.m. in New York Friday, while the S&P 500 slid as much as 4% this week. A close at that level would be the worst performance since the five days ended Dec. 21, when U.S. equities were tumbling toward the brink of a bear market. Apple has shed about $75 billion of market value since last Friday, a slide that takes it even further away from the $1 trillion valuation it appeared close to reclaiming earlier this month.

Will Democrats bring James Comey back to Capitol Hill to testify? Republican Rep. Jim Jordan says Democrats are more focused on going after Attorney General Bill Barr.
WATCH:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Russia early next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the State Department announced Friday, as tensions simmer between the two countries over a host of issues.
Pompeo will meet with both Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the “full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges,” the State Department said Friday. The secretary will travel first to Moscow, where he will meet with U.S. embassy staff, and then to Sochi, Russia, where he will meet with Putin and Lavrov.
The visit comes as Washington and Moscow have clashed over a number of foreign policy disputes, most critically during last week’s failed uprising in Venezuela.

According to Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Belgium almost doubled last year—from 56 in 2017 to 101 in 2018. The prime minister’s statement was part of a longer response to questions from the European Jewish Press regarding the rise of anti-Semitism in the country in the context of the European and national elections that will take place at the end of this month.
Like other European countries, said Michel, Belgium is witnessing rising anti-Semitism, including “insults, harassment and violence that can lead to deaths, like in the anti-Semitic attack at the Jewish Museum of Brussels in 2014.”

Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that “it sure looks like” there is enough evidence to prosecute President Trump for obstruction of justice based on details laid out in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Comey, a vocal Trump critic, maintained that there is “no doubt” that Trump would have been charged with obstruction of justice if he were not the president. When asked whether Trump should be prosecuted after his time in office, Comey said the Justice Department would have to take a “serious look” at that.
When asked by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper during a town hall whether the evidence was there to prosecute Trump, Comey responded, “It sure looks like it’s there with respect to at least a couple of those episodes of obstruction.”

The true purpose of the seemingly inert human appendix continues to elude modern medicine, but a new study suggests that those who have the organ removed due to appendicitis are at three times greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Appendicitis is defined as inflammation or rupturing of the appendix, a small organ located at the base of the large intestine. Each year around 300,000 Americans have their appendix removed, usually for this reason.
Using data from over 62 million patients in the US, scientists at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center found 488,190 of them had had their appendices removed. Of those, 4,470 were eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s — about one percent of the appendectomy group.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the United States was prepared for “swift and decisive” action in response to any attack by Iran, as tensions between the Middle East powerplayer and the global hegemon continued to escalate.
“The regime in Tehran should understand that any attacks by them or their proxies of any identity against US interests or citizens will be answered with a swift and decisive US response,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“Our restraint to this point should not be mistaken by Iran for a lack of resolve,” he said.
The moves have sparked concerns of a military confrontation, but Pompeo insisted Thursday: “We do not seek war.”

Jeff Bezos,the Amazon CEO who also owns the aerospace company Blue Origin, announced his space company’s plans Thursday for a manned mission to the moon.
“This vehicle is going to the moon,” Bezos said while revealing the plan, according to USA Today. He added that he hopes the lunar lander, called Blue Moon, will head towards the celestial body in 2024.
He also confirmed that the company will fly people to space this year in the “New Shephard,” a reusable suborbital rocket system. The company is also working on a future rocket, the “New Glenn,” capable of carrying people and payloads by 2021.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

A New Jersey public library has postponed a talk by the author of “P is for Palestine” after local community members objected.
Golbarg Bashi, author of the children’s book promoting Palestinian nationalism, was scheduled to appear May 18 at the Highland Park Public Library.
Members of the Central Jersey town’s Jewish community protested the talk, on grounds that the book promotes violence, especially to a two-page spread featuring the letter I, which states “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grownup!”
Following the complaints, the library issued a statement saying the matter had been referred to the library’s board of trustees, which “will take it up at its next regularly scheduled meeting” on May 20.