WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration may no longer enforce a rule requiring individual Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty if they do not, a senior White House official said on Sunday Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said President Donald Trump “may stop enforcing the individual mandate.” Separately, on CBS’ “Face the Nation” show, she reiterated Republican promises that no one would lose their health insurance under Obamacare while a replacement is being developed. “For the 20 million who rely upon the Affordable Care Act in some form, they will not be without coverage during this transition time,” she said.  On Friday Trump signed an executive order concerning the 2010 healthcare law, urging U.S. agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions deemed to impose fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals. Healthcare experts had speculated that Trump could expand exemptions from the individual mandate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” reiterated Republican promises to replace Obamacare and allow patients to buy health insurance across state lines using health savings accounts. “We’re going to move carefully in conjunction with the administration to repeal and replace it with things like health savings accounts and interstate health insurance sales and high-risk pools at the state level to take care of people who have pre-existing conditions.” he said.  Last week Republican Representative Tom Price, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, that an overhaul of Obamacare will initially focus on individual health plans sold on online exchanges and the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans. He added that the revamp would not immediately tackle changes to Medicare, the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older and people with disabilities. Trump has said he wants to keep some elements of Obamacare, such as allowing young adults to be covered under their parents’ insurance. He is in favor of plans that use health savings accounts and the sale of insurance across state lines.

Summary: ट्रम्प व्यक्तिगत स्वास्थ्य बीमा जनादेश को लागू नहीं कर सकते हैंः सहायक


ANKARA (Reuters) - The United States has primed a bomb in the Middle East with its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday. Yildirim said Turkey s stark differences with Washington, which have already strained ties between the NATO allies, meant that an overwhelming majority of the Turkish people were now unsympathetic toward the United States.  The United States has pulled the pin on a bomb ready to blow in the region,  Yildirim told a conference in Ankara.  President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and promising to move the U.S. Embassy there. Following the decision, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul; on Thursday, there was a heavy police presence with uniformed soldiers patrolling the roof.  Today, more than 80 percent of our citizens are cold towards the United States and they are right to be so,  Yildirim said, without giving a source for the figure. Bilateral relations had already been hurt by Washington s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen by Ankara as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers  Party (PKK), which has for decades waged an insurgency against the Turkish state. In addition, Ankara has been angered by the United States  refusal to extradite U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating last year s attempted military coup. U.S. officials say the courts have not been shown sufficient evidence to extradite Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup. Turkey also says the case of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is on trial in New York and cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, is an attempt to discredit it and undermine its economy. Zarrab has pleaded guilty to helping Iran avoid U.S. sanctions and detailed a vast international money laundering scheme.

Summary: तुर्की का कहना है कि जेरूसलम के फैसले के साथ अमेरिका ने 'बम पर पिन खींचा'


VIELHA, Spain (Reuters) - If Catalonia declares independence from Spain this week, one community in the region s mountainous north might declare independence from Catalonia.  Most people in the picturesque Aran Valley - a semi-autonomous community nestled among the Pyrenees - want to stay with Spain, and the area has the right to self-determination under a law passed in 2015 by the Catalan parliament.   We re a little spot on the map and often we re not taken into account,  said Maria Verges Perez, the deputy mayor of Aran s capital, Vielha, a cluster of stone-and-slate houses on the valley floor ringed by autumnal forests.   But we will exercise our right to decide our future.  Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is expected to declare independence on Tuesday in Spain s worst constitutional crisis since the return of democracy in the 1970s. The roughly 10,000 people of Aran, on the border with France, have a language and culture distinct from the rest of Catalonia, which itself differs from the rest of Spain. The valley s economy is heavily dependent on winter sports tourists from Spain and the EU. Their politicians say the 2015 law gives them the right to vote on whether they want to break away with Catalonia - something which Catalan officials do not dispute. The Spanish government has vowed to prevent Catalonia seceding. Losing the region would deprive the country of 16 percent of its people and a fifth of its economic output. But while Madrid insists Spain is indivisible under its constitution, the Aran Valley underlines the complex nature of nationhood in such a culturally diverse country. Ever since Spain s return to democracy in the 1970s, Madrid has struggled to balance the country s patchwork of regional identities, including its decades-long fight to quell separatism in the northern Basque Country led by violent militants ETA. Few in the medieval villages along the Aran Valley doubt the community would opt to stay with Spain if asked to vote.   The people here feel very far away from what is going on in Barcelona,  said Carlos Barrera, head of the Aran government, at a rural festival in Salardu village where locals judged stocky Pyrenean horses and handed out racks of blood sausages.  The valley had the lowest voter turnout by far in Catalonia s Oct. 1 independence referendum, which had been declared illegal by Spain s constitutional court.  Across Catalonia there was a 43 percent turnout, with most people who wanted to remain in Spain staying home, and 90 percent of those who voted backed secession. In Aran, just 24 percent voted, with 84 percent of those backing independence.  The valley traces its political allegiances back to pacts drawn up in the 13th century with the Crown of Aragon, a monarchy that would join with the Crown of Castille two centuries later to form what became Spain. Many locals speak Aranese, a dialect of the Occitan language still spoken in pockets of the Pyrenees and southern France.  Two years ago, the Catalan parliament approved the  Law on Aran s Special Status , giving it control over its culture, language and administration and recognizing  the right of the Aranese people to decide their future . A Catalan government spokesman said Catalonia would respect the Aranese people s decision in any future referendum. A Spanish government spokesman declined to comment on whether Aran could remain part of Spain, saying Catalonia would never become independent.  Aran s residents are some of the sternest critics of the Catalan government which they say is ignoring those people who want to stay in Spain and charging toward independence at any cost.  In Vielha, a lone red and yellow Catalan independence flag hanging from an apartment block was the only evidence last Saturday of the separatist fever sweeping many parts of the region, where cities convulse with protests triggered by Madrid s violent crackdown on the referendum.  Many people in Aran fear Catalan independence would destroy its tourism economy which revolves around Baqueira-Beret, Spain s most popular ski resort.  About two-thirds of the population in Aran depend on the ski resort for jobs. In the winter, the population triples with the influx of skiers drawn to the same slopes used by Spain s royal family. Since the referendum, Verges Perez, the Vielha deputy mayor, said potential visitors had canceled almost 30 percent of hotel reservations for next week s local holidays. And if an independent Catalonia was no longer part of the European Union, Aran s reliance on agreements to use French hospitals for medical emergencies would be jeopardized, she added.    That s the trap. Nobody has explained the price that independence like this would have,  she said. Many of Catalonia s largest businesses have already said they are transferring their headquarters out of the region due to the political turmoil. Insurance firm Catalana Occidente, owned by the same family that owns Baqueira-Beret, is reportedly considering doing the same, although it has not confirmed it. The valley ranks as one of Catalonia s wealthiest regions, thanks to a tunnel that opened it up to the rest of Spain in 1948. Before then, it was a poor area only accessible by an often snow-covered mountain pass.  The valley s politicians say holding their own referendum could be the only way to defend the local economy.  But Jaime Geli, Salardu s 72-year-old former mayor and one of the few independence supporters here, said locals shouldn t be so quick to throw their lot in with Spain instead of sticking with Catalonia. Catalan authorities had protected the Aranese culture and language from a central government hostile to the idea that Spain is made up of different  nations , he said, sat by the valley s river.   In Madrid, when you talk to them about different languages, it makes their hairs stand up on end.

Summary: एक विभाजन के भीतर एक विभाजनः कैटलन घाटी स्पेन के साथ चिपकी हुई है


TOKYO (Reuters) - Family members of Japanese abducted by North Korea met U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday and welcomed his sympathy for their  very sad  plight, but said it meant nothing unless it led to action to bring home their loved ones. Trump has incorporated into his attacks on Pyongyang the story of Megumi Yokota, 13 when she was snatched off a lonely beach by North Korean agents 40 years ago, mentioning her in a September speech at the United Nations. For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will not rest until the return of all 13 of those Pyongyang says were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies, making the issue a keystone of his political career. On Monday, Trump met Megumi s mother Sakie, becoming the third president to do so, as well as the relatives of seven other abductees Pyongyang says are dead - like Megumi, who hanged herself, North Korea says.  We ll work together and see if we can do something, now the spotlight is on,  Trump later told a joint news conference with Abe, calling the abductions a  very, very sad thing .  Perhaps the regime itself would send them back. I think it would be a tremendous signal if Kim Jong Un would send them back.  Megumi s mother and younger twin brothers were later part of a news conference that welcomed Trump s attention, although cautiously, with several members saying decades had passed and nothing had been done, even by Abe s government.  It seemed the president listened carefully to all our stories and was impressed,  said Koichiro Iizuka, an infant abandoned in a creche when his mother, Yaeko Taguchi, was abducted in 1978.  But if this is all that comes of this meeting, it s absolutely outrageous,  he added.  It s how we face the previous neglect and take action that s important.  The families can do little, said Megumi s mother, now 81 and visibly frail.  This is an issue of politics, of diplomacy,  she said.  All we can say is: please help them.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया द्वारा अपहृत जापानियों के परिवार ट्रम्प से मिले, लेकिन कार्रवाई चाहते हैं


BALTIMORE - The prospect of running for re-election with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket was worrying some party lawmakers as they huddled for an annual retreat, where a few forecast trouble if Trump becomes the party’s presidential nominee. “Heaven help us,” Representative Peter Roskam said when asked about it by a reporter. But the Illinois Republican quickly added, “I’m not going to comment on the presidential candidates at this point.” That reticence was shared by many lawmakers asked about running on Trump’s coattails during an event in Baltimore where Senate and House of Representatives Republicans gathered to talk through their priorities for a coming year whose highlight is the November election. Some were not reluctant to express concerns. Trump would not help Republicans if he topped the ticket, despite his appeal to Americans fed up with politicians, said Representative Justin Amash, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement who has endorsed Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul for president. “He does appeal to the anger,” Amash said of Trump, the outspoken real estate mogul who is front-runner to be the party’s presidential nominee. But he said Trump’s “policy prescriptions will take us in the wrong direction, and it won’t be long before many of those people are angry at him and angry at Republicans again.” The idea of Trump capturing the Republican nomination seemed highly unlikely just months ago, but it was sinking in as an actual possibility this week across the Republican Party. In addition to voting for a new president, Americans will elect members of the Senate and the House on Nov. 8. In U.S. politics, a party’s presidential nominee has a big impact on  the campaigns of candidates for both chambers of Congress. At the party gathering, Republican leaders were keen to talk policy, not presidential politics. “What happens above us on the presidential ballot, you really don’t control,” Senator John Thune, a senior party leader from South Dakota, told reporters. House Speaker Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, said: “We are not sitting here thinking about who the nominee is going to be. We don’t have time to think about that.” But in the hallways of the retreat, at a hotel on Baltimore’s restored waterfront, Trump was often the hot topic. He is leading national opinion polls ahead of the Feb. 1 Iowa caucus, the first step in the nominating process. Representative Jason Chaffetz said it was important to have a presidential nominee who will not “embarrass” the rest of the party’s candidates as they defend the Republican majorities in both congressional chambers. Chaffetz, who is from Utah, has endorsed Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida. Polls show Rubio in third place behind Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa. “Marco Rubio is not going to embarrass us ... He’s not as sensational in his comments as the others, but there’s a good quality to that, and I think that’s also something you look for in a president,” Chaffetz said. Among other proposals, Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. Representative Tom Cole said Republicans’ fate will be linked closely to the Republican nominee, whoever it is.  Trump would be a wild card, said Cole, of Oklahoma. “I don’t know what he (Trump) will do. I can see a situation where he could be a great asset, because I do think he will bring some people out (to vote) who have not been brought before.” Representative Peter King of New York agreed that Trump is “more of a gamble” at the top of the ticket. “The conventional wisdom is that he would hurt more than he would help,” said King, who was unable to attend the retreat but spoke by telephone. “But on the other hand, he is tapping into something (among voters) out there.”  (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Caren Bohan and Frances Kerry) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सांसदों को ट्रम्प के कोटे पर चुनाव लड़ने की चिंता है


DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a review of tough U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards put in place by the Obama administration, handing a victory to auto industry executives and provoking criticism from Democrats and environmental groups. In a move widely seen as a preamble to loosening fuel standards, Trump told an audience of cheering union workers, he would “ensure that any regulations we have protect and defend your jobs, your factories,” and promised he would encourage growth in the U.S. auto sector.  “The assault on the American auto industry is over,” Trump said, standing in front of a banner that read “Buy American-Hire American.” Trump added that the White House is “setting up a task force in every federal agency to identify and remove any regulation that undermines American auto production.” The backdrop and message underscored Trump’s efforts to lock down support in industrial states such as Michigan that put him in the White House. Trump spoke at the site of the former Willow Run bomber factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which won fame for building an operational B-24 heavy bomber every 59 minutes during World War Two. Now, the site is being redeveloped as a testing ground for autonomous vehicles.  At a roundtable with industry leaders Trump made clear he expected automakers to hire more Americans in return, a theme that dominated his election campaign. “We’re going to do some wonderful work with you, but you’re going to have to help us with jobs,” he said. Trump’s event was attended by around 1,000 people, including automotive executives, United Auto Workers union President Dennis Williams - who sat next to Trump - and workers from Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers: General Motors Co (GM.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N). Automakers lined up examples of vehicles they build in the United States for the president to see. Auto industry executives have said they are hopeful the Trump administration will pursue tax and regulatory policies that would benefit U.S. manufacturers.  Reopening the fuel efficiency rules put in place by Democratic President Barack Obama days before he left office is one of the top items on the industry’s agenda. Automakers, through their lobbying groups, have said the Obama rules were too expensive and could cost American jobs. “These standards are costly for automakers and the American people,” said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. After one participant in Wednesday’s meetings mentioned environmental concerns, Trump said he agreed but did not want an “extra thimbleful of fuel” to get in the way of growth. In a meeting with top auto executives from U.S. and foreign automakers, Trump said the government needs to get out of the way of the auto industry building vehicles, a person who attended the meeting said. Automakers are wary of being seen as out of touch with environmental concerns, or unwilling to invest in new technology. Ford, for example, used its Twitter account on Wednesday to highlight previously announced commitments to develop electric vehicles. It could take a year for the review process to play out, and Wednesday’s event was effectively a starting gun for intense lobbying efforts over how government policy will drive technology investment decisions in the auto sector.  Critics like Democratic U.S. Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts said Trump’s move could hurt consumers. “Filling up their cars and trucks is the energy bill Americans pay most often, but President Trump’s roll-back of fuel economy emissions standards means families will end up paying more at the pump,” Markey added.  The president is not seeking to revoke California’s authority to set vehicle efficiency rules even stricter than federal rules, including mandated sales of electric vehicles, as part of this move, a White House official said. The official did not rule out seeking to withdraw California’s authority in the future. Pruitt, an ally of the fossil fuel industry, would not commit during his Senate confirmation hearing to allowing California to continue its own clean vehicle rules. A group of 10 state attorneys general led by California and New York said on Wednesday they would fight attempts to weaken the rules. California’s attorney general late Tuesday filed legal papers in a federal court defending the Obama administration’s decision to finalize the determination in January. Barclays auto analyst Brian Johnson said in a research note that he expects the Trump administration review will lead to reductions in planned hikes in fuel efficiency standards after 2021. The Obama administration’s rules, negotiated with automakers in 2012, were aimed at doubling average fleetwide fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, although the real-world mileage figures would be lower.  Automotive industry executives and lobbying groups were quick to praise the administration’s announcement. “The Trump administration has created an opportunity for decision-makers to reach a thoughtful and coordinated outcome predicated on the best and most current data,” said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry lobbying group. Automakers have signaled they want the government to give manufacturers more credit toward achieving fuel efficiency targets for technologies such as “stop-start” systems that shut down a car’s engine at a traffic light.  Regulators should also look at whether ride hailing and vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems designed to prevent accidents and alleviate road congestion could be counted toward the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions goals, the automaker group proposed in comments to the EPA last year. The group represents a dozen automakers, including GM, Ford and FCA.  Under the 2012 agreement with the industry, the EPA was given until April 2018 to decide whether the standards were feasible under a “midterm review,” but the agency moved up its decision to a week before Obama left office in a bid to maintain a key part of his administration’s environmental legacy. An EPA analysis indicated that compared with previous rules, the 2025 standards would result in savings of between $1,460 and $1,620 over the lifetime of a vehicle and payback for new technology required to meet the new standards of around five years. The Obama administration said the rules would cost the auto industry $200 billion over 13 years, but save motorists $1.7 trillion over the life of the vehicles.

Summary: वाहन निर्माताओं के लिए बड़ी जीत, ट्रम्प ने ईंधन अर्थव्यवस्था मानकों की समीक्षा का आदेश दिया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The next round of talks between Syria s government and the opposition will be held in Geneva on Nov. 28 the United Nations envoy to Syria said on Thursday. Staffan de Mistura, speaking to the U.N. Security Council via teleconference from Geneva, said the next round of talks should focus on the drafting of a new constitution and on a path toward United Nations-verified elections.

Summary: जेनेवा में अगले दौर की सीरिया वार्ता 28 नवंबर को होगीः संयुक्त राष्ट्र दूत


(Reuters) - Some influential U.S. senators are urging a federal agency to take action to ensure more children are tested for lead poisoning, citing a Reuters investigation that found millions are missing required lead tests, leaving some vulnerable to lifelong health effects. In a three-page letter to be sent on Friday, U.S. senators including Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Deborah Stabenow of Michigan, all Democrats, called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to re-evaluate its lead screening policy for millions of Medicaid-eligible children. The senators want CMS to improve U.S. blood lead testing rates they called “dismal,” and to ensure all state Medicaid programs comply with testing rules and provide treatment for children with elevated blood lead levels. Medicaid is a U.S. government program that provides health care for low-income and disabled people.  The letter, provided to Reuters by Brown’s office, cites a June Reuters investigation (reut.rs/1YgbjCX) detailing how millions of U.S. children are falling through the cracks of early childhood lead testing requirements. Though Medicaid has long required children in the program to receive blood lead tests at ages one and two, Reuters obtained data from nearly a dozen states showing that only 41 percent of Medicaid-eligible children were tested as required in 2014.     Those shortfalls left some children vulnerable to prolonged and preventable lead exposure, which can stunt their cognitive development and cause permanent mental and physical ailments.     Concerns about childhood lead exposure have grown sharply after children in Flint, Michigan were poisoned by lead-tainted drinking water starting in 2014. Across the country, more than 500,000 U.S. children have elevated lead levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another exposure risk is old lead paint in millions of homes built before 1978. In Cleveland, Ohio, for instance, 13.7 percent of children tested had elevated levels of lead in their blood, Reuters found. “Children in Ohio are being poisoned by their own homes,” Senator Brown said on Thursday. “To protect our children, we need better coordination between federal and state health agencies and Medicaid physicians.” Experts cited several factors for the gaps: some doctors do not order the tests or are unaware of Medicaid and state rules; children miss appointments or parents do not follow up on test referrals; and Medicaid and health departments do little to enforce testing. The testing guidelines are often confusing, and federal and state data on lead testing contain gaps. In the letter, the lawmakers urge CMS to take steps to get more children tested and to review and update its lead screening protocols, and help guide state Medicaid administrators to make sure all at-risk children get screened.

Summary: सीनेटरों ने रॉयटर्स की जांच का हवाला देते हुए अमेरिका से प्रमुख परीक्षण अंतराल को बंद करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday he has not abandoned his  longtime goal of making sure any tax cuts are revenue neutral, saying the growth estimates in the Republican tax reform plan will offset the cuts. The Trump administration’s tax plan promises up to $6 trillion in tax cuts but will increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if it abandons the revenue-neutral goal, McConnell said: “No, actually we’re not because that’s a rather conservative estimate of how much growth you’ll get out of this pro-growth tax reform.”

Summary: सीनेट के मैककोनेल का कहना है कि कर विधेयक राजस्व तटस्थ होना चाहिए


LIMA (Reuters) - Failure to ratify the U.S.-led sweeping trade pact TPP would hand China “the keys to the castle” on globalization and do nothing to solve the real problems underlying American anxiety over jobs, the top U.S. trade official said Thursday. The tariff-slashing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has turned into a hot-button topic in the run-up to the Nov. 8 U.S. election, threatening to dampen support from lawmakers needed to pass a deal critics condemn as a job-killer. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said he was still optimistic Congress would pass the 12-member TPP, in part because China has been moving ahead with a trade deal of its own, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), that would boost its exports and let it set labor and environmental standards in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region. “We’re one vote away from either cementing our leadership in this region and in the global trading system or ceding it to China,” Froman told reporters in Lima after attending the inauguration of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.  “At the end of the day I don’t think Congress wants to be responsible for handing the keys to the castle to China.” Froman’s defense of the TPP follows weeks of heated attacks on the deal as anti-TPP chants and signs have peppered the Republican and Democratic conventions. Republican nominee Donald Trump has called the TPP a “death blow” for manufacturing jobs and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has firmed up her opposition to it in recent days. Froman declined to comment on the candidates but said the TPP had become a “scapegoat” for legitimate concerns over income inequality, stagnant wages and jobs lost to automation. “You don’t get to vote on the next generation of robots,” he said, “you get to vote on trade agreements”. But the debate over TPP has also helped broaden support for domestic policies, such as infrastructure development and educational programs, to help Americans adapt to rapid economic change, Froman said. U.S. President Barack Obama wants the TPP passed this year. Froman ruled out renegotiating the “carefully balanced” text, but said issues were being solved by working on country implementation plans. He cited pork producers, dairy farmers and financial services as once-reluctant stakeholders that now back the TPP. “The last major issue outstanding has to do with biologics and intellectual property rights,” Froman said. “We’re having good constructive conversations” with members of Congress.

Summary: टी. पी. पी. को मारने से चीन को 'महल की चाबी' मिल जाएगीः अमेरिकी व्यापार प्रतिनिधि


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has agreed to an $11.65 million bail agreement with the special counsel investigating Trump campaign ties to Russia, the longtime Republican political consultant’s lawyer said on Thursday. Manafort, who was indicted along with a business associate Richard Gates in October, would be released from house arrest and electronic monitoring under the deal, lawyer Kevin Downing said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington. Manafort, who has been confined to his Virginia home, has agreed to forfeit four real estate properties worth about $11.65 million if there is a bail violation, the court document said. Manafort previously had an unsecured $10 million “appearance bond” to guarantee he shows up to court.    Agreement on bail had been reached with the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Downing said in the filing.  A spokesman for Mueller could not immediately be reached for comment. Manafort, who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign for several months, and Gates pleaded not guilty in October to a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury. They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. The charges are part of Mueller’s investigation into the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia undertook a campaign of hacking and misinformation to tilt the election in Trump’s favor and potential collusion by Trump associates, allegations that Moscow and the president deny. Mueller and his attorneys have previously argued that the court should only agree to a bail agreement if Manafort fully explains his finances to the court and that they considered him a flight risk. The four properties posted as bail are a Bridgehampton, New York home valued at $4 million, a New York City property valued at $3.7 million, a Florida property estimated at $1.25 million, and a home in Virginia worth $2.7 million, the filing said. Manafort’s wife, Kathleen, and his daughter Andrea have agreed to act as sureties on the appearance bond, it said. To address the issue of flight risk, Manafort has agreed to not travel overseas, has handed over his passports, and will restrict his travel to Florida, Virginia, New York and Washington D.C.  Downing called the $11.65 million a “substantial portion” of Manafort’s assets. “Simply put, Mr. Manafort’s family would face severe economic consequences if he were not to appear as required.”

Summary: $<ID1 मिलियन> जमानत सौदे में ट्रम्प अभियान के पूर्व सहयोगी मैनफोर्टः वकील


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Tuesday for statesmanship to avoid war with North Korea and criticized world leaders who stoke resentment over refugees for political gain, two digs at U.S. President Donald Trump. In his first address to the annual 193-member U.N. General Assembly since taking office in January, Guterres said the crisis over North Korea s nuclear and ballistic missile program must be solved through a political process.   This is the time for statesmanship,  said the former prime minister of Portugal.  We must not sleepwalk our way into war.   Trump has warned North Korea that military action was an option for the United States as Pyongyang has carried out a series of tests toward developing the ability to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile. The U.N. Security Council has unanimously imposed nine  rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006 and Guterres appealed for the 15-member body to maintain its unity on North Korea. Guterres, a former head of the U.N. refugee agency, also spoke of being  pained to see the way refugees and migrants have been stereotyped and scapegoated - and to see political figures stoke resentment in search of electoral gain.  Shortly after taking office in January, Trump moved to put a 120-day halt on the U.S. refugee program, bar Syrian refugees indefinitely and impose a 90-day suspension on people from six predominantly Muslim countries. He says the move is needed to prevent terrorist attacks.   I myself am a migrant, as many of you are. But no-one expected me to risk my life on a leaky boat or cross a desert in the back of a truck to find employment outside my country of birth,  he said.  Safe migration cannot be limited to the global elite.   Guterres also warned of the dangers of climate change and urged world leaders to implement the 2015 Paris climate agreement to reduce emissions  with ever greater ambition.   Trump, who campaigned in the 2016 presidential election on an  America First  platform, has said the United States would withdraw from the accord. Trump said it would harm U.S. industries, cost U.S. jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to other nations.  It is high time to get off the path of suicidal emissions. We know enough today to act. The science is unassailable,  Guterres said. On counterterrorism, Guterres said he plans to convene next year the first gathering of heads of counterterrorism agencies of U.N. member states to forge a new international counterterrorism partnership.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र प्रमुख का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया पर राजनीतिक कौशल की आवश्यकता है, उन्होंने ट्रम्प पर कटाक्ष किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s domestically developed AG600, the world s largest amphibious aircraft, performed its maiden flight on Sunday from an airport on the shores of the South China Sea, the latest step in a military modernization program. China has stepped up research on advanced military equipment as it adopts a more muscular approach to territorial disputes in places such as the disputed South China Sea, rattling nerves in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States. State television showed live images of the AG600 lifting off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong, which sits on the South China Sea coast. It returned about an hour later and taxied to its stand accompanied by martial music and greeted by crowds waving Chinese flags. Xinhua news agency said the aircraft was the  protector spirit of the sea, islands and reefs . It had previously been scheduled to make its first flight earlier this year but it is unclear why it was delayed after ground tests took place in April. State-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) [SASADY.UL] has spent almost eight years developing the aircraft, which is roughly the size of a Boeing Co (BA.N) 737 and is designed to carry out marine rescues and battle forest fires. However, state media has also noted its potential use in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have overlapping claims. The AG600 s chief designer, Huang Lingcai, was quoted in the official China Daily earlier this month as saying it can make round trips without refueling from the southern island province of Hainan to James Shoal, claimed by China but which is located close to Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. Powered by four turboprop engines, the AG600 can carry 50 people during maritime search-and-rescue missions, and can scoop up 12 metric tons of water within 20 seconds for fire fighting trips, according to state media. The aircraft has received 17 orders so far from Chinese government departments and Chinese companies. It has a maximum flight range of 4,500 km (2,800 miles) and a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes. It can use conventional airports and also land and take-off from the sea. China is in the midst of a massive military modernization program, ranging from testing anti-satellite missiles to building stealth fighters and the country s first indigenous aircraft carrier, to add to an existing one bought from Ukraine.

Summary: दुनिया के सबसे बड़े उभयचर विमान ने चीन में पहली उड़ान भरी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s drive to overhaul the U.S. tax code cleared a critical hurdle on Thursday when the Senate approved a budget blueprint for the 2018 fiscal year that will pave the way for Republicans to pursue a tax-cut package without Democratic support. By a 51-to-49 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate approved the budget measure, which would add up to $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade in order to pay for proposed tax cuts. “With this budget, we’re on a path to deliver much-needed relief to American individuals and families who have borne the burden of an unfair tax code,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after it passed. “Great news on the 2018 budget @SenateMajLdr McConnell - first step toward delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for the American people!,” Trump tweeted early on Friday.   But Democrats are likely to oppose the Trump administration’s tax plan, which promises to deliver up to $6 trillion in tax cuts to businesses and individuals.  “This is not a bad budget bill, it is a horrific budget bill,” Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, said before the vote. “At a time of massive income inequality, this budget provides $1.9 trillion in tax breaks for the top 1 percent.” The resolution has to be reconciled with a markedly different version passed by the House of Representatives, where Republicans say negotiations on a unified measure could take up to two weeks. The House budget resolution calls for a revenue-neutral tax bill and would combine tax cuts in the same legislation as $203 billion in spending cuts to mandatory programs including food assistance for the poor. The Senate version instructs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to save at least $1 billion over the next decade. It also contains a legislative tool called reconciliation, which would enable Republicans, who control the 100-seat Senate by a 52-48 margin, to move tax legislation through the Senate on a simple majority vote. Otherwise, tax reform would need 60 votes and would likely fail. After failing to approve Trump-backed legislation to overturn Obamacare, Senate Republicans are under intense pressure to succeed on tax reform. Although Democratic votes will likely not be needed to pass tax legislation, Trump sought the support of six Senate Democrats at a Wednesday meeting with Finance Committee members from both parties. Five of the six Democrats, whom the White House described as open to working with Trump on taxes, are up for reelection next year in states that Trump carried in the 2016 election.  The White House contends that the Republicans’ plan to slash the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent would create jobs and boost wages for blue-collar workers. But Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the tax-writing Finance Committee, who attended the White House meeting, said he made clear to Trump that Democrats believed his plan would benefit the wealthy, raise taxes on some middle-class Americans and increase the federal deficit.

Summary: सीनेट ने बजट खाका पारित किया, जो ट्रम्प के कर प्रयासों की कुंजी है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Interior Department’s inspector general said it dropped a probe into a reported threat by the agency’s head, Ryan Zinke, to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to harm her state over her opposition to her party’s efforts to repeal Obamacare. In a letter on Tuesday to two congressmen who called for the probe, Interior Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall said “further investigation would prove unproductive” after Murkowski and Alaska’s other senator, Republican Dan Sullivan, both declined to be interviewed or provide statements on the matter. Zinke called Murkowski and Sullivan on July 26, the day after Murkowski’s crucial vote against a motion to begin debate on the healthcare overhaul, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. The interior secretary warned the two senators that Murkowski’s vote could have negative consequences for energy and land use in Alaska, the newspaper said. Murkowski spokeswoman Karina Peterson confirmed that Zinke had called the senator. Murkowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the inspector general’s decision to drop the investigation. The Interior Department deals with policies crucial to the state’s economy such as drilling and mining on federal and tribal land and control of wildlife areas. U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone and Raul Grijalva, the top Democrats on the House committees on energy and natural resources, respectively, had asked the inspector general’s office and the Government Accountability Office for an investigation following the report of the threat. Zinke suggested he had reconciled with Murkowski, posting a photo on Twitter on Aug. 3 of him drinking Alaska-brand beers with the senator.

Summary: गृह विभाग के प्रहरी ने स्वास्थ्य सेवा पर अलास्का सीनेटर को खतरे की जांच बंद कर दी


MILAN (Reuters) - Anti-globalisation protesters clashed with police in the Italian city of Turin on Saturday in an attempt to reach the venue of a Group of Seven (G7) meeting on labor and employment. The demonstrators, mainly protesting against low-paid jobs and short-term contracts, failed to push past police blocking access to the Reggia di Venaria, a former royal residence on the outskirts of Turin, where labor ministers from the G7 advanced economies had gathered. Some hooded protesters threw firecrackers and smoke bombs at the police after failing to get through the cordon. The meeting, called to discuss the impact of digital technologies on labor, started on Friday and riots erupted overnight into Saturday in the center of Turin.

Summary: ट्यूरिन की जी7 श्रम बैठक में प्रदर्शनकारियों की पुलिस के साथ झड़प हुई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Jordan’s King Abdullah are holding a meeting at Andrews Air Force Base, a White House official said on Tuesday. Obama and the U.S. ally were both at the military base before separate trips. The president is slated to depart shortly for Nebraska, where he is holding events to follow up on his State of the Union address.

Summary: ओबामा और जॉर्डन के शाह अब्दुल्ला ने सैन्य अड्डे पर बैठक की


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines  top police chief who oversaw a bloody war on drugs that has killed thousands of Filipinos hinted on Monday at a possible run for the presidency. Ronald dela Rosa, a stocky, celebrity-like general nicknamed  Bato  (Rock), who retires in 2018, has flagged his political ambitions, saying he was open to running for the Senate. But in a speech after a flag raising ceremony at police headquarters, Dela Rosa for the first time publicly suggested he may have his sights set on higher political goals.  Wait for Bato to become president and I will quadruple your salaries,  Dela Rosa told his men as he denied rumors he would leave retirees out of planned salary increases. Dela Rosa is among those touted by the national media as Duterte s possible successor in 2022, along with world boxing champion and senator Manny Pacquiao, and the son and namesake of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  Dela Rosa has acted as the enforcer for the firebrand leader s war on drugs which had led to more than 3,900 people killed in 16 months. The campaign has sparked outrage abroad, but domestic polls have shown crime-weary Filipinos are largely supportive of the measure.  Duterte ordered the police this month to halt activities in the war on drugs and leave all operations to drug enforcement agency, amid unprecedented scrutiny of police conduct. Police reject allegations by activists they are executing suspected drug users and dealers, saying victims in their anti-narcotics operations were killed because they were armed and had violently resisted arrest.

Summary: फिलीपींस के पुलिस प्रमुख ने राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए संभावित दौड़ के संकेत दिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not send a presidential delegation to Cuba for communist leader Fidel Castro’s memorial service, the White House said on Tuesday, reflecting the tortuous history of U.S.-Cuban relations. Instead, Ben Rhodes, an aide to President Barack Obama who conducted 18 months of secret negotiations that led to the 2014 U.S.-Cuban rapprochement, and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the senior U.S. diplomat in Havana, will represent the United States. The choice reflects a White House desire to acknowledge the history of U.S.-Cuban enmity as well as Obama’s normalization of relations with Cuba, a policy that could be tempered or reversed when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. “There are many aspects of the U.S.- Cuba relationship that were characterized by a lot of conflict and turmoil, not just during the Castro regime,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, citing U.S. concerns about Cuban respect for human rights. Earnest also accentuated the positive, noting that Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who was already scheduled to be in Havana for meetings, “played a leading role in crafting the normalization policy” with Cuba. Cuba and the United States have been ideological foes since soon after the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. Washington broke diplomatic relations with Havana in 1961 as Cuba steered a leftist course that turned the island, which lies just 90 miles (140 km) south of Florida, into a close ally of the former Soviet Union. The decision not to send a presidential delegation may also aim to avoid criticism from opponents of rapprochement, which included last year’s formal restoration of diplomatic ties. “Given the ugly history of U.S. relations with Fidel Castro, it is not surprising that President Obama has decided not to send a presidential delegation,” said Ted Piccone, a Latin America analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank. “Given President-elect Trump’s threat to reverse the opening to Cuba, this may be the Obama administration’s last and best opportunity to convey to the highest levels of the current Cuban leadership the urgency of accomplishing as much as possible before Trump enters the White House,” Piccone added.

Summary: कास्त्रो स्मारक में कोई औपचारिक अमेरिकी प्रतिनिधिमंडल नहीं गयाः व्हाइट हाउस


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A former California state senator accused of taking cash bribes and gifts from a businessman and from undercover FBI agents posing as Hollywood filmmakers to steer legislation in their favor has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud, federal prosecutors said on Monday. Ronald Calderon, 58, a Democrat indicted in February 2014 on two dozen counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and other charges, will enter his guilty plea this week, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said. According to the plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed not to ask for a sentence of more than 70 months, although the statutory maximum for the charge is 20 years. Calderon’s attorney, Mark Geragos, could not be reached for comment.  The former lawmaker’s brother, former state Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, pleaded guilty last week to a federal money-laundering charge in connection with the case. The Calderon brothers were members of a political dynasty going back several decades in California before they were ensnared in the federal investigation. “The Calderons have acknowledged their roles in a bribery scheme in which money for them and their families alone was driving legislation that would have benefited only a few individuals,” U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said.  The 2014 indictment accused Ronald Calderon of taking bribes from California hospital owner Michael Drobot to preserve a legislative loophole that allowed Drobot to defraud the state’s healthcare system out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, Drobot hired Calderon’s son while he was in college, paying him some $30,000 for three summers of work. Drobot has agreed to plead guilty to separate federal charges and is cooperating in the case, prosecutors have said. Calderon was also charged with accepting money from undercover FBI agents, who he thought worked for an independent Hollywood movie studio, in exchange for supporting an expansion of film tax credits in California. According to the plea agreement, Calderon had the undercover agent hire his daughter for $3,000 a month, make a $5,000 payment toward his son’s  tuition, pay for $12,000 in Las Vegas trips and give $25,000 to a nonprofit group the lawmaker and his brother used to pay themselves. In exchange, Calderon agreed to vote for the film tax legislation and hire the undercover agent’s purported girlfriend for his staff, according to the plea agreement.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के पूर्व सांसद ने भ्रष्टाचार के मामले में अपना जुर्म स्वीकार कियाः अभियोजक


SYDNEY/WELLINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s alleged disclosure of highly classified information to Russia’s foreign minister is unlikely to stop allies who share intelligence with Washington from cooperating, officials said on Tuesday. Some experts added, however, that the reports could undermine trust between partners.  “If this really happened, it’s an unfortunate episode,”  said Adam Thomson, a former British ambassador to NATO and now with the European Leadership Network think-tank in London. “But they’ll suck it up. Why? Because other countries need U.S. intelligence cooperation more than the other way round.”  In a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, Trump disclosed intelligence about a planned Islamic State operation, which was supplied by a U.S. ally, two officials with knowledge of the situation said. The name of the ally or intelligence-sharing operation was not disclosed. [nL2N1IH1O9] The White House declared the allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, incorrect and Trump said he had an “absolute right” to share facts to get Moscow to step up its fight against Islamic State. Interfax news agency quoted the Russian foreign ministry saying the reports were “fake”. [nR4N1I601L] Two of Washington’s allies in the intelligence sharing network known as “Five Eyes” - which groups the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - played down the impact on their relationship with Washington. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told a radio station in Adelaide he would maintain “my normal circumspection and discretion” on classified matters, adding the alliance with the United States “is the bedrock of our national security”. Trump and Turnbull met last week aboard a decommissioned aircraft carrier in New York City after beginning their relations with a testy phone call in February. [nL1N1I701T] New Zealand Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee noted the story had been denied. “The media reports have been rejected by senior U.S. officials who were in the meeting,” he said in an email via his spokeswoman. “If there is ever to be a resolution of the dreadful situation in Syria, it will require concerted efforts from both the U.S. and Russia.” A Japanese government official said it was simply not possible to stop cooperating with Washington on intelligence matters.”If the report is true and Mr. Trump is an untrustworthy person, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t share information with the U.S. anymore,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. While the president has the authority to disclose even the most highly classified information at will, in this case he did so without consulting the ally that provided it, which threatens to jeopardize a long-standing intelligence-sharing agreement, the two U.S. officials said. National security analysts said relations could be damaged. “Effectively, Trump’s actions have thrown the world’s most important intel sharing relationship into doubt at best, serious jeopardy at worst,” Stephanie Carvin, a former national security analyst for the Canadian government, said on Twitter, referring to the “Five Eyes” arrangement. James Curran, professor of foreign policy at the University of Sydney, said the intelligence relationships were too important and productive to be damaged by Trump’s alleged disclosures to the Russians. “No real practical impact, but I do think it will raise more eyebrows about this president’s style and his cavalier attitude to this type of thing, said Curran. Over the long term, however, such behavior “can potentially have very serious consequences for America’s intelligence relationships across the world”, Curran said. Rhys Ball, who formerly worked for New Zealand’s intelligence service and is now a Massey University security and defense analyst, said he thought it would be “business as usual” for the “Five Eyes” community. “Clearly someone has gulped at what was discussed or exchanged. But this might be the new norm when it comes to the United states and its attitude and foreign policy approach to the likes of the Russians,” Ball said. Even before Trump’s meeting with the Russians, Washington’s intelligence partners abroad have noted a barrage of reports around Trump, the Russians and spies. They include the investigations into his election campaign’s ties to Moscow, probes into Russian interference in the election, the president’s own expressions of disdain for the U.S. intelligence community and his claim that former President Barack Obama spied on him, citing a media report. “First the firing of the FBI chief and now this,” said one NATO diplomat referring to Trump’s decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey. “How do we know the U.S. defense secretary won’t be fired next week or that intelligence finds its way into the wrong hands?”  But Ball said intelligence co-operation was too important to be constrained. “Five Eyes is far too significant for anyone to wash their hands of it and Five Eyes has weathered a few storms over the years,” Ball said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के रहस्यों के कथित रूप से लीक होने के बावजूद अमेरिकी सहयोगियों को सहयोग करते देखा गया


TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia s parliament gave Prime Minister Youssef Chahed s new government a vote of confidence on Monday after the premier detailed plans to halve the budget deficit and trim the public wage bill in the next three years as part of a reform package. Chahed last week named a new cabinet after weeks of wrangling between the ruling Nidaa Tounes party and rival Islamist party Ennahda over posts that had delayed progress on a reform program backed by the International Monetary Fund. Lawmakers voted late on Monday to approve the new cabinet, giving Chahed support to push on with austerity measures.  We hope this will be the government that gives Tunisians back some hope,  parliament assembly President Mohamed Naceur said after the vote. Tunisia has been praised for its democratic progress after the 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, but successive governments have failed to advance in economic reforms to trim deficits and create jobs and growth. Chahed earlier said his government needed consensus backing to push ahead with reforms by 2020 that he hopes will revive Tunisia s economy, which has been hit by unrest after the 2011 revolt and by militant attacks on the tourism industry.  We are preparing an economic plan to relaunch and salvage the Tunisian economy,  he told parliament five days after naming a cabinet that includes a new minister in charge of economic reforms.  This is needed to balance our finances.  Chahed said the government aimed to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 from 6 percent expected this year. He said growth was expected to hit 5 percent that year; in the first half of this year, the economy expanded by 1.9 percent. Backed by the International Monetary Fund, the North African country is looking to reduce subsidies, overhaul its pension system and shrink its large public sector. But worries over social unrest have kept authorities from advancing with reforms. Chahed said the government planned to reduce the public wage bill to around 12.5 percent of GDP from the current 14 percent - one of the highest ratios in the world. In an effort to boost foreign currency reserves, he said the government would also loosen currency controls to allow Tunisians to hold foreign currency accounts locally and introduce an amnesty for illicit foreign currency trade.

Summary: ट्यूनीशिया की संसद ने चाहेद की नई सरकार का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Monday that Republican President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had voluntarily agreed to be interviewed in its investigation of Russian activities surrounding the 2016 U.S. election. They said timing for the appearance by Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser to Trump, had not yet been determined. “Mr. Kushner will certainly not be the last person the committee calls to give testimony, but we expect him to be able to provide answers to key questions that have arisen in our inquiry,” the committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Richard Burr, and top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, said in a joint statement.

Summary: सीनेट की खुफिया समिति के नेताओं ने कुशनर की गवाही की पुष्टि की


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown warned on Thursday of near-apocalyptic water shortages if his $15 billion plan to divert water from a Northern California river for use elsewhere gets bogged down in political and environmental disputes. The plan to remove water north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fragile source of much of the state’s drinking water, is opposed by many environmentalists, but Brown insisted it was crucial in shoring up water supplies in the drought-plagued state.  “If we don’t have the project, the delta will fail, water will not be available and California will suffer devastating economic consequences,” Brown, a Democrat, told a meeting of water regulators and utility executives in Sacramento to discuss the state’s progress in stabilizing its water system. The plan calls for digging a pair of tunnels under the delta. They would carry water from the Sacramento River to the state’s agricultural breadbasket as well as cities in the central and southern parts of America’s most populous state. The governor’s proposal, which must go through an environmental review and permitting process, has reignited California’s century-old water wars, sparked when Los Angeles siphoned water from the Owens Valley north of the city to slake the thirst of the growing Southern California metropolis.   Opponents have said the plan will imperil salmon, trout and the endangered delta smelt, damage the delta’s role as a center for water recreation and sport fishing, and could ultimately reduce the availability of drinking water for Northern California cities. Brown, who has backing from labor, utilities, moderate Democrats and many Republicans, has said the project will protect the delta while ensuring an adequate water supply. But opponents said the project would harm the ecosystem. “How will the delta ever recover if freshwaters are never allowed to flow through it, even in rainy seasons,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, director of the Restore the Delta group. Backers estimate construction would take at least 10 years after the necessary approvals are received, barring lawsuits and other actions to try to slow the project.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के गवर्नर ब्राउन ने सूखे के बीच बड़ी जल परियोजना पर जोर दिया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Jewish groups in Germany are pressing the authorities to crack down on anti-Semitic acts following the burning of Jewish symbols and Israeli flags at protests. The American Jewish Committee Berlin, the JSUD group of Jewish university students, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and the German-Israeli Society have called for tougher law enforcement and for new laws to make it easier to ban or disband anti-Semitic demonstrations. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top German officials have  condemned anti-Semitic acts seen at demonstrations against U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and vowed to prosecute illegal acts. The American Jewish Committee Berlin said a new study by an Indiana University professor showed broader efforts were also needed to fight anti-Semitic attitudes among Muslim migrants from Syria and Iraq. German has opened its borders to more than 1 million migrants mainly fleeing Middle East wars since 2015, sparking concerns about a further bump in already increasing anti-Semitism.  Politicians must guarantee that anti-Semitic attitudes will not be tolerated and that infractions to laws and regulations will be prosecuted,  said the group s director, Deidre Berger. She reiterated a longstanding call for the German government to appoint an anti-Semitism commissioner to focus attention on the issue. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas and Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller vowed during a menorah lighting at the Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday to combat all forms of anti-Semitism, while demonstrators continued to voice anger at the U.S. move at a separate event near Berlin s main train station. The Central Council of Muslims in Germany has also condemned anti-Semitic actions. Indiana University s Guenther Jikeli, the author of the study, said group interviews of 68 migrants aged 18 to 52 conducted last year revealed widespread anti-Semitic attitudes. They showed rejection of the state of Israel and ignorance about the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe by the Nazis during World War Two, he said.  There are strong anti-Semitic views among refugees that need to be addressed because otherwise they could become the norm,  he told Reuters TV. Kurds and other refugees persecuted as minorities in their home countries had more nuanced views and more clearly rejected anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli perspectives, he said. Fabian Weissbarth, spokesman for AJC, said the study should spur efforts to tackle anti-Semitism among migrants to ensure the findings were not misused by anti-immigrant far-right groups like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.  If we don t address it as a society, then the AfD will, and that will lead to hate and incitement,  he said.  We need a differentiated view that recognizes that not all refugees are the same, and we need to look at solutions, such as integration measures, what needs to be included in integration courses, and changes in how social workers and politicians react.

Summary: जर्मनी में यहूदी समूहों ने यहूदी-विरोधी कृत्यों पर कार्रवाई का आग्रह किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spoke about the situation in Syria on Friday and want to continue efforts to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to account for “criminal acts”, a statement from Berlin said. The United States early on Friday fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase from which it said a chemical weapons attack was launched this week. “President Assad alone is responsible for this development,” the German government said in a statement after the French and German leaders spoke by phone on Friday morning. It said Assad’s repeated use of chemical weapons and crimes against the Syrian people should result in sanctions. “Germany and France call on the international community.... to campaign together for a political transition in Syria,” Germany said in the statement.

Summary: मर्केल, ओलांद असद को 'आपराधिक कृत्यों' के लिए जिम्मेदार ठहराना चाहते हैं


GAZA (Reuters) - The Red Cross said on Monday Israel has a duty to guarantee the safety and dignity of Palestinian families visiting prisoners, after a right-wing lawmaker was filmed shouting abuse aboard a bus taking relatives to a family visit in an Israeli jail. The legislator, Oren Hazan, boarded the bus at the Gaza border with video crews in tow. He said on Twitter he told the relatives that the prisoners were  terrorists who belong in the ground . In a video clip on social media, he shouted at one prisoner s mother that her son was an  insect  and a  dog .  An insect?,  she yelled back.  My son is the best of men. A dog is whoever calls him a dog.  Hazan has a record of staging publicity stunts, including crashing a welcoming ceremony for visiting U.S. President Donald Trump. He once agreed to stage a fistfight at the border with a member of Jordan s parliament, only to cancel it on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The families on the bus were on their way to Nafha prison in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in a convoy escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a statement, the ICRC said it  takes very seriously what happened today .  Families have the right to visit their loved ones in a dignified manner,  Suhair Zakkout, Gaza spokeswoman for the ICRC, said in the statement.  It is the responsibility of the competent authorities to ensure that the visits take place safely and without interference.  Hazan, a member of Netanyahu s Likud party, said he confronted the relatives to promote legislation to cancel such family visits until Israeli prisoners in Gaza and the remains of Israeli troops were returned. Hamas, the dominant militant group in the Gaza Strip, has acknowledged holding three Israeli civilians who crossed into the enclave. In addition, Israel is seeking the return of the remains of two soldiers it says were killed in a 2014 Gaza war.  Hamas has demanded the release of its members who were re-arrested and imprisoned by Israel in 2014 for alleged security offences after being released in a 2011 swap for a captured Israeli soldier. Israel s Prisons Service declined comment on the incident. Maximum security Nafha prison, in the southern Israeli desert, is used mainly to hold Palestinians convicted of anti-Israeli security offences. The convoy completed its journey to the facility. Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoner Club that advocates on behalf of Palestinians held by Israel, branded Hazan a  fanatic  but said Israel s government  bears responsibility for this brutal action .

Summary: सांसद द्वारा बस में कैदियों के परिवारों का सामना करने के बाद रेड क्रॉस ने इजरायल को फटकार लगाई


SKOPJE (Reuters) - Former Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, head of the opposition rightist VMRO-DPMNE party, resigned on Monday following an election defeat last year and unrest that rocked the small Balkan country in April. Gruevski, 47, led the ex-Yugoslav republic for almost a decade, and his party bloc since 2003, until January 2016 when a wiretapping scandal brought down the ruling VMRO-DPMNE bloc. A snap election in December 2016 ended inconclusively and a long parliamentary stalemate ensued, ending in May when Social Democrat Zoran Zaev formed a coalition with ethnic Albanian parties that represent a third of the 2 million population. VMRO-DPMNE said its Central Committee had scheduled a leadership congress for Dec. 22-23 after Gruevski s  irrevocable resignation.  Gruevski said that ... his resignation was a moral act, as it is natural that the person in whom everyone had confidence should take the responsibility for the (electoral) defeat,  a party statement said. In April, protesters including VMRO-DPMNE supporters  stormed parliament and assaulted Zaev as Social Democrats and its ethnic Albanian allies elected an ethnic Albanian as parliament speaker. Dozens were injured in riots. The VMRO-DPMNE suffered a further setback last month when police arrested Mitko Cavkov, a former interior minister, and a number of its lawmakers and activists on charges related to the disturbances in April. The April unrest marked the worst crisis in Macedonia since 2001 when Western diplomats narrowly averted a full-scale civil war arising from an ethnic Albanian insurgency, promising Skopje a pathway to membership of the European Union and NATO. Macedonia, which won independence in 1991 from then-federal Yugoslavia in 1991, has made little progress towards EU and NATO membership due to a name dispute with Greece.

Summary: मैसेडोनिया के पूर्व दक्षिणपंथी प्रधानमंत्री ने पार्टी नेतृत्व से दिया इस्तीफा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will host Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at the White House on Oct. 2, not Oct. 3 as previously announced, the White House said in a statement on Thursday.

Summary: 2 अक्टूबर को थाईलैंड के प्रधानमंत्री की मेजबानी करेंगे ट्रंपः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has a pool of five candidates to choose from for the next chair of the Federal Reserve and is likely to announce his choice before going to Asia in early November, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. “Honestly, I like ‘em all,” Trump told reporters when asked if he had a favorite from among the five.  Trump has an interview scheduled on Thursday with current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, whose term expires in February. She is one of the five candidates, the source said. The others consist of his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, along with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, Fed Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor. By the time Trump meets with Yellen, he will have had meetings with all five of the candidates, the source said. Trump, at a joint news conference in the Rose Garden with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, said in all likelihood he would choose one of the five as the next Fed chair. The source said announcing the choice by the time Trump  leaves for Asia on Nov. 3 would give the Senate time for the confirmation process. “I’ll make a decision over the next fairly short period of time,” Trump said. In a Reuters poll of 40 economists taken during the past few days, a slim majority said they expected Powell - a lawyer and former investment banker who has served as a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors since May 2012 - would get the nod. The next most likely choice was Kevin Warsh, who served as a Fed governor during the financial crisis.

Summary: ट्रम्प नवंबर की शुरुआत में फेड अध्यक्ष के नाम की घोषणा कर सकते हैंः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday that his search for a new FBI chief to replace the fired James Comey is moving quickly. “Moving rapidly,” Trump told reporters when asked about the process as he met in the Oval Office with the Abu Dhabi crown prince.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. के नए प्रमुख को खोजने की प्रक्रिया तेजी से आगे बढ़ रही हैः ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of Thailand and Singapore on Sunday in separate phone calls about the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region at a time of rising tensions with North Korea and invited both to visit Washington, the White House said. Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former general, heads a military-dominated government that took power in a 2014 coup. His government had strained relations with Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने थाईलैंड, सिंगापुर के नेताओं को व्हाइट हाउस में आमंत्रित किया


WASHINGTON/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress started to come to grips on Tuesday with crafting a multibillion-dollar Hurricane Harvey emergency aid package that President Donald Trump suggested could be historically large, without providing specifics. On a tour of rescue operations after catastrophic flooding in Texas and Louisiana, with rain still pounding Houston and New Orleans, Trump told officials and reporters at a briefing that he was working with Congress on an aid package. “It’s going to be a costly proposition,” he said. “I think we’ll come through ... with the right solution.” He added, “But probably there’s never been anything so expensive in our country’s history and never been anything so historic in terms of damage.” Lawmakers said it was too early to estimate the price-tag for U.S. taxpayer assistance on Harvey, which has killed at least 11 people and paralyzed Houston. Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,200 people in 2005, was the most damaging storm in U.S. history. After Katrina, and two smaller hurricanes that followed behind it, the U.S. government devoted $100 billion to relief and recovery, said the Congressional Budget Office. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said Harvey recovery aid will take time. “There may be several different appropriations bills,” Cornyn told KTRH Radio in Houston. “What I would personally like to see is some emergency upfront funds to help with the temporary expenses, but as you can imagine, it is going to take a while to assess the losses.” The head of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee said the panel was prepared to provide the funding needed. Republican Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen said in a statement: “We are awaiting requests from federal agencies who are on the ground, and will not hesitate to take quick action once an official request is sent.” Senator Ted Cruz said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, “By any measure it is going to be billions upon billions of dollars.” Two senior White House officials said hurricane relief might be handled in Congress as a special emergency request, not attached to other spending legislation. Congressional leaders have not said exactly how they will handle the aid package. House conservatives may favor a standalone measure. “My sense is that they’d want a relief aid package to be a standalone that doesn’t have a lot of unrelated stuff added on,” said Alyssa Farah, spokeswoman for the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Summary: कांग्रेस ने हार्वे की सहायता को ऐतिहासिक बताया जिसे ट्रम्प ने ऐतिहासिक बताया


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan s army chief on Thursday criticized madrassas that have mushroomed nationwide for mostly teaching only Islamic theology, saying the country needs to  revisit  the religious school concept. Modernizing madrassa education is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation where religious schools are often blamed for radicalization of youngsters but are the only education available to millions of poor children. General Qamar Javed Bajwa s remarks, apparently off-the-cuff during a prepared speech, were a rare example of an army chief criticizing madrassas, which are often built adjacent to mosques and underpin Islamisation efforts by religious hardliners. Bajwa said a madrassa education in Pakistan was inadequate because it did not prepare students for the modern world.  I am not against madrassas, but we have lost the essence of madrassas,  Bajwa told a youth conference in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Bajwa said he was recently told that 2.5 million students were being taught in madrassas belonging to the Deobandi, a Sunni Muslim sub-sect that shares the beliefs of the strictly orthodox Wahhabi school of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula.  So what will they become: will they become Maulvis (clerics) or they will become terrorists?  Bajwa asked, saying it was impossible to build enough mosques to employ the huge number of madrassa students.  We need to look (at) and revisit the concept of madrassas...We need to give them a worldly education.  Pakistan has over 20,000 registered madrassas, though there are believed to be thousands more unregistered ones. Some are single-room schools with a handful of students studying the Koran. Security services have kept a close eye on madrassas associated with radicalizing youths and feeding recruits to Islamist militant outfits that have killed tens of thousands of people in the South Asian country since 2000. But only a handful of the schools have been shut down, the authorities  hand stayed by fears of a religious backlash. Islamist hardliners hold great sway in Pakistani society, with the capital, Islamabad, paralyzed for nearly three weeks last month by a blockade staged by a newly formed ultra-religious party. Bajwa said poor education was holding back the nation of 207 million people, and especially in madrassas.      Most of them are just teaching theology. So what are their chances? What is their future in this country?  The military last year proposed a plan to deradicalize religious hard-liners by  mainstreaming  some into political parties, a plan initially rejected by the civilian government but which now appears to be taking form.

Summary: सेना प्रमुख ने कहा, पाकिस्तान को इस्लामी मदरसा स्कूलों पर फिर से विचार करना चाहिए


HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she would not blindly obey the orders of Communist Party leaders in Beijing, while admitting the government has no way to suppress skyrocketing prices in one of the most expensive property markets in the world. Lam was sworn in by Chinese President Xi Jinping in July as the former British colony celebrated 20 years of Chinese rule under the principle of  one country, two systems , which promises the city a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in the mainland.  While a recent poll shows the new chief executive is more popular than her predecessor, some accuse her of being a puppet of Beijing amid perceptions of Chinese meddling in Hong Kong s affairs. Specifically, they criticize her for pushing an arrangement that will allow Chinese officials to enforce Chinese laws in a high speed railway station due to open next year. Lam, in an interview with the government-funded RTHK, said she was accountable to both the Hong Kong public and Beijing, but she would not blindly obey the central authorities.  Being accountable doesn t mean you have to do everything you re told,  Lam said.  So you can t say you ll do whatever the Central Government (says).  If the Central Government asks me to do something that I think is beyond what Hong Kong people can bear or against Hong Kong s developmental interests, then of course I have the duty to tell the Central Government and fight for a more favorable arrangement for Hong Kong.  Lam also said she did not plan to kickstart legislation for a controversial national security law in 2018, and urged people not to  demonize  it.   Asked about Hong Kong s red-hot property market, where prices have shot up more than 12 percent over the past year and are expected to climb another 10 percent in 2018, Lam said the government was helpless in reversing the trend.  The government really has no ways to curb property prices... The government has introduced a few rounds of cooling measures, but they did not suppress prices, and quite the contrary now some people say these measures have pushed up prices.  The government s mixed bag of tax and regulatory policies, on top of eight rounds of mortgage tightening measures by the city s defacto central bank since 2009, has effectively locked up supply in the secondary housing market. Lam also said that while she has never promised to suppress property prices, she would seek more land to boost long-term housing supply.  I ve never said I want to turn around the increase in property prices, because there are many factors contributing to that. But I want to turn around how supply falls short of demand, or, simply put, insufficient supply,  Lam said.

Summary: हांगकांग की नेता का कहना है कि वह बीजिंग के आदेशों का आंख मूंदकर पालन नहीं करेंगी


KENOSHA, Wis. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a review of the U.S. visa program for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into the country, putting technology firms and the outsourcing companies that serve them on notice that possible changes may be ahead. Seeking to carry out a campaign pledge to put “America First,” Trump signed an executive order on the H-1B visa program. It was vague on many fronts, and did not change existing rules, but one objective, said Trump aides, is to modify or replace the current lottery for H-1B visas with a merit-based system that would restrict the visas to highly skilled workers. Indian nationals are the largest group of H-1B recipients annually. Such a change could affect companies, such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Cognizant Tech Solutions Corp and Infosys Ltd, that connect U.S. technology companies with thousands of foreign engineers and programmers. None responded to requests for comment. Trump announced the order and made remarks at a visit to the headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool maker in Wisconsin. In addition to addressing the visas issue, he also ordered a review of government procurement rules favoring American companies to see if they are actually benefiting, especially the U.S. steel industry. “With this action, we are sending a powerful signal to the world: We’re going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first,” Trump said. Trump was a businessman before he was elected president last year, and his companies have been criticized for using visa programs to fill positions at Trump properties with foreign workers. Trump-branded products are also made overseas. 100-DAY BENCHMARK As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Trump still has no major legislative achievements. With his attempts to overhaul healthcare and tax law stalled in Congress, Trump has leaned heavily on executive orders to change policy. It was unclear whether the latest such order would yield immediate results. The H-1B visas section included no definite timeline. The government procurement section did. “We hope the goal of President Trump’s executive order on the H-1B program is ‘mend it, don’t end it,’” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology industry group. Going to a more merit-based H-1B system could attract more people with advanced science and technology skills, Atkinson said in a statement. But he said some ideas could make the system ineffective, such as requiring advertisement of job openings for long periods to prove the unavailability of U.S. workers. Democrats said Trump’s order was not strong enough, and too late, after thousands of visas were awarded this month in this year’s lottery. “For a president who has prided himself on his swift action when it comes to immigration, an interagency review of the program is a guarded and timid approach. It’s too little, too late,” said U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the No.2 Democrat in the Senate. Critics of the program say most H-1B visas are awarded for lower-paid jobs at outsourcing firms, many based in India. That takes work away from Americans, lowers wages and keeps Americans from being trained in tech-related fields, they say.   “Right now, widespread abuse in our immigration system is allowing American workers of all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries,” Trump said. Tech companies have been bracing for Trump to make changes to the H-1B program. The visas are intended to go to foreign nationals in occupations that generally require specialized knowledge, such as science, engineering or computer programming. The government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas yearly and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers. Critics say the lottery benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications for visas for lower-paid information technology workers.     “Right now H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery and that’s wrong. Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest paid applicants and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans,” Trump said. More than 15 percent of Facebook Inc’s U.S. employees in 2016 used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. Labor Department filings. Facebook did not respond to requests for comment. Infosys, India’s No. 2 IT services firm, has said previously that it is ramping up work on on-site development centers in the United States to train local talent in an effort to address the visa regulation changes under consideration. It warned last week that onerous changes to U.S. visa rules could affect its earnings.   NASSCOM, the Indian IT service industry’s main lobbying group, said it backs efforts to root out H-1B abuses, but said the idea that H-1B visa holders are cheap labor is inaccurate. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Washington in February to be open minded on admitting skilled Indian workers.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अमेरिकियों को काम पर रखने के लिए प्रोत्साहित करने के लिए वीजा कार्यक्रम की समीक्षा का आदेश दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress, back from vacation on Tuesday, already had its plate full with urgent fiscal and disaster relief issues when President Donald Trump saddled it with deciding the fate of people brought illegally to the United States as children. The future of almost 800,000 young “Dreamers,” protected from deportation by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, now rests with lawmakers who have failed repeatedly to deal effectively with immigration issues. Trump on Tuesday scrapped DACA while giving Congress six months to do something about it. Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said permanent legislation to fix the immigration system had been Congress’ prerogative all along, and that lawmakers should and could act quickly. “There’s a program, kids are protected by it, they are going to lose that protection if we don’t act,” Flake said. Other critical issues are bearing down on lawmakers. Leading U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday they were preparing to swiftly approve disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey and two other must-pass priorities: preventing a default on U.S. government debt and avoiding a government shutdown. The House of Representatives was scheduled to consider on Wednesday a first installment of aid for Harvey relief and recovery, about $8 billion, and the Senate’s leadership promised swift action once the House has passed the measure. Senators will then move on to making sure government creditors are paid and avoiding a government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the chamber, outlining the agenda for September. “We have to get all three of these things done and we have to do it very quickly.” Republican conservatives were concerned that the various urgent items would be packaged together and rushed through in a way that would prevent lawmakers from attaching conditions that could restrain or even reform government spending. Representative Mark Walker, leader of a large group of House conservatives, said in an interview with Fox News: “For Republicans, we have to be willing to hold the line when it comes to the out-of-control spending.” The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn, said Republican leaders were preparing to attach a measure raising the U.S. debt ceiling - unpopular with conservatives - to the Harvey aid package when it arrives in the Senate, The Hill reported. Such a combined measure would then have to be sent back to the House for approval. “It’s imperative that we get that (Harvey aid) supplemental passed. And the leader has made the decision to attach the debt limit to that, and I support that,” Cornyn told a group of reporters, according to The Hill. The Trump administration has urged that the two measures be combined. The debt ceiling caps how much money the U.S. government can borrow, and many conservatives in Congress are loath to raise it without spending reforms. Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, acknowledged on Tuesday evening that conservatives probably did not have the votes to stop a measure combining Harvey aid with a debt ceiling hike. “It will probably pass, with a majority of Democrats and enough Republicans to get it across the finish line,” Meadows said after a meeting of the caucus. Nonetheless, he said the caucus would propose that a requirement capping government spending as a percentage of gross domestic product be attached to the debt ceiling hike. Congress must raise the debt ceiling by early October to stave off an unprecedented U.S. government debt default, which would shake global markets. Lawmakers also need to approve by late September a government funding bill or the government will have to close on Oct. 1.

Summary: 'ड्रीमर' मुद्दा खचाखच भरे अमेरिकी कांग्रेस के एजेंडे में जोड़ा गया


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday the United States and Japan agreed to combat unfair trade practices. “Japan and the United States will actively pursue the three-prolonged approach of fiscal, monetary policies and structural steps to achieve balanced, powerful economic growth,” Aso told a news conference after talks with visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Summary: जापान का एसोः जापान, अमेरिका अनुचित व्यापार प्रथाओं का मुकाबला करने के लिए सहमत हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House put Iran “on notice” on Wednesday for test-firing a ballistic missile and said it was reviewing how to respond, taking an aggressive posture toward Tehran that could raise tensions in the region. While the exact implications of the U.S. threat were unclear, the new administration signaled that President Donald Trump intended to do more, possibly including imposing new sanctions, to curb what he sees as defiance of a nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama. The tough talk commits the administration to back up its rhetoric with action, which could cast doubt on the future of the Iran agreement and sow further uncertainty in an already chaotic Middle East, experts said. Trump has frequently criticized the Iran nuclear deal, calling the agreement weak and ineffective. Officials declined to say whether the military option was on the table, although Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood said: “The U.S. military has not changed its posture in response to the Iranian test missile launch” on Sunday. A fiery statement from Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, marked some of the most aggressive rhetoric by the administration that took office on Jan. 20, making clear that Obama’s less confrontational approach toward Iran was over. Flynn said that instead of being thankful to the United States for the nuclear deal, “Iran is now feeling emboldened.” “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,” he told reporters in his first appearance in the White House press briefing room. He said the launch and an attack on Monday against a Saudi naval vessel by Iran-allied Houthi militants off the coast of Yemen underscored “Iran’s destabilizing behavior across the Middle East.”  Iran confirmed it had tested a new missile but said it did not breach a nuclear accord reached with world powers or a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the pact. Analysts said Iran could interpret Flynn’s warning as bluster given that the Trump administration is still formulating a response. “It’s a vague way of drawing a line in the sand,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Americas. “Taken literally, it could mean: ‘You do this one more time and you’ll pay for it.’ But how would the U.S. respond?” The warning could foreshadow more aggressive economic and diplomatic measures against Iran. Three senior U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options, including economic sanctions, was being considered and that a broad review was being conducted of the U.S. posture toward Iran. One official said the intent of Flynn’s message was to make clear the administration would not be “shy or reticent” toward Tehran. “We are in the process of evaluating the strategic options and the framework for how we want to approach these issues,” the official said. “We do not want to be premature or rash or take any action that would foreclose options or unnecessarily contribute to a negative response.” “Our sincere hope is that the Iranians will heed this notice today and will change their behavior,” he said. Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but the latest test was the first since Trump became president.  The issue came to the forefront on the same day that the U.S. Senate confirmed former Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Trump told Tillerson at his swearing-in ceremony that “although you inherit enormous challenges in the Middle East and around the world, I believe we can achieve peace and security in these very, very troubled times.”  Simon Henderson, a Gulf expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said there was a danger of a miscalculation by Washington or Tehran. “The question now is will the Iranian logic be: ‘My goodness, this guy is serious, we’d better behave ourselves?’” he said. “Or do they say: ‘Why don’t we tweak him a bit more to see what he really means, maybe test him.’” The administration’s tough statement came midway through a three-day exercise by 18 U.S., French, British and Australian warships and an undisclosed number of aircraft close to Iranian waters in the Gulf, according to a statement by U.S. Central Command.     Trump is due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a strident critic of the Iran nuclear deal, at the White House on February 15. The U.S. president and Saudi Arabia’s ruler, King Salman, spoke by phone on Sunday and were described by the White House as agreeing on the importance of enforcing the deal and “addressing Iran’s destabilizing regional activities.” Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca and other Islamic holy sites, and Shi’ite Muslim-majority Iran are regional rivals.

Summary: मिसाइल प्रक्षेपण के बाद ट्रंप ने ईरान के प्रति आक्रामक रुख अपनाया