NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before introducing Donald Trump to roughly a dozen Republican lawmakers at the Washington law offices of Jones Day, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions paused to acknowledge the man he said had facilitated the closed-door talks. He said it was Jared Kushner, a 35-year-old real estate investor and newspaper owner, who had suggested the get-together last month, arguing that it would enable Trump to win more allies on Capitol Hill, according to a person in the room.  Kushner is also Trump’s son-in-law, having married the Republican presidential front-runner’s daughter Ivanka in 2009.  A real-estate tycoon like his father-in-law, Kushner has emerged as one of a very few advisers as Trump seeks the Republican nomination to the Nov. 8 election, according to five people close to Trump. It is especially rare given that Trump styles himself as his own best adviser and has said he consults only a few people despite a promise to hire the country’s top minds once he becomes president.  While “well respected,” Kushner has no official campaign role, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. She confirmed however that Kushner had helped with the Sessions meeting and had informally advised the candidate on Israel and in other areas.  In an interview Kushner’s friend David Schulhof, founder of a music publishing company, cited a level-headedness and listening skill that would make Kushner a calming influence. This could be helpful to Trump, 69, who entered the race 10 months ago hailing his having never held public office as an asset, but whose campaign has been rocked by turbulence over remarks offensive to women, Muslims, immigrants, party loyalists and others. At times Kushner has urged Trump to behave like a more traditional candidate, stressing the importance of building relationships with politicians and traditionally active donors, say the sources close to Trump, speaking on condition of anonymity. They also say Kushner can use friendships like the ones he has with media mogul Rupert Murdoch and billionaire Ronald Perelman as a bridge to influential people with whom his father-in-law is not close. Neither Murdoch nor Perelman would comment for this story. An Orthodox Jew, whose wife Ivanka converted to Judaism before they married, Kushner and his family have connections to Israel. Along with his father, also a prominent real-estate developer, Kushner was listed in a 2015 report by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a benefactor for its real estate committee, which required a donation of at least $36,000 to the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group. Kushner’s parents donated $20 million two years ago to a medical school campus in Jerusalem now named after them.  Using his family and business ties, Kushner arranged a series of meetings for Trump during a trip the candidate planned to make to Israel last year, the sources say. The trip never happened. Trump scrapped it after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Trump later suggested that if elected he would not take sides in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, a stance he said would help him negotiate a peace deal but which was unusually neutral for an American politician looking to court voters on Israel.    Ahead of AIPAC’s annual conference last month in Washington, Kushner advised his father-in-law to lay out concrete policies that would help smooth over relations with the Jewish community, according to two sources. He further advised him to use a teleprompter for the speech, ditching his usual conversational style, the people close to Trump said.  It was also Kushner who fielded a call from Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, who wanted to offer Trump the Israeli government’s perspective ahead of the AIPAC speech, according to the sources. Dermer’s office declined to comment. In the end, Trump delivered an uncharacteristically detailed speech to the 18,000 people who attended the conference, outlining a series of policy positions broadly aligned with AIPAC’s. An AIPAC spokesman declined to comment. Trump told attendees that Palestinians must scrub hatred of Israel from their educational system and stop naming public places after people who attacked Israel. He said the United States must stand with Israel in rejecting attempts by the United Nations to impose restrictions on Israel or parameters for a peace deal. He criticized the U.S. deal with Iran as bad for Israel.  While helping Trump craft the speech, Kushner sought advice from the politically connected editor of his newspaper, the New York Observer. The editor, Ken Kurson, a former speech writer for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, wrote in an email to Reuters that he reviewed the speech before Trump delivered it. Trump has loomed large in Kushner’s life since day one of his marriage. The New York Post reported that invitations to Kushner’s wedding, held at a Trump golf club in New Jersey, included a flier advertising Trump’s other golf properties. Kushner, who with his wife has taken family vacations with News Corp (NWSA.O) owner Murdoch and his ex-wife Wendi Deng, has worked to calm Murdoch’s ire with Trump over the candidate’s criticism of the company’s Fox News Channel and star anchor Megyn Kelly, two people familiar with his activities say. During regular phone calls and lunches Kushner tries both to soothe Murdoch and stump for his father-in-law, these people said.  Despite his influence behind the scenes, Kushner keeps a largely low profile on the campaign trail. During a Trump rally in South Carolina last November, he hung back while other family members took the stage until his father-in-law called him out. “Where’s Jared? Jared get up here,” Trump shouted. Kushner, clad in charcoal-colored pants and a black quilted down vest, shuffled up, hands jammed in his pockets. “Jared’s a very successful developer and he just loves politics now,” Trump said, adding with a bit of gleeful teasing: “Look at him. See the way he dresses?” (Story corrects real estate billionaire to billionaire in 10th paragraph characterization of Ronald Perelman).

Summary: डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के पीछे, एक दामाद जो एक सलाहकार भी है


YANGON (Reuters) - One person was killed on Thursday in a massive fire that destroyed one of Yangon s best-known hotels, sending dark smoke billowing over the center of Myanmar s largest city and triggering an hours-long battle to put out the flames. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which broke out around 3:20 a.m. at the teak-and-stone Kandawgyi Palace Hotel overlooking a picturesque inner-city lake, authorities told Reuters. An unidentified body was found in a guest room and two people were injured, said Htay Lwin, a spokesman of hotel owner Htoo Group.   Authorities were investigating the cause of the fire and the cost of the damage was not immediately clear, he added.  The fire had been mostly extinguished by 7 a.m., and more than 140 guests were shifted to nearby hotels. Htoo Group is chaired by business tycoon Tay Za, who, until last year, was on the list of United States sanctions for his close links to Myanmar s former military regime. Myanmar s civilian-led government, helmed by Nobel laureate and former dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, is grappling with the aftermath of a harsh military crackdown that has driven out more than 500,000 of the country s Rohingya Muslim minority.

Summary: म्यांमार के सबसे बड़े शहर में ऐतिहासिक होटल में आग लगने से एक की मौत


HOUSTON (Reuters) - Salvage efforts continued on Monday to remove a sunken drydock in an industrial portion of the Houston Ship Channel, home to major oil refineries and petrochemical plants, officials said.  Port operations across the U.S. Gulf Coast oil and gas industry are slowly coming back, in many cases with restrictions on vessel draft, according to U.S. Coast Guard updates.  It was unclear on Monday when the sunken drydock near Brady Island in the upper shipping channel would be cleared, said Alberto Hernandez, a watch supervisor at the Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service in Houston.  “There is no timeframe” for removing the drydock debris, he said. The area affected is the main stem of the ship channel. “This is the main port of Houston City Docks, they are blocked due to these salvage operations,” he said.  The storm dumped as much as 50-inches of rainfall over the Gulf Coast, forcing officials to close or restriction operations at ports from Corpus Christi to Lake Charles, Louisiana.   It is unclear when the drydock will be cleared from the Houston Ship Channel, which links the busiest petrochemical port to the Gulf of Mexico, and restrictions in that area of the channel lifted, said Alberto Hernandez, a watch supervisor at the U.S. Coast Guard.  He said the Houston shipping channel is open to just past Exxon Mobil Corp’s Baytown refinery to vessels up to a 40-foot draft. Hernandez said there were ships exiting and entering the channel on Monday.

Summary: ह्यूस्टन बंदरगाह हार्वे क्षति से उबरने के लिए बचाव प्रयास जारी रखता है


DUBLIN (Reuters) - No agreement has yet been reached between Britain and Ireland on the future of the Northern Irish border, but the breakthrough required to allow wider Brexit talks to proceed could come later on Monday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. British Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to break the Brexit talks deadlock on Monday with a new offer on divorce settlements at a crunch meeting with EU officials, but she has not yet achieved  sufficient progress  on the Irish border - one of three issues that must be resolved. Coveney said the talks were in a  sensitive place  with the two governments discussing possible texts of an agreement, which is a prerequisite for Britain to start discussions on a new trade pact and a two-year transitional deal.  We re not quite yet where we need to be. But it is possible to do that today,  Coveney told Irish state broadcaster RTE.  Hopefully we ll find a way forward today,  he said. Ireland has called on Britain to provide details of how it will ensure there is no  regulatory divergence  after Brexit in March 2019 that would require physical border controls. But any solution will need the support of Northern Ireland s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 members of parliament are propping up May s government. Coveney said that draft texts were produced following progress in talks last Thursday and that discussions had continued over the weekend.   There are political conversations happening in both governments in relation to that text,  he said.  Both governments understand what each other is asking for.

Summary: आयरलैंड के विदेश मंत्री का कहना है कि सोमवार को ब्रेक्सिट सीमा पर सफलता संभव है


(Reuters) - Atlantic City, the distressed New Jersey gambling hub, should consider privatizing its fire-fighting services and convention center and find ways to make more money off its drinking water utility, the city’s emergency manager said in an updated fiscal rescue plan. The report comes one year after Governor Chris Christie appointed Kevin Lavin as emergency manager. Lavin’s report, which also calls for additional layoffs, follows an initial assessment last March.  New Jersey taxpayers have so far spent $2.62 million on Lavin and his team of accountants, restructuring lawyers and a mediator, according to invoices obtained and reviewed by Reuters through public records requests. “I’m glad the emergency manager has, after spending millions of dollars in no-bid contracts and wasting months of time, concluded what we all know: that Atlantic City government is broken and needs to be fixed immediately,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said in a statement.  Sweeney is now pushing for a full state takeover of Atlantic City operations that would strip elected officials of nearly all power. Lavin said in a statement that over the past year his office and city stakeholders have “kept the city from falling into financial ruin” by tackling a $100 million budget deficit.  “Unfortunately, our momentum has been stalled by parochial politics that continue to inhibit progress, all to the detriment of the taxpayers of Atlantic City,” he said. “Many of the most critical and financially important issues need to be addressed urgently.” He said the city should consider privatizing the entertainment and sports arena Boardwalk Hall and should regionalize municipal services, including police. The city is facing tough odds. Its school district is projecting a budget deficit of up to $55 million in fiscal 2017. Atlantic City also has at least $190 million of casino tax appeals and other unbonded debt. In part because of that, the city’s “ability to raise public funds in order to repay the unbonded debt is highly unlikely,” the report said The report found that the city does not qualify for “adequate” financing under the state’s Qualified Bond Act, which it used in the past to issue bonds because its credit rating is at junk status. Mayor Don Guardian said in a statement he would review the report. “I fully recognize that much work still needs to be done to fix the problems that have accumulated over the past 30 years,” he said.

Summary: अटलांटिक सिटी, एन. जे., आपातकालीन प्रबंधक ने अग्निशमन विभाग के निजीकरण का सुझाव दिया


BRASILIA (Reuters) - The approval rating for Brazilian President Michel Temer s scandal-plagued government has sunk further since new  corruption charges were brought against him, and 92 percent of Brazilians do not trust him, a new poll published on Thursday showed. The survey by pollster Ibope said the number of people who consider Temer s government  bad  or  terrible  rose to 77 percent from 70 percent in the previous survey carried out in July. The proportion of those who rate his government as  great  or  good  slipped to just 3 percent from 5 percent. Only 6 percent of Brazilians still trust Temer, down from 10 percent, the poll said. The government s approval rating collapsed in July after Temer was hit by a first corruption charge that was blocked by Congress in August, which saved him from standing trial before the Supreme Court. But federal prosecutors filed new accusations against him of obstructing justice and being a member of a criminal organization in a corruption case involving the owners of the world s largest meatpacker JBS SA. They accused Temer of taking bribes in return for political favors and of conspiring to buy the silence of a witness who could implicate the president. The lower house of Congress, which has the authority to decide whether a president should be put on trial, is expected to vote on the new charges in mid-October at the earliest.  Analysts expect the Congress to again reject a Supreme Court trial for Temer, putting him on course to serve out his term until the end of 2018. But the corruption debate will delay passage of his plan to overhaul Brazil s costly pension system, a key measure to bring a gaping budget deficit under control.  He was already a very unpopular president proposing unpopular measures. Now there is the perception that he, his cabinet and his ruling coalition are involved in a series of wrongdoings,  said Lucas de Arag o, partner at the Brasilia-based political risk consultancy Arko Advice. Temer s ratings have fallen below the worst result of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff, whom he succeeded when she was impeached last year. Rousseff and her Workers Party called her ouster a  coup  orchestrated by Temer and his allies so they could shield themselves from corruption investigations. Thursday s poll was commissioned by the National Confederation of Industry lobby and surveyed 2,000 people between Sept. 15-20 across Brazil. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Summary: ब्राजील के सर्वेक्षण से पता चलता है कि नए भ्रष्टाचार शुल्कों पर टेमर की मंजूरी में गिरावट आई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iran-related sanctions the United States imposed on Friday were “in the pipeline” before President Donald Trump took office, but were activated in light of recent events, the White House said on Friday. “These kinds of sanctions don’t happen quickly but I think the timing of them was clearly in reaction to what we’ve seen over the last couple days,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “We knew we had these options available to us because they had been worked through the process ... They were in the pipeline.”

Summary: ट्रंप के सत्ता संभालने से पहले ईरान पर नए प्रतिबंध लगाए जाने की प्रक्रिया चल रही थीः व्हाइट हाउस


VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he thought the North Korea crisis would not escalate into a large-scale conflict involving nuclear weapons, predicting that common sense would prevail. But he said he believed North Korea s leadership feared any freeze of its nuclear program would be followed by what amounted to  an invitation to the cemetery . Putin, speaking at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian port of Vladivostok alongside his South Korean counterpart and the Japanese prime minister, had previously warned that simmering tensions around Pyongyang s missile program could tip into  global catastrophe . But on Thursday, after days of talks with regional leaders and officials, Putin struck a more optimistic note, saying Russia could see that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to defuse tensions around North Korea.  I am sure that things will not go as far as a large-scale conflict, especially with the use of weapons of mass destruction,  Putin told delegates at the forum.  All the competing sides have enough common sense and understanding of their responsibility. We can solve this problem through diplomatic means.  Russia has a land border with North Korea less than 20 km (12 miles) long. Putin, who was sharing a platform with South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has spent the past few days pushing for negotiations, calling on all sides to dial down rhetoric.  The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its , and subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Putin gave no indication on Thursday whether Moscow would back that resolution; but he and top Russian government officials have previously condemned the idea of tightening sanctions and shown little enthusiasm to stop modest fuel exports to Pyongyang or send home North Korean workers. Instead, Russia, along with China, has advocated a  freeze for freeze  plan, under which the United States and South Korea would stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs. Neither side appears willing to budge so far however. Putin said Pyongyang would not end its nuclear and missile programs because it viewed them as its only means of  self-defense.  It s impossible to scare them,  said Putin. Pyongyang was being offered the prospect of no new sanctions if it froze its weapons programs, but Putin said North Korea believed the wider risks to its own security outweighed the potential economic benefits of such a concession.  We are telling them that we will not impose sanctions, which means you will live better, you will have more good and tasty food on the table, you will dress better,  said Putin.  But the next step, they think, is an invitation to the cemetery. And they will never agree with this.

Summary: पुतिन को लगता है कि उत्तर कोरिया का संकट परमाणु नहीं होगा, कूटनीति कायम रहेगी


(Reuters) - Republican Senator Jeff Flake’s surprise decision to drop out of next year’s U.S. Senate race in Arizona could be bad news both for the Republican who was challenging him and for the Democrat seeking to win the seat for her party. Republican Kelli Ward and Democratic U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema had, in their own ways, each been counting on Flake’s unpopularity in their quest to win the November 2018 election. “It was a bad day for Kelli Ward and a bad day for Kyrsten Sinema,” said Stan Barnes, a veteran Republican political consultant in Arizona. Flake’s departure has raised the stakes in the contest for one of only two Republican-held Senate seats that Democrats appear to have a good chance of flipping in 2018. Republicans hold a 52-48 edge in the Senate. Ward, an anti-establishment candidate backed by Steve Bannon, the former strategist for Republican President Donald Trump, had targeted Flake from the right. The former state senator was leading Flake in opinion polls for next year’s Republican nominating primary. Sinema, a moderate Democrat, had counted on facing either a wounded Flake, whose feud with Trump damaged his standing among Republican voters, or Ward, whom many political analysts doubt could prevail in a general election. Now Sinema faces the prospect of a more moderate Republican emerging to challenge Ward and, potentially, become the party’s nominee. Sinema’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ward “could win a primary, but she can’t win a general,”  Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the Cook Political Report in Washington said. “Please remember that Trump only carried the state by 4 points. You can’t have a nominee who’s out there.” The battle between Flake and Ward had been seen as the latest illustration of an ideological split between mainstream Republicans and the party’s anti-establishment wing. In Alabama last month, a far-right Bannon-backed candidate defeated an incumbent Republican in the party’s primary for a December U.S. Senate election. Flake announced his retirement on Tuesday in dramatic fashion, delivering a speech on the Senate floor that harshly criticized Trump’s behavior and his own party for failing to call it out. His decision not to seek re-election immediately prompted speculation that a number of Arizona Republicans would consider entering the race against Ward. In an emailed statement, Ward said her campaign was already surging even before Flake’s withdrawal. “Other Republicans may decide to jump into the race at this late point, but it’s not something we’re worried about,” she said. “Arizona is ready to have a true conservative represent them in the Senate.” Republican consultants in Arizona said it would take weeks for the new contours of the race to take shape, as potential candidates weigh their chances, conduct internal polling and, perhaps, quietly consult with one another. Constantin Querard, a Republican strategist, said he found it unlikely that many candidates would rush to enter the race after having declined the chance to go after the unpopular Flake months ago, when it seemed likely that Trump could throw his support behind a challenger. “There are no obvious names put forth today that are any different from all the names bandied about when they were looking for someone to take on Flake in the first place,” he said. “But there will still be some – and if any is a solid conservative, they will become the odds-on favorite.” Duffy said the strongest Republican recruit was likely Representative Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and  strong fund-raiser who is seen as a rising star in the party. But Duffy declined to predict whether McSally could beat Ward among a very conservative Republican primary electorate. “I stopped betting, oh, about November 8 last year,” she said, referring to the presidential election that Trump won in an upset.

Summary: फ्लेक की सेवानिवृत्ति एरिजोना में सीनेट की दौड़ को बढ़ा सकती है


BARCELONA (Reuters) - In a glass building overlooking Barcelona s port, empty desks and computers wait for new workers of Catalonia s tax agency. As in other Spanish regions, the agency already collects some taxes on wealth, inheritance, gambling and transport. But the regional government has spent 18 million euros expanding the agency in the hope that it will gain independence from Madrid in an Oct. 1 vote that the Spanish government considers illegal. From the shiny port office with a 20 year lease, it is hoping to wrestle control of the rest of the region s finances, claiming billions of euros of income tax and corporate revenue currently going to the Spanish government. Catalonia has increased the agency s staff by 75 percent to 700 since January and plans to fill the empty desks by the end of the year if the vote goes through. It has also opened a dozen new regional offices. This is Catalonia s most tangible investment in the institutional infrastructure needed for a fledgling state and highlights its government s determination to secede. It says it will declare independence within 48 hours of a  yes  vote.  It also shows that they are likely to keep pushing for independence, even if they lose the vote.   In a future transition, it would not be acceptable for them to keep our taxes, because they are ours and they keep a lot,  said Catalan Treasury Secretary Josep Lluis Salvado. Madrid has declared the vote unconstitutional so there are widespread doubts about whether Catalonia can even stage a credible vote.  It may also not go in the Catalonian government s favor. Polls show less than half of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want self-rule although most want the chance to vote on the issue. It is also not clear that companies would pay up: Barcelona s business lobby says no private firms would obey Catalan tax demands unless approved by Madrid.    But the Spanish government appears to be rattled. On Wednesday police entered the Catalan economy and budget department and the tax office as part of a raid on regional government offices, seizing documents and cutting off phone lines, according to a department official. It was the latest step in Madrid s campaign to prevent the referendum from going ahead. During the raids, police arrested Salvado, the junior economy minister Josep Maria Jove and three other department officials, the official said. They remain under arrest, the official said. Catalonia s resolve also worries some investors in Spanish bonds and the tax agency s expansion suggests an early post-independence flashpoint with Madrid could be a financial one. Catalonia, with an economy larger than Portugal s, says it receives an unfair redistribution of tax revenues from Madrid. Each year, it pays about 10 billion euros ($12 billion) more in taxes to Madrid than it gets back, or around 5 percent of regional economic output, according to data from the Spanish Treasury. In contrast, Spain s poorest region, Andalusia, receives almost 8 billion euros more than it pays in.  The money issue is one of the roots of the problem, the feeling that Catalonia is being ripped off,  said Angel Talavera, a Catalan economist at consultancy Oxford Economics. If its agency took over all forms of taxation, it would also collect income, company and value-added taxes, bringing total receipts to 42 billion euros, Salvado said. The agency collected about 3 billion euros last year, according to a spokeswoman for the Catalan economy and budget department. To avoid financial collapse, an independent Catalonia would need those tax revenues, economists say. It has 75 billion euros in public debt, 35 percent of its economic output, one of the highest of all Spain s regions, and its government bonds are already classified as  junk  by credit rating agencies. Investors are growing nervous as the referendum nears: the additional yield that Catalan bonds pay over Spanish short-term debt is at close to a nine-month high of about 300 basis points. The Catalan government last issued a bond in 2012, two years ahead of a previous failed independence referendum. It is not currently considering any bond issues, a spokeswoman said. Upon a declaration of independence, Salvado said Catalonia would seek to open talks with Madrid to take over all taxation in phases. It would start in October by pocketing 2.5 billion euros in taxes from about 700 public Catalan firms that currently goes to Madrid.  Later, the agency would collect tax from private firms and individuals. It could take years and the agency would need at least another 4,000 employees, Salvado added.  The principal challenge is to make sure the taxpayer does not perceive a change,  he said. Spain s Treasury has told Catalan businesses that paying taxes to the regional tax agency could constitute a crime. Madrid also took legislative steps last week to prevent the Catalan government from using Spanish public funds to pay for the ballot.  At the moment companies view it as impossible, they don t consider it,  Jordi Alberich, director of Barcelona-based business association Cercle d Economia, told Reuters. The Catalan government also lacks the database needed to correctly collect personal income and company taxes, according to Carlos Cruzado, the head of the Spanish Treasury s workers union. Salvado said the agency had sufficient data on taxpayers  inheritance and wealth taxes to make a start on taking over other forms of taxation, but they would seek to negotiate access to Spain s historical tax records. He did not expect a positive response.  The Spanish state is going to use its preferred word -  No .

Summary: नए कर कार्यालय से, कैटेलोनिया को मैड्रिड से अरबों हड़पने की उम्मीद है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s executive gave Poland on Tuesday one month to address concerns over a judiciary overhaul or face a court challenge, stepping up pressure over Warsaw s reforms which critics say undermine the independence of the courts.  The Commission opened legal proceedings against the nationalist government in Warsaw over judicial reforms in July and said on Tuesday that Poland so far failed to address the points that had been raised.  It therefore moved to the second phase of the EU s infringement procedure and said it could escalate the case further if Warsaw does not address the concerns in a month.  If the Polish authorities do not take appropriate measures, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU,  the Commission said in a statement.

Summary: ब्रसेल्स ने अदालत में बदलाव को लेकर पोलैंड के खिलाफ कानूनी मामला उठाया


HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he would never call Kim “short and fat.” Trump made the comment after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. In a series of tweets he also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “upping sanctions” on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile programs and that Xi wanted Pyongyang to “denuclearize.” During Trump’s visit to Beijing last week Xi reiterated that China would strive for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but offered no hint it would change tack on North Korea, with which it fought side by side in the 1950-53 Korean war against U.S.-led forces. One of Trump’s tweets read: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!” Speaking later in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, Trump said “it would be very, very nice” if he and Kim became friends. “That might be a strange thing to happen but it’s a possibility,” he said. Trump has traded insults and threats with Kim in the past amid escalating tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs as North Korea races toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States -something Trump has vowed to prevent. North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test on Sept. 3, prompting another round of U.N. sanctions. In September Kim described Trump as a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” whom he would tame with fire. His comments came after Trump threatened in his maiden United Nations address to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if the United States were threatened. After North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho addressed the U.N. General Assembly in September Trump tweeted: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions. It has vowed to never give up its weapons programs, saying they are necessary to counter hostility from the United States and its allies. The United States has said that all options, including military, are on the table, although its preference is for a diplomatic solution.

Summary: ट्रंप का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया के किम ने उन्हें 'बूढ़ा' कहकर उनका अपमान किया है।


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country s chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained.   The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and the DPRK (North Korea),  the experts wrote in the 37-page report.   Two member states interdicted shipments destined for Syria. Another Member state informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria,  according to the report. KOMID is the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation. It was blacklisted by the Security Council in 2009 and described as Pyongyang s key arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. In March 2016 the council also blacklisted two KOMID representatives in Syria.   The consignees were Syrian entities designated by the European Union and the United States as front companies for Syria s Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), a Syrian entity identified by the Panel as cooperating with KOMID in previous prohibited item transfers,  the U.N. experts wrote.  SSRC has overseen the country s chemical weapons program since the 1970s. The U.N. experts said activities between Syria and North Korea they were investigating included cooperation on Syrian Scud missile programs and maintenance and repair of Syrian surface-to-air missiles air defense systems. The North Korean and Syrian missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  The experts said they were also investigating the use of the VX nerve agent in Malaysia to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un in February.  North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and four long-range missile launches. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States. However, diplomats and weapons inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability. During the country s more than six-year long civil war the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said the banned nerve agent sarin has been used at least twice, while the use of chlorine as a weapon has been widespread. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.

Summary: सीरिया की रासायनिक हथियार एजेंसी को उत्तर कोरिया की खेप रोकी गईः संयुक्त राष्ट्र की रिपोर्ट


ANKARA (Reuters) - Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to deploy observers around a de-escalation zone in northern Syria s Idlib region, which is largely controlled by Islamist militants, Turkey s foreign ministry said on Friday. It said the deployment was agreed in talks in Astana.  Observers from these three countries will be deployed at check and observation points in safe zones that form the borders of the de-escalation zone,  the ministry said in a statement.  The main mission of these observers has been defined as the prevention of clashes between the regime and the opposition forces and any violations of the truce .

Summary: तुर्की, ईरान और रूस सीरिया के इदलिब के आसपास 'सुरक्षित क्षेत्रों' में पर्यवेक्षकों को तैनात करेंगेः तुर्की मंत्रालय


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who sparred with Donald Trump at times during his presidential campaign, pledged on Wednesday to work closely with the president-elect to forge an aggressive Republican legislative agenda from the outset of 2017. At a news conference in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan said he and Trump are arranging a meeting to discuss the transition to a new Congress and administration, as well as the Republican agenda for the lame-duck session of Congress that begins on Monday. Tuesday’s election results will give the Republicans simultaneous control of the White House, Senate and House for the first time since early 2007. “He just earned a mandate and we now just have a unified Republican government,” Ryan said of Trump. “The opportunity is now here. And the opportunity is to go big, to go bold and to get things done.” Ryan said he expected his six-point “A Better Way” blueprint to provide a framework for future action. The plan, which House Republicans used an election platform, calls for initiatives that include repealing and replacing Obamacare, reforming the U.S. tax code and scaling back federal regulations on industry.  Ryan had been slow to endorse Trump for president and clashed with the wealthy businessman over his incendiary campaign rhetoric, accusing him of making comment that was “the textbook definition of racism” about a judge of Mexican heritage. Last month Trump described Ryan as “a very weak and ineffective leader.” But on Wednesday Ryan said he and Trump had held two “fantastic conversations” in the past 18 hours. Ryan’s aim is to “make sure that when his hand comes off the Bible, when he is sworn in as president, we are hitting the ground running.” Ryan said Republicans in Congress also would coordinate with Trump on the upcoming lame duck session on what can be achieved.  The speaker also said it was time for “redemption, not recrimination” and dismissed concerns about civil liberties created by Trump campaign talk. “Donald Trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard. He connected in ways with people no one else did. He turned politics on its head,” Ryan said. “Donald Trump provided the kind of coattails that got a lot of people over the finish line so that we could maintain our strong House and Senate majorities.” There had been speculation Ryan would not run for the speaker job in January but last week his staff said he would run for re-election to the post.

Summary: स्पीकर रयान ने साहसिक एजेंडे पर ट्रंप के साथ काम करने का संकल्प लिया


MUGLA, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Wednesday found 42 former soldiers guilty of trying to kill President Tayyip Erdogan during last year s failed coup, and handed most of them life sentences in the highest profile case related to the attempted putsch so far. Judge Emirsah Bastog read out guilty verdicts for 42 of the 47 defendants, according to a Reuters reporter at the court in Mugla, southwestern Turkey. Mugla is near the luxury resort where Erdogan and his family narrowly escaped a team of rogue soldiers who stormed his hotel during the night of the coup.   The trial, which started in February and included Erdogan as a co-plaintiff, is part of a sweeping security crackdown that followed the failed putsch of July 2016. It is the biggest such case to reach a conclusion so far.  I hope the verdict today is beneficial to everyone,  Bastog said as he sentenced 34 of the accused to  aggravated  life sentences, the harshest punishment possible under Turkish law because it lengthens the minimum sentence required for parole. Another six defendants were given life terms while two others were given lesser sentences.   (Several) defendants have been found guilty on the charge of attempting to assassinate the president,  Bastog told the packed courtroom. One was acquitted and another was transferred to another court. No verdict was given for three who were tried in absentia, including U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the coup. Demonstrators threw eggs and plastic bottles at the defendants as police escorted them from the courthouse. Others waved Turkish flags, blared a famous song praising Erdogan and called for a return to capital punishment. The court heard final statements from the defendants just before Bastog delivered his verdict. Some of the accused said they did not believe the court could deliver a fair verdict and had been under political pressure.  From the moment I was arrested at the air base on July 16, I was treated like a criminal,  Ergun Sahin, a former air force lieutenant, told the court. Pictures released in the aftermath of the coup showed some suspected coup plotters - including high-ranking military officers - stripped to their underpants, handcuffed and their faces bruised.  Words don t mean anything here as we didn t have a chance of a fair trial,  said another defendant, Gokhan Sen.  We are just the grass that elephants trampled on during their fight.  More than 240 people were killed on the night of July 15, 2016 when putschists commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters, attacking parliament and attempting to overthrow the government. Erdogan s lawyer, who was present at the case, said that justice had been served.  Had these putschists succeeded that night in the attack against our president, history would have changed, we would be living in a different Turkey now,  Huseyin Aydin told Reuters.  My son has been avenged,  said Nihat Eker, the father of a police officer who was killed during the coup.  If our president were to present us with a choice, we d all agree to it. We say,  execution, execution, execution .  Erdogan has previously said he would be willing to restore the death penalty if parliament passed such a measure. Turkey abandoned capital punishment more than a decade ago as part of its bid to join the European Union. Restoring it would all but end its attempt to join the EU. While Turkey has seen a groundswell in nationalism since the coup, the extent of the government s crackdown has alarmed European allies and rights groups. More than 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and some 50,000 jailed. Investors also worry about Erdogan s tightening grip on power and an erosion in the rule of law. The government blames the network of Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, for orchestrating the failed coup. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement and condemned the coup. A total of 47 defendants were on trial, 43 of whom have been held in detention during the 7-1/2 month hearing. Gulen was being tried in absentia. Most of the defendants were soldiers.

Summary: तुर्की के न्यायाधीश ने 42 सैनिकों को एर्दोगन को मारने की कोशिश करने का दोषी पाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military will not provide details on specific cases of American service members injured in Iraq and Syria because it could give information to Islamic State militants, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday The spokesman, Peter Cook, was responding to a question at a Pentagon press briefing seeking confirmation that four Americans had been wounded in Syria earlier this month.  Cook said there had been no a change in policy and aggregate numbers would still be provided. “Our policy is not to identify wounded service members for a variety of reasons, including operational security, including privacy reasons,” Cook said.  “Also, we do not want to provide additional information to the enemy that might enhance their own assessment on the battlefield situation,” he said. However, the Pentagon has released such information in the past and responded to queries, and it was unclear how Cook’s comments were consistent with previous disclosures. Last month a spokesman said two U.S. service member had been injured, one each in Iraq and Syria, during the last weekend in May. Captain Jeff Davis said the incident in Iraq took place in the north, near Erbil, while the injury in Syria was north of Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital. According to Pentagon data, there have been 16 American service members wounded in action since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve, the military’s name for an operation targeting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria which started in 2014.  Cook’s comments came the same day that President Barack Obama visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; he has visited wounded U.S. service members there throughout his presidency.

Summary: अमेरिकी सेना का कहना है कि वह घायल सेवा सदस्यों के बारे में विवरण का खुलासा नहीं करेगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he is only in the early stages of considering whether to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia, as British Prime Minister Theresa May, other foreign officials and U.S. lawmakers cautioned that such a move would be premature. With Trump expected to speak by phone on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since taking power a week ago, speculation has been rife that he is close to lifting sanctions imposed by then-President Barack Obama over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014. Such a move would likely cause consternation among European allies as well as many in the U.S. Congress who are also troubled by Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war and by U.S. intelligence agencies’ finding that Moscow meddled in the U.S. election campaign. “As far as the sanctions, (it is) very early to be talking about that,” Trump said, while insisting that he wanted to follow through on his campaign pledge to pursue better relations with Russia. His caution on the Russian sanctions came in response to a question at a joint news conference at the White House with May, the first foreign leader to visit the president since his inauguration. May made clear Britain wants to continue sanctions until Putin carries out the requirements in a ceasefire agreement arranged in Minsk, Belarus, in 2014. This view is shared by European allies who fear Putin could become more expansionist if he feels Trump will not intervene. “We believe the sanctions should continue until we see the Minsk agreement fully implemented. And we’ve been continuing to argue that inside the European Union,” May said. The boisterous Trump and reserved May took pains to demonstrate a readiness to maintain the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain, something that is particularly important for May as she steers Britain out of the European Union.  They posed for photos before a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office and Trump accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth to visit Britain later this year. The two leaders held hands briefly as they walked down the White House colonnade to their news conference in the East Room. Later, they lunched on beef shortribs in the State Dining Room. At the news conference, Trump showed flashes of the pugnacious willingness to dispense with formality that helped him win the Nov. 8 election, registering his displeasure when a British reporter asked him what he had to say to those who are “worried about you becoming the leader of the free world.” “This was your choice of a question?” Trump said with a half smile. Then, nodding toward May as laughter erupted, he added: “There goes that relationship.” On ties with Moscow, Trump has long bucked establishment Washington thinking by voicing a belief that, as he said on Friday, it would be a “tremendous asset” to have a positive relationship with Russia. A long-time Putin critic, U.S. Senator John McCain, who like Trump is a Republican, urged Trump not to lift the sanctions, saying that he should “reject such a reckless course.” “If he does not, I will work with my colleagues to codify sanctions against Russia into law,” said McCain, a long-time Putin critic. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, told Politico of the sanctions that “I think they should stay.” Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, urged caution against reversing sanctions without winning concessions from Moscow, saying that, “easing sanctions will only embolden Russia’s aggression in the region, putting the security interests of Ukraine and the United States in jeopardy.” The White House encounter between Trump and May was heavily scrutinized for signs on how the relationship would develop between the leaders of two key members of the NATO alliance, who are markedly different in style but who both owe their rise to power to a tide of anti-establishment feeling in their countries. “I’m not as brash as you might think,” Trump said at the news conference. “I’m a people person and I think you are too, Theresa. I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship.” Trump, a wealthy real estate developer and former reality TV star, had never held public office when he was elected in November. May stepped in to lead Britain after the June referendum Brexit vote to leave the EU that prompted her Conservative predecessor, David Cameron, to resign. It was notable that Trump did not give much in the way of vocal support for NATO, which he has previously declared obsolete. It was left up to May to issue support for NATO in her opening remarks at their news conference, and to encourage Trump’s backing.”On defense and security cooperation, we are united in our recognition of NATO as the bulwark of our collective defense,” she said. “Today we’ve reaffirmed our unshakeable commitment to this alliance – Mr. President I think you confirmed that you are 100 percent behind NATO.”  (This version of the story has been refiled to clarify in 14th and 15th paragraphs on McCain’s remark on Trump and lifting of sanction; clarifying to show that comment “if he does not” refers to rejection of “a reckless course.”

Summary: ट्रंप का कहना है कि वह रूस के प्रतिबंधों को हटाने पर विचार करने के शुरुआती चरण में हैं


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar s military on Friday dropped charges against six journalists facing trial on offences ranging from defamation to unlawful association, saying it wanted to work with the media in the interests of the country and its people. The legal action had sparked fears over curbs on free speech during Myanmar s transition from decades of military rule, under a government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, following a landmark 2015 election win. The military decided to  forgive and drop charges  against the media in an effort to  work together for the interest of the citizens and the country , it said in a statement. The army had to take legal action because the coverage had  disgraced the image, the dignity and the activity of the Tatmadaw,  it added, referring to the armed forces by their Myanmar name. Charges were dropped against three reporters arrested in late June for covering an event organized by the Ta ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic militia engaged in a stand-off with government troops.  They were charged under a colonial-era law against  unlawful association , which rights watchers said has long been used by Myanmar authorities to arbitrarily arrest and detain people.   It s injustice from the very beginning,  Pyae Phone Aung, one of the reporters arrested on June 26 in northeastern Shan state, told Reuters by telephone from the court where his trial was being held.  We journalists were just doing our work, but we were charged and spent more than 60 days in jail.  It was not immediately clear when the three journalists would be released.   Charges were also dropped against three more reporters, whose articles critical of the military had attracted defamation charges on the basis of several laws, including a telecoms law that rights monitors say restricts free speech.  Twenty journalists have been charged or arrested under the controversial law since Suu Kyi s government took power, the advocacy group Research Team for Telecommunications Law said.Despite pressure from human rights groups and Western diplomats, her government has retained the broadly worded law, and has not spoken out against the increasingly frequent arrests of reporters and activists. The military retains control of the police, key ministries and a quarter of lawmakers  seats. The courts also still lack independence, some analysts say.

Summary: म्यांमार की सेना ने अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता की चिंताओं के बीच छह पत्रकारों के खिलाफ आरोप हटाए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A suggestion by President Donald Trump that a U.S. regulator pull broadcast licenses from TV networks over what Trump calls “fake news” has been met by silence from the watchdog’s head Ajit Pai, who has a history of defending free speech rights. Pai, who was reconfirmed last week for a new five-year term at the Federal Communications Commission and named chairman by Trump in January, has been urged by members of Congress to denounce Trump for a proposal that has little, if any, chance of success. That is because the commission does not actually license broadcast networks or cable stations and the hurdles to denying licenses to individual stations are extremely high. Trump’s remarks on Wednesday that threatened to muzzle the media and fellow-Republican Pai’s strong support for press freedoms could conflict as Pai mounts ambitious plans to overhaul federal communications regulations. Trump said in a Twitter post: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” His ire was raised by an NBC News report that said he had called for a massive increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a report Trump denied. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on media reports critical of his administration, often without providing any evidence to support their case that the reports were untrue. Pai’s office has declined to comment, despite Reuters’ repeated requests Wednesday and Thursday. The FCC, an independent agency, does not issue licenses to individual networks but to local stations, including those directly owned by broadcasters such as Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) that owns NBC. Comcast and NBC declined to comment on Trump’s remarks. Pai has defended the First Amendment and press freedoms. In October 2016, he said anyone at the FCC “has the duty to speak out whenever Americans’ First Amendment rights are at stake.” In a 2014 Wall Street Journal piece, Pai said “the government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.”   Pai has an ambitious agenda, which he is expected to unveil details of in the coming months. It includes proposing to eliminate some significant media ownership restrictions and a plan to roll back former Democratic President Barack Obama’s so-called net neutrality rules. Senator Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said on Twitter Trump’s comments were “unacceptable attacks on the #FirstAmendment by @POTUS. @AjitPaiFCC committed to Congress to speak up at times like this. We are waiting.” U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan defended press freedoms Thursday but did not directly criticize Trump. “I’m for the First Amendment. I don’t always agree and like what you guys write, but you have a right to do it,” Ryan said. Republican Senator Ben Sasse asked if Trump was “recanting” the oath of office to defend the First Amendment.  In March, Pai told the U.S. Congress he did not agree with Trump when he said that “the media is the enemy of the American people.” Pai said he would act independently of the White House on media-related matters. Last month, Pai lamented that people on Twitter demand “the FCC yank licenses from cable news channels like Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN because they disagree with the opinions expressed on those networks. Setting aside the fact that the FCC doesn’t license cable channels, these demands are fundamentally at odds with our legal and cultural traditions.”

Summary: प्रसारण लाइसेंस वापस लेने के बारे में ट्रंप की टिप्पणी पर एफसीसी प्रमुख चुप


(Reuters) - Democratic-leaning states may take legal action to challenge the cap on deductions of state and local taxes under the sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code, and even though such lawsuits would face long odds they could help galvanize Democrats for next year’s mid-term election. The U.S. tax bill, passed by Republicans in Congress on Wednesday, limits deductions of state and local income and property taxes, known as SALT, to $10,000. The provision hits hardest Democratic-leaning states with high incomes, high property values and high taxes, like New York, New Jersey and California.  Law professors said legal challenges would likely rest on arguing that the provision interferes with the protection of states’ rights under the U.S. Constitution. Some political strategists see a win for Democrats regardless of how courts ultimately rule, saying that lawsuits could be used to keep the issue front and center for voters already largely disenchanted with the Republican party. “It’s a no-brainer for them to do this,” said Democratic political consultant Phil Singer. “Failing to aggressively pursue a remedy would be political malpractice.” New Jersey Governor-elect Phil Murphy said during an appearance on CNBC on Wednesday that “everything is on the table” for New Jersey to oppose the bill, including challenging its “legality and constitutionality.”  The governors of California and New York, Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo, have both previously said they were exploring legal challenges to SALT deduction limits. Their offices did not return requests for comment on Wednesday. Since President Donald Trump took office, blue states have aggressively used the courts to attempt to block the president’s agenda, suing over his proposed travel ban, environmental policies and other measures. William O’Reilly, a conservative political consultant in New York, said the SALT deduction issue would likely add to Republicans’ “suburbia problem” among college-educated voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. “They already had one because of this president’s style,” O’Reilly said. Darien Shanske, a tax law professor at the University of California Davis School of Law, said the governors would probably argue that restricting the SALT deduction, which dates back to the introduction of the federal income tax in 1862, violates the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment that protects states’ rights. Shanske and other tax experts said the federalism argument would need to overcome the U.S. Supreme Court’s historically broad interpretations of Congress’ 16th Amendment power to impose taxes. “As a general matter, nothing prevents the federal government from changing the SALT deduction,” said David Gamage, a professor of tax law at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. In a frequently cited 1934 decision, the Supreme Court called tax deductions a “legislative grace” rather than a right, and said Congress has broad leeway to abolish them. The court reiterated this view in a 1988 decision allowing Congress to remove a federal tax exemption for interest on some state and local bonds.  Kirk Stark, a professor of tax law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said there is a slight possibility that a federalism argument against limiting the SALT deduction could gain traction. “Courts create new law all the time,” he said, noting that decisions on matters this sweeping tend to become political. But some legal experts noted that the state’s rights argument is more typically a conservative position. Using it to challenge the SALT provision could be a move that Democratic governors come to regret in the future, said Daniel Hemel, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.   “The progressive agenda depends on the federal government being able to raise revenue and the Supreme Court not getting in the way of that,” Hemel said.

Summary: अमेरिकी कर विधेयक को लंबी बाधाओं के साथ मुकदमों का सामना करना पड़ सकता है लेकिन राजनीतिक भुगतान


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday it was preposterous that U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son was blamed for meeting a Russian lawyer who emails suggest might have had damaging information about Hillary Clinton last year. Hitting back against accusations of Russian meddling in the 206 U.S. elections, Lavrov asked to be shown “at least one fact” proving Moscow tried to interfere with the democratic process.  “I learned with surprise that a Russian lawyer, a woman, is being blamed and Trump’s son is being blamed for meeting. For me, this is wild,” Lavrov told a joint news conference with his Belgian counterpart in Brussels.     “Because when any person speaks to a lawyer, what problem or threat could there be? I didn’t know about this, I learned about it from television.” The emails released by Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday are seen by Trump critics as the most concrete evidence yet that Trump campaign officials welcomed Russian help to win the election. But Lavrov dismissed the media interest in the email release, saying: “It’s amazing that serious people are making a mountain out of a molehill.”

Summary: लावरोव ने कहा कि रूसी वकील से मुलाकात के लिए ट्रम्प जूनियर को दोषी ठहराया गया


AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria s Tahrir al-Sham militant group denied in a statement on social media on Wednesday that its leader had been critically wounded in a Russian air strike and said he was in good health and performing his duties. The Russian Defence Ministry said it had seriously injured Abu Mohamad al-Golani on Oct. 3 in an intelligence-led special operation while he was meeting his field commanders. Golani headed the Nusra Front, the former al Qaeda affiliate, before it merged with other groups to form Tahrir al-Sham.

Summary: सीरिया के आतंकवादी पूर्व-कायदा समूह ने रूसी हमले में नेता के घायल होने की बात से इनकार किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday on banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military unleashed a storm of legal threats from advocates who say they are seeking plaintiffs who want to file suit. Trump’s surprise tweets did not make clear when a ban reversing former President Barack Obama’s policy would go into effect, nor whether it applies to serving members of the military or those wishing to join. But if the U.S. Defense Department actively roots out transgender people and discharges them from the military, the Pentagon is likely to face an especially contentious fight,  legal experts say. “There’s no valid justification for excluding transgender people from the military,” said Jon Davidson, legal director for LGBT rights group Lambda Legal. “They are currently serving without a problem. There hasn’t been an extraordinary cost. There hasn’t been disruption.” Experts say singling out transgender people would violate their rights to equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Joshua Block at the American Civil Liberties Union said his inbox was flooded with emails about Trump’s ban, including from service members. “I think the most important thing for people to understand is that for the immediate future, nothing can happen to them ... Trump’s tweet is not self-executing,” said Block, a senior staff attorney on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Under Obama, the Defense Department declared in June 20016 that transgender people could serve openly in the armed forces. The Pentagon was considering a second step of allowing openly transgender people to enlist when Trump on Wednesday issued three tweets saying transgender people would not be allowed to serve any capacity in the military, citing disruptions and medical costs. The Pentagon referred all questions to the White House, where press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump made the decision in consultation with his national security team and that the Defense Department would work with the White House and take the lead on a lawful implementation.  Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director, said Trump’s declaration amounted to “discrimination on the basis of sex and identity,” and was therefore open to legal challenge. “The courts do provide quite a bit of deference to the military in determining its own policies,” she said. “However, that doesn’t mean the military is above the law.” But the Pentagon may have a clearer path to a ban should it merely prevent new transgender recruits from signing up. If the ban applies only to those seeking to enlist, the legal bar would be higher because the military already has wide leeway to exclude classes of people based on medical needs, Block said. If Trump did want to remove all existing transgender servicemembers from the ranks, it was unclear what legal mechanism he could use to forcibly discharge U.S. troops. If transgender people disclosed their identity as a result of the Obama policy and that policy is then changed, they would have a legal recourse should they be arbitrarily denied their jobs and benefits, Davidson said. Even those seeking to enlist might allege the government banned transgender individuals in an arbitrary way and without good reason. But at least one legal expert said a challenge would be difficult to mount because courts typically defer to the government on military matters. Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, said even if discharged transgender service members asked for military reviews of their cases and won, those decisions could be overturned by the secretaries of the four branches of the military, who are political appointees. It would difficult to convince federal courts to reverse the secretaries, Fidell said.

Summary: किसी भी अमेरिकी सैन्य ट्रांसजेंडर प्रतिबंध को बड़ी कानूनी चुनौती का सामना करना पड़ सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday he was “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. Congress would support the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact his administration made with Asian countries. Speaking to state governors at the White House, Obama said he would have to rely on votes from pro-trade Democrats and Republicans since labor leaders opposed the deal. Obama noted that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan had largely been supportive of the pact.  Passing the deal would be a legacy-defining achievement during Obama’s final year in office.

Summary: ओबामा ने टी. पी. पी. व्यापार समझौते के पारित होने की उम्मीद जताई


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he wanted to play a mediation role between Iran and the United States to ensure that Tehran was involved in finding a political solution in Syria.  If we don t resolve the Syrian problem with Iran around the table, then we will not have an efficient response because Iran today is among the powers that have an influence on the ground,  Macron told a news conference.  Paris is trying to set up an international contact group on Syria to revive stalled peace talks in Geneva, but the United States has adopted a staunchly anti-Iran stance since President Donald Trump took power, complicating peace talks between major powers.   Noting the U.S. refusal today, I want that the contact group advances and that the United Nations and France can serve as intermediaries with Iran,  Macron said.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ईरान, अमेरिका के बीच मध्यस्थता की भूमिका निभाना चाहते हैं।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday he felt his House of Representatives counterpart had stepped away from that panel’s investigation of possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia because he felt it was necessary. “Chairman (Devin) Nunes has made the move he felt necessary to protect the viability of his Committee and its investigation going forward,” Republican U.S. Senator Richard Burr said in a statement.

Summary: बुरः नून्स ने रूस की जांच की जांच को बचाने के लिए अलग कदम रखा


HARARE (Reuters) - New Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to form a new cabinet this week, with all eyes on whether he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects old guard figures from Robert Mugabe s era. Of particular interest is his choice of finance minister to replace Ignatius Chombo, who was among members of a group allied to Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who were detained and expelled from the ruling party. Chombo is facing corruption charges and is due to appear in court for a bail hearing on Monday. In a tentative sign that he might do things differently, ZANU-PF cut the budget for a special congress to be held next month and also slashed the duration by half from six days, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Mnangagwa was sworn in as president last Friday after 93-year-old Mugabe quit under pressure from the military.  He vowed to rebuild Zimbabwe s ravaged economy and serve all citizens. But behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.   The composition of the new government will show a clear path whether we continue with the status quo or the clear break with the past that we need to build a sustainable state. It s a simple choice,  said former finance minister and opposition leader Tendai Biti. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has called for an inclusive  transitional authority  to mark a break with Mugabe s 37-year rule and enact reforms to allow for credible and free elections due next year.  Zimbabwe needs all hands on deck...We cannot continue reproducing these cycles of instability,  Biti, who earned international respect as finance minister in a 2009-2013 unity government, told Reuters. Some economic and political analysts say Mnangagwa s choices may be limited after Cyber Security Minister and close ally Patrick Chinamasa said last week he saw no need for a coalition, as ZANU-PF had a parliamentary majority.  And with Mnangagwa saying on Friday elections would go ahead next year as scheduled, the opposition would have little to gain from participating in a coalition just eight months before the vote, Professor Anthony Hawkins, a business studies professor, said.  If I were an opposition politician I would say: what s in it for me? Unless I m convinced I m going to lose the election, I won t participate,  Hawkins told Reuters.   He (Mnangagwa) might introduce technocrats from commerce and that will send out a signal of sorts... As far as the international community is concerned legitimacy is important. It s a very delicate situation and he has very little room for maneuver.  The Standard newspaper, which has been critical of Mugabe and his government over the years, said Mnangagwa would be judged on how he delivers on the bold commitments he made at his inauguration. It said he must  walk the talk on graft  that has exacerbated the country s economic decline. Mugabe s fall after 37 years in power was spurred by a battle to succeed him that pitted Mnangagwa, his former deputy who had stood by him for 52 years, and Mugabe s wife, Grace, 52, who has been at the couple s  Blue House  mansion in Harare and hasn t been seen in public since.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे कैबिनेट ने यह दिखाने के लिए चुना कि क्या मनांगाग्वा अतीत को तोड़ रहा है


CARACAS (Reuters) - In a curious convergence of events on the same day last week, four Venezuelan provincial courts issued identical rulings, state governors quickly hit Twitter to celebrate, then the election board emailed a short but bombshell statement. Opposition hopes for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro were dashed, on grounds of fraud in an initial signature drive. The vote was off. For many in the opposition, that settled a years-old debate about the nature of Venezuela’s socialist government, uniting them in conviction they are now fighting a dictatorship. Their new militancy heightens the risk of unrest as the South American OPEC member of 30 million people grapples with a dangerous economic and political crisis. “Can anyone in the world now really doubt that Venezuela is living in tyranny?” said housewife Mabel Pinate, 62, dressed in white among thousands of protesters who took to the streets against Maduro on Wednesday. “We are sick of this. It’s time to toughen up and do what we must to save Venezuela,” added Pinate, whose husband was fired from state oil company PDVSA by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez and whose two children have gone abroad. After pinning its hopes on a referendum this year - which could have triggered a presidential election and put them in power after 17 years of leftist rule - the enraged opposition Democratic Unity coalition has taken its gloves off. It is holding a symbolic political trial of Maduro in the legislature, organizing daily street protests, and shunning talks with the government that had been announced by the Vatican for this weekend.  Recalling tactics that led to a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002 and a shutdown of the oil industry, the coalition has also called for a general strike on Friday and a march to the Miraflores presidential palace next week.  “We’ve reached the limit,” said Henrique Capriles, a usually moderate opposition leader, calling the government “Satan.” “Does the opposition have anything to negotiate with the government? Nothing. Why does the government want dialogue? Because the water has risen to its neck,” he said.  Some hardliners, most notably veteran activist Maria Corina Machado and jailed protest leader Leopoldo Lopez’ wife Lilian Tintori, are calling for Gandhi-style civil disobedience.  The government is vowing an iron fist. It says well-known troublemakers, who were behind the 2002 putsch, are again seeking a coup against an elected government, with the help of the United States and compliant foreign media. “I fear nobody and nothing!” Maduro told red-shirted supporters at one of his daily rallies and TV appearances this week. The ruling Socialist Party’s No. 2, Diosdado Cabello said any companies heeding the strike call would be seized by workers and the military. “We’re not going to allow craziness.” Long proud of its democratic credentials after winning numerous elections under Chavez, the ruling Socialist Party says it is the opposition flouting Venezuela’s democracy given that independent institutions shot down the referendum. Officials also argue that the very existence of protests and virulent public criticism of Maduro prove democracy is alive and well in Venezuela. Maduro insists the referendum decision was made by independent judges and electoral officials based on technical criteria, and denies the Socialist Party had any sway over the result. But critics say both the judiciary and electoral council have long been in the government’s pocket. The Supreme Court has repeatedly shot down legislation  passed by the opposition-dominated Congress while interpreting the constitution to favor the executive branch and limit the reach of lawmakers. And the elections council has steadily shifted the requirements for requesting the recall vote. Maduro would have faced probable defeat and removal from power if the referendum had gone ahead.  His challenge now is to contain street protests and respond to deep anger among all Venezuelans at the dreadful state of the economy. Food shortages, long shopping lines and runaway prices have eroded the ruling “Chavismo” movement’s popularity among the poor and seen Maduro’s ratings slide to just over 20 percent.  But as unhappy as they are, disaffected former “Chavistas” are not yet ready to throw their lot in en masse with coalition leaders they still view with suspicion. “They are all from privileged families. How can they represent me?” said Orlando Diaz, 47, a mechanic and father of four from a slum in western Caracas who has seen work dry up and income tumble during a nearly three-year recession. “Do I hate Maduro? Yes. He has betrayed the comandante (Chavez), he is a fool. Will I join these people in their crying and marching? No way. Frankly, I don’t know where to turn. I don’t see a future, I just have to find bread for my family today and tomorrow. That’s all I think about.” The opposition’s challenge is how to incorporate people like Diaz and his neighbors from the gritty hillside Antimano “barrio”, into their street push. On Wednesday, they drew hundreds of thousands nationwide, but students and traditional supporters remained at the vanguard. Scores of people on both sides were killed during anti-Maduro protests in 2014 and there was new violence on Wednesday, with dozens of injuries and arrests. A policemen was shot dead in an incident the government blamed on demonstrators.  “A recall referendum in 2016 would have meant the automatic exit from power of ‘Chavismo’,” said local pollster Luis Vicente Leon. “Eschewing democratic codes and values, the government preferred to assume ... the risk of a popular reaction.” The next presidential election is due at the end of 2018 and most Venezuelans assume another candidate will emerge from within “Chavismo” instead of Maduro. But given the events of recent days, opposition supporters are beginning to wonder if that election will even take place.

Summary: वेनेजुएला संकट खतरनाक चरण में प्रवेश कर गया है क्योंकि मादुरो के दुश्मन उग्रवादी हो गए हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of households would no longer benefit from federal tax deductions for charity donations, mortgage interest payments and property tax under Republican tax plans being debated in the U.S. Congress, a think tank said on Thursday. The left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said that up to 29 million U.S. households now writing off donations, home loan interest and state and local property tax payments would no longer be able to do so under either of the two plans. While all three deductions are maintained in some form in one or both of the rival Senate and House of Representatives bills, far fewer taxpayers could take advantage of them because of other proposed changes, said the Washington-based group. “The House and Senate have voted to fundamentally transform those write-offs in ways that most people don’t understand,” said Carl Davis, research director of the institute. Under the bills, the mortgage interest and charitable deductions would be “worthless for most people”, Davis said. “Less than one in 10 people is going to be able to write-off their donations to their churches or local nonprofits if this legislation is signed into law.” President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are racing to complete a sweeping tax code overhaul by the end of 2017. If they can, it would represent their first major legislative achievement since Trump took power in January. Trump has promised to simplify the tax code, part of which involves ending tax breaks for special interests. That goal is encountering resistance from interests that would be hurt. The Senate and the House have approved separate tax bills and are now trying to craft one unified bill to send to Trump for his signature.  As drafted, the two bills call for roughly doubling the “standard deduction,” a key part of the tax code, to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples filing jointly. The standard deduction is a fixed dollar amount, claimed by about two-thirds of taxpayers, that reduces taxable income. Instead of claiming the standard deduction, about one-third of taxpayers, mostly high-earning Americans, itemize deductions. Doing that is worthwhile, in most cases, if the total of itemized deductions exceeds the standard deduction. Both the Senate and House bills also curtail the deduction for state and local tax (SALT) payments, with the House preserving it for state and local property taxes up to $10,000. Tax experts estimate that the combination of doubling the standard deduction and curtailing the SALT deduction would mean that far fewer Americans would itemize. Since itemizing is the only way to claim the deductions for charity, mortgage interest and state and local tax payments, claims for those deductions are also expected to plummet, especially among middle-class Americans. The institute estimated that the percentage of U.S. households writing off charitable donations, under the Republican plans, would fall to 8 percent from 26 percent. A similar decline would be seen in households claiming the mortgage interest deduction, it said. “The mortgage interest deduction would be left in place for precisely the families who are least likely to need to the deduction to become homeowners. More than three-fourths of middle-income families claiming a mortgage interest deduction today would no longer receive that deduction,” it said.  “There are good reasons to consider reforming itemized deductions to improve their effectiveness or fairness. But the House and Senate’s approach to that task leave much to be desired,” the institute said. (The story is refiled to correct last name in second reference to Davis from David in fifth paragraph.)

Summary: अमेरिकी कर बिल के तहत लाखों लोग बंधक, उपहार राइट-ऑफ खो देंगेः अध्ययन


LIMA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday said he is not worried about being the last Democratic U.S. president for a while, noting democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and his own approval rating remained high.  He added, however, that the Democratic Party needed to organize better and better convey its message.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि वह कुछ समय के लिए अमेरिका के अंतिम डेमोक्रेटिक नेता होने के बारे में चिंतित नहीं हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Financial Services Committee told CNBC on Tuesday that revamping the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law remained a “this-year priority” for President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling said he would soon reintroduce his legislation that gives banks a choice between complying with Dodd-Frank and holding more capital. While the bill is expected to easily pass the Republican-led House, it will face resistance in the Senate, where Democrats hold enough seats to filibuster. Pence can cast votes to break ties on legislation. On Friday, Trump ordered a review of Dodd-Frank’s effects on business and the economy, which raised the possibility he may use his executive powers to block, undo or kill by neglect parts of the law on his own. The law, passed to prevent a repeat of the 2007-09 financial crisis, subjects banks to greater oversight and expands regulation of derivatives. Supporters say it has made the financial system stronger, while critics say it has entangled corporations in regulation that hurts the economy. Hensarling said on Tuesday he had conferred with Trump about his legislation, known as the “CHOICE act,” and the president seemed to support much of it. While Hensarling used sharp words to describe the agency created by Dodd-Frank to guard individuals against predatory lending, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he did not say how it would be addressed in his bill.  Calling the CFPB a “rogue agency,” Hensarling said Trump should fire its sole director, Richard Cordray, after a U.S. court ruled in October its structure was unconstitutional. That decision has been stayed pending appeal.

Summary: डोड-फ्रैंक का कायाकल्प 'इस साल की प्राथमिकता' हैः अमेरिकी सांसद


SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile s presidential hopefuls ended their campaigns in downtown Santiago on Thursday ahead of an uncertain runoff election whose outcome will determine whether the world s top copper producer turns to the right or maintains its center-left track. Voters on Sunday will choose between billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera and center-left senator and journalist Alejandro Guillier. During the November first-round election, a surprise surge by harder leftists confounded pollsters, sent markets plummeting and set the stage for a tighter-than-expected runoff.  Everything points to a narrow margin of victory,  said Guillermo Holzmann, a professor at the University of Valparaiso.  It s an unusual race in that it s been difficult to gauge the electorate.  Both Pinera and Guillier would keep in place the longstanding free-market economic model in Latin America s most developed country. But candidates with more extreme views on both the right and left performed better than expected in November, leading both men to make concessions to try to win over voters whose first-round choice dropped out. Uruguay former president Jose  Pepe  Mujica, a leftist icon in a Latin America that has largely turned to the political right, turned out to support Guillier.  The conservative right has no future in Chile,  Guillier told his fans.  Pinera, 68, a former president and the market favorite, placed first with 36.6 percent of the vote in the first round. He has vowed to boost growth by cutting the corporate tax rate and scaling back outgoing President Michelle Bachelet s tax, labor and education reforms that Guillier has vowed to deepen.  At Santiago s Caupolic n theater, he promised  a new and better treatment of the middle class, older adults and children.  The bearded Guillier, 64, from northern Chile, garnered 22.7 percent of the vote in November from backers hoping to preserve gains made in Bachelet s government for students, women and workers, measures such as lower university fees and laws empowering unions. Guillier has courted leftists by proposing to overhaul the country s privatized pension system and rewrite the constitution. Pinera has sought to appeal to centrist voters by calling for free technical education for the poor and a public pension option. Guillier narrowly edged out third place finisher Beatriz Sanchez of the leftist Frente Amplio. She received support from 20 percent of voters with promises to tax the  super-rich  to boost social spending and fight inequality. Sanchez s 1.3 million voters are seen as pivotal in the upcoming election. Voting is voluntary in Chile, and abstention has run high in recent years.  It comes down to how many people stay home, and particularly, how many people stay home on Guillier s side,  said University of Chile professor Robert Funk.

Summary: चिली के राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवारों ने रविवार के मतदान से पहले अभियान समाप्त कर दिया


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern said the ruling National Party had taken the largest number of votes in Saturday s general election, but the race was not over yet. The National Party had 46.1 percent of the votes with over 97 percent of results counted, while Labour had 35.7 percent of the votes, according to the Electoral Commission.  New Zealand First had 7.5 percent of the votes, putting it position to hold the balance of power in the German-style proportional representation system. Ardern said the expectation was to speak to New Zealand First as quickly as they could.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड की आर्डर्न का कहना है कि नेशनल के पास अधिक वोट हैं लेकिन दौड़ खत्म नहीं हुई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to confirm he had North Korea in mind last week when he described a gathering of military leaders as  the calm before the storm.  In an interview with U.S. network Fox News, Trump was asked what he meant with the cryptic phrase, which had fueled concerns the United States and North Korea were closer to war.  We can t let this to go on. We just can t,  Trump said in response to the question, adding that China has been very helpful in the situation.  They cut off banking to North Korea.  Trump made the  calm before the storm  comment during an Oct 5 photo opportunity before having dinner with U.S. military leaders and their wives. The dinner followed a meeting in which Trump and the military leaders discussed Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State.  On Wednesday, Trump also characterized a diplomatic deal with North Korea brokered under former President Bill Clinton as a failure.  Before ... the ink was dry on the contract, they were already starting again with the missiles, and with the nuclear, frankly,  Trump said.  We cannot allow this to happen. This should have been taken care of long ago.  he said.

Summary: 'तूफान से पहले शांति' टिप्पणी के बारे में पूछे जाने पर, ट्रम्प ने उत्तर कोरिया से बात की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - (In this July 27 story, paragraph 5 corrects to say midscale brands have been announced over the past year and a half. In paragraph 12 corrects description of IHG brand to Holiday Inn Express from Holiday Inn; corrects to say new brand would aim to capture part of $20 billion market rather than to generate $20 billion in revenues on its own) Trump Hotels, diversifying from a longtime focus on the luxury market, has about 10 hotels in the pipeline for its recently announced midscale American Idea chain, Chief Executive Eric Danziger said in an interview with Reuters. The new chain, the product of conversations last year between President Donald Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump about the lack of options in the midscale market, will be franchised and thus not directly operated by Trump Hotels, unlike most of the company’s other properties. When closely held Trump Hotels, which is part of the Trump Organization, announced the brand last month, it said it had struck a deal with Chawla Pointe, LLC, to open three of the properties in Mississippi. If the further “10 or so” properties come to fruition, the deals would thrust Trump Hotels into the midscale market at a time when other hotel companies are extending their range in that area. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (HLT.N) and Intercontinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG.L) have announced new midscale brands over the past year and a half.      “Generally that midscale product is all the same with a different name on it,” Danziger said in a phone interview this week, adding that American Idea would differentiate itself with a decor he described as “flea market chic,” with decor and design tailored to local industries and landmarks.    Danziger said most American Idea hotels would be conversions from other brands, with the first expected to open in early 2018. Advertising is set to begin next month, he said. Danziger declined to provide further details about the potential new American Idea locations, saying the deals had not been finalized, but said the negotiations were with owners from different parts of the country. Trump Hotels, whose best-known properties are luxury hotels in major cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Las Vegas, earlier this year unveiled a third brand, Scion, which has lower prices than the traditional Trump hotels and is aimed at millennials. The U.S. president turned over management of the umbrella Trump Organization in January to a trust controlled by his two oldest sons, but he still owns his businesses, including its hotels, and can draw revenue from them at any time. Among other, larger chains, Hilton is hoping its Tru brand will eventually be its largest, supplanting the company’s Hampton Inn, Tru’s global head, Alexandra Jaritz, said in a phone interview. That brand’s room prices have risen over time, leaving a gap in Hilton’s portfolio for the $100-to-$120 price point, Jaritz said,  InterContinental also announced an unnamed midscale brand in June, which is expected to be at a price point $10 to $15 less than its Holiday Inn Express brand and could eventually capture part of an estimated $20 billion market segment, Heather Balsley, IHG’s senior vice president of Americas brands and marketing, told Reuters.

Summary: ट्रम्प होटल्स मिडस्केल ब्रांड के लिए लगभग 10 नई फ्रेंचाइजी से बात कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration had a simple but stark message for world financial leaders who gathered in Washington on Thursday amid worries about rising U.S. protectionism: fair trade means tit-for-tat tariffs. Speaking to bankers just hours after the formal start of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings, White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Washington was prepared to get tougher in the trade arena. “If you want to insist on having a tariff on a product - which we prefer you not - the president believes that we should treat you in a reciprocal fashion and that we should tax your product coming into the United States,” Cohn said. “That is free, that is open, and that is fair.” Asked at the Institute of International Finance about his message for his international counterparts, Cohn said the United States doesn’t want to be “taken advantage of” any more.   “The message is simple. We care about the United States of America, we care about economic prosperity, we care about economic growth, we care about trade, we care about being treated fairly,” he said. Earlier at the White House, President Donald Trump signed a directive to study whether steel imports into the United States should be restricted for national security reasons under a law passed in 1962. Such moves, including a review of “Buy American” rules launched earlier this week, have raised concerns that the Trump administration is looking outside the World Trade Organization for remedies to restrict U.S. imports. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters on Thursday that more needed to be done to make the global trading system fairer and expressed a willingness to work with Trump to do just that. In a news conference, Lagarde said there was a need to improve the WTO dispute settlement rules as well as reduce government subsidies for industry and tackle other trade distortions. She said the IMF would do its part in working to cut government subsidies for industry and other trade practices that limit competition, but said “protectionist measures” needed to be avoided. “From the various contacts that I’ve had with the (Trump)  administration so far, I have every reason to believe that we will make progress, that we will cooperate all together in order to support and indeed improve the system as we have it,” Lagarde said. The IMF also has expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s plan to cut taxes, releasing reports on Wednesday that said such a move could fuel financial risk-taking and increase public debt. Appearing alongside Cohn, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would unveil the tax plan “soon, very soon,” and predicted it would be passed by Congress this year.  But he gave few details and shed no light on whether the plan would include a controversial border-tax component. “It will be sweeping, it will be significant and it will create a lot of economic growth,” Mnuchin said. “The plan will pay for itself with growth.” Separately, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim also put in a plug for free trade and said he was “encouraged” by his engagement so far with Trump. But he added that he would not reduce the multilateral lender’s commitment to trade or to financing alternative energy projects.  “The science of climate change didn’t change with any particular election, and I don’t see that it will,” Kim said at a news conference. “We have to be an evidence-based organization.”    The IMF and World Bank meetings come about a month after Mnuchin insisted that an anti-protectionism pledge be dropped from a Group of 20 communique issued in Baden-Baden, Germany. Eswar Prasad, former head of the IMF’s China department, said the Trump administration may choose to simply ignore the advice of the IMF and other institutions.  “The IMF has little leverage since its limited toolkit of analysis-based advice, persuasion, and peer pressure is unlikely to have much of an impact on this administration’s policies,” said Prasad, now an international trade professor at Cornell University. Mnuchin’s decision against naming China a currency manipulator last week removed one concern for the IMF ahead of the meetings.

Summary: व्यापार को लेकर ट्रम्प प्रशासन और विश्व के वित्तीय अधिकारियों के बीच टकराव