NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans are increasingly confident in the news media and less so in President Donald Trump’s administration after a tumultuous year in U.S. politics that tested the public’s trust in both institutions, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.  The poll of more than 14,300 people found that the percentage of adults who said they had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the press rose to 48 percent in September from 39 percent last November. Earlier this year, Trump branded the entire industry as the “enemy of the American people.”  The percentage of those who said they had “hardly any” confidence in the press dropped to 45 percent from 51 percent over the same period.  Confidence in Trump’s administration moved in the opposite direction.  Reuters/Ipsos, which tracked confidence in major institutions every couple of months after the 2016 presidential election, found in late January that 52 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the new president’s executive branch. That dropped to 51 percent in the May survey and to 48 percent in the latest poll. Trump took office in January.  In comparison, 57 percent of Americans expressed similar levels of confidence in former Democratic President Barack Obama’s outgoing administration in November.  The poll also found that the shift in trust was not simply a partisan reaction to a Republican president.  From January to September, the percentage of people who had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the executive branch dropped 6 percentage points among Republicans and 3 points among Democrats.  The percentage of those who expressed similar levels of confidence in the media rose 3 points this year among Republicans and 11 points among Democrats.  More than other modern presidents, Trump has treated the news media as an opposition party. He has shamed individual reporters by name and responded to unflattering reports as “fake news.”  Every president clashes with the news media, but Trump “has gone a step further in attacking the press and questioning their legitimacy,” said Martha Kumar, a presidential historian who has worked with White House transition teams for Obama and 2008 Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain.  “What you’re seeing now is a gradual recognition of the importance of the press” at a time when people are still getting used to a new president whose campaign is under federal investigation for alleged collusion with Russia, Kumar said. Trump has denied any collusion occurred.  Kumar added that confidence in the press may be rising this year because news organizations have offered wildly different perspectives on Trump, satisfying people who like him as well as those who do not.  “They’re not all watching and reading the same things,” she said. “They’re gravitating toward organizations they trust.”  Ari Fleischer, former Republican President George W. Bush’s first press secretary, said any shift in the way people viewed the press and the president was likely the product of an oppositional relationship that both sides had pushed since the 2016 presidential campaign.  “Trump throws fastballs directly at the press’ head. He does it almost every day,” Fleischer said.  “This makes those who oppose Trump draw into the press,” elevating its stature among those who would otherwise not trust the media, he said.  “But the press has played into it by the mistakes they’ve made, by missing the rise of Trump, by being too liberal,” Fleischer added. “They’ve helped create this environment.”  The public placed its highest levels of confidence in the military, law enforcement and academia, according to the latest poll that ended on Sept. 5. Americans lost confidence this year in the executive branch and in Congress, while their confidence rose for most other institutions, including the press and academia.  The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It ran three polls this year on confidence in major institutions: between Jan. 24 and Feb. 7, May 11 to May 21 and from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.  It collected a combined 14,328 responses from those polls, and the data has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points.

Summary: प्रेस, जिसे ट्रम्प द्वारा 'दुश्मन' करार दिया गया था, जनता द्वारा तेजी से भरोसा किया जा रहा हैः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Claire McCaskill will be absent from Congress for the next three weeks as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer, the Missouri Democrat wrote in a blog post on Monday. McCaskill, who leads the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said she will post online how she would have voted on any matters that come up during her absence and will submit questions in writing for any missed hearings. “It’s a little scary, but my prognosis is good and I expect a full recovery,” McCaskill wrote.

Summary: सीनेटर मैककास्किल कैंसर के इलाज के लिए तीन सप्ताह तक अनुपस्थित रहेंगे


ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that allegations there had been a secret deal between Moscow and Donald Trump before his inauguration as U.S. president were “hysteria.” “There was nothing concrete, zero. It’s just hysteria. Should I give you a pill?” Putin told a moderator when asked about a possible deal between Trump and Moscow. Putin, addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, accused the United States of carrying out “crude and systematic interference in Russian affairs for many years”.

Summary: रूस ने ट्रंप की टीम के साथ कोई गुप्त समझौता नहीं कियाः पुतिन


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Union should not mediate in the secession crisis in Spain s northern region of Catalonia as Madrid is able to handle the situation, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. Macron was speaking ahead of a possible proclamation of independence later on Tuesday by Carles Puigdemont, president of the Catalan regional government, that would aggravate Spain s worst political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981.  Why are Europe, France and Germany not interfering in the Catalan issue? Because Europe is made up of sovereign states,  Macron said on a visit to Frankfurt, Germany, where he later met Chancellor Angela Merkel.  If I were to intervene in the Catalan matter it would be interfering in the domestic affairs of Spain and that would be intolerable for the prime minister and for the Spanish monarch.  Macron backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in his standoff with the secessionists.  I don t have the feeling that they are being oppressed,  he said.  That is why I continue to hold firm to this line in my declarations of support for Mariano Rajoy - because if I don t there will be disintegration,  he said in a debate before university students.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ को कैटलन संकट में मध्यस्थता नहीं करनी चाहिएः फ्रांस के मैक्रों


LONDON (Reuters) - Theresa May appointed a strong Brexit supporter as aid minister on Thursday following a resignation that left the British prime minister struggling to ward off open conflict in a cabinet divided over leaving the European Union. May is grappling with crises on several fronts. Her team is struggling to make headway in exit talks with the EU, several ministers are embroiled in a wider sexual harassment scandal and her ability to command a majority in parliament is facing its most serious test.  Penny Mordaunt, 44, who has previously held junior ministerial roles, had a short meeting with May at Downing Street during which her appointment as the new International Development Secretary was confirmed. Fellow Brexit supporter Priti Patel resigned from the position on Wednesday over undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials that breached diplomatic protocol. Patel s resignation forced May into her second cabinet reshuffle in a week after Michael Fallon resigned as defense secretary in the sexual harassment scandal. Two other ministers, including May s deputy, are also being investigated.  Although May and her cabinet are united in their intention to take Britain out of the EU, her ministerial team is seen as a delicate balancing act between lawmakers who are still identified as  remainers  or  leavers  according to how they voted in the referendum.  Leaving aside Penny Mordaunt s qualifications for the job, the main one is obviously that she s a Brexiteer. It doesn t seem now that any appointment can be made in this government other than on the basis of whether that person supported  leave  or  remain ,  said Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.  That is indicative of the difficult position that Theresa May is in and you ve got to ask whether that is good for the country.  Mordaunt campaigned for the  Vote Leave  group during the EU referendum, and was criticized by then-prime minister David Cameron for inaccurately saying that Britain would not be able to stop Turkey from joining the EU if it remained a member. All EU states have veto powers on new members. The former junior defense minister was elected in 2010 to represent the southern English coastal city of Portsmouth, where she also serves as a volunteer reservist for the Royal Navy.  In the early 1990s she worked in hospitals and orphanages in Romania, and recently spoke about the  medieval  conditions she witnessed there. Until Thursday s appointment, Mordaunt held a junior ministerial post with responsibilities for disabled people, health and work within the Department of Work and Pensions. The instability in May s top team adds to what is already a difficult political situation.  An ill-judged snap election in June cost her party its majority in parliament and has sapped her authority at a time when she is trying to heal deep divisions within her own party and negotiate Britain s departure from the EU. The European Parliament s Brexit negotiator doused hopes that those negotiations were nearing a breakthrough, saying   major issues  must still be resolved on safeguarding citizens  rights. A fresh round of negotiations between Britain and the European Commission began on Thursday. Progress in Brussels is vital to help May keep onside nervous businesses who say they urgently need to know what will happen when Britain leaves the bloc; otherwise they will be forced to start triggering contingency plans. On Wednesday, EU envoys discussed delaying the launch of talks with London on a post-Brexit relationship to next year. Sixteen months after Britain narrowly voted to leave the EU in a referendum, opinions are still split over Brexit at every level from voter to minister. In replacing Patel, an outspoken leaver, with another Brexiteer, May looked to maintain her senior team s balance. The promotion of a junior minister could also help placate younger members of the party, many of whom are angry at her mishandling of the snap election campaign and feel they should be given a chance to regenerate the party s support. Failure to satisfy the party is seen as a risk to May s future as leader. She is reliant on uniting all her lawmakers to pass legislation, including the laws needed to enact Brexit which will be up for debate in parliament next week. If she is unable to prove her ability to pass legislation and govern effectively, the Conservative party - historically intolerant of weakened leaders - could seek to replace her, although there are currently no clear candidates to do so.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के मे ने घोटाले से प्रभावित सहायता मंत्री की जगह लेने के लिए ब्रेक्साइटर को चुना


DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait s deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday that the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council would continue to operate despite a row among three of its members and Qatar that it has unsuccessfully sought to mediate. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain plus non-GCC member Egypt cut off diplomatic, travel and trade ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting militants and their arch-foe Iran. Doha denies the charges and says their move is aimed at curtailing its sovereignty. Western nations have called for the countries, which are all close U.S. allies, to settle their differences in talks. The heads of state from the three boycotting countries skipped a GCC summit hosted by Kuwait s ruler in December, and the UAE called for the formation of a bilateral committee with Saudi Arabia on economic, political and military issues. But Kuwait appears determined to preserve the loose union set up in 1980 as a bulwark against larger neighbors Iraq and Iran, and said its reconciliation efforts would proceed. Despite the spat which appears to have no end in sight, the GCC s work  will not be frozen or disrupted,  Khaled Jarallah was quoted by state news agency KUNA as telling reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Kuwait.  After the summit in Kuwait, we are not worried about the future of the council,  Jarallah added.   Mediation efforts have not stopped, and a breakthrough will be achieved one day.

Summary: कुवैत ने कहा कि कतर संकट के बावजूद जीसीसी काम करता रहेगा


MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippine military said on Thursday there was a  big possibility  that a top Malaysian militant tipped to become Islamic State s point man in Southeast Asia has been killed in a battle overnight. Twenty rebels among the remaining Islamic State loyalists holed up in the devastated heart of Marawi City were killed in the latest fighting, likely including Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, said Colonel Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of a military task force.  There is a big possibility that Dr Mahmud is among them,  Brawner told reporters.  But we will only be definite once we have a match of probably DNA samples, maybe of the dental records.  If confirmed, Mahmud s death would be a blow to any effort by Islamic State, which is on the back foot in Syria and Iraq, to establish a presence in Mindanao, an island with a history of rebellion and home to the predominantly Roman Catholic nation s Muslim minority.  The Marawi siege has been the Philippines  biggest security crisis in years, but some experts see it as a prelude to a more ambitious bid by militants to exploit Mindanao s poverty and use its jungles and mountains as a base to train, recruit and launch attacks in the region. The armed forces in a statement said 13 militants were killed overnight and seven on Monday morning. Two hostages were rescued and information they provided meant the authorities were  increasingly becoming confident  that Mahmud was dead. The 39-year-old former university lecturer is believed to have been pivotal in raising and channeling funds for the alliance and its foreign fighters during an occupation that has lasted 150 days, killing more than 1,000 people, mostly rebels. Central Marawi has been flattened by government air strikes. Some experts say Mahmud could become Islamic State s Southeast Asian  emir  after the death on Monday of Isnilon Hapilon, the head of the alliance that seeks to carve out an Islamic State  Wilaya  in the southern Philippines. Philippine soldiers on Monday killed Hapilon, a target of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. They also killed Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers at the helm of the Maute militant clan. Mahmud was seen in a video alongside Hapilon and the Maute brothers plotting the Marawi siege. Security experts say he studied in Pakistan and learned to make bombs in an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He left Malaysia in 2014. Brawner said the military was relentless in finishing off the rebels, but was unsure how many were left. Estimates on Monday were 20 to 40 fighters.   The resistance is still there. In fact, we can hear from the background, the battle is ongoing,  he said. Security analyst Rommel Banlaoi said the end of Mahmud would not mean the end of the extremists  presence in Mindanao.  There are still high-value terrorist personalities who are still at large in Mindanao, not to mention other foreign fighters coming from Indonesia and elsewhere in the Arab world,  he said on television.  They are very, very elusive and because they mixed with the communities and at the same time, they hang out with the armed groups that have the mastery of the terrain in Mindanao. It s very difficult for them to be caught by the military.

Summary: फिलीपींस का कहना है कि मलेशियाई आतंकवादी नेता के मारे जाने की 'बड़ी संभावना' है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump kept up his criticism of Mexico on Friday, saying it “has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough,” as a crisis over border security and trade deepened. “Massive trade deficits & little help on the very weak border must change NOW!” Trump wrote on Twitter.  On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto scrapped a planned trip to Washington to meet Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Mexico pay for a wall on the U.S. border to halt illegal immigration.      The White House also suggested on Thursday that the United States could impose a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for the wall, sending the peso tumbling. Speaking about the scrapped summit, senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway on Friday told Fox News that “the relationship was not imploded. This one meeting has been canceled and that was a mutual cancellation.” In a separate interview on CBS News, she said the tax was one funding possibility and waved off the chance of Mexican retaliation that could cost American jobs, telling CBS News: “They can do what they want.” “Mexico should pay for that wall because they get an awful lot from this country,” Conway told CBS. The White House has said its tax proposal is in the early stages.  A plan being weighed by House Republicans would exempt export revenues from taxation but impose a 20 percent tax on imported goods. The idea, known as a border adjustment tax, would be a significant change from current U.S. policy. Retailers and other businesses that sell imported goods are not keen on the idea, and some lawmakers have expressed concern about its impact on U.S. consumers.  “The costs for everything from groceries, to cars, to office supplies would go up by 20 (percent), making it harder for middle class families to pay for things they need every day,”     Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि मेक्सिको ने 'लंबे समय तक' अमेरिका का फायदा उठाया है


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An unusual noise was detected last week on the day an Argentine submarine went missing, near its last reported position, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters on Wednesday. Pressed by reporters on the nature of the detected sound, Balbi declined to say whether it indicated an explosion or other emergency aboard the ARA San Juan, which was last heard from on Nov. 15.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना की नौसेना का कहना है कि दिन में सुनाई देने वाला असामान्य शोर गायब हो गया


PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France said on Friday the United States had sidelined itself in the Middle East by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital, but the EU s top diplomat insisted Washington remains a mediator as Europe struggled for unity in its diplomacy. U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem revived old tensions between EU governments that want to see peace in the Middle East but have varying degrees of sympathy towards Israel and the Palestinians.  I hear some, including Mr Tillerson, say things will happen in time and the hour is for negotiations. Until now (the U.S.) could have had a mediation role in this conflict, but it has excluded itself a little,  French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is in Paris for talks after visiting Brussels and Vienna.   The reality is they are alone and isolated on this issue,  he told France Inter radio. With Britain distracted by its planned exit from the European Union, France is trying to lead Europe in Middle East negotiations, organizing a peace conference last January.  But it is EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini who represents the bloc in the Middle East Quartet of the United States, United Nations, the EU and Russia.  On Thursday, Mogherini pledged to reinvigorate diplomacy with Russia, the United States, Jordan and others to ensure Palestinians have a capital in Jerusalem too. She said Washington was still a pivotal peacemaker. But Hungary blocked a statement planned by all EU 28 governments in response to Trump s announcement of Wednesday, leaving it to Mogherini to deliver a rejection of it.  There is no change in Hungary s Middle East policy compared with the recent past. We have made it clear previously that we urge a negotiated solution,  the foreign ministry said in response to a Reuters request, declining to comment on the U.S. decision.  We do not consider a joint statement by the 28 member states of the European Union necessary on the matter.    On Wednesday evening, the Czech foreign ministry said it would begin considering moving the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem  only based on results of negotiations with key partners in the region and in the world . Many in Israel saw the Czech ministry s statement as an endorsement of Trump s move. But Mogherini said on Friday Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek had reassured her the statement was  definitely not an act of support for the U.S. administration s decision.   He guaranteed to me that the Czech Republic stays firmly with the common European consolidated position,  Mogherini told a news conference with Jordan s foreign minister. Prague accepts Israel s sovereignty only over West Jerusalem, diplomats say. Palestinians want the capital of a future state they seek to be in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally. Mogherini stressed that all EU governments were united on the issue of Jerusalem and in seeking a solution envisaging a Palestinian state in territory - the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem - that Israel took 50 years ago. The EU believes it has a duty to make its voice heard as the Palestinians  biggest aid donor and Israel s biggest trade partner, but policy divisions within the bloc have weakened its influence.  EU foreign ministers will aim to present a unified front to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Brussels on Monday. A senior French diplomat said it was crucial that EU governments had a clear message for the Israeli premier.  What we are going to try and do is convince our European partners when we meet Netanyahu ...to tell him that what is happening with the United States is a serious issue for him, Israel and any peace prospect,  the diplomat said. Netanyahu will first stop off in Paris on Sunday to hold talks with President Emmanuel Macron. EU governments have a range of positions, from the Czech Republic s strong support for Israel, also shared by Germany, to Sweden s 2014 decision to recognize a future state of Palestine. The EU is also perceived by some in Israel as being too pro-Palestinian, partly because of the EU s long-held opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Summary: ट्रम्प की जेरूसलम योजना ने यूरोपीय संघ की कूटनीति में तनाव को पुनर्जीवित किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the U.S.  election results would have no effect on Tehran’s policies, state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying, noting that Iran’s expanding economic ties with the world were irreversible.  “The results of the U.S. election have no effect on the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Rouhani said.  “Iran’s policy for constructive engagement with the world and the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions have made our economic relations with all countries expanding and irreversible.” He added that Iran’s nuclear deal with six world powers has been reflected in a United Nation Security Council resolution and cannot be dismissed by one government.

Summary: ईरान के रूहानी का कहना है कि ट्रम्प के चुनाव का तेहरान की नीतियों पर कोई प्रभाव नहीं पड़ा हैः आईआरएनए


BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Another Donald Trump mural believed to be the work of Australian graffiti artist Lushsux has popped up on Israel s barrier in the occupied West Bank, this time depicting the U.S. president sharing a kiss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His face hidden by a headdress, a man who identified himself as Lushsux said against the backdrop of a cement section of the Israeli wall in Bethlehem that he hoped his painting would draw attention to Palestinians stuck in  an indoor prison . The Bethlehem wall has become a showcase of protest art voicing Palestinians  fears that Israel s West Bank fence-and-concrete barrier is a land grab that may deny them a state. Israelis deem the project a bulwark against Palestinian attack.  The wall is a message in itself,  the man, who said he painted the mural overnight, told Reuters.  I don t need to write  Free Palestine  or something like that, something really direct ... that people will ignore.  I just paint what I usually paint and maybe people will start looking at the background and looking at the razor wire and looking at people stuck in here, and maybe that ll work better,  he said in Australian-accented English. Murals on the barrier believed to be the work of Lushsux include one showing Trump kissing an Israeli watchtower and another depicting him placing his hand on the barrier and thinking about building a similar wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Summary: ट्रम्प और नेतन्याहू ने वेस्ट बैंक की दीवार पर एक चुंबन साझा किया


INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Duane Oreskowic was speechless when he learned last week that his job would be one of 1,400 lost when his employer, Carrier Corp, moved production to Mexico. But he has found his voice again since learning that Bernie Sanders is interested in his plight. “I am a big-time Sanders fan and I hope he can help us,” said the 37-year-old assembly specialist. “But even if he can’t, maybe we can stop this happening to other American workers.” The Feb. 9 announcement by United Technologies Corp’s Carrier unit that it would shift production to Mexico from Indianapolis has thrust the long-term trend of U.S. manufacturing job decline to the foreground of the nation’s election year agenda.  Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump seized on the announcement to amplify his position that companies such as Carrier should be taxed if they send jobs to low wage countries. Democratic candidate Sanders called Carrier, a maker of air conditioners, an “example of how NAFTA and other trade policies have been a disaster for American workers.” The 2016 U.S. presidential election is in November. Communities around Indianapolis have witnessed a steady outflow of factory jobs over the past two decades. What made this action different was a YouTube video of the workers getting the news that by Thursday afternoon had more than 3.4 million views, and the political reaction to it.           “I came here 30 years ago looking for the American dream,” said Hatice Lancaster, 51, originally from Turkey. “Maybe I should have gone to Mexico instead.”  Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents the Carrier workers, said he hopes to use the attention to force Carrier to reverse its decision.  Jones faces a steep climb. Carrier has told the union it can pay Mexican workers $3 an hour versus more than $20 on average in Indianapolis. A spokeswoman for Carrier said the company pays a “competitive wage” based on local conditions and could not discuss pay levels. Since 1998, the chain-smoking, plain-spoken and profane Jones has watched the number of factories represented by his local dwindle to 12 from 38. He and his staff can rattle off the names of plants that have closed.  “We didn’t ask for this fight,” Jones said. “But we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.” Jones is now giving interviews to anyone who asks - he was interrupted by multiple phone calls seeking comment while talking to Reuters  - in the hope “this time America will pay attention and do something about rampant corporate greed.”  Jones is grateful that Trump has drawn public attention to Carrier, but he sees Sanders “as a champion for our cause.” Jones said he has been contacted by the Sanders campaign. A member of the Sanders campaign said the Vermont senator’s team would be in touch with Jones. Some Carrier workers interviewed outside the plant said they are drawn to Trump. Brian Easton, 45, said he and his wife work for Carrier, and are now coming to terms with what he said is likely to be a permanent drop in their living standard.  “This country is run by Corporate America and we need someone in office like Donald Trump who is not beholden to anyone,” Easton said. “I don’t think he can save our jobs, but if we draw attention to this perhaps other workers won’t have to go through this.”

Summary: सैंडर्स, ट्रम्प ने वाहक नौकरियों के लिए लड़ाई में संघ को उम्मीद दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The presence of armed men in the streets of the capital of Ukraine s breakaway Luhansk region is an attempted coup by a fired local police chief, Igor Plotnitsky, the head of the self-styled  Luhansk People s Republic  (LNR), said on Wednesday. Plotnitsky sacked Igor Kornet, the local interior minister, on Monday.   How else can you call the situation when the person fired by court from his job is attempting to conduct some operations by force? This an attempt to seize power,  Plotnitsky s website quoted him as saying during a meeting with reporters.

Summary: यूक्रेन के विद्रोही नेता का कहना है कि लुहान्स्क में स्थिति तख्तापलट का प्रयास है


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s ruling Communist Party has agreed to amend the party constitution, expected to embed President Xi Jinping s political thought, ahead of next week s five-yearly party congress in which Xi will tighten his grip on power.    The party s Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, on Saturday passed a previously announced proposal to amend the constitution which will now be put to the Congress for formal approval. A lengthy communique released by the party via state media offered praise for the past five years under Xi s leadership, especially success in the fight against corruption, but did not say what wording would be inserted into the party constitution. A key measure of Xi s power will be whether he manages to have his name  crowned  in the party constitution, elevating him to the level of previous leaders exemplified by Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory. Xi s more recent predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, both had the party constitution amended to include their guiding thoughts, but without their names directly attached. Jiang has his  Three Represents , which embraced private entrepreneurs, written in, while Hu, Xi s immediate predecessor, had his economic doctrine of  scientific development  included. In the section of the communique mentioning former leaders  theories, there was a reference to  the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping s series of important speeches and new concepts, new thinking and new strategy on governing , signalling that could be the phrasing used.  The party has also been pushing Xi s  Four Comprehensives,  which refer to China working  comprehensively  to build a moderately prosperous society and strengthen reforms, rule of law and party discipline, as well as the  Four Greats , which focus on party building and national rejuvenation. The four-day Central Committee plenary meeting also approved reports by the party s corruption watchdog of investigations into several former senior officials who have been sacked or jailed for graft, including Sun Zhengcai, once a contender for top leadership who was expelled from the party last month.  Since assuming power five years ago, Xi has mounted a sweeping campaign against deep-rooted corruption, with more than one million people punished and dozens of senior officials jailed. The party has vowed that the campaign, overseen by close Xi ally Wang Qishan, will never end. The Congress will open on Wednesday with a speech by Xi, the party s head, details of which are a closely guarded secret ahead of time but will focus more on ideology than concrete policies. Last October, the party gave Xi the title of  core  leader, a significant strengthening of his position ahead of the Congress, at which a new Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China, will be constituted.

Summary: चीन ने पुष्टि की कि वह पार्टी के संविधान में संशोधन करेगा, शी के सिद्धांतों को शामिल करने की संभावना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While he has swallowed a big budget cut, had his chosen deputy vetoed, and been dismissed as invisible in his own building, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is playing a patient game to gain influence by avoiding public conflicts with the White House, six current and former U.S. officials said on Thursday. The former Exxon Mobil Corp CEO faces multiple challenges in his unfamiliar role as chief U.S. diplomat, including a boss in U.S. President Donald Trump who makes unpredictable policy pronouncements and does not take kindly to criticism or contradiction, said four current officials. Relations between U.S. presidents and their chief diplomats have varied widely in history, but those between Trump and Tillerson are especially important because of potential conflicts between the unsettled state of the world and Trump’s “America First” agenda, two of the officials said. As a result, they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, Tillerson is trying to keep a low profile, which is his natural instinct, and seeking a way to make his case on foreign policy without being drawn into losing battles. One case in point is Thursday’s White House proposal to cut spending on U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid by some 28 percent, a sign that the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are not Trump priorities.On Thursday in Tokyo, Tillerson said the State Department’s current spending is “simply not sustainable,” and accepted the “challenge” Trump had given in proposing to cut more than a quarter of his agency’s budget. “He is making a very sensible calculation,” said a former U.S. official, noting that Congress, not the president, holds the purse strings. “You state your loyalty to the president, and then you know that you will not actually have to live with the president’s budget.” NO WAY TO WIN ‘HEAD-TO-HEAD’ BATTLES Two current and former officials said Tillerson is no stranger to cost cuts, having lived through waves of them at Exxon, and they suggested that he had convinced the White House to allow him to make many of the cuts himself.     “Tillerson isn’t opposed to cutting the budget at all, but he figured out that he couldn’t win head-to-head battles with the president and the people close to him, so he’s pursuing a different strategy, arguing that he can’t make wise decisions about what to cut until he’s more familiar with his department and its budget,” said one veteran State Department official. Michael Anton, a National Security Council spokesman, said Tillerson is held in high regard at the White House. “President Trump has the utmost confidence in the Secretary of State and looks forward to Mr. Tillerson implementing a bold agenda to revitalize American foreign policy,” Anton said. While he is delaying some of the drastic cuts the White House wanted, it is far from clear that Tillerson can prevail over Trump aides such as Steve Bannon who want to dismantle parts of the federal government and limit U.S. engagement with the world, said three of the current and former officials.     The White House veto of Elliot Abrams, Tillerson’s choice for deputy secretary, the department’s second-highest post, “drove that point home,” one of the current officials said. Despite that defeat, a White House official said Tillerson has good access to the president, including multiple lunches, dinners and meetings. Tillerson dined with Trump on Monday, the night before he flew to Asia. Tillerson’s low profile - he held his first news conference on Thursday in Tokyo seven weeks after becoming secretary of state - has brought criticism from the media and many State Department officials that he remains invisible and has failed to cultivate potential allies in Trump’s cabinet and on Capitol Hill. Chas Freeman, a retired diplomat who served as the U.S.  ambassador to Saudi Arabia and as the lead interpreter for former President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, said Tillerson’s low-key style might be a survival tactic. “If he says something, he runs a big risk of getting crosswise with Trump,” Freeman said. “This may be a Fabian strategy,” referring to the Roman statesman Fabius who defeated the Carthaginian general Hannibal by avoiding frontal conflict.

Summary: बजट में कटौती के बावजूद टिलरसन दीर्घकालिक प्रभाव हासिल करने के लिए काम कर रहे हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it tapped Robert Patterson, a career investigator, to temporarily lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, after the drug office’s previous acting chief stepped down. Patterson, considered the highest-ranking special career agent at the DEA, has been serving as the agency’s principal deputy administrator since November 2016. He started his DEA career in the New York Division in 1988. Chuck Rosenberg, a holdover from Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, left his job on Sunday. His departure came two months after he criticized Republican President Donald Trump for telling law enforcement officers not to be “too nice” to suspects.  It is unclear who will ultimately be named to permanently lead the DEA. Trump has yet to put forth a nomination. Rosenberg had led the DEA as acting administrator since 2015. Prior to that, he was chief of staff to former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May. The United States is facing a major opioid drug epidemic and the Justice Department has been stepping up efforts to police it. There are also questions about whether the Justice Department will take a more aggressive approach toward enforcing federal laws prohibiting the use of or distribution of marijuana.

Summary: न्याय विभाग ने ड्रग प्रवर्तन एजेंसी के नए कार्यवाहक प्रमुख को नामित किया


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The main U.S. visa program for technology workers could face renewed scrutiny under President-elect Donald Trump and his proposed Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions, a long-time critic of the skilled-worker program. H-1B visas admit 65,000 workers and another 20,000 graduate student workers each year. The tech industry, which has lobbied to expand the program, may now have to fight a rear-guard action to protect it, immigration attorneys and lobbyists said. Trump sent mixed signals on the campaign trail, sometimes criticizing the visas but other times calling them an important way to retain foreign talent. Sessions, however, has long sought to curtail the program and introduced legislation last year aiming to make the visas less available to large outsourcing companies such as Infosys. Such firms, by far the largest users of H-1B visas, provide foreign contractors to U.S. companies looking to slash information technology costs. “Thousands of U.S. workers are being replaced by foreign labor,” Sessions said at a February hearing. A spokesperson for Sessions did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Trump transition team spokesperson declined to comment. The H-1B visa is intended for specialty occupations that typically require a college education. Companies use them in two main ways to hire technology workers. Tech firms such as Microsoft and Google typically hire highly skilled, well-paid foreign workers that are in short supply. They help many of them secure so-called green cards that allow them to work in the U.S. permanently. By contrast, firms such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, both based in India, use the visas to deploy lower-paid contractors that critics say rarely end up with green cards. Infosys did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Tata spokesman declined to comment. H-1B visas are assigned through a lottery once a year by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This year, companies filed 236,000 petitions for the 85,000 available visas, a cap set in U.S. law. They are awarded to employers - not employees - and tied to specific positions. Both Democratic and Republican critics have argued that companies such as Walt Disney Co and Southern California Edison Co (SCE_pe.A), a utility, have used the program to terminate in-house IT employees and replace them with cheaper contractors. Sessions last year urged then-Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Southern California Edison’s use of H-1B visas in a letter than was also signed by Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders, Richard Durbin and Sherrod Brown. Disney and Edison did not immediately respond to requests for comment but have said previously that they paid foreign contractors comparably with local staffers. The Justice Department in 2013 settled a visa fraud case with Infosys for $34 million. Federal investigators accused Infosys of using easier-to-obtain business travel visas to import foreign workers who were required to have H-1B visas. Investigators also alleged that Infosys told foreign workers to lie to U.S. officials about the cities where they would work. In the settlement, Infosys denied the allegations but agreed to retain a third-party auditor for two years and to provide the government with detailed descriptions of what its visa holders were supposed to be doing in the U.S. Several constituencies have called for program reforms, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, that industry’s largest professional association. It wants the lottery ditched in favor of a system that would award visas to companies offering the highest-paying jobs, said Russ Harrison, director of government relations.  That could potentially shut out employers looking to mine the program for cheap foreign labor. Sessions included a similar measure in his 2015 bill. Tech industry groups also want changes. FWD.us - the immigration lobbying group backed by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg - supports setting higher minimum wages and giving priority to companies that sponsor H-1B workers for green cards. “We’re going to advocate for expanding the program, but we’re also going to advocate for reforming the program,” FWD.us President Todd Shulte said in an interview. The current program mainly benefits big companies at the expense of both U.S. and immigrant workers, said Gaurav Mehta, a 32-year-old H-1B holder from New Delhi who works for a cyber security firm in San Francisco. H-1B workers struggle to switch jobs without risking deportation, he said, which allows employers to pay them less. “The current system is not working for Americans, and it’s not working for immigrants,” he said. Some Trump allies expect him to keep the program mostly intact, including Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar - an Indian-born Chicago businessman who donated $900,000 to his campaign.  “He has said to us that these are amazing people and it would be crazy to let them go,” Kumar said in an interview. But Kumar has urged Trump to eliminate country-by-country quotas that create long waits for Indian and Chinese nationals to get green cards. John Miano, an attorney with the Immigration Reform Law Institute - a conservative group that has been aligned with Trump - also supports prioritizing H-1B applications from companies offering higher pay. Such a change would hit the outsourcing firms hard. The top 10 recipients of H-1B visas in 2015 were all outsourcing firms, according to government data compiled by the IEEE. Tata Consultancy Services topped the list by securing 8,333 H-1B visas. Amazon, by contrast, ranked number 12 and was awarded just 826 H-1B visas. Google and Microsoft ranked No. 14 and 15, with Facebook at No. 24 and Apple at No. 34. Some H-1B visa holders aren’t waiting. Sofie Graham - a marketer at the San Francisco startup BuildZoom.com and a dual Irish and British citizen - secured her H-1B visa last year. Although she could have worked for six years on the visa, she and the company decided to apply for a green card. “Everywhere I looked, people were saying we should have fewer H-1Bs,” she said. “I just wanted to get a green card as soon as possible.” (This version of the story has been refiled to clarify that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers represents engineers and not engineering companies)

Summary: ट्रंप, सेशंस के कार्यकाल में तकनीकी कर्मचारियों के वीजा का भविष्य अनिश्चित


(Reuters) - The state of Hawaii requested emergency court intervention on Wednesday to halt a revised executive order from President Donald Trump placing U.S. entry restrictions on refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries. Arguing that the new travel ban violates the U.S. Constitution, the state asked a Hawaii federal court to grant a temporary restraining order that should apply nationally. U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled earlier in the day that the state could sue over Trump’s new order, which was signed by the president on Monday.  It is the first legal challenge to the revised order. Watson said the state could revise its initial lawsuit, which had challenged Trump’s original ban signed in January. A hearing is set for March 15, a day before the new ban is to go into effect.  The government has said the president has wide authority to implement immigration policy and that the travel rules are necessary to protect against terrorist attacks.  Some legal experts have said court challenges will be more difficult now because changes to the order give exemptions to more people.  The revised travel order changed and replaced the original, more sweeping ban issued on Jan. 27 that caused chaos and protests at airports and was challenged in more than two dozen lawsuits around the country. A federal judge in Seattle put the first order on hold, in a decision upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco. The new order is much more narrowly tailored. It keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, but excludes Iraq and applies the restriction only to new visa applicants. It also removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.  The order no longer covers legal residents or existing visa holders, and makes waivers possible for some business, diplomatic and other travelers.  Immigration advocates have said the new ban, like the original one, discriminates against Muslims. But the first hurdle in a lawsuit is proving “standing” to sue, which means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find individuals that a court would rule have a right to sue. Hawaii claims its state universities would be harmed by the order because they would have trouble recruiting students and faculty. It also says the island state’s economy would be hit by a decline in tourism. The court papers cite reports that travel to the United States “took a nosedive” after Trump’s actions. The state was joined by a new plaintiff named Ismail Elshikh, an American citizen from Egypt who is an Imam at the Muslim Association of Hawaii whose mother-in-law lives in Syria, according to the lawsuit.   “This second Executive Order is infected with the same legal problems as the first Order,” the state said in court papers filed on Tuesday. The President’s order “is subjecting a portion of Hawaii’s population, including Dr. Elshikh, his family, and members of his Mosque, to discrimination and second-class treatment,” Hawaii said. The lawsuit says that Elshikh fears his mother-in-law will not be able to enter the country under the new order. “The family is devastated,” the filing said.  One of the groups eligible for waivers under the new ban are those seeking to visit or live with a close relative and who would face hardship if denied entry.  Adam Lauridsen, a San Francisco attorney representing students challenging Trump’s first order, said the waiver provisions in the new ban are similar to case-by-case exemptions allowed in the first ban. Earlier legal challenges were allowed to move forward despite those waivers, he said. In support of its actions, the Trump administration has cited a section of law that says the president can suspend  entry to the United States by “any class” of foreigners if he finds it would be “detrimental to the interests” of the country.

Summary: हवाई ने ट्रम्प के नए यात्रा प्रतिबंध को पहली चुनौती दी


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fighters with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia have credited Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan with their victory over Islamic State in Raqqa, in apparent response to U.S. criticism of their praise of a man jailed in Turkey for treason. In a video praising Ocalan s  ideological power , the YPG fighters rebuffed U.S. criticism of battle celebrations in Raqqa last week where the YPG s all-female affiliate, the YPJ, unfurled a banner with his face on it.  The banner has become a new focal point for Turkey s anger over U.S. support for the YPG, which Ankara sees as an extension of Ocalan s outlawed Kurdistan Workers  Party (PKK). Deeply concerned by the rise of Kurdish power in northern Syria, Turkey has opposed the U.S. alliance with the YPG which spearheaded the Raqqa campaign under the banner of the multi-ethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).  On Saturday, the U.S. embassy in Turkey issued a statement reiterating its misgivings about Ocalan, in an apparent response to criticism from the Turkish government over the banner.  The PKK is listed among foreign terror organizations. Ocalan has been jailed in Turkey for his actions related to the PKK. He is not a person to be respected,  it said. In the video circulated by the YPG press office on Sunday, seven fighters credit Ocalan s ideology for the defeat of Islamic State at Raqqa, which served as the jihadists  Syrian base of operations and a hub for planning attacks in the West.  All victories, developments and gains made here are results of a great battle based on his opinions and philosophy. If his ideological power hadn t been with us, we wouldn t know what to do in such a situation,  said one of the fighters.  Raqqa would never have been rescued from the darkness of recent years, and all other IS occupied cities as well.  Ocalan s influence runs deep in Kurdish-led regions that have emerged in northern Syria since its civil war began in 2011. Steps are under way to establish a new political system based on his ideas about federalism and local democracy.       Another of the fighters, who identified himself as a Canadian and gave his name as Hozan Kobane, said the U.S. government position on Ocalan was  a mistake  and  a bit behind the times .  The writings and the philosophy and the influence of Abdullah Ocalan was very, very decisive in motivating the soldiers with an ideology of peace and democracy that allowed this liberation to be possible,  he said. The U.S.-led coalition has said the Ocalan banner was not sanctioned by the SDF leadership.  Furthermore, the Coalition does not approve of the display of divisive symbols and imagery at a time in which we remain focused on the defeat of Daesh (IS) in Syria,  Colonel Ryan Dillon, the coalition spokesman, said. Ocalan has been in jail in Turkey since 1999 on a treason conviction. More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died in the fighting since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.

Summary: वाई. पी. जी. लड़ाकों ने सीरिया की जीत का श्रेय ओकलान को दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday embraced a suggestion from the Senate’s top Democrat to end congressional battles over the U.S. debt ceiling, a day after he stunned fellow Republicans by striking a major budget deal with the opposition party. Testing his new opening with Democrats, Trump also reached out on another tricky issue, the fate of 800,000 so-called Dreamers, young adults brought illegally to the country as children. He even honored a request by Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat, to publicly reassure the Dreamers they do not face imminent deportation. The Senate voted 80-17 to approve the deal Trump reached with Democrats on Wednesday, which would raise the federal debt limit and fund the government through Dec. 8. The legislation included $15.25 billion in aid for areas affected by Hurricane Harvey and other natural disasters. The bill now goes to the House for final congressional approval, where it faces opposition from conservatives who traditionally favor raising the ceiling while also cutting spending. Representative Bill Flores, a Republican helping round up votes for the deal, said his count of party members intending to vote yes on the legislation “didn’t look very good.” Trump voiced support on Thursday for the idea of eliminating the statutory cap on the U.S. Treasury Department’s authority to borrow. “For many years, people have been talking about getting rid of debt ceiling altogether, and there are a lot of good reasons to do that,” Trump told reporters. “It complicates things, it’s really not necessary.” “So certainly that’s something that will be discussed,” he added. Legislation that would end the need for Congress to regularly authorize debt ceiling increases came up during a White House meeting Trump had on Wednesday with Pelosi, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, people familiar with the meeting said. Schumer proposed eliminating the limit, and Trump and Vice President Mike Pence said they liked the idea, one source said. Schumer said the parties should canvass rank-and-file lawmakers to gauge support for getting rid of the ceiling ahead of the next deadline to raise it, in December, the source said. The meeting’s participants did not say whether they would seek to repeal the cap or revert to a practice of automatic increases tied to Congress approving its annual budget, the sources said. Republican Ryan said he opposed any effort to do away with lawmakers’ role in approving debt limit increases, citing the powers given to Congress under the U.S. Constitution. The United States spends more than it raises through taxes and other revenue, and issues debt to make up the difference. The limit on how much it can borrow is the debt ceiling. Congress must regularly vote to raise the cap, which frequently sparks nasty political fights that spook financial markets over the prospect of an unprecedented U.S. default. Representative Barry Loudermilk, a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said the proposal to scrap the debt ceiling was worth exploring. “This is something that just comes up over and over again and we’ve never done anything to fix it,” he said, adding lawmakers should have a conversation about finding a permanent fix that also leads to cutting deficit spending, such as a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.  But Republican Representative Joe Barton, who belongs to the party’s right-wing Freedom Caucus, said scrapping the debt ceiling was wrong and he hoped Trump “reconsiders his position.” Schumer said on Thursday he hoped the meeting was “a ray of hope for both parties coming together on the big issues.” Pelosi said Trump also made clear he wanted Congress to act on the Dreamers issue. U.S. lawmakers for years have failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. On Tuesday, Trump rescinded a program created by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that protected the immigrants from deportation and provided them work permits. Trump gave Congress six months to work on an alternative by delaying implementation until March.  Democrats want a bill addressing the Dreamers without other issues attached, but Pelosi did not rule out including border security measures that Trump and Ryan want. Pelosi said “we have a responsibility to secure our borders,” but that does not include Trump’s planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that many Democrats oppose. “We want to do it as soon as possible to strike while the iron is hot, because public opinion is so much in favor,” Pelosi told reporters. Pelosi said she told Trump the Dreamers needed his assurance he was not planning a six-month-long roundup for deportation. Trump subsequently wrote on Twitter: “For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about - No action!”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने ऋण सीमा और आप्रवासन पर डेमोक्रेट को फिर से गले लगाया


BANGKOK (Reuters) - Armed insurgents stopped and torched a Bangkok-bound passenger bus on a highway in southern Thailand on Sunday, police said. All 14 passengers, as well as the bus driver and his assistance, survived the attack, although their luggage were burned with the bus. The attack occurred in Yala, one of the predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim provinces in the south where a separatist insurgency has dragged on for more than a decade. More than 6,500 people have been killed since 2004. Police said at least 10 gunmen were involved in the latest attack. They all escaped, blocking the road with tree trunks and nails to thwart any pursuers. An army spokesman was not available for comment. As with most violence in Thailand s deep south, there was no claim of responsibility. The insurgents are fighting for secession from predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Thailand s military government has, since 2015, held talks brokered by Malaysia, aim at ending the violence. The process, which aim to established a  safety-zone  as a confidence-building measure by early next year, has been stalled.

Summary: दक्षिणी थाईलैंड में विद्रोहियों ने बस को जलाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior White House aide said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump would demand steps toward repealing Obamacare in any healthcare legislation, comments that cast doubt on the prospects for a short-term bill to shore up insurance markets.  Marc Short, the White House’s top liaison to Congress, said on CNN that Obamacare’s mandates and taxes would have to be rolled back and consumers be allowed to more heavily invest in health-savings accounts for Trump to sign off on any congressional deal.  “We’re willing to work on this but we need to make sure that we’re getting something that will actually reduce healthcare costs,” Short said.  Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray unveiled legislation to shore up the insurance markets created under the 2010 healthcare law by reviving the subsidies, which Trump has discontinued, for two years to help lower-income Americans obtain medical coverage. The bill appeared to be gaining some momentum on Thursday after several Republican senators said they would support the measure. But Short’s comments may put a damper on hopes for any sort of bipartisan agreement. Democrats have consistently opposed efforts to dismantle any and all parts of Obamacare.  Short said the administration was sending a list of the principles it would like to see in any legislation to the bill’s co-authors and would likely make them public. “The gist is we believe that the individual mandate should (be) repealed, employer mandate repealed and allow Americans to contribute to health savings accounts,” he said.  Earlier on Thursday, Alexander and Murray said the deal they struck now has the support of 12 of the 52 Republicans in the 100-seat Senate, as well as 12 Democrats.  While Alexander predicted in remarks on the Senate floor that the plan “will become law in some fashion before the end of the year,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not committed to bringing it to a vote, and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan is against it. Lobbyists and congressional aides closely following the matter said the legislation could make it onto the Senate floor tucked inside a bigger “must-pass” bill that Congress needs to act on in December, such as a broad spending measure to prevent a federal government shutdown. Trump campaigned for the presidency last year promising to get rid of Obamacare, the signature legislative achievement of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. But his fellow Republicans who control Congress have failed to repeal and replace the law thanks to deep intra-party divisions.  Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act, extended health insurance to 20 million people but Republicans call it  government interference in Americans’ healthcare.     The law’s individual mandate requires all Americans to purchase health insurance, while its employer mandate requires businesses of a certain size to offer affordable coverage.  Trump initially indicated support for the Alexander-Murray agreement but reversed himself, saying on Wednesday “I can never support bailing out” insurers. Senator Mike Rounds, one of the bill’s Republican co-sponsors, said that if Trump decides he does not support it, “then it will not go forward.” When a reporter noted that Trump does oppose it, Rounds replied, “That was yesterday.” Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Jeff Jonas, who focuses on healthcare, said there was too much political uncertainty for investors to latch onto any one thing, with Trump “flip-flopping every day” and Ryan not supportive of the bill. Among hospital stocks, Community Health Systems (CYH.N) closed up 3.7 percent, Tenet Healthcare Corp (THC.N) rose 2.9 percent and HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA.N) gained 3 percent. Most insurers rose more modestly. Without the subsidies, insurance premiums for some of the 10  million Americans who get coverage through Obamacare markets will surge. Noting that some conservative Republicans object to the subsidies, Alexander asked, “What’s conservative about creating chaos so millions can’t buy insurance, or at least failing to deal with the chaos that has been created?” The bill has broad support among Democrats, but had just seven Republicans on record supporting it only a day earlier. Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham, who co-authored a bill in September to repeal and replace Obamacare that failed to muster enough support, endorsed the bipartisan effort. “We believe we need a package which stabilizes the market in the short term and lays the groundwork for a long-term solution” that would overhaul Obamacare, they said in a joint statement. If passed in December, as opposed to before the Nov. 1 beginning of enrollment for 2018 Obamacare insurance policies, it would be unlikely to affect premiums for next year, meaning its benefits might not be felt until 2019. Insurers have already decided whether to participate in the Obamacare markets and set higher rates to build in the possibility that the subsidies would vanish. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies, but pass them on directly to consumers to reduce deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income people. The bill would also give more flexibility for states to offer a wider variety of health insurance plans while maintaining the requirement that sick and healthy people be charged the same rates for coverage. Many Senate Republicans are nervous about the prospect of voting on any healthcare measure - no matter what legislation it may be attached to - that buttresses Obamacare. Part of the fear, one senior Senate Republican aide said, is that Trump’s former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon is recruiting hard-line conservative primary challengers to run against incumbent Republican senators next year. The aide said incumbents do not want to be forced to cast a controversial vote to stabilize Obamacare, a law reviled by many conservatives. If all 46 Senate Democrats and two independents back the Alexander-Murray bill as expected, the support of the 12 Republicans means the bill has the 60 votes needed to reach the super-majority required to pass most legislation in the Senate. Trump on Thursday underscored his concerns about the bill. He urged Alexander and Murray to be “careful with respect to the insurance companies,” which he said are “extremely talented at making money.” Alexander and Murray said their legislation does not bail out insurers. Alexander said House Republicans passed an Obamacare repeal and replace bill in May that also would continue subsidy payments for two years. Alexander said Trump has called him four times in recent days on this subject, including a Saturday night call when he was at a restaurant and “my dinner got cold.” He urged the president to support the initiative.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि ओबामाकेयर को वापस लेना अल्पकालिक सुधार का हिस्सा होना चाहिए


RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital will stoke violence in the region, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said, dismissing reports of prior consultations made with Riyadh over the move.   It is a very bad decision. The consequences will be more bloodshed, more conflict rather than peaceful resolution,  Prince Turki, a senior royal family member and a former ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in Riyadh. Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy and veered from international consensus this month by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Most countries say the city s status must be left to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia condemned the decision. Saudi King Salman told President Trump that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached will inflame the feelings of Muslims, official media reported. But Saudi Arabia stopped short of calling for any Arab action against the decision. Palestinian officials say Riyadh has been working for weeks behind the scenes to press them to support a nascent U.S. peace plan.  The reaction here was total surprise,  said Prince Turki, who now holds no government office but remains influential.   ... If there has been prior consultation or anything like that, why would the King go through the process of telling him (Trump) this is a bad idea and make that known publicly?    I don t think there ever was any discussion of this  before the decision was taken, he added. As regards possible Saudi and Arab action in response to Trump s decision, Prince Turki said:  I am sure lots of people would prefer to have something just for the sake of appearance but I don t think that s how the Saudi government operates. If it is going to take action, it is going to be a serious action.  Four Palestinian officials, who spoke on condition they not be named, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have discussed in detail a grand bargain that Trump and Jared Kushner, the president s son-in-law and adviser, are expected to unveil in the first half of 2018. Arab officials say the plan is still in its early phases of development.  Prince Turki said he was unaware of details of any such  plan. Prince Turki is a son of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975. His brother, Saud al-Faisal, served as foreign minister for 40 years until 2015, and their branch of the family is seen as influential over Saudi foreign policy, even as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has solidified his authority. Prince Saud championed a 2002 Arab peace initiative which called for normalizing relations between Arab countries and Israel in return for Israel s withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. In a letter to Trump published in a Saudi newspaper on Dec. 11, Prince Turki said that Trump s  opportunistic  Jerusalem move would threaten security in the region.  The now much diminished terrorist international gets a rejuvenation boost from you and re-energizes its recruitment of volunteers to broaden their murderous attacks on innocent civilians, worldwide,  he wrote in his letter. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he would encourage a more moderate and tolerant version of Islam in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The ambitious young prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabia s ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts and announcing plans to allow women to drive next year. Prince Turki said that Saudis share in the blame for the spread of extremist ideology through funding of mosques abroad that may have fallen into the wrong hands, but that such funding stopped since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.    The kingdom has been the victim of such people and such activity... Since Sept. 11 the kingdom has had a sustained and continuous program opposing extremist ideology, not just in the kingdom but abroad,  he told Reuters.     For a period of time, yes it is true there were some Saudis who promoted issues of extremism and so on. Now we are getting rid of all of those. I would say we have gotten rid of most of them, if not all of them.

Summary: वरिष्ठ सऊदी राजकुमार का कहना है कि ट्रम्प के येरुशलम कदम से स्थिरता को खतरा है


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson quipped on Tuesday that Libya can become a new Dubai if it can clear the dead bodies away, the latest gaffe by Britain s top diplomat. Johnson, who has offended some allies with flippant remarks, told Conservative Party members that the Libyan city of Sirte could be turned into the next Dubai by British investors if they could clear the bodies.  They ve got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, to turn it into the next Dubai,  Johnson said.  The only thing they ve got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then we will be there.  Some activists from Prime Minister Theresa May s party laughed at the joke before the chair of the event changed the subject, saying:  Next question.  Britain and France took a leading role in the attacks that helped rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country has since descended into chaos, with thousands of casualties. The Islamic State militant group took over Sirte in early 2015, turning it into their most important base outside the Middle East and attracting large numbers of foreign fighters into the city. It was later cleared of the militants. In a series of late night posts on Twitter, Johnson said he was referring to the clearing of booby trapped bodies of Islamic State militant fighters.  Shame people with no knowledge or understanding of Libya want to play politics with the appallingly dangerous reality in Sirte,  Johnson said.  The reality there is that the clearing of corpses of Daesh fighters has been made much more difficult by IEDs and booby traps.  When asked about Johnson s comments, PM May s deputy, Damian Green, said all ministers need to be careful with their language when dealing with sensitive issues but refrained from criticizing the foreign minister. The opposition Labour Party s spokeswoman for foreign affairs, Emily Thornberry, said Johnson s joke was shameful and questioned whether May would take any action to reprimand him. May s appointment of Johnson, who in the run-up to Britain s referendum on EU membership compared the goals of the European Union to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon, caused consternation in some European capitals. Britain s ambassador to Myanmar was forced to interrupt Johnson earlier this year as he tried to recite a nostalgic colonial poem by Rudyard Kipling in public during a visit to the country s most famous Buddhist site.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के बोरिस जॉनसन ने लीबिया में शवों का मजाक उड़ाया


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya’s internationally recognized government has appealed to the United States to drop or ease a travel ban imposed on its citizens by U.S. President Donald Trump, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. “The Libyan Foreign Ministry, through its embassy in Washington, has begun to take measures to lift Libya from the list of countries and to ease the restrictions on Libyan citizens,” the ministry said in a statement. Libya is one of six Muslim-majority countries subject to the travel ban. This week the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the ban to take full effect while litigation over its ultimate validity continues. The ban was also discussed at a meeting between Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Siyala and U.S Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke on Monday, the statement said.

Summary: लीबिया ने कहा कि वह ट्रम्प की यात्रा प्रतिबंध सूची से हटाने पर जोर दे रहा है


SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish protesters, angered by years of austerity and unpaid public sector salaries, set fire to the offices of political parties near the city of Sulaimaniyah on Monday, demanding that Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) quit. Social media footage showed a building belonging to the ruling Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) on fire and a spokesman for its coalition partner in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told Reuters an office belonging to them was also set ablaze by protesters. Two other party offices were torched, local media reported. Reuters was able to independently verify only those fires at the KDP and PUK offices, but Iraqi state television reported that the offices of several Kurdish political parties had been set on fire, without naming the parties. Tension has been high in the region since the central government in Baghdad imposed tough measures when the KRG unilaterally held an independence referendum on Sept. 25 and Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede. The move, in defiance of Baghdad, also alarmed neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities. At least 3,000 Kurdish demonstrators had gathered in Sulaimaniyah for the protests on Monday against the KRG. Men and women carried signs in Kurdish, Arabic, and English telling the executive and legislative branches of the KRG that they wanted them gone, holding up red cards to further make their point.  Stop 26 years of robbery and wrong decisions,  one read. Teachers, hospital workers and other public sector employees demanded the regional government pay their wages. Some said they had not been paid in more than three years.  These protests are different from earlier ones because the Kurdish public are not asking the government for something, they are asking the executive and legislature to leave,  said protester Kameran Gulpi. In the decade following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kurdistan insulated itself against violence plaguing the rest of the country and enjoyed an economic boom fueled by rising Iraqi oil revenues, of which the region received a share. The bubble began to deflate in early 2014 when the Baghdad central government slashed funds to the KRG after it built its own oil pipeline to Turkey in pursuit of economic independence. After the September referendum, the Iraqi government responded by seizing Kurdish-held Kirkuk and other territory disputed between the Kurds and the central government. It also banned direct flights to Kurdistan and demanded control over border crossings.

Summary: कुर्द प्रदर्शनकारियों ने उत्तरी इराक में पार्टी कार्यालयों में आग लगा दी


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Deadlock over the allocation of leadership posts has forced Kenya s parliament into an unscheduled three-week recess, lawmakers said on Wednesday, indicating a protracted political crisis could reverberate beyond the October election.  Political stalemate has gripped Kenya, East Africa s most advanced economy and an ally of the West against militant Islam, since the Supreme Court annulled the results of the Aug. 8 presidential elections on procedural grounds and ordered a re-run.  The repeat election was held on Oct. 26 but opposition leader Raila Odinga boycotted the vote, saying it would be unfair. Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won a second, five-year term with 98 percent of the vote.  Lawmakers said on Wednesday that Odinga s opposition coalition wanted more time to negotiate on the distribution of parliamentary leadership posts to its constituent parties. The National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition has written to the speakers of the national assembly and senate asking to have until the end of November to fill leadership positions in the house, including minority chiefs, whips and committee heads.  The NASA parliamentary group has asked the speaker to give them until end of the month to put their house in order,  Adan Duale, majority leader in the national assembly, told Reuters via text message, adding parliament would adjourn until Nov. 29. Parliament runs its business through the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) and various committees, which set its calendar and the legislative agenda, approve expenditure and vet key appointments in the executive and the judiciary.  Ayub Savula, an opposition legislator, told Reuters the delays were due to disagreements between NASA s four main parties - Odinga s ODM, ANC, Ford Kenya and Wiper - on how to share the available positions.  Whereas ODM has a majority 70 MPs in the NASA team, the rest of the political parties under NASA feel it is better if the leadership is divided equally,  Savula said. The delay has angered some, including lawmakers from the ruling Jubilee party.  We have a fixed term of five years,  said Moses Kuria, a Jubilee member of parliament.  It (the delay) is not a good thing for this country and it is a raw deal for the taxpayers.

Summary: केन्या की संसद ने विपक्ष के अनुरोध पर तीन सप्ताह का विराम लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wisconsin’s election board agreed on Friday to conduct a statewide recount of votes cast in the presidential race, as requested by a Green Party candidate seeking similar reviews in two other states where Donald Trump scored narrow wins. The recount process, including an examination by hand of the nearly 3 million ballots tabulated in Wisconsin, is expected to begin late next week after Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s campaign has paid the required fee, the Elections Commission said. The state faces a Dec. 13 federal deadline to complete the recount, which may require canvassers in Wisconsin’s 72 counties to work evenings and weekends to finish the job in time, according to the commission. The recount fee has yet to be determined, the agency said in a statement on its website. Stein said in a Facebook message on Friday that the sum was expected to run to about $1.1 million. She said she has raised at least $5 million from donors since launching her drive on Wednesday for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - three battleground states where Republican Trump edged out Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by relatively thin margins. Stein has said her goal is to raise $7 million to cover all fees and legal costs. Her effort may have given a ray of hope to dispirited Clinton supporters, but the chance of overturning the overall result of the Nov. 8 election is considered very slim, even if all three states go along with the recount. The Green Party candidate, who garnered little more than 1 percent of the nationwide popular vote herself, said on Friday that she was seeking to verify the integrity of the U.S. voting system, not to undo Trump’s victory. While there was no evidence of tampering or voting errors in the election, only a thorough review of results from the three states at issue will reassure Americans, Stein said. “This was a hack-riddled election,” she told CNN, pointing to various cyber-attacks on political organizations and individual email accounts before Election Day and media reports citing concerns raised by computer security specialists. Experts urged extra scrutiny of the three states, Stein said, because their voting systems were seen as vulnerable. They also cited “unexplained high numbers of undervotes,” the close finish between the two nominees and “discrepancies between pre-election polling and the official result,” she said. According to Stein, the Wisconsin commission confirmed receipt of her recount petition at 3:45 p.m. local time, just over an hour before the deadline for filing. The filing deadline is Monday in Pennsylvania and Wednesday in Michigan. The Wisconsin board said Stein was joined in her petition by another third-party candidate, Rocky Roque De La Fuente. Although Trump won narrowly in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the margins make it highly unlikely any recounts would end up giving Clinton a win in all three states, which would be needed for the overall election result to change. Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania by 70,010 votes, in Michigan by 10,704 votes and in Wisconsin by 27,257 votes. The presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, based on a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the popular national vote. The Electoral College results are expected to be finalized on Dec. 19. Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win, although Clinton will have won the national popular vote by more than 2 million ballots once final tallies are in. A representative for Trump’s transition team on Thursday had no comment on Stein’s effort, and Clinton has not commented on Stein’s effort.

Summary: विस्कॉन्सिन राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ में राज्यव्यापी पुनर्मूल्यांकन के लिए सहमत है


KABUL (Reuters) - Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to meet its leaders and underscore U.S. commitment to the country four months after President Donald Trump agreed to an open-ended war against insurgents here. Pence arrived on a military plane at Bagram Airfield under the cover of darkness on Thursday night after leaving Washington on Wednesday night. He then flew by helicopter to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at the presidential palace. Pence told the leaders he hoped his presence there was tangible evidence that the United States was  here to see this through.  In a reversal of his campaign call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Trump in August pledged a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents and signaled the United States would send more troops to fight in what is the longest war in its history. At the end of August, there were some 11,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and more have since arrived. Ghani expressed gratitude to the U.S. government and said Afghanistan s partnership with the United States was cemented in sacrifice. Pence told reporters the strategy of increased troops on the ground and greater authorities for military leaders was paying dividends.  The results are really beginning to become evident around the country,  he said, adding that Ghani and Abdullah had said  they ve begun to see a sea change in the attitudes among the Taliban.  Pence said their hope was that  eventually the enemy will tire of losing  and be willing to talk peace. Asked if more troops would be needed, Pence said that would be a decision for Trump in the days ahead. Pence said he pressed the Afghan leaders for political reforms and Ghani assured him that an election commission was developing a framework for parliamentary elections in 2018. Pence had originally planned to travel to Israel and Egypt this week, but he postponed that trip to remain in Washington while Congress passed legislation to overhaul U.S. tax law.  The short visit to Afghanistan, originally part of the Middle East trip, was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons. Reporters traveling with the vice president were asked not to reveal his whereabouts until after the delegation arrived back at the air base from Kabul and Pence had addressed U.S. troops. Pence almost did not make it to the presidential palace. The helicopters he and others were flying in came close to turning back to Bagram because of poor visibility, but the pilots were able to find a route in the end, a White House official said. Pence, who coordinated the process that resulted in Trump s new Afghanistan policy, has been one of the main interlocutors between the White House and the Afghan leadership since Trump entered office in January.  He repeated his promise of U.S. commitment to the region during remarks to troops at Bagram.  Under President Donald Trump, the armed forces of the United States will remain engaged in Afghanistan until we eliminate the terrorist threat to our homeland, our people once and for all,  Pence said. Trump s views of the 16-year-long Afghan conflict have shifted since he came to power.  As a presidential candidate he called for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces, which were bogged down through the presidencies of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama after a U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Islamist Taliban government for harboring al Qaeda militants who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. But Trump, while acknowledging the decision went against his instincts, argued in August that a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for Islamic State and al Qaeda to fill.  He declined to set a timeline for withdrawal or outline benchmarks for the new strategy s success. Echoing Trump s comments when he unveiled the new strategy, Pence had sharp words for neighboring Pakistan, which he said had provided safe haven to the Taliban and other groups for too long.   Those days are over,  Pence said. Pakistan had much to gain from partnering with the United States, and much to lose by harboring  criminals and terrorists,  he said at Bagram. U.S. troops are involved in training Afghan security forces and carrying out counter-terrorism operations, hoping to reverse gains by the Taliban and prod it to negotiate for peace. Some 2,400 U.S. forces have died in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion.

Summary: पेंस ने अफगानिस्तान का दौरा किया, कहा कि अमेरिका 'इसे देखेगा'


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The family of murdered model Reeva Steenkamp welcomed the increased sentence of 13 years and five months handed down on Paralympian Oscar Pistorius on Friday and said it showed that justice could prevail in South Africa.  This is an emotional thing for them. They just feel that their trust in the justice system has been confirmed this morning,  Tania Koen, a spokeswoman for the Steenkamp family, told Reuters.

Summary: पिस्टोरियस की सजा दोगुनी होने के बाद स्टीनकैम्प्स ने कहा, न्याय है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senators Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp on Thursday became the first Democrats to support the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, giving Republicans two of eight Democratic votes needed to avoid a nasty fight on the U.S. Senate floor next week. Both West Virginia’s Manchin and North Dakota’s Heitkamp are up for re-election next year in states that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. “I hold no illusions that I will agree with every decision Judge Gorsuch may issue in the future, but I have not found any reasons why this jurist should not be a Supreme Court justice,” Manchin said in a statement. Manchin met with the nominee for a second time on Wednesday night. Heitkamp said that Gorsuch “has a record as a balanced, meticulous and well-respected jurist who understands the rule of law.” If confirmed by the Senate to fill a vacancy created by the February 2016 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat high court’s conservative majority. Senators Maria Cantwell of Washington state, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said on Thursday they would vote against Gorsuch. Their announcements mean 35 of the 48 Democrats in the 100-seat Senate oppose Gorsuch, the Colorado-based federal appellate judge nominated by Trump in January for a lifetime post on the high court.  Most Democrats have said they would back an effort to block a confirmation vote using a procedural hurdle called a filibuster that requires 60 votes to allow a confirmation vote. But there are some seeking to avoid such a move, including Chris Coons of Delaware. “I’m open to anyone who’s got a reasonable suggestion for how we might slow what seems to be an inexorable path towards changing the rules,” Coons said on Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on sending the nomination to the Senate floor on April 3. Republican Senate leaders hope to confirm Gorsuch on April 7. Republicans control the Senate 52-48, meaning they need to win over eight Democrats to block a filibuster. The confirmation vote itself would require a simple majority. Eleven Democrats, including Coons, have yet to announce whether they would vote against Gorsuch or support a filibuster.  Some Democrats have said Republicans “stole” a Supreme Court seat last year when the Senate refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.

Summary: पहले दो डेमोक्रेट ने ट्रम्प के सुप्रीम कोर्ट के चयन का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not bail out Puerto Rico if he were in the White House. Asked in an interview with CNN what he would do to help the U.S. commonwealth, Trump said “No, I would not bail out Puerto Rico,” saying it had too much debt. Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank on Monday defaulted on a $422 million debt payment. The government faces $70 billion in debt overall, a 45-percent poverty rate and a shrinking population. It owes another $1.9 billion on July 1 that Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla says it cannot pay.

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि वह प्यूर्टो रिको को जमानत नहीं देंगे


BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lauded his Beijing meetings on trade and North Korea as  very productive , ending a visit which Chinese media declared set a  new blueprint  for handling ties, even as the White House looks set for tougher action on China. Trump pressed China to do more to rein in North Korea s nuclear ambitions and said bilateral trade had been unfair to the United States, but also praised Xi s pledge that China would be more open to foreign firms.  Hours after Trump left Beijing on Friday, China said it would drop foreign ownership limits on local banks and asset management companies while loosening stake restrictions in securities firms and insurers - moves that have been long awaited by foreign financial firms. Beijing faces intensifying pressure from Western governments and business lobbies to remove investment barriers and other rules that hobble overseas firms from operating in the country, as well as intellectual property theft. Washington has refrained from pushing harder on trade because it needs China s cooperation on North Korea, although Xi, at least in public, went no further than reiterating China s determination to achieve denuclearization through talks. Trump and Xi, who call themselves friends, also oversaw the signing of about $250 billion in commercial deals, a show that some in the U.S. business community and others say detracts from addressing structural impediments that puts them at a disadvantage to Chinese rivals. China may be mistaken in thinking it had done enough to address U.S. concerns, and Trump could find people disappointed at home he didn t make more progress on items like market access and North Korea, Paul Haenle, Director of the Carnegie Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said.  My concern is you may see a shift towards a much harder line coming from the U.S. administration. That will be a huge surprise to China and President Xi, especially given that Xi likely feels he has done a lot for Trump on this visit.  Trump reiterated in a tweet just before leaving Beijing for the APEC summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Vietnam that he didn t blame China for the trade gap between the two countries, adding that he had  very productive  meetings on trade and North Korea with Xi.  I don t blame China, I blame the incompetence of past Admins for allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. on trade leading up to a point where the U.S. is losing $100 s of billions. How can you blame China for taking advantage of people that had no clue? I would ve done same!  A U.S. industry source said the implication of Trump blaming his predecessors for the trade deficit is that Trump won t make the same mistake - a warning to Xi, not a capitulation.  The Trump administration did not bring hard trade policy items to the discussion with Xi because U.S. officials don t want to  argue over crumbs , the source added.  Barring some dramatic action on North Korea by Xi, there is going to be a hard turn in U.S. trade policy,  the source said. A second source, who is close to the business delegation that traveled to Beijing this week, added that the Trump administration appeared poised to take a much harder line in the weeks ahead. There were no obvious gaffes during the two-night stopover, and Trump and Xi seemed to enjoy being in each other s company. At a banquet on Thursday night in the Great Hall of the People, Trump and Xi dined on coconut chicken soup, spicy chicken, stewed beef with tomatoes and grouper fillets. Chinese state media said the tone and outcome of Trump s visit had been largely positive, saying Trump and Xi were setting a new blueprint for handling relations and managing their differences.    China has tried its utmost, even at the sacrifice of Sino-North Korean relations,  influential tabloid the Global Times wrote in its editorial.   Trump has gradually learned that Beijing is indeed making selfless contributions to promoting the denuclearization of the peninsula. He can t demand more.

Summary: ट्रंप ने चीन के साथ 'सार्थक' वार्ता की सराहना की, लेकिन आगे कड़ी कार्रवाई देखी जा रही है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said he would be willing to travel to North Korea on behalf of the Trump administration to help diffuse rising tensions, The New York Times reported on its website on Sunday. “I would go, yes,” Carter, 93, told the Times when he was asked in an interview at his ranch house in Plains, Georgia whether it was time for another diplomatic mission and whether he would do so for President Trump. Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981, said he had spoken to Trump’s National Security Adviser Lt.-Gen. H. R. McMaster, who is a friend, but so far has gotten a negative response. “I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” the Times quoted Carter as saying. Told that some in Washington were made nervous by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s war of words, Carter said “I’m afraid, too, of a situation.” “They want to save their regime. And we greatly overestimate China’s influence on North Korea. Particularly to Kim,” who, Carter added, has “never, so far as I know, been to China.””And they have no relationship. Kim Jong-il did go to China and was very close to them.” Describing the North Korean leader as “unpredictable,” Carter worried that if Kim thinks Trump will act against him, he could do something pre-emptive, the Times reported. “I think he’s now got advanced nuclear weaponry that can destroy the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and some of our outlying territories in the Pacific, maybe even our mainland,” Carter said. In the mid 1990s,  Carter traveled to Pyongyang over the objections of President Bill Clinton, the Times report said, and struck a deal with Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader.

Summary: अमेरिका के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति जिमी कार्टर का कहना है कि वह उत्तर कोरिया की यात्रा करेंगेः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स