WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House told a government watchdog agency that Kellyanne Conway, a senior aide to President Donald Trump, acted “inadvertently” when she publicly endorsed the clothing and jewelry line of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, according to a letter the administration released on Wednesday. Conway came under criticism last month when she said on television that Americans should “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” in comments that appeared to violate government ethics rules prohibiting the use of public office to endorse products or advance personal business gains. In a letter to a government ethics watchdog agency, White House Deputy Counsel Stefan Passantino said he met with Conway after her comments and that she committed to follow the rules in the future. The Office of Government Ethics has said the White House should consider taking disciplinary action against Conway. But there was no mention in Passantino’s letter of any disciplinary action. “We concluded that Ms. Conway acted inadvertently and is highly unlikely to do so again,” Passantino said in the letter to Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub.  “It is noted that Ms. Conway made the statement in question in a light, off-hand manner while attempting to stand up for a person she believed had been unfairly treated and did so without nefarious motive or intent to benefit personally,” the letter said.  Conway spoke about Ivanka Trump’s products after department store chain Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N) said it was dropping the brand of the president’s older daughter. A day before her appearance on television, Trump complained on Twitter that Nordstrom had treated his daughter unfairly by dropping her line. Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ oversight panel, criticized the White House response, saying other federal employees would likely be suspended if they made similar comments endorsing products or services. Norman Eisen, a former ethics adviser to President Barack Obama, said each federal agency decides for itself how to handle such violations. He said he would have preferred a tougher response from Trump’s White House, but he said Passantino’s handling of the situation appeared reasonable.

Summary: केलीन कॉनवे ने 'अनजाने में' इवांका के उत्पादों को बंद कर दियाः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trump administration trade officials want a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement to improve access for U.S. farm products, manufactured goods and services in Canada and Mexico, said lawmakers who met with them on Tuesday. Members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee met with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen Vaughn to discuss the administration’s plans for renegotiating the 23-year-old trade deal.  Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, said Ross told lawmakers in the closed-door session that the administration was still aiming to complete NAFTA renegotiations by the end of 2017. That time frame is viewed by some members as “ambitious,” especially because it is not clear when the administration will formally notify Congress of its intention to launch NAFTA renegotiations, Pascrell said. The notification will trigger a 90-day consultation period before substantial talks can begin. Tuesday’s meeting was a legal requirement to prepare the notification and preserve the “fast track” authority for approving a renegotiated deal with only an up-or-down vote in Congress. President Donald Trump has long vilified NAFTA as draining millions of manufacturing jobs to Mexico, and he has vowed to quit the trade pact unless it can be renegotiated to shrink U.S. trade deficits.  Lawmakers said Ross and Vaughn discussed broad negotiating objectives, but did not get into specific issues such as U.S. access to Canada’s dairy sector or rules of origin for parts used on North American-assembled vehicles. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters that market access, modernizing NAFTA and “holding trading partners accountable” were key objectives articulated by Ross and Vaughn “They were very clear, they want to open access in ag, manufacturing and services as well, so they want this to be a 21st century agreement,” Brady said. Spokesmen for the Commerce Department and USTR were not immediately available for comment on the meeting. Lawmakers said the administration has not settled on the form of the negotiations, whether NAFTA will remain a tri-lateral agreement or whether it would be split into two bilateral trade deals. “My sense is that they are not prejudging the form, they are focused on the substance of the agreement itself with Mexico and Canada,” Brady said. Some lawmakers expressed frustration that the Trump officials were short on specific answers.  “I wouldn’t exactly call this meeting as moving the ball forward very much,” said Representative Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat.

Summary: अमेरिकी सामानों, सेवाओं के लिए नाफ्टा तक अधिक पहुंच चाहता है ट्रम्प दलः सांसद


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Thursday he believes President Barack Obama will nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a little over three weeks. “I think it will be a little over three weeks,” Reid said in an interview on MSNBC, adding that he spoke to Obama about the nomination on Thursday.

Summary: ओबामा तीन सप्ताह में स्कैलिया की जगह लेंगेः सीनेटर रीड


BANGKOK (Reuters) - A woman s 750-km (470-mile) trek to see the late Thai king s cremation ceremony was only one example of the level of religious devotion on display in Thailand on Thursday. Thailand s semi-divine  father  was idolized like no other modern monarch. A year of mourning has done nothing to diminish that veneration as Thailand marks a final end to his era with his cremation, uncertain of what is to follow.  I have walked a long way until all my toe-nails have fallen off,  said 61-year-old Montha Suchit, who set off in mid-September from Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand.  This is the least we can do to repay him,  she told Reuters as she waited, clad in black like most of Thailand, for King Bhumibol Adulyadej s funeral procession to pass by. Thousands spent days camped on torn cardboard boxes to secure a spot near the procession with only plastic sheets for protection from intermittent monsoon rain and tropical sun.  He was the lifeblood of the nation,  said Sorana Theppanao, 60, who counted himself lucky to have got a place near the procession by sleeping out for three days.  King Bhumibol developed a very personal following with hikes to remote villages and an emphasis on helping the poor despite the royal family s immense wealth. He cultivated an image of being above coups and protests while intervening in times of crisis. The royal image was enhanced by a well-funded public relations apparatus. It was also protected by laws that meant anyone insulting it could get a long jail sentence.  The circumstances and propaganda were crucial, but the individual made it all work the way it did, and hence the Thais  deeply emotional final farewell,  said Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University. Some mourners questioned whether the king would have wanted such an ostentatious sendoff, for which $90 million was budgeted. Upstream of Bangkok, some districts were left flooded after heavy rains so waters could not disrupt the spectacle.  We all came out to thank the king personally, so in that sense the extravagance was not needed and does not reflect the late king s attitude,  said 70 year-old Tip Boonmak. As the procession passed, mourners dropped to their knees, many still holding up mobile phones to record the scene.  This is the last day we meet him before he goes to heaven,  said Kannika Kamsikeaw, 39. For foreign visitors, the emotion was hard to comprehend.  It s incredible to see this humungous outpouring of devotion,  said 34-year-old Australian Celine Massa.  I don t feel that emotion for any public figure.  More than 95 percent of Thais were born during King Bhumibol s reign, marked by economic transformation and political turbulence through which he was a stabilising figure. King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who has succeeded his father, does not have the same following. Recently, he has spent much of his time in Germany, where his son is at school. Asserting his new power, he has required changes to the constitution and taken personal control of the palace s financial holdings.  Besides drawing a line under King Bhumibol s era, the cremation is a step towards the military government s promised revival of politics and an election next year. For more than a decade, politics in Thailand was torn between  yellow shirts  - royalists dressed in the king s color - and  red shirts , who backed a populist movement whose governments were twice overthrown by the army. But any animosities were hidden on Thursday on the streets of Bangkok.  Today there is no color,  said Napthanicha Chantarasena, 33, among those who had camped out for days.  There is only my king.

Summary: भक्ति की चरम सीमा ने थाई राजा को अंतिम विदाई दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott met with the president of Taiwan on Sunday during a stopover in Houston that was sure to pique Chinese leaders already upset by her conversation with President-elect Donald Trump. It is not unusual for U.S. lawmakers to meet with Taiwanese leaders when they pass through the country, but tensions are high this winter after Trump, who like Cruz and Abbott is a Republican, spoke to Tsai Ing-wen last month.  The telephone conversation broke with decades of precedent and cast doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy. Cruz, who represents Texas, said some members of Congress had received a letter from the Chinese consulate asking them not to meet with Tsai during her stopovers. “The People’s Republic of China needs to understand that in America we make decisions about meeting with visitors for ourselves,” Cruz said in a statement. “This is not about the PRC. This is about the U.S. relationship with Taiwan, an ally we are legally bound to defend.” China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, ineligible for state-to-state relations. The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only “one China” and that Taiwan is part of it.” Tsai scheduled stopovers in San Francisco and Houston on her way to visit allies in Central America, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Beijing had urged the United States not to let her into the country. Cruz said he and the Taiwanese leader discussed upgrading bilateral relations and furthering economic cooperation between their countries, including increased access to Taiwanese markets that will benefit Texas ranchers, farmers and small businesses. Abbott said in a Twitter post that he also met with Tsai on Sunday and that they discussed “expanding trade and economic opportunities.”

Summary: ह्यूस्टन में क्रूज, टेक्सास के गवर्नर ने ताइवान के राष्ट्रपति से मुलाकात की


(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton agreed on Thursday to some of the terms laid down by an opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, in his call to increase the number of public debates as they vie to become the Democratic candidate in November’s U.S. presidential election. Clinton’s two main Democratic challengers, Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, have long called for more debates. They have complained that the relatively skimpy schedule of only six encounters was designed by the party to protect Clinton’s position at the top of opinion polls. But the call for more debates intensified this week after a hastily arranged debate next Thursday in New Hampshire was announced, organized by a news channel and a state newspaper. Both Clinton and O’Malley said they would attend if all the candidates agreed, despite risking the ire of the Democratic National Committee, which has forbidden candidates from taking part in unsanctioned encounters.  On Wednesday evening, the Sanders campaign called for three more debates, in March, April and May. The campaign also stipulated that none be held on a Friday, Saturday or holiday weekend, when the number of potential viewers typically dips.  If Clinton would commit to this, his campaign said, then Sanders would also agree to join Clinton and O’Malley at the Feb. 4 debate convened by MSNBC and the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, just days before the state becomes the second in the country to vote for Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. “Senator Sanders is happy to have more debates, but we are not going to schedule them on an ad hoc basis at the whim of the Clinton campaign,” Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said in a statement. Weaver said Clinton had only agreed to next week’s debate because Sanders has been gaining on her in polls. The response from the Clinton camp on Thursday acceded to some of these conditions, saying it would discuss adding debates only in April and May. “We have always been willing to add additional debates beyond the six that had been scheduled and look forward to starting discussions on scheduling debates in April and May,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in an email to reporters. Spokesmen for Clinton and Sanders did not respond to emails asking if the two campaigns were now in agreement. It remains unclear if any additional debates will come to pass. The Democratic National Committee has said it will not sanction the debate organized for next week, though it seems unlikely it will ban all three candidates from the remaining two sanctioned debates.  (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: हिलेरी क्लिंटन और अधिक राष्ट्रपति बहसों को जोड़ने के लिए तैयार हैं


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s opposition said on Tuesday that this week s planned political dialogue in the Dominican Republic with President Nicolas Maduro s government was being postponed because regional guarantors were not going.  The international negotiation process cannot go ahead until the foreign ministers are invited,  opposition negotiator Luis Florido said, referring to the potential presence of Latin American foreign ministers at the talks. Negotiations to ease a bitter and long-running political crisis in the OPEC nation had been scheduled for Wednesday. Previous dialogue efforts have ended in recriminations between the two sides with no concrete progress. The opposition coalition had previously accused the Maduro government of blocking the presence of foreign ministers at this week s talks, but on Tuesday said it appeared to be more a scheduling problem. There was no immediate response from officials. The opposition s principal demand is for free and fair conditions for the 2018 presidential election.  It also wants freedom for jailed activists, autonomy for the opposition-led Congress, and a foreign humanitarian aid corridor to help alleviate Venezuela s unprecedented economic crisis.  Maduro accuses his opponents of conspiring with the United States and a right-wing international campaign to oust his socialist government via a coup. The government is seeking guarantees against violence and recognition of the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly that has overridden Congress. At least 125 people died in four months of often violent protests against Maduro earlier this year. Foes say he is a dictator who has wrecked a once-prosperous economy. Maduro and his allies have accused the opposition of preferring violence to dialogue. Debt refinancing talks with international investors had begun successfully in Caracas on Monday, the government said, though creditors said the discussions were fruitless.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के विपक्ष का कहना है कि सरकार के साथ बातचीत में देरी हुई


TAMPA, Fla (Reuters) - The head of U.S. Central Command said he was concerned about Iran s long-term activities in the region and he would continue to focus on protecting U.S. troops, even as Iran has said U.S. regional military bases would be at risk if further sanctions were passed.  Iran is kind of a long-term destabilizing actor in the region and so we remain concerned about their activities as well,  U.S. General Joseph Votel told reporters. Trump is expected to unveil a broad strategy on confronting Iran this week, likely on Friday.  Leadership will make the decisions and we will be prepared to do what we need to do to continue to protect ourselves and particularity to protect our interests in the region,  Votel added.

Summary: अमेरिकी जनरल ने क्षेत्र में ईरान की दीर्घकालिक गतिविधियों के बारे में चिंता व्यक्त की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump wants a new 20 percent tax on all imports from Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday. No details were available on how the tax would work, but Spicer said Trump wanted it to be part of a tax reform package that the U.S. Congress is contemplating.

Summary: ट्रम्प चाहते हैं कि मेक्सिको के साथ दीवार के लिए सीमा कर का भुगतान किया जाएः व्हाइट हाउस


LONDON (Reuters) - Calling himself a  proud saboteur  of the Brexit process, Britain s Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable on Tuesday appealed to opponents in all parties to put aside differences and fight a divorce from the European Union. The fourth-largest party with 12 representatives in the 650-seat parliament, the Liberal Democrats are hoping to become the lightning rod for any rise in anti-Brexit sentiment as Prime Minister Theresa May s government edges closer to leaving the EU in March 2019.   Cable, an economist who was business minister in the 2010 to 2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, has redoubled his party s criticism of the decision to leave the EU since becoming party leader in July.  I want our party to lead the fight against Brexit,  Cable said in his address to the party s autumn conference. He called for a new referendum, describing Brexit as a looming disaster.  In the real world, we have yet to experience the full impact of leaving Europe. But we ve had a taste of what is to come in the fall of the value of the pound,  Cable said. Sterling fell by as much as 20 percent against the dollar in the months after the June 2016 EU referendum. It has recovered around half those losses, in part thanks to increasing expectations of an interest rate hike to ease inflation, but the pound is still 9 percent down on pre-Brexit levels.       Foreign exchange dealers are not point-scoring politicians, they make cool, hard, unsentimental judgments. Quite simply, that Brexit Britain will be poorer and weaker than if we had decided to stay in Europe,  Cable said. He also said the government was relying too heavily on its relationship with the United States to help it adjust to life after Brexit, criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump as  volatile, and dangerous and an apologist for religious and racial hatred.   Opposition to Brexit has been emboldened after May failed to win a clear mandate for her exit strategy at a snap election in June. She lost her majority in parliament but kept power thanks to a deal with a small Northern Irish party. Cable said Britons had a democratic right to a second referendum once the final terms of the Brexit deal become clear.  At the end of these tortuous divorce negotiations, the British public must be given a vote on the outcome,  he said.  But polls show little sign of a radical shift in public opinion against Brexit. Polling firm YouGov said a significant proportion of the 48 percent who voted against Brexit now thought the government had a duty to leave. Only 27 percent of Britons want to reverse the decision, they said. Cable, whose centrist party went from junior coalition partner to near extinction in the 2015 election, made only small gains in the June election having set out the party s stall as the most pro-EU party in British politics. Cable has previously said he expects dissatisfaction with Brexit to grow as the negotiations develop, and called for opponents from all parties to come together to oppose the divorce.  We have got to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the Single Market and Customs Union, so essential for trade and jobs,  he said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की ब्रेक्सिट विरोधी पार्टी के प्रमुख ने यूरोपीय संघ से बाहर निकलने से रोकने के लिए मदद की अपील की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Senator Lindsey Graham threw his support behind Senator Ted Cruz in the race for his party’s presidential nomination on Thursday, saying he thought Cruz has the best chance of stopping front-runner Donald Trump. Graham said he will headline a fundraiser in support of the Texas senator on Monday, in connection with the upcoming conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. Cruz is to address the AIPAC meeting on Monday. “If we give the banner of the Republican party to Donald Trump, we tarnish it maybe forever. That might be the end of the Republican party as I know it,” Graham told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina who dropped out of the presidential race in December, before the nominating contests had even begun, acknowledged his former harsh criticism of Cruz, including joking about Cruz being murdered on the Senate floor. “It’s an odd alliance, but it’s an alliance I feel comfortable with given my choices,” Graham said. He said he thought Ohio Governor John Kasich would have a better chance of winning in November, but had concluded that Cruz has a better chance of stopping Trump. “I like John Kasich. I think we could nominate John and John would win the general election going away,” Graham said.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन उम्मीदवार क्रूज़ ने पूर्व प्रतिद्वंद्वी ग्राहम का समर्थन जीता


MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence held up Venezuela on Thursday as a prime example of what happens when democracy is undermined and urged Latin American leaders to condemn its government, in comments that Venezuela’s president called nauseating. Already suffering a severe economic crisis, Venezuela, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has recently been convulsed by clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters. “We need only look to the nation of Venezuela to see what happens when democracy is undermined,” Pence told the gathering of leaders in Miami. “That once-rich nation’s collapse into authoritarianism has pushed it into poverty and caused untold suffering for the Venezuelan people.” Stepping up Washington’s war of words with Caracas, Pence added: “We must all of us raise our voices to condemn the Venezuelan government for its abuse of power and its abuse of its own people, and we must do it now.” At least 69 people have died in the unrest in Venezuela since early April, with hundreds injured. Opposition has been fanned by Maduro’s plan for July 30 elections for a special assembly to rewrite the constitution, which critics say are stacked in his favor. The Maduro government calls the protesters violent coup-mongers, supported by the United States. “I tell the vice president of the United States, get your nose out of Venezuela, there will be no gringo, Yankee, imperialist intervention in Venezuela,” Maduro said in a TV broadcast with members of the armed forces. Maduro added that he read Pence’s comments “and it provokes nausea that a man who doesn’t know where Venezuela is on the map gives his opinion about our country.” Earlier this month, the United States denounced Venezuela for suppressing protests and called for free elections, saying Maduro must not be allowed to follow a “dictatorship” path like Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Pence was at a conference to discuss improving security and economic prosperity in Central America, specifically in the violent nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  Foreign ministers from across the hemisphere will travel to Cancun, Mexico, next week for a meeting of the Organization of American States, where Venezuela will be discussed.

Summary: पेंस ने वेनेजुएला सरकार की आलोचना की, मादुरो ने की निंदा


SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (Reuters) - The United States should focus on larger strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific region, including expanding trade ties, the defense minister of Singapore said on Saturday, when asked about the controversy sparked by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with the president of Taiwan. Ng Eng Hen said it was not Singapore’s place to comment on Trump’s phone calls, but welcomed comments by his aides reaffirming Trump’s support for the longstanding U.S. “one China” policy, a policy also supported by Singapore. China lodged a diplomatic protest on Saturday after Trump spoke by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan. Trump’s 10-minute telephone call with the Taiwanese leader was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”.  The Singaporean official told the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in southern California that the bigger issue was how the United States would shape its role in the Asia-Pacific region in coming years, given China’s rapid rise. “We ought to have the larger strategic interests in mind,” Ng said. He said the U.S. role in Asia should be multidimensional, including trade and commercial ties, not just focused on security issues, and the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement would have been a “concrete, tangible commitment” to do just that. Trump has already ruled out U.S. participation in TPP.

Summary: सिंगापुर के मंत्री ने अमेरिका से एशिया में रणनीतिक हितों पर ध्यान केंद्रित करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a former police detective can sue a New Jersey city claiming he was demoted as punishment after getting a campaign sign for his bedridden mother supporting the mayor’s rival in a 2006 local election. The court, in its 6-2 ruling, found that Jeffrey Heffernan, a now former member of Paterson’s police force, was not in fact exercising his rights to freedom of association under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment because he picked up the sign for his mother and not himself. But the justices decided he could sue the city for violating those rights because the boss who demoted him believed, albeit mistakenly, that Heffernan supported the mayor’s opponent. “We conclude that ... the government’s reason for demoting Heffernan is what counts here,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court. “When an employer demotes an employee out of a desire to prevent the employee from engaging in political activity that the First Amendment protects, the employee is entitled to challenge that unlawful action ... even if, as here, the employer makes a factual mistake about the employee’s behavior.” The high court reversed a 2015 ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing Heffernan’s lawsuit on the grounds that a First Amendment retaliation claim cannot be based on an employer’s perception of a worker’s actions. The day before Heffernan was demoted, an aide to Jose Torres, Paterson’s mayor at the time who was running for re-election, saw Heffernan getting a large campaign sign backing another mayoral candidate. Heffernan said he got the sign while off-duty as a favor for his mother after her previous sign had been stolen from her front yard, and that the sign did not reflect his personal preference in the mayoral election. The next day, the police department demoted him from detective and transferred him to the traffic division’s walking squad, a move he saw as political retaliation. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion, arguing that Heffernan should not be able to sue regardless of whether his demotion was misguided or wrong because he had not been exercising his constitutional rights.

Summary: अमेरिकी शीर्ष अदालत ने न्यू जर्सी पुलिस के राजनीतिक प्रतिशोध के दावे का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to put on hold a legal challenge by industry and a group of states to former President Barack Obama’s regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants, rules that the Republican president is moving to undo. A 10-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the request to put the litigation involving the regulations, known as the Clean Power Plan, in abeyance for at least 60 days while the administration plans its next steps. The court also asked the administration and other parties to file briefs on whether the case should be sent back to the Environmental Protection Agency.     The Supreme Court last year put the regulations on hold pending the outcome of the case. In a separate order issued on Friday, the same court put on hold a case challenging another set of Obama climate regulations aimed at new power plants.  Twenty-seven states, led by coal-producer West Virginia and industry groups, challenged the Obama regulation. Other states and environmental groups backed the former administration. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sided with the previous administration’s EPA to defend the Clean Power Plan, brushed off the court’s move, saying it simply puts the litigation on hold for 60 days. “Today’s temporary pause in the litigation does not relieve EPA of its legal obligation to limit carbon pollution from its largest source: fossil-fueled power plants,” Schneiderman said. “I will continue to fight in court to ensure EPA fulfills its legal responsibility.”  West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who led the challenge against the rule, said Friday’s decision signaled that the court has acknowledged the change in the political landscape “and that a decision on the merits is not appropriate at this time.” An executive order by Trump was part of his effort to cut federal environmental regulations to revive the energy drilling and coal mining industries, a promise he made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Energy analysts and executives have questioned whether Trump’s broad moves against environmental regulations will provide a big benefit for their industries, and environmentalists have called his actions reckless. The Clean Power Plan was designed to lower carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. It was seen as the main tool for the United States to meet the emissions-reduction target it promised to reach at U.N. climate talks in Paris in December 2015. Power plants are the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions.  David Cherney, an energy analyst for PA Consulting, said the D.C. Circuit ruling gives the Trump administration more time to come up with a replacement to the Clean Power Plan, which will inevitably be followed by more legal challenges. “Any change to the Clean Power Plan by the Trump administration will be challenged in courts and would need to be sufficiently justified to survive legal challenge from the environmental lobby,” Cherney said.

Summary: अमेरिकी अपील अदालत ने जलवायु नियमों के मामले में ट्रम्प के अनुरोध को मंजूरी दी


(This Sept 8 story corrects headline, clarifies timing of request in paragraph 3.) By Fanny Potkin and Michael Martina LONDON/BEIJING (Reuters) - Britain s Cambridge University Press has rejected a request from its Chinese state-owned importer to block online access in China to scholarly articles from the American Political Science Review.  A request was indeed made by the Chinese importer, but was not acted upon by Cambridge University Press, so no content was blocked,  a spokeswoman for CUP said in an emailed statement. CUP later clarified that the request had been made early last month. China s State Council Information Office told Reuters on Friday that importers of foreign publications must verify that the products are legal. In August, CUP, the publishing arm of the elite Cambridge University, reversed a decision to block online access in China to several hundred articles and book reviews in the China Quarterly, a leading academic journal on Chinese affairs that has been published since the 1960s. It said it had blocked the articles, which covered sensitive topics including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and Tibet, in order to keep its other academic and educational materials available in China. Academics called the decision an affront to academic freedom.  The State Council Information Office, responding by fax two weeks after a Reuters request for comment, said that publishers choose for themselves to import materials based on market demand and the law.  All publications imported into China s market must adhere to Chinese laws and regulations. Publication importers are responsible for checking the content of their imported publications,  it said, without mentioning CUP.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रकाशक ने चीन में शैक्षणिक लेखों को अवरुद्ध करने के अनुरोध को अस्वीकार कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wealthy business owners, such as President Donald Trump, stand to gain from a provision in the Republican tax bill that creates a valuable deduction for owners of pass-through businesses, Democrats and some tax experts say. The provision creates a 20-percent business income deduction, with some limits, for sole proprietors and owners in partnerships and other non-corporate enterprises. It was initially sold by Republicans as a way to help small businesses and create jobs. But the final formula for determining what types of businesses can benefit has widened to take in companies with few, if any, workers, critics said. “The president will try to tell the American people that his great political victory is a win for working people, but they see all the benefits going to his type of businesses: real estate pass-throughs,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed said on the Senate floor. Trump, a real estate developer, wants to sign the Republican tax bill into law this week, which would give Republicans their first major legislative victory of 2017. The House of Representatives and Senate were hurrying toward passage of the bill on Tuesday, with a final House vote set for Wednesday. On House Speaker Paul Ryan’s website, he said pass-through businesses employed about half of U.S. private-sector workers. High tax rates, he said, “discourage investment and job creation, discourage business activity, and put American businesses at a competitive disadvantage.” Pass-through businesses’ profits “pass through” their books directly to owners, unlike corporations, which parcel out profits through dividends to stockholders. Under existing law, pass-through owners pay the individual income tax rate on those profits, not the corporate rate. Under the Republican bill, the corporate rate would be slashed to 21 percent, while the top individual income tax rate, which some pass-through business owners pay, would be 37 percent. To address the disparity, Republicans included tax relief for pass-through owners in their bill, allowing them to deduct 20 percent of their pass-through business income. Republicans put in anti-abuse measures to ensure owners of bona fide business operations claim the 20 percent deduction and prevent high earners from seeking to recategorize their income as pass-through income to take advantage of the deduction. Republicans also capped the income eligible for the full 20-percent deduction at $315,000 for married couples and $157,500 for individuals. But they included a “capital element” in the formula for determining eligibility beyond those thresholds, presenting a lucrative tax break for some, including wealthy owners of commercial property, said tax experts. “This seems ideally suited for commercial property businesses, where there aren’t a lot of workers, but there is a lot of valuable property around,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank. Income above the pass-through caps can be eligible for the 20-percent deduction based on a formula: 50 percent of employee wages paid; or 25 percent of wages plus 2.5 percent of the value of qualified property at purchase, whichever is greater. “The idea is to use the sum of the ‘2.5 percent rule’ plus 25 percent of wages ... to get the full 20-percent deduction” on more income, said New York University School of Law Professor Daniel Shaviro, a tax law specialist, in an email. An assessment of the Republican bill by 13 tax experts, mostly academics, said the formula would “expand the ability of highly paid owners in certain industries – and particularly those heavy in property but light in employees, like real estate – to qualify for the pass-through deduction.”

Summary: कर विधेयक का 'पास-थ्रू' नियम अमीरों की मदद करेगा, श्रमिकों की नहीं-आलोचक


KABUL (Reuters) - One of Afghanistan s most powerful regional politicians was ousted as governor of the northern province of Balkh on Monday, setting up a confrontation that adds to the uncertainty around President Ashraf Ghani s Western-backed government. Atta Mohammad Noor is one of the leading figures in Jamiat-e-Islami, a party which mainly represents Afghanistan s Tajik ethnic group, and has used his position in Balkh, on the northern border of the country, as a powerbase to push for a major role on the national stage. His removal, at a time when tensions between Tajiks and Pashtuns, Afghanistan s two biggest ethnic groups, have been rising, injects extra uncertainty to the already fractured political landscape ahead of presidential elections in 2019.  My dismissal has no legal or legitimate basis,  Noor said on Afghan national television.  For now we are only resorting to civil action but if this atrocity continues, there are many other options.  Atta Noor is one of a clutch of powerful regional and ethnic leaders whom Ghani has struggled to control since he came to office after the disputed election of 2014. Ghani, a Pashtun, has tried previously to remove him but also discussed a possible role in the government for him. He submitted his resignation several months ago but the move never took effect until Ghani approved it on Monday, announcing at the same time that Mohammad Daoud, also from Jamiat, would become the next governor of Balkh province.      The Afghan president has accepted Atta Mohammad Noor s resignation and announced Engineer Mohammad Daoud as the new governor,  Shah Hussain Murtazawi a spokesman for Ghani said. In his remarks on Monday, Atta Noor, who has demanded a number of senior positions in the government for some of his allies, said the resignation had been offered with conditions attached and said these had not been respected.  Since they didn t meet their responsibilities, I don t accept it,  he said. Ghani s national unity government, formed after the 2014 election forced him into an uneasy power-sharing arrangement with his former rival Abdullah Abdullah from Jamiat, retains the support of the international community and the United States. But it has faced mounting criticism from a growing array of opposition groups. Parliamentary elections originally due to be held next year are in doubt and former President Hamid Karzai has called for a loya jirga, or traditional grand council of political leaders and elders to decide the future of the government. The confrontation with Atta Noor comes several months after a standoff with Vice President Rashid Dostum over accusations of the sexual abuse of a political opponent. Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek leader and veteran of decades of Afghan politics, has been in Turkey since May, ostensibly for medical treatment.

Summary: राजनीतिक तस्वीर के बाद अफगानिस्तान के शक्तिशाली क्षेत्रीय नेता को पद से हटाया गया


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - About 38 percent of California Republicans support billionaire Donald Trump’s bid for the U.S. presidency, but more than half  say they are not satisfied with their choices of candidates, a new opinion poll shows. The poll released by the Public Policy Institute of California on Wednesday also shows that among Democrats who are likely primary voters, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 48 percent support compared with Sanders’ 41 percent. The survey also showed that California Democrats are much more likely to be satisfied with their presidential choices than Republicans. Among Democratic voters surveyed, 65 percent said they were satisfied with their choices of candidates, while just 46 percent of Republicans say they were satisfied with the field. Among independents, who make up nearly a quarter of registered voters in the most populous U.S. state, satisfaction with primary choices is even lower, at 34 percent.     Democrats, who make up 43 percent of registered voters in the state, break along age lines in their support for Clinton or Sanders, the poll showed. Voters aged 45 and older skewed heavily for Clinton at 63 percent, while the same percentage of voters below age 45 said they support Sanders. The U.S. presidential election is on Nov. 8. The PPIC poll showed an increase in support for Trump when compared with a poll by the Field Research Corporation in January. In that survey, Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas were in a statistical tie at roughly 25 percent each.  Since then, however, several candidates have dropped out of the crowded Republican race. Nationwide, Reuters polling conducted on Tuesday showed Trump with a commanding lead among Republicans at 44.6 percent. By comparison, 26.9 percent said they supported Cruz and 19.8 percent supported Ohio Governor John Kasich.   The PPIC poll of 1,710 adult California residents was conducted March 6-15, and has a margin of error of 3.6 percent. Polling ended on the night that U.S. Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के रिपब्लिकन ट्रम्प की ओर झुकते हैं लेकिन उम्मीदवार की पसंद को नापसंद करते हैं


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s ruling Socialist Party won at least 90 percent of the 335 mayorships contested in Sunday s local elections, President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday.  According to the national election board s latest official count, the socialists won 41 of 42 mayorships counted by late evening. But Maduro said results overnight would show his government had won more than 300 of the polls.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के मादुरो का कहना है कि सरकार ने 90 प्रतिशत महापौर पद जीते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. senator said on Friday that he expects Congress’ investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election to go ahead, even after the appointment of a special counsel, and said Congress has a broader mandate that extends to financial conflicts of interest. The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. “The Congress has a broader oversight responsibility than just whether crimes have been committed,” Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a round-table meeting with Reuters.  The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting one of the main congressional probes of the issue. “Bob Mueller doesn’t have, for example, the same broader responsibility to get into the kind of financial entanglements that I have especially focused on,” Wyden said. Questions remain about what contacts took place between Trump advisers and the Russians, and about Russia investments in Trump businesses.  In March, for example, the White House disclosed that Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank, or VEB, in December. In February, Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Reuters reported on Thursday that Flynn and other advisers to Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race. U.S. intelligence agencies said Russia hacked emails of senior Democrats and orchestrated the release of embarrassing information in a bid to tip the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump, whose views were seen as more in line with Moscow’s. Russia has denied the allegations. Trump has dismissed suggestions of links with Moscow as Democratic sour grapes for losing the election. Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia. Mueller’s appointment raised questions about whether he would ask Congress to step away from its investigation, or whether the dual track would complicate issues such as calling witnesses or obtaining documents. Some congressional Republicans have also suggested that Mueller’s appointment would lead to changes in Congress’ investigation. Wyden said he would “go to the mat” to be sure congressional investigators get what they need. He has already put a hold on Trump’s nomination of Sigal Mandelker to the position of under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence until Treasury hands over all documents related to financial dealings between Russia, Trump and Trump associates. Wyden also said he was looking into ways to obtain documents related to dealings with Russia by Flynn. The Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Flynn for the documents on May 10. His lawyer said on Thursday that Flynn had not yet decided how to respond. Wyden said he needed time to decide how to respond, but pledged he would do so. “We still have to know more ... about how Russia corrupted our democracy,” he said. He said he knew that it would involve the Department of Justice.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने जोर देकर कहा कि विशेष वकील कांग्रेस की रूस जांच को पटरी से नहीं उतारेंगे


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has extended a state of emergency for another three months, starting Friday, the official gazette said on Thursday.  Egypt first imposed the state of emergency in April after two church bombings killed at least 45 people. It was then extended in July for a further three months.

Summary: मिस्र ने आपातकाल की स्थिति शुक्रवार से तीन महीने के लिए बढ़ाईः आधिकारिक राजपत्र


LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said on Friday he did not want Catalonia to become independent, because that would encourage other regions to do the same, making the European Union ungovernable.  If we allow Catalonia   and it is not our business   to separate, others will do the same. I do not want that,  Jean Claude Juncker said in a speech at Luxembourg University.  I wouldn t like a European Union in 15 years that consists of some 98 states,  he continued.  It s already relatively difficult with 28 and with 27 not easier, but with 98 it would simply be impossible.  The EU s statistics agency Eurostat lists the bloc as consisting of 98 major regions. Juncker said he was  very worried  about separatist tendencies in Europe and had encouraged Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to ensure the situation did not get out of control.  Referring to Catalan calls for EU mediation, he said the Commission could not mediate if only one side asked it to do so. The EU has said it has confidence in Rajoy to resolve what it sees as an internal issue.  If the Commission or European Council President (Donald) Tusk were to get involved with only one party asking for mediation, this would lead to a great rejection of the European Union,  Juncker said.

Summary: जंकर का कहना है कि कैटलन विभाजन से यूरोपीय संघ टूट जाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday cleared the way for approval of $1.1 billion in immediate funds to battle the Zika virus that is linked to birth defects, well above what is in legislation pending in the House of Representatives. By a vote of 68-29, senators limited debate on the measure, paving the way for likely Senate approval this week. Two other funding approaches failed to get enough support to advance in the Senate. Meanwhile, the White House threatened to veto a $622.1 million Zika bill poised to pass the House of Representatives later this week, saying it was “woefully inadequate.” Unlike the Senate legislation, the House bill also requires that the $622.1 million be fully offset with spending cuts elsewhere. Many conservative Republicans in the House refuse to approve Zika funds that would add to federal budget deficits, while Democrats and some Senate Republicans favor treating the problem as an emergency that would not have to be financed with spending cuts. Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri told reporters that the Senate measure “trimmed this package back (from Obama’s request) to what really addresses the emergency at the time.” Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, who crafted the legislation with Blunt, added, “We are going to need to keep the pressure on House Republicans to set aside their partisan bill and actually get the administration the emergency resources they need.” It was unclear how long it might take the Senate and House to work out their differences once they pass their respective bills. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. Last year, Brazil began detecting an increase in microcephaly and the virus has been spreading rapidly in the Americas, with new cases now being reported in warm climates in southern U.S. states including Florida. House Republicans argue their $622.1 million bill, when coupled with $589 million the Obama administration already shifted to Zika from unused funds to battle Ebola, would provide enough money through Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year. The administration says it needs the emergency funds to help state and local governments eradicate mosquitoes that spread the virus and to develop a vaccine. (This version of the story was corrected to say $622.1 million from $622.1 billion in the 3rd and 11th paragraphs.)

Summary: यू. एस. सीनेट जीका वायरस वित्तपोषण में $1.1 बिलियन को मंजूरी देने के लिए तैयार है


(Reuters) - Connecticut’s Senate passed a bill Wednesday morning that could allow the state to buy power from Dominion Energy Inc’s Millstone nuclear power plant. Earlier this week, Dominion said it will begin a “strategic reassessment” of the 2,088-megawatt Millstone plant after another bill that would allow the state to buy power from the plant failed to get enough votes. That other bill was Senate Bill 106. Senate Bill 778, which the Senate passed this morning, authorizes the commissioner of the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection to conduct an appraisal to determine whether the state will conduct a competitive procurement process for nuclear power. Before it becomes law, Bill 778 has to pass the state house before the session ends at midnight Wednesday and be signed by the governor. Connecticut is one of several states looking for ways to boost their nuclear plants’ revenues to keep them in service to preserve benefits they provide, including carbon-free energy, jobs, taxes and energy diversification. In 2016, New York and Illinois adopted rules to subsidize some reactors that were in danger of closing before their licenses expire as cheap and abundant shale gas has cut power prices over the past several years, making it uneconomic for nuclear operators to keep some units operating. While other generators with mostly gas-fired plants, like NRG Energy Inc, Dynegy Inc and Calpine Corp, challenge those New York and Illinois rules in federal court, other states - Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - have considered adopting similar rules to protect their reactors. “We don’t believe that fair and equitable power markets can be sustained when giving handouts or subsidies to nuclear operators. The suggestion that Dominion is somehow in a lesser position to participate in the power market is pure fiction,” said NRG spokesman David Gaier. If the Connecticut commissioner decides to go forward with the nuclear power purchases, the state can either require electric utilities to buy nuclear power for a period of three to ten years, or issue a solicitation for baseload zero-carbon resources, including nuclear. Ken Holt, a spokesman at Millstone, said it was premature to speculate on what the company may do if Bill 778 does not pass. He said Dominion has already sold 85 percent of the power Millstone is expected to generate in 2017 to hedge funds and other purchasers. While the company usually sells some of the plant’s power three years in advance, Holt said Dominion has not sold Millstone’s power beyond this year because it was waiting to see where prices would go and the outcome of the legislation. Next-day power prices in New England averaged $35.40 per megawatt hour in 2016, the lowest on record, according to Reuters data going back to 2001. That compares with a 10-year average (2007-2016) of $59.02.

Summary: कनेक्टिकट सीनेट ने परमाणु ऊर्जा की खरीद की अनुमति देने वाला विधेयक पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican-controlled committee of lawmakers approved a bill on Tuesday to allow a congressional audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy, a proposal Fed policymakers have opposed and which faces an uncertain path to final approval.  Democrats uniformly spoke against the proposal during a meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, suggesting the bill would face stronger resistance than in the past.  “We should not in any way hinder their independence,” said Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, echoing the sentiment of Fed policymakers who say they could come under political pressure to avoid making unpopular decisions such as raising interest rates to slow growth and control inflation.  The next step for the bill would be a floor vote by the entire House, where Republicans hold a solid majority. Republican President Donald Trump expressed support for audits of the U.S. central bank during his election campaign, but it remained unclear whether the White House would back the proposal. Republicans proposed numerous bills during the Obama administration to open the Fed up to deeper scrutiny, arguing the added transparency would ensure the Fed was accountable and free of outside influence.  Currently, the Fed publishes detailed audits of its finances but it keeps the inner workings of its monetary policy deliberations secret, publishing transcripts of policy meetings only with a five-year lag. The proposal approved on Tuesday would “put an end to that reign of secrecy,” said Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who submitted the bill. The House has already passed versions of the bill twice, with dozens of Democrats joining nearly unanimous Republican support in 2012 and 2014. Those versions of the legislation died in the Senate. Republicans control both houses of Congress but only have a narrow majority in the Senate.  Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts was among Democrats who voted in favor of similar legislation in 2012 and 2014 but came out against the current proposal, saying it could lead to political interference at the Fed. Lynch said he hoped a compromise could be found that increased transparency at the Fed, such as by requiring it to publish transcripts of policy meetings two years after they take place.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन समिति ने फेड की जांच बढ़ाने के लिए विधेयक को मंजूरी दी


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has stepped up security along its largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh and is using  chilli and stun grenades  to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in their homeland of Myanmar, officials said on Friday. Border forces in Hindu-majority India, which wants to deport around 40,000 Rohingya already living in the country, citing security risks, have been authorized to use  rude and crude  methods to stop any infiltration attempts.   We don t want to cause any serious injury or arrest them, but we won t tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil,  said a senior official with the Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi.  We re using grenades containing chilli spray to stop hundreds of Rohingyas trying to enter India ... the situation is tense,  added the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media. More than 420,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when a coordinated attack by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces triggered a counteroffensive, killing at least 400 people, mainly militants. The United Nations has called the assault a  textbook example of ethnic cleansing . Densely populated Bangladesh is struggling to shelter all the refugees desperate for space to set up shacks, sparking worries in India that the influx could spill into its territory. R.P.S. Jaswal, a deputy inspector general of the BSF patrolling a large part of the border in India s eastern state of West Bengal, said his troops were told to use both chilli grenades and stun grenades to push back the Rohingya. A chilli grenade makes use of a naturally-occurring compound in chilli powder to cause severe irritation and temporarily immobilize its target. Prime Minister Narendra Modi s Hindu nationalist government is growing increasingly hostile towards the Rohingya in India, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling on Thursday for their deportation as illegal migrants. Seeking to get legal clearance for the deportation plan, the home ministry told the Supreme Court this week it would confidentially provide it with intelligence information showing Rohingya links with Pakistan-based militants. Most of the peaceloving refugees had no link to criminal activity, two Rohingya men protesting against the deportation move told India s top court on Friday. An official of India s federal investigations agency said it was seeking help from Muslim religious leaders to step up surveillance of the Rohingya. Police have arrested a suspected al Qaeda member they believe was trying to recruit Rohingya in the country to fight security forces in Myanmar. More than 270 Rohingya have been in Indian jails since 2014.  Our investigations have revealed that Al Qaeda wants to use India and Bangladesh as their base to start a religious war against Myanmar,  said New Delhi police official Pramod Singh Khuswah.  Clearly they are a threat to our security.

Summary: भारत रोहिंग्याओं की आमद को रोकने के लिए मिर्च स्प्रे, स्टन ग्रेनेड का उपयोग कर रहा है


CARACAS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro defended Venezuela’s “secure” election system on Tuesday as opponents struggled to present a united front over allegations of fraud in a nationwide vote surprisingly won by the ruling socialists.  Despite widespread anger over economic hardship, the Socialist Party confounded opinion polls to take 17 of 23 governorships in Sunday’s election.  Stunned by the defeat that undermines their aim to win the presidency in 2018, the opposition Democratic Unity coalition refused to acknowledge the results and called the election rigged, as did the United States. Though the coalition has complained of an unfair playing field - from abuse of state resources to last-minute moving of vote centers away from opposition strongholds - it has not given detailed evidence of ballot-tampering. Some opposition figures have acknowledged abstention by their supporters - disillusioned by the failure of street protests to dislodge Maduro earlier this year - was a big factor. Two losing opposition candidates, Henri Falcon in Lara state and Alejandro Feo La Cruz in Carabobo, have conceded defeat, breaking with the official coalition position. Both criticized “irregularities” in the vote but also lamented many demoralized opposition supporters stayed at home. “We need courage to recognize truth in adversity,” said Falcon. The strongest criticism of Sunday’s vote came from Washington, which slammed Maduro’s “dictatorship.” Several European nations also expressed concern, while 12 countries in the Americas from the so-called Lima Group condemned “obstacles, intimidation, manipulation and irregularities”. Washington is considering further sanctions on Venezuela, after various measures against top officials and the economy earlier this year, while the European Union is mulling the same. Government leaders have smarted at fraud accusations. “Venezuela’s election system is the most secure and audited in the world,” Maduro said on Tuesday. “President Donald Trump, I am not a dictator; I am a humble worker ... I have a moustache and look like Stalin, but I’m not him.” The Venezuelan leader invited EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to visit or receive him in Brussels to “open their eyes,” and told “stupid” Canada to stop meddling. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza later said on Twitter that Maduro had recalled Venezuela’s ambassador to Canada for talks. Heaping further humiliation on Venezuela’s opposition, the governors were due to be sworn in on Tuesday by a new legislative superbody elected controversially in July. The opposition boycotted that vote and has refused to recognize the entirely pro-government Constituent Assembly, which supersedes all institutions including the opposition-controlled congress. The opposition’s five governors-elect planned to boycott the swearing-in ceremony, defying Maduro’s threat to bar them from office for failing to accept the assembly as a higher authority. “We will not kneel to anyone,” said Juan Pablo Guanipa, who won the oil-rich western Zulia state.  Despite food shortages, runaway inflation and a tanking currency, Venezuela’s government retains significant bastions of support, especially in poorer, rural parts of the country. In his news conference, Maduro said the socialists also won Bolivar state, which would take its total to 18 governorships versus five for the opposition.  The government won a total of 54 percent of the votes overall, he added. The election board has not confirmed the Bolivar result or the overall vote figures. With the opposition coalition’s dozens of parties arguing over whether there was fraud, what went wrong, and where to go next, it will need to regroup and map strategy quickly heading into the 2018 presidential campaign. Its very future may even be in doubt, since many young activists who took to the streets for four straight months of protests and pitched battles with security forces earlier this year feel betrayed by their leaders. The unrest killed at least 125 people. Maduro has long accused opposition leaders of being behind violence, and on Tuesday called the new opposition governor of Zulia state a “fascist” while accusing his counterpart in Tachira of links to Colombian “paramilitaries.” The election aftermath appears to have sunk a government-opposition mediation effort that began last month in the Dominican Republic. Even though Maduro wants to resuscitate the talks, the opposition coalition has ruled that out. “We are the majority, the dictatorship is more-and-more illegitimate, popular and global condemnation grows daily against this regime,” it said in a communique late on Monday.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के मादुरो ने विवादित मतदान का बचाव किया, विपक्ष विभाजित


TOKYO (Reuters) - Most Japanese firms think a Donald Trump presidency would harm the Japan-U.S. security alliance and make the United States a less attractive place to invest, a Reuters poll showed, in a further sign of international angst about his candidacy. The Republican frontrunner, known for his unpredictable style and fiery rhetoric, would also cause bilateral trade to shrink if he became president, a majority of respondents said. Portraying Japan as a free-rider on security, Trump has suggested that the U.S. ally might need nuclear weapons to ease U.S. financial commitment to its defense - anathema to the only country ever attacked by atomic bombs. Trump has also said he might withdraw U.S. troops from Japan unless it pays more to feed and house the 50,000 it hosts, and he has accused Japan of stealing U.S. jobs. His comments have only fueled simmering worries amongst some Japanese in recent years about whether Washington would defend Tokyo in a crisis under their alliance - the lynchpin of Japan’s security policy for decades. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted April 1-15, found 78 percent of firms thought Japan’s security environment would deteriorate under Trump. The remainder said it would not change much. Not one firm thought it would improve. The monthly poll surveyed 510 big and mid-size firms. Around 230 answered questions on the U.S. presidential race. In written comments, companies voiced concerns that uncertainty would grow over U.S. diplomacy and that protectionism would rise, with some saying a President Trump would embolden China as it struggles to exert its influence in the South China Sea and other parts of Asia. “It is very easy to imagine China taking advantage of the power vacuum to step up military operations in the region,” wrote a manager at an electronics maker.      In particular, Tokyo and Beijing have long been at odds over tiny islands claimed by both in the East China Sea. “We worry that geopolitical risk would heighten a lot and Sino-Japanese relations would be extremely strained, which could result in a very negative impact on the Japanese economy,” the manager added. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to requests for comment. While the possibility of a President Trump has triggered alarm among some foreign diplomats, economists and business executives, he has moved closer to the Republican nomination after winning a commanding victory in New York state’s presidential nominating contests on Tuesday. Some respondents to the survey said, however, that they see Trump’s comments as mere posturing and did not expect any real change in policy even if he won the Nov. 8 election. Managers answered on condition of anonymity in the survey which was conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research. Around 55 percent of firms said that Trump would be bad for business in the United States, that Japanese corporate appetite for investing in the U.S. would wane, and that trade between the two countries would decline. The amount of Japan-U.S. trade has grown by about a quarter in the past two decades to be worth around $215 billion, accounting for 15 percent of Japan’s overall trade. The United States is Japan’s No. 2 trading partner after China, while Japan is the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner. In contrast to Trump, more than 80 percent of Japanese firms believe Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton would keep a steady hand on economic relations and maintain the status quo on security. The White House has described Trump’s suggestions on Japan adopting nuclear arms as destabilizing. Representatives for Clinton did not respond to requests for comment. “She would adopt realistic policies. It would lack freshness and stage no surprise, which would be a relief to us,” wrote a manager at a construction firm. ($1 = 109.04 yen)

Summary: जापान इंक ने ट्रम्प के राष्ट्रपति पद में क्षतिग्रस्त सुरक्षा, कम अमेरिकी व्यापार देखाः रॉयटर्स पोल


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel shot down a Syrian spy drone over the Golan Heights on Saturday, the Israeli military said. The drone was downed with a Patriot interceptor missile over the Golan demilitarized zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since the ceasefire deal that followed their 1973 war. The military initially told Reuters the UAV was Russian-manufactured but offered no evidence. A military source later said it was unclear whether the UAV was indeed Russian-made.   It was a reconnaissance UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and not an attack UAV and we are checking whether there is any connection to Iran and Hezbollah,  military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, told Reuters.  Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel viewed the incident gravely and would respond to any provocation.   We hold the Syrian regime responsible for any firing or breach of sovereignty and call on it to hold back all players active in its territory,  Lieberman said in a statement. Russia intervened in the civil war on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, joining a de-facto alliance with Iranian forces, Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shi ite Muslim militias helping Damascus beat back Islamic State and other Sunni Muslim insurgent groups. Israel fears an eventual Assad victory could leave Iran with a permanent garrison in Syria, extending a threat posed from neighboring Lebanon by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and has been lobbying Russia and the United States for reassurances that Iranian and Hezbollah forces will not be allowed to deploy near its border or set up bases within Syria.   We will not allow the Shi ite axis to establish Syria as its forefront base,  Lieberman said. The Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 conflict, has seen spillover violence from the Syrian civil war. Israel has at times fired to foil what it deemed deliberate cross-border attacks and has struck suspected Hezbollah arms shipments around 100 times in Syria during the civil war. For its part, Russia has set up a military hotline to prevent warplanes or anti-aircraft units clashing accidentally over Syria.

Summary: इजरायल ने गोलान हाइट्स पर सीरियाई जासूसी ड्रोन को मार गिराया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty moderate Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives warned on Friday that efforts to overhaul the federal tax code could be jeopardized by demands for including major spending cuts in a fiscal 2018 budget resolution. In a June 30 letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, lawmakers from the moderate Tuesday Group said that including hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to mandatory programs could be “extremely problematic” for tax reform and asked for a budget delay until Senate Republicans finish their debate on healthcare legislation. “We fear that if the House persists on pursuing this course, it could imperil tax reform,” wrote the lawmakers, who were led by Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. Republicans must pass a 2018 budget resolution to unlock a key legislative tool known as reconciliation, which the party needs to move a tax bill forward without support from Democrats.  But members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus say they will back a spending plan only if it cuts mandatory programs including Medicaid and food stamps, reductions that moderates oppose. “House Republicans have made significant progress on budget decisions and these family discussions will continue amongst the conference,” Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement. The Freedom Caucus and Tuesday Group each represents enough House Republicans to stymie legislation on its own.  Outside organizations including powerful business lobby groups are increasingly worried that the disagreement could lead to a political stand-off that prevents tax reform from occurring. “No other reforms under consideration rise to the importance of pro-growth, comprehensive tax reform,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business said in a joint letter to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday. Republican moderates also worry that adding mandatory cuts to a reconciliation bill would create unpalatable legislation that reduces benefits for the poor while granting tax cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals, according to aides.  The House Budget Committee canceled plans to send a resolution for fiscal 2018 to the floor this week, after the chairmen of several other committees rejected efforts to wring $250 billion in mandatory spending from spending. Freedom Caucus members want much larger cuts.

Summary: उदारवादी रिपब्लिकन ने कर सुधार के लिए परेशानी की चेतावनी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump repeatedly says his proposed tax cut would be the biggest in U.S. history, but it will not even come close to the record. Trump would be on target if he were talking only about corporate taxes, but he has included other taxes in his boast. The president and his fellow Republicans in Congress propose cutting the top corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. If they succeed, it would be the largest American corporate tax cut since the modern corporate tax began more than a century ago. As proposed by the Republicans, the corporate rate would fall 43 percent, compared with the second-largest such cut of 26 percent under Republican President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  But on individual taxes, Trump's claim does not hold up, according to data on top personal income tax rates collected by the Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank. (For a graphic tracking U.S. tax rates, see: tmsnrt.rs/2z5Cv20) Some Republicans in Congress are backing away from cutting the top individual tax rate, now 39.6 percent. But even if they did cut it as low as Trump wants, to 35 percent, the president would not even come close to winning bragging rights.    The Reagan cuts lowered the top rate to 28 percent from 70 percent. That was an impressive 60 percent drop. But the huge tax cuts of President Warren Harding and President Calvin Coolidge, both Republicans, take the prize. In 1922, the top tax rate was 73 percent. By 1925, it was only 25 percent, almost a 66 percent decline. Coolidge alone was responsible for a 57 percent cut in taxes. Under President John Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson, both Democrats, the tax cuts of 1964 and 1965 cut the top rate to 70 percent from 91 percent, a decline of 23 percent. Still, there are other ways to measure the size of a tax cut besides the rates themselves. One approach would measure how much tax revenue the federal government does not get and  taxpayers get to keep. That is the “cost” of a tax cut. But that number is disputed between those who favor tax cuts and those who do not. The Trump administration argues its tax cuts will ignite the economy and tax revenue will increase, not decrease. That way, the cuts “pay for themselves,” they say.  The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan Washington think tank, estimated the Trump tax cut could be the fourth-largest as a percentage of gross domestic product, or GDP, a measure of national economic output. The think tank favors that measure because it eliminates the effects of inflation, economic growth and the size of total federal revenue. By that measure, it agreed with a number of economists who said the Reagan cuts were the largest in history, even larger than Coolidge’s.   As for bragging rights to the all-time biggest tax hike, the winner is Democratic President Woodrow Wilson. During World War One, he increased the top individual rate to 77 percent from 7 percent and the corporate rate to 12 percent from 1 percent.

Summary: ट्रम्प की कर कटौती अमेरिकी इतिहास में सबसे बड़ी नहीं होगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote to renew sanctions on Iran for 10 years before adjourning next month, the chamber’s Republican leader said on Wednesday, sending the bill to the White House, where President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for the decade-long extension of the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and deter the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The act will expire at the end of 2016 if it is not renewed. “We’re going to take up the House bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Senate’s weekly Republican leadership news conference. “... And we’re going to pass it.” The Obama administration and other world powers reached an agreement last year in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. But members of Congress said they wanted the ISA to stay in effect to send a strong message that the United States will respond to provocations by Iran and give any U.S. president the ability to quickly reinstate sanctions if Tehran violated the nuclear agreement. White House officials have said they did not think the reinstatement was needed, now that the nuclear agreement has been in effect for almost a year. But they also have not raised concerns that a renewal would violate the deal. Apart from the ISA, the nuclear agreement’s longer-term future became more uncertain when Republican Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 8, and Republicans kept their majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Every Republican in Congress opposed the nuclear agreement. And Trump was harshly critical of it as he campaigned.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट के नेता का कहना है कि ईरान प्रतिबंधों का नवीनीकरण पारित हो जाएगा


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants, Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday. U.S.-Turkish differences during former President Barack Obama’s administration impeded the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State, and closer coordination could mean faster progress towards freeing swathes of northern Syria from IS. Erdogan now hopes that relations with Washington, strained by the presence in the United States of a cleric he blames for an attempted military coup last year and by U.S. support for Kurdish militia in Syria, can be reset under Trump. Turkey has the second largest army in the NATO alliance and is key to any success in rolling back and eventually neutralising IS in Syria and Iraq where IS declared a cross-border caliphate after lightning advances in 2014. Turkey has presented a detailed plan to oust Islamic State from its Raqqa urban stronghold in northeastern Syria and strategy discussions with the Trump administration are under way, according to Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin. “The operational details were not discussed on this call ... Now detailed planning will be conducted in coordination,” he told Turkish broadcaster NTV in an interview. Ankara believes recent IS attacks in Turkey, including a New Year’s Day shooting in an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people, have been steered from al-Bab and Raqqa, and regards a clear-out of the towns as a national security priority. Turkish government and Syrian rebel sources said on Wednesday insurgents backed by Turkey’s military had taken the outskirts of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo. If al-Bab falls, Ankara would strengthen its sway over an area of northern Syria where it has created a de facto buffer zone. Syrian government forces have also advanced on al-Bab from the south, bringing them into close proximity with their Turkish and rebel enemies in one of the most complex battlefields of Syria’s six-year-old civil war. But Turkey said international coordination was under way to prevent clashes with Syrian forces. The White House said that in the phone call, Trump spoke about the two countries’ “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms” and welcomed Turkish contributions to the fight against Islamic State. But it gave few details. Sources in Erdogan’s office said the two leaders had touched on issues including a “safe zone”, as well as the regional migrant crisis and the fight against terrorism. Turkey has long advocated a secure zone for displaced civilians in Syria threatened by Islamist militants or forces fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They also said Erdogan had urged the United States not to support the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and that new CIA Director Mike Pompeo would be in Turkey on Thursday to discuss that and other issues with Turkish counterparts. There was no immediate confirmation from Washington of Pompeo’s visit. But the offices of both leaders said Trump had reiterated U.S. support for Turkey “as a strategic partner and NATO ally” during Tuesday’s phone call. Turkey has long urged world powers to help create a safe zone, which it also sees as a way to purge its border of Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters, and stem a wave of migration that has caused tensions with Europe.  Obama and U.S. allies balked at the idea, saying it would entail significant ground forces and planes to patrol a “no-fly zone”, a dicey commitment in such a crowded and messy conflict. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of U.S.-backed militias, launched a new phase of its campaign against Islamic State in Raqqa on Saturday. Turkey has repeatedly said it wants to be part of the U.S.-led operation to retake Raqqa from the ultra-hardline Sunni militant Islamic State, but does not want the YPG, which is part of the SDF alliance, to be involved. Relations between Erdogan and Obama soured over U.S. support for the YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting inside Turkey. The Turkish army and Syrian rebel groups it supports have been fighting IS in a separate campaign around al-Bab, northeast of the city of Aleppo. Ankara has complained in the past about a lack of U.S. support for that campaign. Kalin said there had been better coordination with the U.S.-led coalition on air strikes in the last 10 days. He added that Ankara’s priority remained the creation of a safe zone between the Syrian towns of Azaz and Jarablus, a strip of border territory to the north of al-Bab. The Turkish sources said Pompeo would discuss both the YPG and steps against the network of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating last July’s coup attempt. Gulen denies any involvement. Turkey has been frustrated by what it considers to be  Washington’s reluctance to hand over Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. “As you know, we have two fundamental issues with the U.S. administration inherited from Obama’s period. One is the support given to YPG and the other is the (Gulen) problem,” Kalin said. “Our president spoke about these openly and clearly. Trump was informed on these and, without going into too much detail, he said let’s ask our teams to work on this and let’s give the necessary instructions.”

Summary: सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के खिलाफ संयुक्त कार्रवाई पर एर्दोगन और ट्रंप सहमतः तुर्की सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives ramped up their efforts to force the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, calling it a critical issue of transparency and national security.  House Democrats said they would use a parliamentary procedure to file a petition aimed at forcing a vote on legislation requiring U.S. presidents to disclose multiple years of federal income tax filings. Representatives for the White House and House Speaker Paul Ryan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  Trump, a Republican and New York real estate developer who touted his business acumen in the 2016 presidential campaign, defied decades of precedent by candidates when he refused to release his tax returns, saying they were under audit. The Internal Revenue Service says audits pose no obstacle to releasing tax returns. Democrats, for their so-called discharge petition to move forward, would need to obtain signatures of support from the majority of the 435 lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House.  Such a move could be a long-shot given that just two Republicans, Representatives Mark Sanford and Justin Amash, have signed on to sponsor the proposed bill that would then see a vote. The petition is the latest effort by Democrats on the issue as just two glimpses of Trump’s taxes have surfaced in media reports on his 1995 and 2005 filings. Democrats say Trump’s taxes are a national security issue given congressional investigations into possible ties between Russia and his campaign. They also cite concerns over potential conflicts of interest with his privately held global businesses. “How do we know when he makes policy decisions or, you know, trade deals ... with foreign countries that he is looking out for the American people and not lining his own pockets?” Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell said to reporters.

Summary: हाउस डेमोक्रेट्स ने टैक्स रिटर्न जारी करने के लिए ट्रम्प पर दबाव डाला


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan s Dentsu Inc was fined just 500,000 yen ($4,400) after a Tokyo court ruled it had made employees work overtime beyond legal limits - a case that followed a high profile death from overwork at the advertising giant. Labour practices at Dentsu, renowned for its hard-driving work culture, came under scrutiny after employee Matsuri Takahashi committed suicide in 2015 at the age of 24. The government later ruled she died of  karoshi  - literally  death by overwork . The case prompted national soul-searching and helped spur government plans for sweeping reforms of labor laws. Even so, the problem of karoshi has once again been thrust into the spotlight this week, with public broadcaster NHK disclosing that a 31-year-old reporter died four years ago of overwork. Prosecutors had charged Dentsu for making Takahashi and three others work overtime beyond limits agreed with the company s labor union between October and December 2015. But current Japanese law only allows for relatively small fines for breaches relating to overtime.  We are hoping for legislative change so that stiffer penalties can be imposed when a worker dies,  Takahashi s mother Yukimi said in a statement after the ruling.  It s not just my daughter - tragic cases like this are happening throughout Japan, across all industries and irrespective of whether firms are large or small,  she added, noting the death of the NHK reporter. Matsuri Takahashi had worked 105 hours of overtime in October 2015 after which she fell into depression. She jumped to her death from a company dormitory on Christmas day, leaving behind a trail of public grievances on social media about her relentless working hours and boss s verbal abuse.  We take this ruling very seriously, and extend our deepest apologies to stakeholders and the general public for the concern we have caused,  Dentsu said in a statement, adding that CEO Toshihiro Yamamoto will take a 20 percent pay cut for six months. Japan had 191 deaths which authorities have ruled as related to overwork in the past financial year - an increase of two over the previous year, the government said in an annual report on Friday. NHK, which has covered the Dentsu case and the problem of karoshi in Japanese society extensively on air, said it had decided to disclose its own case to ensure thorough reform within the company. The reporter died of congestive heart failure after clocking 159 hours of overtime in the month before her death. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s administration this year endorsed an action plan for sweeping reforms of employment practices, including caps on overtime and better pay for part-time and contract workers. The moves, while widely welcome, also come at a time when Japanese companies are also grappling with a deepening labor shortage as the nation s population rapidly ages. Despite pledges of reform by many companies, some Japanese workers were skeptical.  My company says it s promoting work reform, but I am doing as much overtime as before. I even work on Saturdays,  said a 38-year old female employee at a Japanese bank.   Unless the bank cuts down our total workload, overtime cannot be reduced,  she said, declining to give her name or identify her company out of fear of upsetting her employer.

Summary: जापान के डेंटसू को विरोध के बावजूद ओवरटाइम उल्लंघन के लिए केवल छोटा जुर्माना मिलता है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU Chairman Donald Tusk said on Friday there had been progress in Brexit negotiations and he hoped that by December it would be sufficient to start talks with London on their relationship after Britain leaves.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के टस्क ने ब्रेक्सिट की प्रगति को नोट किया, दिसंबर तक व्यापार वार्ता की उम्मीद है


BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newly fraying relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn has raised questions about how long Cohn will stay in his job, say two people with close ties to the White House. Several sources said Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, had long planned to stay in his post for at least a year. But one source said concern had grown among Cohn’s allies over the past 24 hours that he might be pressured to leave.  The recent concerns stem from a report in the Wall Street Journal – confirmed by other news media, including Reuters – that Cohn was unlikely to be nominated by Trump as a potential successor to Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Trump had mentioned Cohn in July for the job. Cohn resigned as president of Goldman Sachs to join the new administration. “The calculus has shifted for Gary. He’s gone, essentially, from untouchable to possibly being bounced out,” the source said. “The message is clear that suddenly Cohn’s job in the White House has real downside risk.” Cohn crossed Trump last month when he criticized the president in a Financial Times interview for his response to the violence at a rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which one woman died. One source close to the White House said Trump wanted to fire Cohn. “Hates him. But that could be ephemeral,” the source said. Cohn, who is Jewish, told the newspaper the administration “must do better” in condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists.  The former investment banker gave the interview after his wife and daughters pushed him to speak out, if not quit, after Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence. Trump said there were “very fine people” among the white supremacist groups, a comment that disgusted Cohn and those close to him, people who know him said. While the interview was intended to signal that Cohn had no plans to leave the White House and planned to push ahead with his signature project, tax reform, sources said the comments upset Trump. Trump has gone hot and cold on other advisers, some of whom have stayed, while others have left. “Relationships change,” said a third source with close ties to the White House. “If Gary sticks around, I fully expect that Gary’s relationship with the president will improve.” People who know Cohn say that when he does leave the White House, he wants it to be on his own terms. A White House official said Cohn was focused on his job, especially tax reform. “Gary is focused on his responsibilities as the director of the National Economic Council, including a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver meaningful tax reform that creates jobs and grows the economy,” the official said. Cohn said in a CNBC interview last week he had a “great relationship” with Trump and the two were working well together.

Summary: कोहन पर ट्रम्प का गुस्सा उनके व्हाइट हाउस कार्यकाल के बारे में संदेह पैदा करता हैः सूत्र


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia has invited the Kurdish-led authorities in northern Syria to its proposed congress of Syria s rival parties in November, a senior Kurdish official said on Tuesday, as Moscow seeks to launch a new initiative to end the Syrian conflict.  We are studying the issue and our stance has been positive so far,  Badran Jia Kurd, an adviser to the administration that governs Kurdish-led autonomous regions of Syria, told Reuters. It would mark the first time Syria s main Kurdish groups have been brought into peace talks. Although they now control at least a quarter of Syria, Kurdish authorities have so far been left out of international talks in line with Turkish wishes. After intervening decisively in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has sought to spearhead diplomatic efforts among the various combatants over the past year. Moscow has said the congress will focus on  compromise solutions  towards ending the conflict, which began more than six years ago with street protests against the Syrian leader. A spokesman for the Syrian opposition, which wants peace talks to take place under U.N. supervision, described the proposed congress as  really worrying . It was unclear what the aims were and who would join, said Yahya al-Aridi. Aridi also said he feared the congress would be used as  fabricated  evidence of reconciliation to mislead both the Syrians and foreign countries. Several rounds of U.N. talks in Geneva between the Damascus government and the anti-Assad opposition have gone nowhere.   Russia invited 33 Syrian groups and political parties on Tuesday to a  Syrian Congress on National Dialogue  which it will host on Nov. 18 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. They include Kurdish groups and anti-Assad rebel factions.  The Kurdish-led administration received the invitation at meetings with Russian officials in northern Syria last month and favor the idea as it strives for a political solution, Jia Kurd said. Kurdish officials say they have been in talks with Russia to assess the prospects for dialogue with the Syrian government.       Since 2011, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its allies have carved out autonomous cantons in the north. Their territorial grip has expanded since they joined forces with the United States to fight Islamic State militants. But Turkey views Syrian Kurdish power as a national security threat along its border. Ankara considers the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK movement that has waged a three-decade insurgency inside Turkey.     Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent warplanes to help Assad s military against mostly Sunni rebels in 2015, first mentioned the congress earlier this month.  Putin has said it would include  all ethnic and religious groups, and the government, and the opposition .       Syria s U.N. ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, said Damascus was ready to take part in the congress and that the time was now more appropriate to join such talks after its military victories.  Since Russia s intervention in 2015, the government has taken back significant territory from rebels opposed to Assad and has this year recaptured swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State. Alexander Lavrentyev, a senior Russian negotiator on Syria, urged Syrian rebel groups to join the congress, provided they support Syria s integrity and sovereignty and status as a secular, democratic state.  If someone is against these principles,.. they will of course not go there,  he told reporters after a round of talks with Turkish and Iranian delegations in Kazakhstan.  But then we think they will risk being sidelined in the political process.  The Kazakhstan talks did not produce an anticipated document on prisoner swaps. Lavrentyev said the sides had spent a lot of time discussing the situation in Idlib where Damascus accuses Ankara of acting in coordination with Islamist militants.

Summary: रूस ने सीरियाई कुर्दों को पीपुल्स कांग्रेस में आमंत्रित कियाः कुर्द अधिकारी


PARIS (Reuters) - A large majority of people in France believe President Emmanuel Macron s tax policies favor the rich, a poll showed on Thursday, days after he angered unions with disparaging remarks about protesters. Eighty-two percent of respondents in the Odoxa poll thought Macron s tax policies - including a scaling-back of a long-standing wealth tax - catered mainly to the richest. Three in four said the policy helped heads of large businesses and fewer than one in three believed Macron s tax stance was favorable for low-income workers and pensioners. This month, Macron made good on a pledge to scale back the wealth tax, long a tool for social justice for left-wingers but blamed by others for driving millionaires abroad. He is scrapping the tax on all but property holdings, a move that critics said was a get-out for owners of yachts and private jets, while reducing housing subsidies for the poor. The 39-year-old leader, who argues that the left- and right-wing politics are an anachronism, is struggling to shake off the elitist image of his years as a Rothschild banker. He has argued that the economy, which has suffered from chronic unemployment and sluggish growth for years, needs entrepreneurship, foreign investment and rewards for risk-taking. But he was criticized after complaining about  lazy  elements of society and saying that people who clashed with police during a protest at a car parts plant should seek work elsewhere. Macron s approval ratings have tumbled since his election in May, dragged down by labor reforms, budget cuts, and the decrease in housing subsidies.  An Ifop poll in late September showed some respite with a  dissatisfaction  rating of 53 percent down from 57 percent in August. An August Harris Interactive poll showed 46 percent trusted Macron s political leadership, 13 points off his mid-June high - making him the most unpopular French president in the first 100 days in office in decades. Macron hopes to weather further protests as his government unfurls more reforms aimed at making hiring and firing easier.  Some unions say that will undermine labor protections. On Thursday, protesters put on a show of force near a meeting of human resources executives on the western edge of Paris. Police arrested 41 people at the protest in which several executives  cars were torched. (This refiled version of the story fixes typo  Eighty-two  in second paragraph).

Summary: अधिकांश फ्रांसीसी सोचते हैं कि मैक्रों की कर नीतियाँ अमीरों के पक्ष में हैंः सर्वेक्षण