WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is considering the use of discretionary trusts to avoid conflicts of interest for Trump family members or administration officials,  Politico reported on Wednesday.     Such an arrangement would provide individuals with an alternative to selling off assets or placing wealth in blind trusts, which president-elects traditionally do.  Trump aides have discussed the idea of discretionary trusts with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), but it was unclear whether the set-up would be for Trump, his family or any of the wealthy individuals nominated to his Cabinet, according to Politico, which cited two unidentified sources briefed on the talks. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.   Among Trump’s many holdings are hotels and golf resorts from Panama to Scotland, besides a winery and modeling agency   Federal law does not prohibit the president’s involvement in private business while in office but most presidents in recent decades have placed their personal assets in blind trusts so they do not know how their decisions influence their personal fortunes. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Politico no decisions have been made and that his team would release more details next month. Representatives for OGE declined to comment to Politico on the discussions. Discretionary trusts “could allow Trump or his family members to reap some of the legal benefits of a blind trust, but could also give them some insight into how the Trump businesses are faring while also allowing Trump and his family to continue to make money from those investments,” Politico said. Trump’s team has said he will address his business arrangements in January after cancelling a planned Dec. 15 news  conference on the issue, which looms over the New York businessman as he prepares to assume office on Jan. 20. Executive branch officials and U.S. lawmakers, however, are subject to conflict-of-interest rules, and Democrats in Congress have called on Trump to divest himself of his vast business interests. Trump has said he would avoid the conflict issue by transferring control of his businesses to his oldest three children, but has given no details. Critics have said the “half-blind” discretionary trusts would allow Trump to sidestep conflict-of-interest rules and would be inappropriate, according to Politico.

Summary: ट्रम्प व्यवसायों के लिए 'आधे-अंधे' विश्वास विकल्प पर विचार करते हैंः पोलिटिको


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Target Corp (TGT.N), Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and other retailers are shelving considerations to move supply bases closer to the United States in the face of a possible border tax, banking instead on killing support for the tax idea in Congress. President Donald Trump’s push to impose a tax on imports, such as the 20 percent levy initiated by House Republicans, could raise U.S. consumer prices by as much as 25 percent, industry officials said. Last week, the President said he favored an ‘import tax’ that could be adjusted to reflect the country of origin’s tax rate for U.S. products.  The decision by retailers to forestall supply chain investment in countries such as Bolivia and Romania to focus on lobbying Congress shows how Trump’s ambitious agenda has instilled a new level of risk operating outside U.S. borders. But the vagueness around the tax proposals and whether they may ever be implemented means retail industry executives are still not willing to change their operating infrastructure. The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which is leading the industry lobbying effort, has conducted 140 meetings with lawmakers since December, focusing on the costs of a new tax and encouraging lawmakers who oppose the tax. Prospects for a quick passage of a tax bill took a hit last month when the Republican attempt to overhaul the national healthcare law failed to get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump and Republican leaders have said they still intend to pass a healthcare reform law first, casting further doubt on when Congress may consider tax reform. The border tax proposal likely will be “as messy as the healthcare bill,” according to Brian Dodge, senior executive vice-president of public affairs for the retail lobby group. Target, for one, thinks the industry’s lobbying efforts are succeeding.  “We are working on educating lawmakers and President Trump hasn’t embraced it yet, so we definitely think we are making progress,” a senior company official at Target said on condition of anonymity.  There is good reason for retailers to fight the tax idea. RBC Capital Markets forecast such a levy could reduce profits of six large U.S. retailers by as much as $13 billion in its first year, with Wal-Mart alone seeing its federal tax bill jump to $16.6 billion from $6.6 billion. For a graphic please click tmsnrt.rs/2oVlOPB Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N), which relies heavily on electronics imports, could see its earnings completely wiped out, RBC warned. Best Buy declined to comment. Firms with less exposure to overseas suppliers - ranging from off-price chains like TJX Cos (TJX.N) and Ross Stores (ROST.O) to cosmetics seller Ulta Beauty (ULTA.O) - would feel less impact than heavy importers like Wal-Mart, Target and Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O), analysts and consultants said. TJX Companies and Ulta Beauty declined comment. Ross Stores and Costco did not respond to requests seeking comment.     Steve Osburn, director of supply chain for retail consultancy Kurt Salmon, said it is more cost effective to spend on lobbying than on supply chain relocation at this point. Retailers also have other investment needs, especially around winning consumers who want to shop from home. “They are putting a lot of money in e-commerce initiatives to compete online so there are not a lot of funds to spare,” he said. One outlier is luxury handbag maker Rebecca Minkoff, which sells its own products and supplies other retailers, like Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).  The prospect of a U.S. border tax factored into its recent decision to supply U.S. customers from Europe as it mitigates logistics costs to supply to the United States, according to Uri Minkoff, the firm’s founder and CEO.    “The process has intensified in the past six months,” said Minkoff.  The decision to bank more on the lobby effort to kill support for the tax idea comes after retailers spent the last few months considering whether to move some of their production to supply bases like Bolivia, Brazil and other South American countries with low wage rates, as well as European countries like Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, industry sources told Reuters.  A return to the United States was also a consideration, the sources said.  Shifting production from existing supply bases like China is costly, may involve intellectual property issues and disrupts long-term supply contracts, making it hard to plan and execute such moves, two industry sources said. Consultants have told retailers they could mitigate shipping costs enough to offset any border tax, while avoiding the cost of moving production into the U.S, the sources said.  But so far they are not proceeding with major supply chain changes, according to retailers and industry consultants. “Wal-Mart is not ready to spend money to deal with this,” said a supply chain consultant who works with the retailer but requested anonymity for fear of disrupting the firm’s relationship with Wal-Mart.     Wal-Mart has reviewed its options with supply chain consultants, but has not yet commissioned a concrete contingency plan, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.        Wal-Mart declined comment. Executives at smaller retailers and brands like Samsonite, Crate and Barrel and Steve Madden said there is little competitive impetus for action because they believe a border tax would hurt them and competitors equally. Samsonite was studying reviving its U.S. manufacturing base, but is not close to taking action. “Setting plans (based) on policy proposals that are yet to be implemented is not right,” Samsonite Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Tainwala told Reuters.          Minneapolis-based Target is limiting itself to conducting feasibility studies. “We just don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and invest capital,” the Target official said.    Target declined comment.

Summary: अमेरिकी खुदरा विक्रेताओं ने ट्रम्प सीमा कर मुद्दे को विफल करने के लिए बोलीविया पर कांग्रेस पर दांव लगाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday to send the committee documents and provide a briefing on the resignation of President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Citing reports that both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department were involved in events leading to Michael Flynn’s departure, Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein said they raised “substantial questions” about Flynn’s discussion with Russian officials.

Summary: सीनेट समिति के प्रमुख अध्यक्ष फ्लिन के बारे में जानकारी चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force contract to start replacing the aging fleet of JSTARS spy and battle management planes is expected to be awarded in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on Wednesday. James told a U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing it was regrettable it was taking longer than expected to award the engineering, manufacturing and development contract. Last year the Pentagon’s chief arms buyer approved the next step in a multibillion-dollar competition to replace 16 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft, or JSTARS, which have flown over 100,000 combat hours and are approaching the end of their service life.

Summary: जासूसी विमान अनुबंध वित्त वर्ष 2018 में दिया जाएगाः अमेरिकी वायु सेना


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s president warned conservative election victor Sebastian Kurz that European values must underpin the next government and he would scrutinize developments as Kurz considers bringing the far right back into power.  Kurz s People s Party (OVP) won Sunday s parliamentary election with a hard line on immigration that left little daylight between it and the far-right Freedom Party, two years after Austria was swept up in Europe s migration crisis.  The OVP secured about 31.5 percent of the vote, well short of a majority. A coalition with the FPO is far from certain but appears the most likely outcome after Kurz called an end to the OVP s previous coalition with the Social Democrats. Kurz, 31, has given little away about what he plans to do. The FPO was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s and first became a major political force in the 1990s under the charismatic Joerg Haider, who praised Hitler s employment policies. Haider led the party to a record parliamentary election score in 1999 that it came close to matching on Sunday. The FPO says it has put its Nazi past behind it and purged its ranks of anti-Semitism, but still frequently has to expel members for anti-Semitic comments. It has, however, stopped calling for Austria to leave the European Union.  I will ensure that the fundamental European values inscribed in our constitution remain the compass for Austria s future,  President Alexander Van der Bellen said on Tuesday as he received the outgoing coalition government, which will stay on in a caretaker role until a successor is formed. Austria s president holds a largely ceremonial post but has the power to appoint and dismiss governments, and can be an influential figure in forming coalitions.  I will check policy objectives but also staffing proposals very closely,  Van der Bellen added. What that means for a potential tie-up between Kurz and the FPO is unclear but Van der Bellen, a former leader of the leftist Greens, is known to have reservations about the far-right party.  Van der Bellen narrowly beat an FPO candidate in a  presidential election run-off last year, campaigning on a pro-European platform.  During his campaign he said that as president he would seek to prevent FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache from becoming chancellor if the FPO won an election, but since taking office he has said only that the next government must be pro-European. The FPO cheered Britain s 2016 vote to leave the EU and even sketched out a case in which Austria might hold its own  Oexit  referendum on leaving the bloc. But the anti-immigrant party has since backed away from that position given that a clear majority of Austrians support EU membership. It now describes itself as  pro-European  but still criticizes the EU, calling for Brussels to hand back more powers to member states. That stance overlaps with Kurz s, since the OVP has called for a streamlined EU that focuses on  core competencies  like internal trade and securing external borders. Kurz has also said that any coalition partner must be pro-European, although whether he and Van der Bellen agree on what that means is unclear.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया के राष्ट्रपति ने कुर्ज़ से गठबंधन पर 'यूरोपीय मूल्यों' पर ध्यान देने को कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Representative Mike Pompeo as President Donald Trump’s CIA director on Monday, after a delay tied to some lawmakers’ worries he might expand surveillance or allow the use of certain interrogation techniques widely considered torture. Sixty-six senators backed Pompeo and 32 voted against. All the opposition was from Democrats, except for Senator Rand Paul, a leading Republican advocate for strict control of surveillance. Shortly afterward, Pompeo was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence. Some senators felt Pompeo, 53, had not pledged strongly enough to allow only the use of interrogation techniques included in the Army Field Manual, as required by law, rather than return to waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, used by the CIA in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, signed an executive order in 2009 banning waterboarding - a form of simulated drowning - and other EITs, which are denounced by many lawmakers and rights groups as torture. In response to written questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pompeo said he was open to changing policy under certain circumstances. “I will consult with experts... on whether the Army Field Manual uniform application is an impediment to gathering vital intelligence to protect the country.” Pompeo wrote. Trump promised during his presidential campaign to bring back waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse.” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden spoke for more than an hour in the Senate in opposition to Pompeo’s nomination, saying he had provided inconsistent answers on surveillance and interrogation tactics, making it impossible to know how he would implement policy at the CIA. Wyden cited an op-ed Pompeo co-authored last year that called for restarting the bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata and combining it with financial and lifestyle information into one searchable database.  He accused Pompeo of having proposed “the most sweeping new surveillance program I have ever heard of.” Paul wrote in an op-ed: “I voted against the new CIA Director because I worry that his desire for security will trump his defense of liberty.” Most Republicans called Pompeo, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, an excellent choice. Senator John McCain, a leader of the fight for legislation barring the use of the rough interrogation methods, said: “I have no reason to doubt Congressman Pompeo’s word.”  McCain added: “I fully support his confirmation. Going forward, I will continue to closely monitor this issue, and use my oversight powers to ensure the law is obeyed.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने पोम्पिओ को ट्रम्प का सी. आई. ए. निदेशक होने की पुष्टि की


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Leonard “Roscoe” Newton has been in and out of Florida’s prisons since before he could vote, starting with a youthful conviction for burglary. He’s been a free man for six years now with an important exception: he still can’t vote.  Newton, who is African American, is among nearly 1.5 million former felons who have been stripped of their right to vote in a state with a history of deciding U.S. presidential elections, sometimes by razor-thin margins of just a few hundred votes.  Felons have been disenfranchised in Florida since 1868, although they can seek clemency to restore their voting rights. Since 2011, however, when Republican state leaders toughened the restrictions on felon voting rights, just 2,339 ex-felons have had that right restored, the lowest annual numbers in nearly two decades, according to state data reviewed by Reuters. That compares with more than 155,000 in the prior four years under reforms introduced by Governor Rick Scott’s predecessor, moderate Republican governor Charlie Crist, the data shows. Crist, who was governor from 2007 to 2011, made it much easier to restore ex-felons’ voting rights. “When I tried to be an effective member of the community, I saw that I was voiceless,” said Newton, whose expectations of getting his rights restored were dashed when the rules changed under a new administration. “I’m 45, and I have never voted.” The dramatic slowdown has stoked a racially charged debate over whether political bias taints the process of restoring felon voting rights in the largest battleground state in the Nov. 8 presidential election.  Florida’s toughened ban means racial minorities are disproportionately excluded from voting because of higher incarceration rates, data shows. Black voters tend to favor Democrats.  “Republicans oppose the felon vote change because they are concerned about the political implications,” said Darryl Paulson, a conservative Republican voting rights expert who sees wide restoration of voting rights as “a huge political advantage for the Democratic Party.” Paulson says non-violent ex-felons should have the right to vote. Almost all U.S. states deny incarcerated felons the right to vote but many restore those rights after they have completed their sentences. Over the last two decades, more than 20 states have taken action to help people with criminal convictions regain their voting rights. Since July, Virginia’s governor has restored voting rights to 67,000 felons. Florida is the largest of four remaining states that strip all former felons of voting rights, accounting for nearly half of those barred from voting nationally. Along with Virginia, the others are Kentucky and Iowa. In March 2011, two months after he became governor, Scott reversed Crist’s reforms, which had allowed many non-violent  felons to automatically get their voting rights reinstated after they had completed their sentences. Crist had also simplified the process for felons convicted of more serious crimes to regain their votes.  Scott, a millionaire former health care executive, put in place new restrictions, requiring ex-felons to wait for five to seven years before applying to regain the right to vote, serve on a jury or hold elected office. He said the new rules ensured ex-felons had proven they were unlikely to offend. Florida has disenfranchised about one in five voting-age black voters, according to research collected by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based advocacy group. That compares with about 8.6 percent of the state’s non-black potential voters. Data on the Hispanic voting-age population who can’t vote because of the law was unavailable, although Hispanics make up 12.5 percent of Florida’s inmates. The rates reflect racial disparities in criminal convictions. Florida’s current prison population is nearly 48 percent black, more than any other racial group, although blacks are only 17 percent of the state’s population. Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections in Leon County, which includes the capital city of Tallahassee, accused the Republican administration of repealing the felon voting reforms “to reduce the number of African Americans who had their rights restored because those voters were perceived to be more Democratic voting and so therefore were targeted for elimination.” Sancho is a former Democrat who is now unaffiliated with either party. Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Republican officials who drove the 2011 policy changes, did not agree to be interviewed by Reuters or respond directly to questions on the accusations that the law is intended to influence elections. But Bondi has previously denied the policy amounts to racially motivated disenfranchisement. “For those who may suggest that these rule changes have anything to do with race, these assertions are completely unfounded. Justice has nothing to do with race,” Bondi wrote in a 2011 newspaper editorial. Scott’s office, in a statement to Reuters, said former felons need to “demonstrate that they can live a life free of crime, show a willingness to request to have their rights restored and show restitution to the victims of their crimes” in order to have their voting rights restored. Democrats have seized on the issue as a civil rights concern, regardless of the political impact, said Nell Toensmann, who chairs the Democratic Party of St. Johns County, a north Florida region of about 225,000 people dominated by Republicans. “Yes, it does disenfranchise a lot of African Americans, but it disenfranchises a lot of white people who would be voting as Republicans as well,” she said. The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation polling project shows a tight race in Florida. It estimates that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a 48 percent chance of winning the state, compared to her Republican opponent Donald Trump’s 42 percent. Political scientists say the voting ban can sap votes from both parties, but some research suggests that Democrats pay a steeper price. An analysis of voting patterns by race and economic status found that if the ban had not existed during the 2000 presidential election, Democrats would have had enough votes to overturn Republican George W. Bush’s 537-vote victory in Florida that won him the White House. “In very close elections won by Republican candidates, felon disenfranchisement could be decisive,” said Christopher Uggen, a University of Minnesota professor who led the study. Applying for voting rights can be difficult. Ex-felons must submit certified court documentation of each felony conviction — documents that can be difficult to secure for those unable to spend time and money tracking down records in courthouses. Cases involving serious crimes are heard in person by a clemency board consisting of the governor and Florida’s cabinet officers, in quarterly meetings in Tallahassee. During a Sept. 21 meeting in a windowless room in the Florida Capitol building, 48 petitions to restore voting rights were on the agenda presented to the governor and three state officers in an all-day session punctuated by tears and emotional pleas. Some petitioners were represented by attorneys, others showed up solo or accompanied by a friend or relative. “Clemency is an act of mercy. There is no right or guarantee,” Scott told them, urging applicants to accept culpability. State rules give him the deciding vote. “If I deny, it’s over,” he said. Learlean Rahming approached the podium in a black and white flowered dress, accompanied by her adult daughter. State records show dozens of criminal charges over two decades that include larceny, drug possession and shoplifting. “I accept my responsibility for all of my stupid mistakes of the past,” said the 63-year-old woman, who had traveled from Miami, adding that she has been out of prison for more than 20 years. Officials were impressed by her turnaround story, until Bondi noticed a discrepancy. Records showed Rahming had voted under a married name after her release. “Just to see if I could vote,” she told the panel, explaining that for many years she had not realized that her rights were taken away. Scott moved to deny. Rahming left, wiping tears.     The board ultimately cleared 23 residents to get back their civil rights. More than 10,500 applications are still pending. Crist, the former governor who championed leniency, switched to the Democratic Party in 2012. In an interview, he questioned whether the policy changes on felons voting cost him a 2014 bid to reclaim the governor’s mansion. He lost by about 64,000 votes - in the ballpark of the number of people in the state who complete felony sentences in a typical year, Florida Department of Corrections data shows. “We will never know for sure,” Crist said. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Felons face tougher road to Election Day    tmsnrt.rs/2dsol2q) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Summary: युद्ध के मैदान फ्लोरिडा में, अपराधियों पर सख्त रुख डेमोक्रेट के लिए वोटों को खत्म कर सकता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, who told Reuters on Wednesday he intended to run in the presidential election early next year, told pan-Arab TV channel Al Jazeera that the United Arab Emirates had barred him from traveling. Shafiq, an ex-air force commander and presidential candidate, said earlier he had planned to return to Cairo in the coming days from his current location in the UAE, a close ally of Egypt. UAE officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Summary: मिस्र के राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार ने कहा, यूएई से यात्रा पर प्रतिबंध


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators on Tuesday reached a bipartisan agreement to shore up Obamacare for two years by reviving federal subsidies for health insurers that President Donald Trump planned to scrap, and the president indicated his support for the plan. The deal worked out by Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray would meet some Democratic objectives, including reviving the subsidies for Obamacare and restoring $106 million in funding for a federal program that helps people enroll in insurance plans. In exchange, Republicans would get more flexibility for states to offer a wider variety of health insurance plans while maintaining the requirement that sick and healthy people be charged the same rates for coverage. The Trump administration said last week it would stop paying billions of dollars to insurers to help lower-income Americans pay medical expenses, part of the Republican president’s effort to dismantle Obamacare, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. The subsidies to private insurers cost the government an estimated $7 billion this year and were forecast at $10 billion for 2018. Trump’s move to scuttle them had raised concerns about chaos in insurance markets. Trump hoped to make good on his campaign promise to dismantle the law when he took office in January, with Republicans, who pledged for seven years to scrap it, controlling Congress. But he has been frustrated with their failure to pass legislation to repeal and replace it. Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, extended health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans. Republicans say it is ineffective and a massive government intrusion in a key sector of the economy. The Alexander-Murray plan could keep Obamacare in place at least until the 2020 presidential campaign starts heating up. “This takes care of the next two years. After that, we can have a full-fledged debate on where we go long-term on healthcare,” Alexander said of the deal. It is unclear whether the agreement can make it through Congress. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said it had “broad support” among senators in his party, but it was harder to gauge possible support among Republicans.  Moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, who helped sink earlier Obamacare repeal legislation, voiced backing for the new plan, but conservative Republicans may be less welcoming. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, threw his weight behind the effort. In an interview with Reuters, Sanders said Alexander was a “well-respected figure” known for bipartisanship and that the Tennessee senator’s reputation would help propel the legislation through the Senate. The willingness of Sanders, a liberal champion, to offer his support of a deal with Republicans that could allow states to change some Obamacare requirements provided a boost to the Alexander-Murray effort. “We are going to overturn what Trump is trying to do,” Sanders said. Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the plan to a vote on the Senate floor and urged the House of Representatives to take it up then as quickly as possible so Trump can sign it. TRUMP STILL SEEKS LONG-TERM SOLUTION Trump, during comments at the White House, suggested he could get behind the Alexander-Murray plan as a short-term solution. In remarks later at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Trump commended the work by Alexander and Murray, but said: “I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.” Trump said earlier he wanted lawmakers, once they completed a major tax reform effort, to again take up broader legislation that failed in the Senate last month that would divvy up federal healthcare money as block grants to states. Murray is the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Alexander is its chairman. She said the two were able to find common ground on the steps aimed at stabilizing the insurance markets created under Obamacare and to “help protect families from premium spikes as a result of the sabotage we have seen from this administration.” According to a document seen by Reuters, the plan would make it easier for states to get waivers approved that would allow them to offer cheaper healthcare plans, including catastrophic health plans, which cover a limited set of benefits and are currently only available to those under 30. Shares of U.S. hospital operators, including Tenet Healthcare Corp and HCA Healthcare Inc, moved higher after news of the deal. Tenet shares closed 5.3 percent higher, while HCA rose 2.2 percent. Shares of some U.S. health insurers also extended their gains on the day, with Anthem Inc finishing up 1.9 percent and Centene Corp gaining 3.2 percent. Analyst Brian Tanquilut of global investment banking firm Jefferies, who focuses on hospital companies, said that if the deal is passed in Congress, it should stabilize the Obamacare insurance exchanges and improve their viability. “Hospitals will avoid a potential spike in bad debt and charity care next year,” Tanquilut said. “This is obviously a good step. It’s bipartisan and guaranteed for two years.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ओबामाकेयर पर द्विदलीय समझौते पर पहुंचे, ट्रम्प ने समर्थन का संकेत दिया


BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram took over a town in the restive state of Borno in northeast Nigeria  on Saturday, residents said. The attack comes days after a suicide bomber killed at least 50 people at a mosque in neighbouring Adamawa state in one of the deadliest attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 pledging to end the eight-year insurgency.  Residents said attackers entered Magumeri, around 50 km (30 miles) from Borno state capital Maiduguri, around 7:00 p.m. (1800 GMT). They said the insurgents shot sporadically and threw explosive devices, prompting locals to flee to a forest.   We hurriedly took our families to the bushes before they could get us. Almost every resident is hiding here,  said Wakil Bulama, one of two residents who spoke to Reuters by telephone.  A military source who did not want to be identified said Magumeri had been attacked but could not confirm whether it had been seized.  Boko Haram has waged an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria since 2009 in its attempt to create an Islamic state in the region. The group has killed more than 20,000 and forced around 2 million people to flee their homes.

Summary: संदिग्ध बोको हराम आतंकवादियों ने पूर्वोत्तर नाइजीरिया शहर पर कब्जा कर लियाः निवासी


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday told foreign journalists to roam the country and report more, even as five global news organisations found themselves without invitations to cover his speech.  The BBC, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The New York Times were not invited to the event where Xi introduced his new leadership line-up following a once-in-five-years Communist Party Congress, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) said.  Two Reuters journalists were invited.  We encourage reporters to travel and see more of China... to learn about and continue to report on more aspects of China,  Xi told a gathering of Chinese and international journalists. He did not take questions.  We do not need lavish praise from others. However, we do welcome objective reporting and constructive suggestions.  Under Xi, China has stepped up censorship and tightened controls on the internet and various aspects of civil society. Reporting conditions for foreign journalists in China have deteriorated in recent years, according to media watchdog groups, with areas of the country including Tibet effectively off-limits.  The FCCC criticized the exclusion of the Western news organisations.   It is hard to avoid the conclusion that these media organisations have been singled out to send a message,  the FCCC said in a statement posted on Twitter.  Using media access as a tool to punish journalists whose coverage the Chinese authorities disapprove of is a gross violation of the principles of press freedom.  The Beijing bureau chiefs at the Economist and Financial Times both confirmed to Reuters that they had not received invitations. The New York Times had applied for and not received an invitation, a spokesperson said in an email.  We are disappointed that we were denied access to President Xi s press conference. The BBC will continue to report fairly and objectively on the stories of China,  the BBC said in a statement. The Guardian published a story saying it was among those organisations excluded. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang referred specific questions about the congress to the press center but said foreign reporters were welcome to cover the gathering.  We handle foreign reporter applications according to rules and regulations,  he told reporters. An official at the press center told Reuters that it had organized many events that foreign media could and did attend. The Standing Committee unveiling venue had limited space and so there was no guarantee all foreign media who applied could attend, the official said.   We hope that foreign media can really pay attention to China s development and objectively and fairly report on China and the Communist Party,  said the official, who asked not be named. There were more than 3,000 reporters covering the congress, according to state media, and the leadership announcement was held in a side room at Beijing s Great Hall of the People, not in the cavernous main auditorium.

Summary: चीन ने विदेशी प्रेस का स्वागत किया, क्योंकि कुछ मीडिया आउटलेट्स को प्रमुख कार्यक्रम से बाहर रखा गया है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from NATO and European Union nations are concerned about comments on NATO that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump made in a newspaper interview published on Monday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. “I’ve spoken today not only with EU foreign ministers but NATO foreign ministers as well and can report that the signals are that there’s been no easing of tensions,” Steinmeier told reporters when asked about Trump’s interview with Bild newspaper and the Times of London. In the interview, Trump said he viewed NATO as obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks.

Summary: जर्मन मंत्री ने कहा कि यूरोपीय संघ, नाटो देश ट्रम्प की नाटो टिप्पणी से चिंतित हैं


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan leftist President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that  terrorists  had broken into a National Guard unit over the weekend and stolen weapons, the latest sign of volatility in the oil-rich country convulsed by a profound economic crisis. Oscar Perez, a rogue Venezuelan police pilot wanted for lobbing grenades and shooting at government buildings in June, claimed responsibility for the attack, which he called  Operation Genesis.   A video posted on Perez s YouTube account shows armed, masked men taking control of military barracks under cover of night. They smash photos of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, handcuff around a dozen soldiers and berate them for supporting  dictatorship  in Venezuela.  You yourselves are dying of hunger. Why have you not done anything, given you have weapons? Why do you keep protecting these drug-trafficking dictators?  the assailants shout at gagged soldiers crouching on the floor of what appears to be a bathroom.  Soon we ll win the war ... so that Venezuela can be free,  says Perez, under the cover of a black balaclava. His Twitter account later posted a purported summary by authorities of the attack. The summary says some 49 armed men stole around 26 Kalashnikov AK-103 s and over 3,000 munitions for the rifles, as well as pistols, in Miranda state near Caracas during the early hours of Monday. Reuters was not able to independently confirm details of the attack. The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. An action film star who portrays himself as a James Bond cum-Rambo figure on social media, Perez has added surreal twists to Venezuela s long-running political drama. He rose to fame in June after hijacking a police helicopter flying over Caracas  center. He fired shots at and lobbed grenades on the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Court to fight what he said was a tyrannical government. He went into hiding after the attack, only to pop up two weeks later at an opposition vigil for anti-government protesters killed during demonstrations that rocked the country earlier this year. Perez s latest offensive highlights instability in Venezuela, an OPEC member state heaving under malnutrition, disease and the world s steepest inflation rate. The opposition has long appealed to the military, historically a powerbroker in Venezuela, for help. Maduro on Tuesday denounced the attackers, whom he did not name, as  terrorists  sent by his ideological enemy the United States.  Wherever they appear, I ve told the armed forces: Fire at the terrorist groups!  he said during a speech on state television, as he blamed opposition groups in Miami for orchestrating the raid.  Do these people think they can attack a unit of the armed forces to steal some guns and threaten democracy and that that s going to be tolerated? Zero tolerance!  Maduro said. The military has played a key role in government since Chavez - himself a former military officer - took office in 1999 promising to bring greater equality to Venezuela, home to the world s largest oil reserves. The top brass continues to publicly profess loyalty to Maduro s government. Critics say juicy government contracts, corruption and contraband mean that many military officials want Maduro to stay in office and fear persecution should the opposition take power. Discontent is higher among lower-tier officials, who are often sent to control rowdy protests and are paid the equivalent of just a handful of U.S. dollars a month.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के मादुरो का कहना है कि 'आतंकवादियों' ने सैन्य इकाई से हथियार चुरा लिए


PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron s remark that he will not bow to  slackers  who resist labor reforms looked set to dog the image-conscious French leader, with opponents casting him as a champion of the wealthy and big business. The Elysee Palace and government ministers have scrambled to contain the fallout, saying the 39-year-old was referring to past leaders who lacked the courage to push through unpopular changes and accusing his opponents of twisting his comments. Macron, who on Tuesday visited islands in the Caribbean damaged by Hurricane Irma, has himself shown little contrition.  I am fully determined and I won t cede any ground, not to slackers, nor cynics, nor hardliners,  he said on Friday during a trip to Greece. His opponents were quick to pounce, branding him an out-of-touch president who has put himself above the person in the street.  Fools, cynics, slackers, everyone take to the streets on Sept. 12 and 23,  Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party, said on Twitter, referring to two days of street protests. Philippe Martinez, head of the far-left CGT trade union, called Macron s comment  scandalous .  Who is the president referring to when he says he won t give an inch to slackers? To the millions without a job or in a vulnerable position?  Macron s centrist government announced measures in August to hand more power to companies to set working conditions and adapt pay to market conditions, as well as making it easier to hire and fire employees.  The president says the measures are needed to spur job creation, boost growth and attract investment. Unions say workers  rights are being eroded and benefits undermined. Macron faced his first challenge on the streets on Tuesday when thousands of CGT trade unionists protested in cities across France.  In Bordeaux, protesters chanted:  Macron you re screwed, the slackers are in the streets  while in Paris others carried placards reading:  Slacker on strike . Asked on Monday if he regretted his comment, he replied:  We cannot move forward if we don t tell it like it is.   It s Macron s style,  said Jerome Fourquet of pollster IFOP.  He s not going to back down, make apologies. That carries a risk.   Macron is not the first French leader to offend people with a casual comment. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy caused uproar while interior minister when in 2005 he branded youths behind the worst urban violence in France in decades as  racaille  ( scum  or  rabble ). That remark entrenched Sarkozy s reputation as a bully in the suburbs blighted by crime and unemployment outside Paris. Sarkozy s successor, Francois Hollande, suffered with the publication of a tell-all book in which his former partner accused the Socialist leader of describing the poor as  toothless , undermining his efforts to portray himself as in touch with the needy. Before joining a protest in Marseille, Melenchon, who bills himself as a champion of French workers and rails against globalisation, said:  Mr Macron knows he has a battle on his hands. He picked it.

Summary: मैक्रों देख सकते हैं कि 'स्लैकर्स' फ्रांस में विरोध रैली का नारा बन सकते हैं


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : -I don’t know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem! [711 EST] -An honor having the National Sheriffs’ Assoc. join me at the @WhiteHouse. Incredible men & women who protect & serve 24/7/365. THANK YOU!! [1125 EST] -It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats! [2004 EST] -Senate Dems protest to keep the failed status quo. Betsy DeVos is a reformer, and she is going to be a great Education Sec. for our kids! [814 EST] -An honor having the @NationalSheriff Association join me at the @WhiteHouse. Incredible men & women who protect & serve 24/7/365. THANK YOU! [1125 EST] -Congratulations to our new Education Secretary, @BetsyDeVos! [1250 EST] -@BetsyDeVos sworn in as Secretary of Education by @VP Mike Pence moments ago. Congratulations! [1928 EST]  -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (7 फरवरी)-पुतिन, ईरान, बेट्सी डेवोस


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights boss called on Mexico s Senate on Tuesday not to adopt a proposed law on internal security, saying it would enshrine the role of the military in law enforcement at a time when a stronger police force was needed. Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that more than a decade after the armed forces were deployed in the  war on drugs , violence had not abated and extrajudicial killings, torture and disappearances  continue to be committed by various state and non-state actors . In a statement recognizing Mexico s huge security challenge and violence sown by powerful organized crime groups, Zeid said:   Adopting a new legal framework to regulate the operations of the armed forces in internal security is not the answer. The current draft law risks weakening incentives for the civilian authorities to fully assume their law enforcement roles.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र मानवाधिकार प्रमुख ने मेक्सिको से सेना की भूमिका को शामिल नहीं करने का आग्रह किया


KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A bus carrying passengers returning from a Hindu festival to the Nepali capital of Kathmandu skidded off the main highway and plunged into a river on Saturday, killing at least 31 people and leaving others trapped, officials said. The accident occurred around dawn, around 50 km (30 miles) west of the city on the Prithvi Highway that connects Kathmandu with the southern plains.  We have recovered 31 bodies and are looking for more,  government official Ram Mani Mishra told Reuters from the scene.  It s highly unlikely for anyone to survive for so long under water.  Rescuers on rubber boats and police divers managed to spot the bus hours after the crash and were trying to lift it from water with the help of a crane, Mishra said.     Apart from the deaths, 16 people have been injured, government administrator Shyam Prasad Bhandari said. Two with grave injuries were taken to Kathmandu while the rest were treated at a local hospital, he said. Police said survivors were thrown out of the bus windows but another 13 people were still believed to be trapped in the bus. The bus had left Rajbiraj town in the southeastern plains on Friday night. Road accidents are common in mostly mountainous Nepal, where police say about 1,800 people die in crashes every year. Accidents are also blamed on poorly maintained and crowded vehicles.

Summary: नेपाल में बस नदी में गिरी, कम से कम 31 लोगों की मौत


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security head John Kelly will visit Mexico next Thursday, Mexico’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The officials will meet with various members of the Mexican government to continue the dialogue agreed upon when U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spoke by phone in January, the ministry said in a statement.

Summary: अमेरिकी सचिव टिलरसन, केली अगले सप्ताह मेक्सिको की यात्रा करेंगे


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A much-delayed U.S. rule requiring restaurants and retailers to clearly display food calorie counts has been pushed back again, and could be rewritten or scrapped as the Trump administration rebuffs Obama-era regulations. Notice came shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture relaxed some school lunch rules that were part of former first lady Michelle Obama’s signature effort to fight childhood obesity. The Food and Drug Administration late on Monday extended the compliance date for the calorie labeling rule from May 5, 2017, to May 7, 2018, to enable further consideration of ways to cut costs and make requirements more flexible. The rule was designed to help U.S. consumers, who eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home, battle the bulge. It is part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare, which the Trump administration has vowed to repeal and replace in a bid to slash regulations it considers harmful to business.  Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who oversees the FDA, said in a statement his agency believed in promoting sound nutrition and applauded the delay. “Imposing burdensome rules that leave business managers and owners worried about harsh potential penalties and less able to serve their customers is unwise and unhelpful,” Price said. The rule’s opponents, including Domino’s Pizza Inc, movie theater operators, and convenience and grocery stores, have pushed for delays over the years.   But even if the calorie disclosure rule is killed at the federal level, it is unlikely to go away. Chains like Panera Bread Co and McDonald’s Corp, have been displaying such information for years in compliance with rules set by California, New York City and other jurisdictions. Panera in 2010 became the first national chain to post calorie counts for its salads, sandwiches and pastries.  Sara Burnett, Panera’s director of food policy and wellness, said customers want to know what is in the food they eat, so the chain will continue to comply with the federal law as it was written. “It’s information that helps our guests make informed decisions,” Burnett said.

Summary: रेस्तरां, खुदरा कैलोरी खुलासा नियम ट्रम्प के तहत प्रवाह में है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has notified the U.S. Congress of the sale to Nigeria of 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and weapons worth $593 million, which the West African country wants for its fight against the militant group Boko Haram. The Federal Register on Monday published the Aug. 2 notification from the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The sale includes thousands of bombs and rockets and was originally agreed by former President Barack Obama’s administration. The Super Tucano A-29, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazil’s Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada. The Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration. It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT 6 engine. The Obama administration delayed the deal after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force’s bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians. President Donald Trump has said he plans to go ahead with foreign defense sales delayed under Obama by human rights concerns. (This story corrects headline and paragraphs 1 and 2 to reflect that the notification was made on Aug. 2, not on Monday)

Summary: पेंटागन ने अमेरिकी कांग्रेस को नाइजीरिया को 59.3 करोड़ डॉलर की सैन्य बिक्री के बारे में सूचित किया


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has blocked the website of Human Rights Watch just one day after the organization released a report on systematic torture in the country s jails. Reuters attempted to access the website late on Thursday but was unsuccessful.   Egyptian authorities keep insisting that any incidents of torture are isolated crimes by bad officers acting alone, but the Human Rights Watch report proves otherwise,  Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said on Thursday.  The report titled  We Do Unreasonable Things Here , based on the accounts of 19 former detainees and the family of another, claimed Egyptian authorities used arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture.   Rather than address the torture crisis in Egypt, the authorities have blocked access to a report that documents what many Egyptians and others living there already know.  Egypt s foreign ministry lambasted the report in a statement on Wednesday, saying it defamed the country and ignored progress made on human rights in recent years.  The report ... is a new episode in a series of deliberate defamation by such organization, whose politicized agenda and biases are well known and reflect the interests of the entities and countries sponsoring it,  said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid.  Egypt first blocked access to a number of news websites including Al Jazeera and Huffington Post Arabic in May after similar actions by its Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But since, hundreds of other news sites and blogs have been wiped from Egyptian screens with the most recent count according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, a non-government organization tracking the affected sites through software that monitors outages, at 424. Journalists see the campaign against them as a step toward banning all but the most state-aligned media, effectively reversing the private media boom that flourished in the final decade of former president Hosni Mubarak s rule and which they say helped push him from power in 2011. The government has offered no comment on the reason behind the blockages.

Summary: मिस्र ने व्यापक मीडिया नाकाबंदी के बीच ह्यूमन राइट्स वॉच वेबसाइट को अवरुद्ध कर दिया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - A country long divided by sectarian conflicts, Lebanon has found a rare point of unity since Saad al-Hariri s shock resignation as prime minister: Lebanese of all stripes want him to come back from Saudi Arabia and to continue his work as premier. Hariri left Beirut for Riyadh on Nov. 3 and resigned the following day in a speech that caught even his closest aides off guard. He cited fear of assassination and blamed Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah for sowing strife in the Arab world. The Lebanese authorities believe Saudi Arabia forced Hariri to resign and is holding him against his will, say top Lebanese state officials and politicians close to Hariri. While some in Lebanon believe Hariri s decision was his own and blame Iran and Hezbollah for the crisis, many others, including some of his longtime supporters, think he was forced to quit. Billboards and posters demanding his return have gone up across Beirut.  We want our PM back,  declared a huge billboard near the Beirut waterfront. Runners in the annual Beirut marathon on Sunday echoed the demand. Some wore T-shirts printed with Hariri s face and the message:  We re all waiting for you.   This year, there are definitely many telling him  we are waiting for you , and God willing he will come back safe and sound,  May al-Khalil, the founder and president of the Beirut Marathon Association, said. Hariri ran in the Beirut marathon last year, shortly after he was installed as prime minister of a coalition government that generated hope of stability after years of political tension and paralysis.     Thousands of runners turned out, defying security concerns that have grown since Hariri resigned and Saudi Arabia declared both Lebanon and Hezbollah as hostile parties.  Sheikh Saad al-Hariri represents all Lebanese people,  said Beirut Mayor Jamal Itani, wearing a cap that read  Running for You . Lebanese wanted Hariri  to return as Prime Minister , he said. Saudi Arabia has denied reports Hariri, a long time ally of Riyadh, is being held against his will and coerced into resigning. It says he is a free man and quit because Hezbollah was calling the shots in his government. Ashraf Rifi, a hawkish Sunni politician who is fiercely critical of Hezbollah and Iran, has welcomed Hariri s resignation, saying  it pulled the official cover away from Iran s project in Lebanon .  Tension between Hariri and Hezbollah has been a defining feature of Lebanese politics since the 2005 assassination of his father, Rafik al-Hariri. A U.N.-backed tribunal has charged five Hezbollah members over the killing. Hezbollah denies any role. But Hariri has twice set aside his differences with Hezbollah to lead coalition governments including the group.   We all love him, even those who weren t sympathetic to him are now sympathetic, because as you know he s the prime minister of all of Lebanon, not just prime minister for us Sunnis,  said Yousef Saad al-Deen, 40.  No one is allowed to decide for us, neither who our president is nor who we will elect,  he added, speaking in the staunchly pro-Hariri Beirut neighborhood of Tariq al-Jdideh, where newly erected posters pledged loyalty to Hariri. Munir Khatib, a man in his late 60s, said Iran was to blame.  He is not being held, as they are saying,  he said.  Hezbollah, the strongest group in Lebanon thanks to its vast arsenal, has declared Saudi Arabia s detention of Hariri as an insult to all Lebanese. At a rally on Friday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he must return. The Future Movement, Hariri s political party, also says Hariri must come back to Lebanon, calling him a national leader whose presence is vital to upholding the Lebanese system. It has also taken aim at criticism of Saudi Arabia, on Saturday rejecting  campaigns targeting  the Kingdom. Lebanon, which fought a civil war from 1975-90, is governed according to a carefully balanced system that parcels out the state along sectarian lines. Many say now is the time for unity.  The war had taught us that if we don t have our ranks united and on the same ground, the country cannot succeed,  said Arlette Dakkash, a resident of Beirut.

Summary: हरीरी की वापसी की मांग में, लेबनान को दुर्लभ एकता मिलती है


(Reuters) - A Republican senator said on Tuesday he had written to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) raising questions about reports of “troubling conduct” by psychiatric hospital operator Universal Health Services Inc. The inquiry, by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, raises concerns about reports by BuzzFeed News of low nurse staffing, medication errors and sexual misconduct at UHS’ Shadow Mountain facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Grassley said in his letter the reports showed a pattern of conduct by the hospital operator that “casts a dark cloud over UHS’ ability to properly care for its patients and whether it is properly billing federal programs.” Founded in 1979, Pennsylvania-based UHS operates more than 240 acute care hospitals, behavioral health facilities and ambulatory centers. Grassley has also sought a response from The Joint Commission, an accrediting organization, that reportedly designated the Shadow Mountain facility as a “Top Performer in Key Quality Measures” for the 2011-2015 period. Grassley’s letter is his second inquiry into UHS following a similar query to the HHS in December after BuzzFeed published its first report on the psychiatric hospital operator. The Dec. 7 report alleged that UHS pressured patients into unnecessary admittance and prolonged hospitalizations, potentially defrauding the government as a result. (bzfd.it/2oJN8jw) UHS’ stock fell 12 percent on the day of the report. Last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey accused UHS of employing unlicensed and unsupervised personnel at mental health centers, leading the company to submit false claims for reimbursement to the state's Medicaid program. (reut.rs/2pyi4TJ) Healy’s office filed a complaint in federal court in Boston after intervening in a whistleblower lawsuit against the hospital operator by the parents of a woman who died at one of its facilities. UHS’ shares were down 2.1 percent at $119.42 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने अस्पताल संचालक यूएचएस के बारे में सवाल उठाए


OSLO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s vow to renegotiate the global accord on climate change if elected U.S. president caused dismay abroad on Wednesday, with supporters of the deal saying it was in his interests to embrace a plan that seeks to end dependence on fossil fuels. U.S. insistence on renegotiation could unravel a 195-nation compromise to curb greenhouse gas emissions reached in Paris in December after fraught talks between nations as different as China, the United States, small island states and OPEC members. “The Paris Agreement is as much in the United States’ interests as any other country,” said Tony de Brum, ambassador for climate change of the Marshall Islands who, as his country’s foreign minister, helped broker the U.N. deal. “Seeking to unravel it would not only threaten the U.S. economy, damage its environment, and weaken its security, but it would do a great disservice to all of humanity,” he said. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told Reuters on Tuesday he was “not a big fan” of the climate accord.  He said China and other countries would not stick to the “one-sided” deal, which seeks to transform the world economy from fossil fuels in coming decades to slow global warming. “I will be looking at that very, very seriously, and at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements, at a minimum. And at a maximum I may do something else,” he said. Trump has said in the past he believes global warming is a concept that was invented by China to hurt the competitiveness of U.S. business. Government officials meeting in Bonn, Germany, from May 16-26 to find ways to implement the deal, raised concerns about Trump’s comments but doubted he would take serious action. That’s because the deal imposes no real constraints on the United States - it lets all nations define their own actions for fighting climate change. President Barack Obama has promised to cut emissions by 2025, but his successors will face no penalties if they do not comply, meaning little incentive to challenge the U.N. deal. Many officials also say it is in U.S. interests to limit greenhouse gas emissions, partly because cuts in the use of fossil fuels also means less air pollution, a big cause of disease. Even many nations traditionally sceptical that man-made greenhouse emissions stoke climate change, like OPEC countries, have gone along with the Paris Agreement. George David Banks, a senior climate change adviser to President George W. Bush and a Trump supporter, said Trump could try to force countries like China to pledge deeper emissions cuts by renegotiating the agreement. That’s wishful thinking, according to John Coequyt, director of green group the Sierra Club’s international climate campaigns. “You can’t get more than 190 countries to renegotiate a deal they are implementing,” he said. The Paris Agreement will formally enter into force when 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions have ratified it. China and the United States, representing 38 percent, say they will join this year. If the deal enters into force before the next U.S. president takes office next year, it will in theory be harder to pull out. Article 28 says any nation wanting to leave has to wait four years from the date of entry into force - the length of a U.S. presidential term. Trump’s easiest option is to neglect the deal if elected, legal experts say. Trump could ignore the targets set by Obama and promise instead to help developing nations cope with global warming. The Paris Agreement’s flexible approach, allowing all to set their own goals, is radically different from the U.N.’s 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set mandatory targets for developed nations to cut emissions until 2012. The United States did not take part in Kyoto - President George W. Bush denounced it as an economic straitjacket that, he said, unfairly omitted targets for developing nations led by China and India. Former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who helped broker the Paris deal, said this month that the U.S. election was critical to its future. “If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption,” he said. But U.S. chief climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said last week that other nations were likely to push ahead with the Paris Agreement whoever wins the White House.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र जलवायु समझौते पर फिर से बातचीत करने की ट्रम्प की धमकी ने विदेशों में निराशा पैदा की


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The government in Damascus is ready to take part in a congress of rival Syrian parties that Russia aims to host in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next month, Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari said on Tuesday.  He said during a televised news conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, that the congress was a result of dialogue with Syria s Russian allies and of victories in the field.

Summary: सीरिया सरकार ने कहा कि वह मास्को समर्थित कांग्रेस में भाग लेने के लिए तैयार है


KIGALI (Reuters) - A Rwandan opposition official and eight others were charged on Wednesday with forming an armed group and seeking to overthrow the government - indictments that could see them jailed for life. Boniface Twagirimana, the vice president of the FDU Inkingi movement, denied the charges in the Kigali court. The party s leader, Victoire Ingabire, is already in jail, convicted of conspiring to form an armed group and other charges in 2013. The prosecutor said the defendants had joined  P5 , describing it as an umbrella group of five organizations, including FDU Inkingi, operating outside the country. The central African nation has been widely praised for the speed of its economic growth, and for its overall recovery from the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in 1994. But rights groups have accused it of fueling conflict and backing armed groups in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. President Paul Kagame has also faced mounting criticism for what activists say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media, and suppression of political opposition - accusations he dismisses. Only one defendant pleaded guilty to a charge - Papias Ndayishimiye, who said he had planned to join the group to  offer some help .  He joined the others in denying plotting against the government. They could be jailed for 10-15 years if convicted of forming an armed group, and for life if found guilty of planning to overthrow the government. Early this month, police arrested Diane Shima Rwigara, a leading critic of Kagame, and charged her with forgery and tax evasion.

Summary: विपक्षी अधिकारी, अन्य पर रवांडा सरकार के खिलाफ साजिश रचने का आरोप


DAKAR/BAMENDA, Cameroon (Reuters) - Troops and attack helicopters opened fire on protesters at the height of separatist rallies in English-speaking areas of Cameroon over the weekend, killing and wounding people, witnesses and rights groups said. The army dismissed the reports from sources in five towns as  completely false  and said helicopters had only been used for surveillance. Any use of air attacks would mark a major escalation in a government crackdown on separatist protests that have been rumbling in Anglophone districts of the central African oil producer for almost a year. Thousands took to the streets in towns across the Northwest and Southwest regions on Sunday, Oct. 1, calling for independence from the country s French-speaking majority.  Rights groups said they started to collect reports on ensuing violence in the areas bordering Nigeria as the week progressed. Eight people in the towns of Bamenda, Buea, Ndu, Tombel and Kumbo told Reuters that police and soldiers moved in to stop the protests and in some areas, low-flying attack helicopters fired tear gas and live rounds on the crowds. Etienne Ndage, a 31-year-old journalist for Savannah Frontier Radio in the northwest tea-plantation town of Ndu said he saw helicopters firing at around 1 pm local time, killing two protesters as a 1,000-strong march gained momentum.   They were firing like in a war film,  he told Reuters. Hilary Manjong, private secretary to a local Member of Parliament in Ndu, said witnesses had shared similar accounts with him.  Army spokesman Didier Badjeck dismissed the accounts.  Reports that the helicopters fired on protestors is completely false. The helicopters were only conducting surveillance,  he said. The government earlier this week said about 10 people had died on Sunday including five in a prison fire that may not have been linked to the protests. The governor of Southwest region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, told the Cameroon Tribune newspaper in an article published on Tuesday that protesters had ambushed soldiers in Kumba, forcing them to open fire in self defense. Amnesty International told Reuters on Thursday that more than 20 people were killed between Oct. 1 and 2.   Demonstrations began nearly a year ago when Anglophone lawyers and teachers protested against having to work in French, saying it showed the wider marginalization of the English-speaking minority.  The protests gained support and have increasingly called for Cameroon s five million English speakers to get their own country. The rallies have also have become a lightning rod for opposition to President Paul Biya s 35-year rule. Campaigners called more protests on Sunday, the anniversary of Anglophone Cameroon s independence from Britain. In the southwest town of Tombel, a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that a military helicopter came so low over the town center that the wind gusts threw a man off his motorbike.  First the helicopter fired teargas to disperse the crowd, then it opened fire, the resident said.  Normally they fire rubber bullets, but I could tell from the sound that these were real,  they added.  Outside Buea, police on the ground and a helicopter opened fire on protestors who had run into the bush to bypass a military checkpoint, said Louis Anuchem, a 35-year-old taxi driver from Buea.   The helicopter came close to the ground,  he added.  We heard the gunshots and the bullets coming through the trees,  he told Reuters. After the demonstrations police went door-to-door in some towns, rounding up young men and women, residents said.  Soldiers came to our neighborhood and broke into homes and carried boys away,  said Lanya Joel, a 21-year-old Kumba resident.  I am scared and will be away until it s all over.  Rights group the Southern Cameroon s Public Affairs Committee said in a report that a 12 year-old girl was shot by security forces from a helicopter in the town of Kumbo. The Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference of Anglophone Christian Bishops said in a statement this week that is was disturbed by reports that  some of our Christians were ... arrested, some maimed, and some were simply shot to death, some from helicopters.  Helene Mekem said her son was shot dead by security forces outside his home in Kumba on Sunday, even though he was not involved in the protests.  They are killing the innocent ones,  she told Reuters.

Summary: कैमरून की सेना के हेलीकॉप्टरों ने अलगाववादी प्रदर्शनकारियों को गोली मारीः प्रत्यक्षदर्शी


BEIJING (Reuters) -  Good preparations  should be made by China and the United States to ensure that U.S. President Donald Trump s visit to China later this year is a success, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Trump will likely visit China in November as part of a trip that will take him to an ASEAN summit in the Philippines and an APEC summit in Vietnam. The two sides should make good preparations for the visit to ensure its success so that  concrete achievements can be obtained and conditions can be created for good prospects, giving fresh impetus to bilateral ties,  Wang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Thursday. Close communications between Xi and Trump have meant a  smooth transition  and a  good start  in China s relationship with the United States under the new administration, he said. A  stable and healthy  relationship between the two countries is good for both countries and the international community, Wang told Pence on the sidelines of the annual general debate of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Xinhua reported. China s relationship with the United States has been strained by the Trump administration s criticism of China s trade practices and by demands that Beijing do more to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missiles programs. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump met for the first time in person at Trump s Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida in April. Trump has since played up his personal relationship with Xi, even when criticizing China over North Korea and trade. The two sides launched a 100-day economic plan at that meeting, including some industry-specific announcements such as the resumption of American beef sales in China. There has since been limited progress on trade relations, especially after Trump began to launch trade investigations into Chinese practices via the World Trade Organization. Trump s administration has also repeatedly called on China to do more to rein in North Korea and has threatened new sanctions on Chinese banks and other firms doing business with Pyongyang. China says it is already doing all it can to pressure North Korea and that those countries directly involved in the stand-off on the peninsula should take responsibility for resolving tensions.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि ट्रम्प की यात्रा के लिए 'अच्छी तैयारी' की जानी चाहिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has made his selection for the next full-time head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Testifying before lawmakers on Thursday, Mnuchin did not name the person tapped for the job, but said the decision had been made and the individual is going through background checks before a formal announcement. The comptroller position is currently being filled in an acting capacity by Keith Noreika, an attorney whom Mnuchin named as interim head earlier in May. Noreika replaced Thomas Curry, who had served as comptroller under President Obama. “We actually have someone the president has approved that is going through the FBI vetting process,” Mnuchin said. “This is a time-consuming process.”  Joseph Otting, who formerly worked as a banking executive at  OneWest bank, which Mnuchin once headed, is believed to be the favorite for the position.        Mnuchin said that an OCC pick had been made in response to criticism from Democrats, who objected to Trump installing a new bank regulator on an interim basis who was not confirmed by the Senate. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland questioned whether this approach was to skirt Senate approval. But Mnuchin insisted Noreika was put in place simply to get someone in the post while a permanent nominee was selected. The Comptroller’s office writes money-laundering rules, bank charters and closely monitors banks’ lending activities.

Summary: ट्रेजरी सेक्रेटरी का कहना है कि ट्रम्प ने नए बैंक रेगुलेटर को मंजूरी दे दी है


ROME/ANKARA (Reuters) - China is financing billions of dollars worth of Chinese-led projects in Iran, making deep inroads into the economy while European competitors struggle to find banks willing to fund their ambitions, Iranian government and industry officials said. Freed from crippling nuclear sanctions two years ago, Iran is drawing unprecedented Chinese funding for everything from railways to hospitals, they said. State-owned investment arm CITIC Group recently established a $10 billion credit line and China Development Bank is considering $15 billion more.  They (Western firms) had better come quickly to Iran otherwise China will take over,  said Ferial Mostofi, head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce s investment commission, speaking on the sidelines of an Iran-Italy investment meeting in Rome. The Chinese funding, by far the largest statement of investment intent of any country in Iran, is in stark contrast with the drought facing Western investors since U.S. President Donald Trump disavowed the 2015 pact agreed by major powers, raising the threat sanctions could be reimposed. Iranian officials say the deals are part of Beijing s $124 billion Belt and Road initiative, which aims to build new infrastructure - from highways and railways to ports and power plants - between China and Europe to pave the way for an expansion of trade. A source in China familiar with the CITIC credit line, which was agreed in September, called it  an agreement of strategic intent . The source declined to give details on projects to be financed, but Iranian media reports have said they would include water management, energy, environment and transport projects.  An Iranian central bank source said loans under the credit line would be primarily extended in euros and yuan. The China Development Bank signed a memorandum of understanding for $15 billion, Iranian state news agency IRNA said on Sept. 15. The bank itself declined to comment, in line with many foreign investors and banks, including from China, who were  reluctant to discuss their activities in Iran for this story. The web sites of banks and companies often carry little or no information on their Iran operations.  With a population of 80 million and a large, sophisticated middle class, Iran has the potential to be a regional economic powerhouse. But with the risk of sanctions hanging in the air, more and more foreign investors want Tehran to issue sovereign guarantees to protect them in case the projects are halted. Economic ties between Iran and Italy, its biggest European trade partner, have been affected. Italy s state-owned rail company, Ferrovie dello Stato, is a consultant in the building of a 415-km (260-mile) high-speed north-south rail line between Tehran to Isfahan via Qom by state-owned China Railway Engineering Corp. The Italian firm is separately contracted to build a line from Qom west to Arak, but it needs 1.2 billion euros in financing. Though backed by the state s export insurance agency, it says it needs a sovereign guarantee.  We are finalizing the negotiations and we are optimistic about moving forward,  said Riccardo Monti, chairman of Italferr, the state firm s engineering unit, adding that the financing should be finalised by March next year. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi s promise in Tehran last year to oil the wheels of trade with a 4 billion euro credit line from Italy s state investment vehicle is effectively dead, a source in Italy familiar with the matter said. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) risked losing the confidence of its many U.S. bond-holders who could sell down their holdings if the credit line went ahead, the source said. A few European banks have deepened trade ties with Iran this year   Austria s Oberbank (OBER.VI) inked a financing deal with Iran in September. South Korea has also proved a willing investor, with Seoul s Eximbank signing an 8 billion euros credit line for projects in Iran in August, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. But China is the standout. Valerio de Molli, head of Italian think tank European House Ambrosetti, reckons China now accounts for more than double the EU s share of Iran s total trade.  The time to act is now, otherwise opportunities nurtured so far will be lost,  de Molli said. Iranian officials attending this week s meeting in Rome sought to goad European firms and their bankers into action by talking up the Chinese financing and investments.  The train is going forward,  said Fereidun Haghbin, director general of economic affairs at Iran s foreign ministry.   The world is a lot greater than the United States.  Some Iranian officials remain concerned that investment could become lop-sided and are looking at creative ways to maintain investment links with the West, however.  The Iran chamber is encouraging Western firms to consider transferring technology as a way of earning equity in Iranian projects rather than focusing on capital.  It was also seeking approval to set up a 2.5-billion-euro offshore fund, perhaps in Luxembourg, as an indirect way for foreigners to invest in Iran, especially small and medium-sized Iranian enterprises, Mostofi said. The fund would issue the financial guarantees that foreigners want in return for a fee, effectively stepping in where banks now fear to tread. Most of the fund s capital would come from Iran, Mostofi said. For now, however, big Western firms remain stuck. Italian power engineering firm Ansaldo Energia, controlled by state investor CDP and part-owned by Shanghai Electric Group (601727.SS), has been in Iran for 70 years.  Its chairman, Giuseppe Zampini, told Reuters at the Rome conference there were many opportunities for new contracts but his hands were tied for now, partly because Ansaldo bonds were also in the hands of U.S. investors.  My heart says that we are losing something,  Zampini said.

Summary: पश्चिमी कंपनियों के रुकने से चीन ईरानी अर्थव्यवस्था में अरबों डॉलर लगा रहा है


(Reuters) - Jason Miller, who President-elect Donald Trump announced this week would serve as his White House communications director, said on Saturday he would not take the job. Miller, the communications director for Trump’s transition team, said in a statement that his family needed to take priority over career moves. He said he and his wife were expecting their second daughter in January. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. “This is not the right time to start a new job as demanding as White House communications director,” Miller said. He said his duties would instead be handled by Sean Spicer, who Trump named his press secretary on Thursday, the same day Miller was announced as communications director. Trump also said in that announcement that spokeswoman Hope Hicks would be director of strategic communications.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस संचार का नेतृत्व करने के लिए नामित ट्रम्प सहायक ने कहा कि वह नौकरी नहीं लेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Monday he was almost certain Donald Trump had not spoken to FBI Director James Comey about the president’s claim, without evidence, that the previous administration wiretapped him during the 2016 campaign. Spicer told reporters he was “almost 100 percent certain” Trump had not spoken to Comey since the Republican president claimed on Twitter on Saturday that former Democratic President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap at Trump Tower in New York. Comey has asked the Justice Department to reject that claim.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के प्रवक्ता का कहना है कि लगभग निश्चित है कि ट्रम्प ने एफ. बी. आई. प्रमुख से बात नहीं की है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday met with a dozen conservative Republicans from the House of Representatives and said all of them were now planning to support the bill to replace Obamacare after previously opposing or questioning it. “All of these no’s or potential no’s are all yeses,” Trump told reporters at a meeting with members of the House of Representatives’ conservative Republican Study Committee.

Summary: ट्रम्प्स का कहना है कि रूढ़िवादी सदन के सांसद स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक के पीछे खड़े हैं


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine leader Mauricio Macri said Wednesday’s state visit by U.S. President Barack Obama marked the start of new “mature”  relations in which the countries would cooperate on issues ranging from trade to fighting international drug trafficking.

Summary: मैक्री ने अब अमेरिका के साथ "परिपक्व" संबंध की शपथ ली।


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads Republican rival Donald Trump by 5 percentage points among likely voters, roughly the same advantage she has held over the past several weeks, according to the Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll released Friday. The Sept. 30-Oct. 6 opinion poll showed that 43 percent of likely voters supported Clinton while 38 percent supported Trump. Clinton has consistently led Trump by 4-6 points in every weekly poll since the beginning of September. During this period, the candidates faced off in the most-watched presidential debate in history - a matchup that a majority of Americans believed Clinton won. The New York Times also released portions of Trump’s 1995 tax returns that showed the celebrity real estate developer had reported a loss that was big enough to have allowed him to avoid paying personal taxes for a number of years. Clinton and Trump will meet again in their second debate on Sunday night, which will be in a town hall format, with the Nov. 8 election fast approaching. At this point in 2012, the race was tighter between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney: Obama led Romney by less than 2 percentage points among likely voters in the Reuters/Ipsos poll during the first week of October. The incumbent eventually won the 2012 election by nearly the same margin in the popular vote. This year, however, both candidates appear to have a bigger opportunity to shake up the race and improve their numbers in the final weeks, given that a larger proportion of the electorate appears to be uncommitted.  When asked in the poll, roughly one out of every five likely voters would not pick either major party candidate and instead selected options such as “Other,” “Wouldn’t Vote” or “Refused.” That was twice the number of uncommitted voters as there were in the Reuters/Ipsos poll at the same point in 2012. Americans have expressed a dim view of both Clinton and Trump this year. Both candidates are disliked by a majority of likely voters, according to the poll, and an increasing number of women have expressed an “unfavorable” view of both candidates this week. In a separate poll that includes alternative-party candidates, Clinton led the field by 5 percentage points. Among likely voters, 42 percent supported Clinton, 37 percent supported Trump, 8 percent picked Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 2 percent supported Jill Stein of the Green Party. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The poll included 1,695 people who were considered likely voters due to their registration status, voting history and stated intention to vote in the election. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points. National opinion polls have differed this year in how they measure support for Clinton and Trump. Some polls, like Reuters/Ipsos, try to include only likely voters, while others include all registered voters. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll also gathers responses every day and reports results twice a week, so it often detects trends in sentiment before most other polls. An average of major opinion polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics showed Clinton ahead of Trump by 5 percentage points on Friday.

Summary: क्लिंटन राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ में ट्रम्प से 5 अंकों से आगेः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland wants re-assurance from Britain there will be no regulatory divergence between it and Northern Ireland after Brexit, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told BBC radio on Friday. He said Ireland wanted to achieve before a Dec. 14 EU summit  an agreed wording whereby we can agree the parameters within which we can find a solution that prevents the re-emergence of a border on the island of Ireland . Avoiding a so-called  hard border  on the island of Ireland is the last major hurdle before Brexit talks can move to negotiations on Britain s future trade relationship with the EU and a possible two-year Brexit transition deal. Coveney said Ireland cannot be asked  to leap into the dark  by the UK.

Summary: आयरलैंड का कहना है कि वह 14 दिसंबर के शिखर सम्मेलन से पहले ब्रेक्सिट सीमा पर 'सहमत शब्द' चाहता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A behind-the-scenes congressional battle to avoid a U.S. government shutdown broke into public view on Thursday when Republicans produced a stop-gap funding bill that Democrats immediately rejected. The federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 and Congress must pass a spending measure by then to keep the government open. In recent years, lawmakers have seldom been able to agree on a full federal budget and instead have relied on stop-gap measures. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell capped weeks of labored negotiations by proposing a continuing resolution that would fund government agencies from Oct. 1 through Dec. 9 at an annual rate of just over $1 trillion.  The measure also includes $1.1 billion to combat the spreading Zika virus, $500 million in flood relief for states including Louisiana and funding for U.S. military operations overseas at an annual rate of $74 billion.  “There have been broad requests for a clean continuing resolution. So that’s what I’ve just offered,” said McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who described the measure as a product of bipartisan negotiations. Democrats quickly opposed the resolution as “a Republican-only bill” that would not help Flint, Michigan, cope with lead-contaminated water and would leave in place a prohibition against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requiring public companies to disclose political spending. “We Democrats cannot vote for that,” said Senator Barbara Mikulski, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that plans were already in place for an orderly government shutdown in the event that Congress cannot agree on a funding measure. McConnell left out a provision backed by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his former White House rival, Senator Ted Cruz, that would have stopped the U.S. government from moving oversight of the internet’s technical management to a global community of stakeholders on Oct. 1. Also absent was language that would have enabled the U.S. Export-Import Bank to approve loans or guarantees of more than $10 million. Republicans and Democrats had sought to include a provision, but the issue proved too controversial for the must-pass funding resolution. A senior Republican aide said the Senate would begin voting on the funding legislation as early as Monday.

Summary: सरकार के बंद होने से बचने के लिए सीनेट में विधेयक पर मतभेद


(Reuters) - Outside the Morgan County fair in McConnelsville, in a rural swath of Ohio that fervently backed U.S. President Donald Trump in last year’s election, ticket seller John Wilson quietly counts off a handful of disappointments with the man he helped elect.  The 70-year-old retired banker said he is unhappy with infighting and turnover in the White House. He does not like Trump’s penchant for traveling to his personal golf resorts. He wishes the president would do more to fix the healthcare system, and he worries that Trump might back down from his promise to force illegal immigrants out of the country.  “Every president makes mistakes,” Wilson said. “But if you add one on top of one, on top of another one, on top of another, there’s just a limit.”  Trump, who inspired millions of supporters last year in places like Morgan County, has been losing his grip on rural America.  According to the Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, the Republican president’s popularity is eroding in small towns and rural communities where 15 percent of the country’s population lives. The poll of more than 15,000 adults in “non-metro” areas shows that they are now as likely to disapprove of Trump as they are to approve of him.  In September, 47 percent of people in non-metro areas approved of Trump while 47 percent disapproved. That is down from Trump’s first four weeks in office, when 55 percent said they approved of the president while 39 percent disapproved.  The poll found that Trump has lost support in rural areas among men, whites and people who never went to college. He lost support with rural Republicans and rural voters who supported him on Election Day.  And while Trump still gets relatively high marks in the poll for his handling of the economy and national security, rural Americans are increasingly unhappy with Trump’s record on immigration, a central part of his presidential campaign.  Forty-seven percent of rural Americans said in September they approved of the president’s handling of immigration, down from 56 percent during his first month in office.  Poll respondents who were interviewed by Reuters gave different reasons for their dissatisfaction with the president on immigration.  A few said they are tired of waiting for Trump to make good on his promise to build a wall along America’s southern border, while others said they were uncomfortable with his administration’s efforts to restrict travel into the United States.  “There should be some sort of compromise between a free flow of people over the border and something that’s more controlled,” said Drew Carlson, 19, of Warrensburg, Missouri, who took the poll.  But Trump’s “constant fixation on deportation is a little bit unsettling to me.”  The Trump administration would not comment about the Reuters/Ipsos poll.      To be sure, Trump is still much more popular in rural America than he is elsewhere.  Since he took office, “I like him less, but I support him more,” said Robert Cody, 87, a retired chemical engineer from Bartlesville, Oklahoma who took the poll.  Cody said that Trump may rankle some people with the way he talks and tweets, but it is a small price to pay for a president who will fight to strip away government regulations and strengthen the border.  When Trump called the election a “last shot” for the struggling coal industry and when he called for protecting the nation’s southern border with a “big, fat, beautiful wall”, he was speaking directly to rural America, said David Swenson, an economist at Iowa State University.  “Feelings of resentment and deprivation have pervaded a lot of these places,” Swenson said. “And here comes a candidate (Trump) who’s offering simplistic answers” to issues that concern them.  Rural Americans responded by supporting Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 26 percentage points during the election, an advantage that helped tip the balance in battleground states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Trump won by less than 1 percentage point.  But after 10 months, many are still waiting to see concrete changes that could make life easier in rural America, said Karl Stauber, who runs a private economic development agency serving a patchwork of manufacturing communities in south central Virginia.  “Rural people are more cynical about the federal government than people in general are,” Stauber said. “They’ve heard so many promises, and they’ve not seen much done.”  Despite all the talk of bringing manufacturing jobs back, Stauber said he has not seen any companies which have relocated to his region, or anyone expand their workforce, due to new federal policies.  “It just seems like we’ve dropped off the screen,” he said.   According to the poll, Trump’s overall popularity has dropped gradually, and for different reasons, this year.  Rural Americans were increasingly unhappy with Trump’s handling of healthcare in March and April after he lobbied for a Republican plan to overhaul Obamacare and cut coverage for millions of Americans.  In May and June, they were more critical of Trump’s ability to carry out U.S. foreign policy, and they gave him lower marks for “the way he treats people like me.”  In August, they were increasingly unhappy with “the effort he’s making to unify the country” after he blamed “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a suspected white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators.  The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English across the United States. It asked people to rate the president’s performance and the results were filtered for people who lived in zip codes that fell within counties designated as “non-metro” by the federal government.  The poll combined the results of “non-metro” respondents into nine, four-week periods. Each period included between 1,300 and 2,000 responses and had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points.

Summary: ग्रामीण अमेरिका में ट्रम्प की लोकप्रियता गिर रही हैः सर्वेक्षण