HONG KONG (Reuters) - For anyone digging into Hong Kong s history, the official archives might not be the place to look. The office of the chief executive, Hong Kong s leader, failed to hand over any official records at all for eight of the 20 years since it came under Chinese rule in 1997, according to the government department that manages the archives. The Security Bureau only did it for 10. Researchers say the problem is that Hong Kong, under roughly 150 years of British colonial rule and the first 20 years of Chinese rule, has never had a law regulating how government records should be kept or destroyed. As a result, the document retention that researchers see as necessary for keeping a record of the past has been somewhat spotty within Hong Kong. Under British rule, the archiving of documents in Hong Kong was also lax. In 1994 and 1995, for example, the Government House gave nothing to the archives.  But thanks to a constant flow of correspondence between the colonial government and London, Britain would have stored a copy of most official records, according to researchers. After the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, that back-up mechanism disappeared, leading to concerns that fragments of Hong Kong s history might slip away for good.  Unlike Hong Kong, China has a set of archive laws, under which officials failing to file records can face administrative sanctions, or face charges if the case constitutes a crime.  But researchers say that for any Hong Kong-related documents kept by China, access would be difficult. Simon Chu, the former head of the Government Records Service who has been advocating for an archives law, said that prior to 1997 researchers could count on finding records in Britain, even if they were lost in Hong Kong.  After 1997, you don t have this kind of luxury,  he said.    Connie Lo, a documentary director digging into the 1967 Communist-led riots in Hong Kong, found almost nothing on the subject in the government archives. She was, however, able to find material in Britain s National Archives for her film  Vanished Archives,  which premiered in Hong Kong this year. Fears over record retention were highlighted last year when the government of former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said it had kept no records of informal meetings with local groups over a controversial land development project.  Hong Kong s current leader, Carrie Lam, has said she places  great importance  on the integrity of government records, and that she supports passing an archives law. She said she would pursue a law after receiving a report from the Law Reform Commission, which is studying the issue. The commission, however, has been considering the issue for four years and only expects to start consultations on the subject next year.  Activists like Chu are anxious that records of sensitive information, such as government decisions during the 2014 pro-democracy street protests could be destroyed with impunity.   I m very pessimistic about that,  Chu said. One former senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also admitted to throwing out some documents in order to protect a former top official. He declined to say what the documents contained. But he suggested the practice might be widespread in the civil service.  For some of the most sensitive issues, there would not even be a record,  he said. The Government Records Service said it received 25 reports of unauthorized destruction of records in the past six years, and disciplinary actions were taken against four officers in four cases.

Summary: हांगकांग के लुप्त होते अभिलेखागार और इतिहास को संरक्षित करने की लड़ाई


LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland and Wales proposed changes on Wednesday to the central UK government s Brexit bill in an attempt to bed down their current powers which they fear could be weakened after Brexit. Scotland s Brexit minister Michael Russell said verbal assurances from London that Edinburgh and Cardiff would keep all their powers after Britain leaves the European Union were not sufficient due to distrust toward the central government.  There needs to be an injection of trust into the negotiating process,  Russell told Scottish lawmakers during a parliamentary committee session in Edinburgh. The EU issue has pulled the United Kingdom s four parts in different directions because England and Wales voted for Brexit while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the bloc. The Scottish government, run by the pro-independence Scottish National Party, and its Welsh counterpart, run by Labour, have both accused the Conservative central government of failing to give them a meaningful role in the Brexit process. The EU withdrawal bill, which is currently going through the UK parliament in London, is designed to convert all existing EU laws into domestic ones. It is part of Britain s plan to provide legal clarity before it parts ways with the EU. But the bill has raised hackles in Edinburgh and Cardiff, which currently control policy areas such as health, education, transport and agriculture, because it does not make clear what the status of those devolved powers will be after Brexit. The UK government says that Scotland and Wales will be returned their devolved powers in a second phase, but that has failed to quell anxieties.  We are willing to cooperate with the UK government but this cannot mean allowing (Britain s national parliament) to drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement,  said Russell in a separate statement.     Under Britain s constitution, the UK parliament must seek consent from the Scottish and Welsh assemblies when legislating on policy areas that overlap into their domestic powers. While they do not have veto powers over the Brexit bill, ignoring their wishes would mark a new low in already tetchy relations between London, Edinburgh and Cardiff. That could give an incentive to the UK government to incorporate at least some of the Scottish and Welsh amendments to avoid the embarrassment of a constitutional clash. Stephen Crabb, a Conservative member of parliament and former minister for Wales, told Reuters he thought there should be some room for maneuver.  UK government ministers probably have to say a bit more and to give a bit more to try to bridge the gulf at the moment,  he said in an interview.

Summary: हम इसे लिखित रूप में चाहते हैंः स्कॉटलैंड और वेल्स ब्रेक्सिट के बाद की शक्तियों पर स्पष्टता चाहते हैं


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is starting to look like Corporate America’s shadow president. The 61-year-old banker has made more than a dozen trips to Washington so far this year to press a broad agenda with a range of influential policymakers, people who attended the meetings or are familiar with his schedule said. Dimon has already visited the nation’s capital four times as much as he does in a typical year. His ramped-up presence comes after taking the helm of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents CEOs of large U.S. companies, in December. “We couldn’t ask for a more engaged or more effective Business Roundtable chair,” said Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff for President George W. Bush, whom Dimon installed as the organization’s president and CEO. The frequency of his trips, and the wide range of policies he has been discussing, have started chatter among power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street about how much energy Dimon is devoting to issues beyond JPMorgan. At times, they said, Dimon carries himself more like someone running the country than someone running a bank. “If you’re Jamie Dimon, you’ve always had access,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, a Wall Street trade group. “The difference is, now he wants it. He wants to play a role in policy more broadly than just representing his company.” Dimon has said in the past that the only big job he would want would be U.S. president, but also said running for office would be impractical. Associates told Reuters he has abandoned the idea entirely, and only became more active in Washington because he was worried about his bank, the economy and the future of the country. A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment or make Dimon available for an interview. Reuters spoke to over a dozen people who have interacted with Dimon in Washington or were briefed on his meetings. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss his activities. Those who have met Dimon recently include Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Mark Warner, Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is a member of House Republican leadership, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. He was around so much during the summer that Washington regulars said it was no longer surprising to see Dimon pop out of the Capitol Hill subway system or leave a lawmaker’s office. He has joked with staff about getting a condominium in Washington because of how often he travels there, one person said. Although Dimon’s meetings typically center on topics like tax reform or financial rules, he is not shy about weighing in on issues ranging from immigration to education and criminal justice reform, those familiar with the discussions said. In meetings, he has been using an app he asked Business Roundtable staff to build. It allows member CEOs to show how many voters in a district work for their companies, and how many facilities the companies have there, to persuade lawmakers that their priorities are aligned. During his interactions with lawmakers, Dimon can be brash and expresses annoyance with Congress’s inability to advance legislation, people who attended the meetings said. Sometimes he would show his lighter side. One day in July, Dimon spotted his Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, an old foe who championed a rule that slashed debit card fees and which Dimon has called “downright idiotic.” Durbin was withdrawing money from a non-Chase ATM when Dimon approached from behind and quipped: “We welcome competition.” A Durbin representative confirmed the interaction, first described by a Politico reporter in a tweet, took place but declined to elaborate. Those who have followed Dimon through his career are not surprised that the straight-talking New York banker has become even more outspoken during Donald Trump’s presidency. Associates say he has been shocked by some of Trump’s actions, such as abandoning the Paris climate accord, threats to tear up free trade deals, a call for a ban of transgender people from the military and ending a program that protects people who were brought into the United States illegally as children from deportation. Dimon is not the only corporate boss venturing outside his usual terrain. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) CEO Lloyd Blankfein has criticized Trump in tweets, while others including Apple Inc CEO (AAPL.O) Tim Cook and Merck & Co (MRK.N) CEO Ken Frazier have condemned the president’s actions in public statements. But Dimon, who often refers to himself as a “patriot,” differs in tone and demeanor, sources said. The table of contents for his April letter to shareholders includes categories such as “The United States of America is truly an exceptional country,” and devoted more space to public policy prescriptions than in prior years. After Trump said “both sides” were to blame for the violence between white supremacists and left-wing protesters in Virginia, Dimon offered unsolicited advice on how a president should carry himself. “It is a leader’s role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart,” he wrote in an employee memo. (The story changes headline to clarify Dimon is not leaving his bank)

Summary: जेमी डिमोन वॉल स्ट्रीट से परे वाशिंगटन में अपनी बात रखने के लिए उद्यम करते हैं


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will propose changes to its safeguard mechanism on frozen U.S. beef imports that will shorten review periods and allow importers to voluntarily lower import volumes to prevent tariffs from automatically kicking in, two government sources said on Thursday. The proposal will be made at the second round of the U.S.-Japan economic dialogue in Washington on Oct. 16, but it is uncertain if the U.S. side will go along, said the two sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter. If successful, the proposal could help ward off trade friction with the United States, which is renegotiating free trade agreements with other countries to protect jobs and lower its trade deficit. Under current measures, Japan automatically imposes higher tariffs if quarterly imports of specific beef products from any country rise more than 17 percent from the previous year. Japan hiked tariffs from Aug. 1 on imports of frozen beef, popular in beef bowl dishes, from countries including the United States to 50 percent from 38.5 percent. The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdraw from the long-planned Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal earlier this year. Japan says the tariff hike, set to be in place until next March, is a “safeguard” mechanism to protect domestic farmers, but it has prompted some concern in Washington. Instead of reviewing import data on a quarterly basis, Japan will propose shortening this period to every 10 days, the sources said. This will make it easier for companies that import beef to adjust volumes and avoid triggering tariffs, the sources said. However, the plan is far from certain to work because frozen U.S. beef imports could surge next year in April after the current tariff increase expires, one source said. “Once the safeguard is triggered, there is a concern that it will repeatedly be triggered in the future,” the source said. The first round of the U.S.-Japan economic dialogue, which was held in Tokyo in April, ended largely without incident. However, there is some concern among Japanese officials that the U.S. side could strongly push for trade concession during the second dialogue meeting. Japan had a $69-billion trade surplus with the United States last year, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which has expressed concern over what it called the “persistence” of the imbalance. Japanese officials counter that Tokyo accounts for a much smaller slice of the U.S. deficit than in the past, while China’s imbalance is much bigger.

Summary: अमेरिका के साथ बातचीत में गोमांस आयात सुरक्षा उपायों में बदलाव का प्रस्ताव देगा जापानः सूत्र


BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States informed Germany shortly before it launched missile strikes on a Syrian airbase from which Washington said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched this week, a German government spokesman said on Friday. “The U.S. government informed the chancellery and defense minister during the night,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular news conference. A spokesman for the defense ministry added: “The defense minister was informed about the strikes by her American colleague James Mattis shortly beforehand.” A spokesman for Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the United States had given Berlin the impression during the contact overnight that this was a targeted and limited attack.

Summary: जर्मनी का कहना है कि अमेरिका ने प्रक्षेपण से कुछ समय पहले उसे मिसाइल हमलों की सूचना दी थी


PARIS (Reuters) - France s Emmanuel Macron discussed increased pressure and sanctions on North Korea on the telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday, the French president s office said. The three leaders stressed the need for a  united and firm  reaction from the international community toward Pyongyang, Macron s office said. South Korea was bracing on Saturday for a possible further missile test by North Korea as it marked its founding anniversary, just days after its sixth and largest nuclear test. The French presidency said North Korea s  repeated provocations  were a  threat to peace and international security . It also said Macron had expressed France s  solidarity  with Japan. Tension on the Korean peninsula has escalated as North Korea s leader, Kim Jong Un, has stepped up the development of weapons, testing a string of missiles this year, including one flying over Japan. Experts believe the Pyongyang government is close to its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States, something U.S. President Trump has vowed to prevent.

Summary: फ्रांस ने ट्रंप, आबे के साथ उत्तर कोरिया पर बढ़े दबाव पर चर्चा की


(Reuters) - Any delay in South Korea-U.S. military drills would depend on whether North Korea carries out provocations during the 2018 Winter Olympics, an official at Seoul s presidential Blue House said on Wednesday.  South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday he was willing to try to ease tensions ahead of next year s Winter Olympics in South Korea by curtailing joint military exercises with the United States.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया का कहना है कि संयुक्त अमेरिकी अभ्यास में देरी उत्तर कोरिया के उकसावे को रोकने पर निर्भर करती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm two Republicans and one Democrat to serve on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the top U.S derivatives regulator. In a voice vote, the Senate approved the nominations of Republican Chris Giancarlo to serve as CFTC chairman, as well as Republican Brian Quintenz and Democrat Rostin “Russ” Behnam to serve as commissioners. However, the Senate did not vote to confirm another Republican nominee, Dawn Stump.  A Senate Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Stump was not on the slate of nominees because the party did not want to approve a total of three Republican commissioners and only one Democrat. That would leave the CFTC with just one Democratic commissioner because the other one, Sharon Bowen, announced recently that she planned to step down soon. The aide added that once Republican President Donald Trump selects a second Democrat to replace Bowen, then that person’s nomination will likely be approved along with Stump’s. Giancarlo has already been serving as acting CFTC chairman since Trump took office in January. In a statement, Giancarlo said he was “humbled” by the bipartisan support for him in the Senate.

Summary: सीनेट ने तीन सी. एफ. टी. सी. आयुक्तों की सूची की पुष्टि करने के लिए मतदान किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping met senior military leaders on Thursday and pressed them on his goal of having world class armed forces by the middle of the century, his first publicly announced meeting with them since a new leadership was unveiled. Xi, who is also head of the military and the ruling Communist Party, has made military modernisation a key policy platform, with advanced new equipment like stealth jets and aircraft carriers either already in service or development. The armed forces have also been a focus of Xi s fight against deep-seated corruption, with dozens of senior officials investigated and jailed. In his first publicly reported meeting with top officers since Wednesday s unveiling of his new Standing Committee, a seven-man body that is the height of power in China, Xi pushed home his modernisation message. The military must ensure it is a world-class service by 2050, Xi said, in comments carried by state media, a goal he set last week at the opening of a key party congress. The armed forces must  fully recognize the bright prospects for a strong military , Xi told them.  Put into practice one hundred percent military construction.  Though China has not fought a war in decades, it has been taking an increasingly assertive stance in the disputed East and South China Seas, as well as over self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as its own, rattling nerves around the region. China says that it has only peaceful intentions, but that it needs a modern military to protect its interests and citizens around the world and that it will never compromise on China s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Summary: नए नेताओं के अनावरण के बाद चीन के शी ने पहली बार सेना से मुलाकात की


MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb rigged to a motorcycle exploded in a militant-plagued part of northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, killing nine people, officials said on Wednesday, the latest violence in a recent rise in attacks in the nuclear-armed country. The bomb was detonated by remote control late on Tuesday when an army vehicle passed in Mir Ali town in the North Waziristan region, said three Pakistani officials who declined to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media. A spokesman for the Pakistani army, which is responsible for security in the volatile, ethnic Pashtun region, did not respond to calls seeking comment.  Waziristan is bleeding once again,  said police official  Tahir Khan in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, who said he had heard about the blast but had no details. No militant group claimed responsibility. North Waziristan was long home to Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda until the Pakistani army launched a major push against them in mid-2014.  The military offensive cleared the militants from their bases and largely broke up their networks, forcing them to flee either over the porous border into Afghanistan or to other parts of Pakistan.  But the militants have struck back, sometimes with major attacks. Last Friday, three Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers stormed a college in Peshawar, killing eight students and a guard. A week earlier, a senior police commander was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Peshawar. On Tuesday, the Pakistani Taliban killed a member of an anti-Taliban faction in another part of the northwest, while a bomb aimed at members of another pro-government faction killed five people a week earlier. The Pakistani Taliban are fighting to topple the government and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law. They are loosely allied with the Afghan Taliban who ruled most of Afghanistan until they were overthrown by U.S.-backed military action in 2001. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Pakistan this week to urge it to  redouble  efforts to rein in militants accused of using the country as a base to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

Summary: पाकिस्तान में अफगान सीमा के पास बम विस्फोट, नौ लोगों की मौत


HOUSTON (Reuters) - Harold Hamm, chief executive of shale oil producer Continental Resources Inc and Mitt Romney’s 2012 energy adviser, endorsed U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday, saying he has the “fortitude to make tough decisions.”  Hamm, who had previously donated to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, called the real estate mogul a “business leader’s candidate” who has the will to right what he called a series of mistakes from politicians in Washington, including “burdensome government regulations.” “The next president of the United States must have the courage, determination and intelligence to disrupt politics as usual,” Hamm wrote in a public letter. “Such an honor to get the endorsement of Harold Hamm, one of the great men in the history of the oil and energy business,” Trump said in a statement to Reuters.  Known for his outspoken views on U.S. energy policy and other matters, Hamm once referred to OPEC leader Saudi Arabia as a “toothless tiger” in the face of growing U.S. oil output. OPEC and Saudia Arabia eventually proved Hamm wrong by using its influence to keep prices low for more than 18 months and counting, exerting sharp pain on U.S. oil producers. Hamm’s Continental is expected to post a quarterly loss next month. Hamm’s endorsement followed President Barack Obama’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in Riyadh this week. By endorsing Trump, Hamm has parted ways with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican candidate for the White House, who has vigorously opposed Trump’s candidacy.

Summary: अमेरिकी तेल व्यापारी हैरोल्ड हैम ने राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए ट्रम्प का समर्थन किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - After deep cuts in spending for Florida schools and other public programs following the Great Recession, outgoing Republican Governor Rick Scott this month proposed an $87.4 billion budget he says boosts spending on some depleted services to record levels.  Despite Scott’s meaty 2018-2019 budget recommendation, which is about $2.4 billion above current spending, advocates for Florida public education, environment and affordable housing remained skeptical the new plan would go far enough. “It doesn’t move Florida (schools) out from the bottom when compared to other states,” said Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the state’s teachers union.  Florida’s public school per-pupil spending sank from a peak of $7,126 in the 2007-2008 budget to a post-recession low of $6,217 for the 2011-2012 year.  In his latest proposal, Scott recommended increasing funding to $7,176 per student, a $50 rise above record-high per-student funding. Florida has more than 2.7 million students enrolled in its public K-12 schools. Pudlow said he welcomed the governor’s increases, but support for Florida education was still lagging far behind most of the United States. The nationwide per-student spending average was $11,392 in 2015, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data available. Adjusted for inflation, Pudlow pointed out, Scott’s budget puts Florida’s per-student spending at about $1,200 less than it was at its peak. Scott proposed increasing public elementary and secondary school spending to about $14.71 billion from some $14.45 billion in the current fiscal year.  Andrea Messina, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, said she was hopeful Scott’s proposal signaled a an attitude shift in the state capital toward public education financing, but the bill was far from final. The Florida House of Representatives and Senate will hear the governor’s budget recommendations at the next legislative session starting on Jan. 9. They then make their own budget proposals and negotiate until a single plan is agreed on.  That budget will go back to the governor, who has the authority to veto line items before signing off on the bill. Scott has also proposed $180 million in cuts to taxes and fees and asked for sharp increases in spending on departments, including corrections, which would see more than 500 added jobs under the plan.  The budget for environmental protection would surge to more than $1.7 billion from $1.48 billion in the current year, making it among the budget’s biggest gainers. Florida Everglades restoration would be among the environmental projects to receive an infusion of funds. “That’s one place where we’re happy, although the devil is in the details,” said Frank Jackalone, director of Sierra Club Florida. Jackalone said he was concerned the state would continue to cut environmental rules enforcement and to take from earmarked funds intended for the environment to spend on other government programs. State Representative Carlos Smith, a Democrat who represents a central Florida district seeing an influx of residents fleeing from hurricane-battered areas, including Puerto Rico, said he opposed Scott’s budget proposal on affordable housing. Under the plan, overall spending on affordable housing would rise, Smith said, but it would also include a raid of nearly $92 million on trust funds earmarked for affordable homes. “We don’t know what to do, people are sleeping in cars,” Smith said of storm evacuees, namely Puerto Ricans fleeing the bankrupt and hurricane-battered U.S. commonwealth.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा के स्कॉट द्वारा सबसे बड़ा बजट पेश करने के बाद संदेह बना हुआ है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has issued new guidelines for immigration judges that remove some instructions for how to protect unaccompanied juveniles appearing in their courtrooms. A Dec. 20 memo, issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) replaces 2007 guidelines, spelling out policies and procedures judges should follow in dealing with children who crossed the border illegally alone and face possible deportation.  The new memo removes suggestions contained in the 2007 memo for how to conduct “child-sensitive questioning” and adds reminders to judges to maintain “impartiality” even though “juvenile cases may present sympathetic allegations.” The new document also changes the word “child” to “unmarried individual under the age of 18” in many instances. (Link to comparison: tmsnrt.rs/2BlT0VK May 2007 document: tmsnrt.rs/2BBR8wj December 2017 document: tmsnrt.rs/2C2sWCs)  An EOIR official said the new memo contained “clarifications and updates” to 10-year-old guidance “in order to be consistent with the laws as they’ve been passed by Congress.” The new memo was posted on the Justice Department website but has not been previously reported.  Immigration advocates said they worry the new guidelines could make court appearances for children more difficult, and a spokeswoman for the union representing immigration judges said judges are concerned about the tone of the memo. President Donald Trump has made tougher immigration enforcement a key policy goal of his administration, and has focused particularly on trying to curb the illegal entry of children. The administration says it wants to prevent vulnerable juveniles from making perilous journeys to the United States and eliminate fraud from programs for young immigrants.  One changed section of the memo focuses on how to make children comfortable in the court in advance of hearings. The old guidance says they “should be permitted to explore” courtrooms and allowed to “sit in all locations, (including, especially, the judge’s bench and the witness stand).”  The new guidance says such explorations should take place only “to the extent that resources and time permit” and specifically puts the judge’s bench off limits. The new memo also warns judges to be skeptical, since an unaccompanied minor “generally receives more favorable treatment under the law than other categories of illegal aliens,” which creates “an incentive to misrepresent accompaniment status or age in order to attempt to qualify for the benefits.” It also says to be on the lookout for “fraud and abuse,” language that was not in the previous memo. Immigration judges are appointed by the U.S. Attorney General and courts are part of the Department of Justice, not an independent branch. The only sitting immigration judges routinely allowed to speak to the media are representatives of their union, the National Association of Immigration Judges.  Dana Marks, a sitting judge and spokeswoman for the union, said the “overall tone” of the memo “is very distressing and concerning to immigration judges.”  “There is a feeling that the immigration courts are just being demoted into immigration enforcement offices, rather than neutral arbiters,” Marks said. “There has been a relentless beating of the drum toward enforcement rather than due process.”   Former immigration judge Andrew Arthur, who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, which promotes lower levels of immigration overall, said the new guidelines were needed.  In their previous form, he said, “so much emphasis was placed on the potential inability of the alien to understand the proceedings ... that it almost put the judge into the position of being an advocate.”   The courts have had to handle a surge in cases for unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, after their numbers sky-rocketed in 2014 as violence in the region caused residents to flee north.  While illegal crossings initially fell after Trump took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that since May, each month has seen an increase in children being apprehended either alone or with family members.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a speech in Boston in September that the special accommodations for unaccompanied minors had been exploited by “gang members who come to this country as wolves in sheep clothing.” Echoing some of these concerns, the new memo notes in a preamble that not all child cases involve innocents, and that the courts might see “an adolescent gang member” or “a teenager convicted as an adult for serious criminal activity.”  Jennifer Podkul, policy director of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) said Congress included special procedural protections for immigrant children in a 2008 anti-trafficking bill to “make sure that a kid gets a fair shot in the courtroom.” “These kids are by themselves telling a very complicated and oftentimes very traumatic story,” said Podkul. “The approach of this memo, which is much more suspicious, is not going to help get to the truth of a child’s story.”  In cases where children are called to testify, the old guidance instructed judges to “seek to limit the amount of time the child is on the stand.” The new guidance says that judges should “consider” limiting the child’s time on the stand “without compromising due process for the opposing party,” which is generally a government prosecutor. The memo leaves in a range of special accommodations made for children, including allowing them to bring a pillow or booster seat or a “toy, book, or other personal item.” It also maintains that cases involving unaccompanied minors should be heard on a separate docket when possible and that children should not be detained or transported with adults.

Summary: विशेषः अमेरिकी ज्ञापन ने अदालत में अप्रवासी बच्चों की सुरक्षा के लिए दिशानिर्देशों को कमजोर किया


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on 18 North Koreans on Monday, barring any financial transactions between those sanctioned and any South Koreans, as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang s illegal cash flows. All 18 individuals on which the South Korean sanctions were imposed were directly affiliated to North Korean banks, according to an official government announcement by the finance minister uploaded on the Interior Ministry s website.  They are all people at North Korean financial institutions that have already been sanctioned by the United Nations,  a government official directly involved in the sanction development process told Reuters. The official asked for anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.   They re high-ranking employees who have been linked to North Korea s nuclear and missile development program as well as the North s foreign exchange procurement efforts.   We aim to encourage people to avoid problematic transactions with North Korea (through these sanctions) and to exercise caution with North Korea-related transactions in general,  said Unification Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun in a regular media briefing.  We expect this will contribute to blocking North Korea s main sources of foreign exchange and its developing of weapons of mass destruction.  The announcement came a day ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump s visit to South Korea as part of his 12-day Asia tour, where he is expected to discuss North Korea s nuclear and missile program at length with government officials here.  When asked on the timing of the announcement, government officials denied it was tied to Trump s visit to Seoul. Despite the announcement, the sanctions are expected to have little impact on North Korea s illegal activities to fund its weapons program as all trade and financial exchanges have been barred since May 2010 following the torpedoing of a South Korean warship by North Korea. Those named were: Kang Min, Ko Chol Man, Ku Ja Hyong, Kim Kyong Il, Kim Tong Chol, Kim Sang Ho, Kim Jong Man, Kim Hyok Chol, Ri Un Song, Ri Chun Song, Ri Chun Hwan, Mun Kyong Hwan, Park Mun Il, Pak Bong Nam, Pang Su Nam, Pae Won Uk, Chu Hyok and Choe Sok Min. According to the announcement 14 of those named were based in China, two were based in Libya while the remaining two were based in Russia. The institutions the 18 were affiliated with were Korea Daesong Bank, Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People s Republic of Korea, Korea United Development Bank, Bank of East Land and ILSIM International Bank.  As of the announcement on Monday, South Korea had North Korea sanctions imposed on 97 individuals.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया ने ट्रम्प की यात्रा से एक दिन पहले 18 उत्तर कोरियाई लोगों पर प्रतिबंध लगाए


WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish lawmakers approved an overhaul of the judiciary on Friday, giving parliament de facto control over the selection of judges in defiance of the European Union. The legislation, if agreed by the Senate and President Andrzej Duda, will heighten tensions with the EU which has threatened legal action over proposed reform that it says will subvert the rule of law. The eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which holds a majority in parliament, argues the judiciary needs to be changed to repair a corrupt system and make courts more efficient. The EU says giving politicians a say in appointing judges will threaten the impartiality of the courts. Critics of the deeply conservative government see the proposed reforms as part of a broader shift toward authoritarianism by the deeply conservative government. The EU is also at loggerheads with the PiS over migration policy, logging in an ancient forest in Poland and the government s efforts to take control of other state institutions such as public media. A panel of constitutional law experts of the Council of Europe human rights body said on Friday the proposed reforms imperiled all parts of the judiciary and would  lead to a far reaching politicization of this body .     Under the legislation, heavily supported by PiS lawmakers, parliament would have a virtual free hand in choosing members of the National Judiciary Council (KRS), a powerful body that decides judicial appointments and promotions which was a right earlier reserved chiefly for the judges themselves. A second bill, also approved, envisages lowering the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court judges to 65 years from 70, which would force a significant part of them to leave.  We are moving forward with reforms of the justice system, and the Supreme Court reform is an element of this process,  said Pawel Mucha, an adviser to Duda. The KRS has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the plans. Spokesman Waldemar  urek said:  In my opinion, these changes will hurt the citizens because politicization of courts means that no citizen will be assured that a judge presiding over a case isn t being influenced by politicians.   Despite criticism abroad as well, the PiS government remains one of Poland s most popular governments since the 1989 collapse of communism, because of low unemployment, generous public spending and its adherence to traditional Catholic values. Friday s votes came a day after the PiS sacked its prime minister, Beata Szydlo, and replaced her with Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a loyalist of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party leader and Poland s paramount politician. Morawiecki told Trwam television on Friday his priorities would be economic development, social cohesion, fighting tax evasion and an improvement of Poland s reputation abroad. Analysts said the changeover was spurred by Kaczynski s desire to quell infighting within the cabinet and put more emphasis on economic policy as the party faces three consecutive years of elections. A local ballot is held next year, a parliamentary vote in 2019 and a presidential election in 2020.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ की अवहेलना करते हुए पोलैंड की संसद ने न्यायपालिका में बदलाव को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. lawmakers are questioning whether Heritage Pharmaceuticals misled them in response to a 2014 congressional inquiry about the rising price a common antibiotic, after 20 U.S. states this week accused the company of price fixing. In a Dec. 16 letter to Heritage seen by Reuters, Maryland Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings and Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said they feared the company was “disingenuous at best” in October 2014 when it told them it had not seen any significant price increases for its doxycycline hyclate product. “We are very concerned that you made these assertions to Congress on behalf of Heritage during the exact time period that its executives were engaged in a price fixing scheme to prevent competition from driving down prices of doxycycline hyclate,” they wrote. In response to Friday’s letter, the company said it does not make the same version of doxycycline hyclate that the lawmakers asked about in 2014. Heritage makes a delayed release version, not the immediate release version that was the subject of the 2014 inquiry. Heritage said it explained this to the lawmakers in its 2014 response. The letter to Heritage comes after criminal and civil charges were filed by the Justice Department and 20 states in connection with an alleged price fixing scheme involving doxycycline hyclate and glyburide, a diabetes drug. On Wednesday, the Justice Department criminally charged Heritage’s former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Glazer and former Heritage Vice President of Commercial Operations Jason Malek, accusing them of colluding with other generic manufacturers in schemes that entailed allocating market share and conspiring to raise prices. The next day, 20 states filed a parallel civil lawsuit against Heritage, along with Mylan NV, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Mayne Pharma Group, Citron Pharma and Aurobindo Pharma Ltd., saying they colluded to fix prices. The lawsuit characterized Heritage as the “ringleader,” with Glazer and Malek overseeing and running the scheme. Mylan and Teva have previously denied the states’ civil charges. Sanders and Cummings launched a congressional inquiry into rising generic drug prices on Oct. 2, 2014, including the price of doxycycline hyclate.  As part of that, they sent a letter to Glazer while he was still CEO of Heritage to inquire about the prices. Gary Ruckelshaus, who was then Heritage’s outside counsel and now serves as vice president and general counsel, responded later that month and said Heritage “has not seen any significant price increases” for the drug.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने एंटीबायोटिक की उच्च कीमतों पर हेरिटेज फार्मा पर दबाव डाला


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria was due to make a speech at the prime minister s office in Madrid on Tuesday, after Catalan officials signed a document declaring independence from Spain, an official from the office said. It wasn t clear if the document had any legal value. Saenz de Santamaria was due to start speaking at 2020 GMT.

Summary: स्पेन के उप प्रधानमंत्री 2020 जी. एम. टी. में भाषण देंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats fell short in three U.S. states on Monday in their legal battle to impose tighter restrictions on supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who plan to monitor Election Day voting for signs of fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to reimpose new rules on partisan poll watchers in Ohio after an appeals court struck them down, while U.S. judges in Pennsylvania and North Carolina declined Democrats’ request to impose new rules that Democrats had sought.  Voter intimidation is prohibited under U.S. law, but Democrats worry that Trump’s warnings of a “rigged” election in his battle against Democrat Hillary Clinton might inspire supporters to harass minority voters and create Election Day chaos in big cities as they search for signs of vote manipulation.  Numerous studies have found that U.S. voter fraud is exceedingly rare.  Democrats have asked U.S. courts in six battleground states to impose greater restrictions on partisan poll watchers, arguing that the Trump campaign, state Republican parties and Republican operative Roger Stone are encouraging supporters to  intimidate minority voters. Trump’s campaign and Republican parties in the various states say their poll watchers are trained to bring evidence of any problems to the party and not confront voters directly. “This was an attempt to intimidate Republican people engaging in lawful activity,” North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse told Reuters. Stone says those working for his planned “exit poll” will be trained to use neutral, non-threatening language.   One day before the election, Democrats so far have failed to win any of their legal efforts. A U.S. judge denied the Democrats’ case in Arizona on Friday. Monday’s rulings in North Carolina and Pennsylvania give Democrats little time for appeals, while the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling put to rest the case filed in Ohio. The Supreme Court order, which only covers the Ohio case, included no noted dissents from the eight justices. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a brief statement noting that “Ohio law proscribes voter intimidation” and citing the relevant law.  U.S. judges in Michigan and Nevada have yet to issue opinions. Democrats have waged a separate legal battle against the Republican National Committee, arguing in court that the RNC should be prevented from supporting the Trump campaign’s poll-watching effort. A U.S. judge in New Jersey denied that motion on Saturday.

Summary: अमेरिका के तीन राज्यों में लोकतांत्रिक मतदाताओं को डराने-धमकाने के मामले कम हुए


NORTH SINAI, Egypt (Reuters) - An attack that killed more than 300 people in North Sinai has prompted Egyptian officials to renew efforts to enlist local tribes whose support will be critical in attempts to defeat Islamic State, security and military sources said.  Brandishing an Islamic State flag, masked men in military-style uniforms fired on worshippers at a village mosque on Friday in the worst such bloodshed in modern Egyptian history. It was a dramatic setback for the military, which has been fighting militant groups in the Sinai peninsula for years with air strikes, ground assaults and mass arrests, while hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed. Lacking sufficient counter-insurgency skills, the army began recruiting tribesmen three years ago, hoping their mastery of the Sinai s inhospitable terrain would provide intelligence on the militants and their arms smuggling routes. That campaign has produced limited results and the latest bloodshed will pressure the army to secure better cooperation from tribal leaders despite some gains against Islamic State this year.      No group has claimed responsibility for Friday s assault, whose brutality shocked Egyptians. On Wednesday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the  military to secure the Sinai within the next three months.  You can use all brute force necessary,  he said. Tribes in the Sinai vowed to unite and join forces with the army after fellow Bedouins were killed in Friday s carnage. But such declarations by Sinai tribes   which accuse the Cairo government of treating them like second-class citizens   have in the past produced limited results. In addition, tribesmen remain divided over feuds and other local issues.  The Egyptian military has more than enough weapons. The biggest issue when it comes to doing anything in the Sinai is to make sure they have good intelligence,  said HA Hellyer, an Egypt expert and senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.  If it is going to be a counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency set of strategies, that will necessitate involvement from the tribes at a very significant level.  Three security and military sources said that over the past two days talks had been held between security officials and tribal leaders in north and central Sinai. Those security officials said greater coordination and cooperation were needed to defeat the militants. The tribes were divided into five groups and security officials sat separately with each group.   We asked them to help us to control the militants in the areas that they live, farm and move in, because each tribe knows its own people best,  said one of the sources.  There are many things that make them cooperate with us and they vary from each tribe to the next. That s why we sat separately with each tribe. One tribe needs services, and there is economic cooperation on projects with another tribe.  A spokesman for the military said it had made no statement on tribal affairs in Sinai and he could not comment Alliances with tribes have succeeded in other countries facing serious extremist threats   under the right conditions.  In 2006, Sunni tribesmen joined forces with U.S. troops in Iraq and rebelled against al Qaeda in what became known as the  Sahwa , or Awakening.  By January 2009, Washington had invested more than $400 million in the Awakening program, according to U.S. data. Fighters were paid as much as $300-400 a month.  That investment paid off, helping Iraqi security forces to defeat al Qaeda then.  Under a Sisi initiative in 2015 to reinforce cooperation, several hundred Bedouins were to be recruited. Occasionally, they joined patrols and manned checkpoints under supervision. But some tribal leaders were reluctant to team up with the army without more weapons to confront battle-hardened militant fighters. Authorities are wary of supplying arms to tribes with a history of animosity to Cairo, security officials say.  When the security officials spoke to the tribal leaders, they told them that there is no third option in front of them. Either with us or against us,  another source said.   Most of the tribes immediately announced their cooperation with security forces, and others asked for some time to think. But I think that the security forces don t have the time to give them to think.  Mustafa al-Aqili, of the Supreme Council of Arab Tribes, said heavy losses in the mosque attack could encourage both sides to work more closely together. But he stressed waging war against radicals was the responsibility of the military.   Sinai s people grew stronger after that attack and they are standing more with the army,  he said.  They are keen to join the fighting. But that is the job of the army.  A security source in El-Arish, the main city in North Sinai, said ties have improved.   The Bedouins are cooperating with us and have increased their cooperation,  he said. Bringing Sinai s tribes together and on the military s side will not be easy. The cash-strapped government would have to create jobs and invest in schools and infrastructure. To appease angry residents for now, authorities announced $10 million in funds shortly after the attack.  We have no relationship with politics or anything else, and don t cooperate with the army or armed groups,  said Mansur Eid, who lost his son in Friday s attack.  We just live in poverty here.  Egypt may face a bigger challenge if Islamic State militants defeated in Iraq, Syria and Libya join comrades in the Sinai. Help from tribes would be even more important. Friday s attack was similar to Islamic State s approach in Iraq, where it has bombed places of worship in a bid to deepen sectarian strife. Sisi has said that fighters returning from Iraq and Syria may seek refuge in Libya and target Egypt from there.   In his most recent speech released in September, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers in North Sinai to keep fighting after the group was defeated in Mosul.  Tribal leaders say there are around 800 militants, mostly Egyptians, with some Palestinians and other foreigners, in the North Sinai. But even small numbers of fighters have inflicted heavy casualties with suicide bombings in Egypt and elsewhere. Islamic State is also seeking to enlist tribesmen in the Sinai, and Ahmed Zagloul, a researcher on Islamist movements, said it had managed to recruit from the largest tribes. By capitalizing on frustrations with the government and civilian deaths, Islamic State has won some support despite its brutal methods. Many in the Sinai were not won over by the government s methods of fighting terrorism, which had left some villages completely destroyed, said Sheikh Ibrahim al-Menei, a leader of the Sawarka tribe.

Summary: सिनाई नरसंहार ने मिस्र पर जनजातियों के साथ नया गठबंधन करने का दबाव डाला


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealanders will likely need to wait several more days to find out who will form the new government in the South Pacific island nation, the small nationalist party holding the balance of power said on Thursday. The New Zealand First Party was holding a fifth day of talks with both the ruling National and the opposition Labour Party to form a coalition government, almost three weeks after an inconclusive general election.  Prime Minister Bill English s ruling National Party won 56 seats in the Sept. 23 election, while a Labour-Green bloc have 54 seats, leaving both needing New Zealand First s nine seats to meet the 61 seats needed for a majority in parliament. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said that he was  pretty confident  that those talks with the main parties would conclude on Thursday evening, but said the NZ First board would not meet to discuss its options until the weekend at the earliest.  It depends upon the logistical availability of the board which will be Saturday, Sunday or Monday,  Peters told reporters.  I ll know that before too long.  Asked whether the public would know who the government is by the end of next week, Peters said yes,the Stuff.co.nz media website reported.  The political limbo has pushed the New Zealand dollar, the world s 11th most traded currency, down by around 3.3 percent since the vote. The Kiwi was trading at $0.7103 mid-afternoon on Thursday after hitting a four-month low earlier this week. Two recent independent surveys have suggested the uncertainty is curbing business sentiment, although official data released on Thursday indicated that consumer confidence remained robust. There are also concerns that a government including the nationalist NZ First would lead to more interventionist economic policies. Peters fueled those fears earlier this week when he said that exporters should welcome the recent fall in the local currency. NZ First also wants to restrict foreign investment, curb immigration and renegotiate certain trade deals.  Strong immigration has been blamed for the country s hot housing market and unaffordable prices. Data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand released on Thursday showed that the number of properties sold in September was the lowest for that month for six years, as the market awaited an election result. Peters lost his own seat in the election to a National candidate but remains the lead negotiator and eligible for a ministerial post as leader of NZ First.  He said talks so far had focused on policy, with no discussions yet on ministerial portfolios or offices.  Peters said he was aiming for a  serious consensus  from the NZ First board on which party to support, but he declined to identify or number those board members.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड सस्पेंस में रहा क्योंकि किंगमेकर गठबंधन विकल्पों पर विचार कर रहा है


YANGON (Reuters) - Members of U.S. Congress said on Tuesday they were disturbed by the harsh response of Myanmar’s security forces to attacks by militants in August which they said bore “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya Muslim minority. “We are profoundly disturbed by the violent and disproportionate response against the Rohingya by the military and local groups,” Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley told reporters in Yangon at the end of a visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar. Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led the five-strong congressional delegation, which over the last few days met with people affected by the military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims which has forced more than 600,000 people to flee to Bangladesh. In early November, U.S. lawmakers proposed targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials  over the treatment of the Rohingya.

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस के सदस्यों का कहना है कि रोहिंग्याओं के खिलाफ म्यांमार के अभियान में 'जातीय सफेदी की पहचान' है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives could achieve common ground on a deal to win support for healthcare legislation on Thursday, after President Donald Trump intervened in negotiations, a conservative leader said on Wednesday. “We’re not there yet, but we’re very optimistic that if we work around the clock between now and Noon tomorrow, that we’re going to be able to hopefully find some common ground,” Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters. Meadows’ group has opposed House Republican healthcare legislation up to now and threatened earlier in the day to block its passage in a Thursday vote.

Summary: अमेरिकी रूढ़िवादी नेता स्वास्थ्य सेवा पर सामान्य आधार के लिए आशावादी हैं


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Senior Mexican officials will hold meetings on January 25 and 26 with U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s top aides in Washington, to discuss bilateral relations such as security, trade and migration, the government said on Thursday.  In a statement, the foreign ministry said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo would attend talks with chief-of-staff Reince Priebus, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, among others. The meetings will also be attended by Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, Gary Cohn, who heads the White House National Economic Council, trade advisor Peter Navarro, and national security advisor Michael Flynn, the statement said. Trump has sent Mexico’s peso to record lows, threatening to tax Mexican-made products for the U.S market, build a wall along the southern border, and scrap a free trade agreement with Mexico if he cannot renegotiate it to favor American interests.

Summary: मेक्सिको का कहना है कि शीर्ष अमेरिकी, मैक्सिकन अधिकारी अगले सप्ताह वाशिंगटन में मिलेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is very pleased with the draft healthcare bill Senate Republican leaders have unveiled and wants to continue to “push it forward,” the White House said on Friday. “The president is very supportive of the Senate bill. There’s a lot of ideas in there - he’s talked about having heart,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters when asked if Trump preferred the Senate’s draft to a bill to repeal Obamacare approved by the House of Representatives. “I think he’s very pleased with that (Senate) bill and he wants to continue to push it forward,” Spicer said.

Summary: सीनेट हेल्थकेयर बिल का 'बहुत समर्थन' कर रहे हैं ट्रंपः व्हाइट हाउस


PALM BEACH, FLA. (Reuters) - The Trump administration will not make public White House visitor logs, the records that detail who has visited President Donald Trump and his staff on official business, his office confirmed, in a departure from a practice that was established under former President Barack Obama.  White House Communications Director Michael Dubke said in a statement on Friday that “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually” was the reason for keeping the records secret. Transparency advocates had praised Obama’s decision to release the logs, although his administration argued the disclosure was not required by law but instead was voluntary. As a result, Obama’s team frequently redacted names from the list of visitors that were released to the public, including celebrities and donors who were sighted on the White House grounds. The logs offer the most comprehensive look at who has access to the president and his team. Examining the logs provides insight into which interests are lobbying the White House and who may have more influence in the administration. Trump has continued the Obama policy of not allowing administration staffers to become lobbyists after leaving their government job, a rule that carries no enforcement mechanism and that they have already waived for one staffer. The announcement that the logs would remain secret quickly drew criticism from watchdog groups. “Elected officials work for the people and we deserve to see government business conducted in transparent daylight,” Faiz Shakir, political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The only reasonable conclusion is to believe the Trump administration has many things it is trying to hide.”During the Obama administration, conservative watchdog groups sued the Secret Service, which maintains the records, in an attempt to make unredacted copies publicly available. After Trump took office, a liberal watchdog group has taken over the fight, filing a lawsuit on Monday demanding the records.  Separately, Democrats in Congress have filed legislation to force the administration to release visitor logs from Mar-A-Largo, the president’s Palm Beach estate where he has spent most weekends since becoming president. The legislation is unlikely to gain any traction because Republicans control the legislative body.

Summary: ट्रम्प व्हाइट हाउस आगंतुक लॉग को सार्वजनिक नहीं करेगा, ओबामा नीति से हटेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half the Democrats in the Senate, including many of President Barack Obama’s strongest supporters, signed a letter to him on Wednesday urging him to move more quickly to admit Syrian refugees into the United States. Despite Obama’s pledge to admit 10,000 of the people fleeing Syria’s civil war in the year ending this September, only 1,736 have been allowed into the country so far. In contrast, more than 6,000 have been admitted from Myanmar and more than 5,000 have been admitted from Iraq. “We urge your Administration to devote the necessary resources to expeditiously and safely resettle refugees from Syria,” the 27 senators wrote in the letter, which was seen by Reuters. “We are deeply concerned about the slow pace of admissions for Syrian refugees in the first seven months of the fiscal year,” the letter said. The lead signers on the letter included Senator Richard Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, and Senator Amy Klobuchar. The letter was signed by 25 other members of the Democratic caucus, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders It requested an update on specific measures the administration plans to take to fulfill its commitment to resettle the remaining 8,264 Syrians within five months. Obama said in late April that he expected the United States to meet his goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees before Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. But Obama’s promise sparked a firestorm of criticism in the United States, mostly from Republicans who say that violent militants could enter the country by posing as refugees. More than 30 governors, most of them Republicans, have tried to block refugees from coming to their states. The United States has offered refuge to far fewer of the millions fleeing war in Syria and Iraq than many of its closest allies. Germany has taken in hundreds of thousands. Canada admitted 26,859 Syrian refugees between Nov. 4, 2015, and May 1, 2016. “Other nations, including ours, can and should do much more,” the senators said in the letter.

Summary: कई सीनेट डेमोक्रेट अमेरिकी सीरियाई शरणार्थियों के धीमे प्रवेश से निराश हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has officially informed the United Nations it will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in a document issued on Friday, but left the door open to re-engaging if the terms improved for the United States. The State Department said in a press release the United States would continue to participate in United Nations climate change meetings during the withdrawal process, which is expected to take at least three years. “The United States supports a balanced approach to climate policy that lowers emissions while promoting economic growth and ensuring energy security,” the department said in the release.  President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal in June, saying the accord would have cost America trillions of dollars, killed jobs, and hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries. But he also, at the time, said he would be open to renegotiating the deal, which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the course of years - drawing ridicule from world and business leaders who said that would be impossible. During a visit last month to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, the two discussed the deal and Trump told reporters “Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords, let’s see what happens.” “As the President indicated in his June 1 announcement and subsequently, he is open to re-engaging in the Paris Agreement if the United States can identify terms that are more favorable to it, its businesses, its workers, its people, and its taxpayers,” the State Department said in its press release about the formal notice of withdrawal. Republican U.S. congressional leaders have backed Trump’s move to exit the accord. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, said it was “another significant blow to the Obama administration’s assault on domestic energy production and jobs”. But numerous business leaders have called the move a blow to international efforts to combat climate change, and a missed opportunity to capture growth in the emerging clean energy industry. The United States, under former President Barack Obama, had pledged as part of the Paris accord to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 to help slow global warming.  The earliest date for the United States to completely withdraw from the agreement is Nov. 4, 2020, around the time of the next U.S. presidential election.

Summary: अमेरिका ने पेरिस जलवायु समझौते से हटने की औपचारिक सूचना दी


ROME (Reuters) - Mamadu Bassir sits eating a breakfast of warm milk and cookies in a migrants shelter in Rome - one of nearly 65,000 lone youngsters who have survived the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Italy in the past four years. His meal finished, the gangly 17-year-old tells the story of his trip from Guinea, via a Libyan prison where a guard knocked out three of his teeth with a club, to his crossing of the Mediterranean, where he watched a friend drown in front of him. Both fell into the water as migrants scrabbled out of their deflating rubber boat to reach rescuers. Bassir could not swim but someone threw him a life-jacket just in time.  I fell in the sea, but Italians saved me,  he says. Then he puts his head on the table and starts to cry. For many of his fellow young migrants, the dangers do not stop when they reach dry land.  Four months ago, Italy passed a law aimed at protecting child immigrants, even those who do not qualify as refugees, providing them with housing, food, healthcare and an education. But without adult guidance and under pressure to send money home, campaigners say thousands end up back in the hands of smugglers or exploited to work long hours for little pay. Many want to reach relatives in other European countries, but increased border security in France, Switzerland and Austria often means they have to pay high fees to be smuggled north.  They (the minors) are the most vulnerable elements of this big phenomenon called migration,  said Kostas Moschochoritis, head of humanitarian group Intersos, which operates the shelter for unaccompanied minors in Rome where Bassir, who has nowhere to go, has been sleeping.  It has hosted 4,000 unaccompanied minors since 2011, and just opened a new shelter with more beds on the outskirts of the capital.   More than 5,000 minors have left the communities where they had been living this year,  said Raffaela Milano, a director at Save the Children in Italy.  Of these, it s inevitable that some are exploited.    We have the stereotype in Europe that they are adults because they have been through so much. It s not true. They are still kids,  Milano said.  Syed Hasnain, a 28-year-old Afghan, arrived in Italy a decade ago. His mother sent him away when he was 10 years old to keep the Taliban from taking him to fight. Now he helps youngsters like Bassir.  The fundamental thing that they want to do when they arrive in Italy is to get a job,  Hasnain said.   Italians cannot give him jobs  because the teenagers, mostly boys, do not yet speak Italian, so  he goes to the people from his country... they know that he needs money because his family puts pressure on him  to send money home, Hasnain said.  The majority of them, they say,  I miss my family, my country, my culture, my society, but the main thing that I miss is my mum,  he said.  For now, Bassir is making his way with the help of charities like Intersos. He is taking Italian classes, and has an immigration lawyer helping get the documents he needs to either work legally or to go to school. He longs to see his mother in Guinea, but is determined to stay where he is.  If I stay in Europe, I ll have more of a future,  he says.

Summary: इटली पहुंचने के बाद युवा प्रवासियों को अधिक खतरों का सामना करना पड़ता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the Russian government is behind the theft and release of embarrassing emails from the Democratic Party, as U.S. officials have suggested, it may reflect less a love of Donald Trump or enmity for Hillary Clinton than a desire to discredit the U.S. political system. A U.S. official who is taking part in the investigation said that intelligence collected on the hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails released by Wikileaks on Friday “indicates beyond a reasonable doubt that it originated in Russia.” The timing on the eve of Clinton’s formal nomination this week for the Nov. 8 presidential election has raised questions about whether Russia may have been trying to hurt her, to help Trump, her Republican rival, or to fan populist sentiment against establishment politicians as it has sought to do across Europe in recent years. “Certainly Russia has become a master at manipulating information for their strategic goals: Witness the information bubble they have created for their threatening behavior in the Crimea, the Ukraine and elsewhere,” said former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden. “A step like this, however, would be really upping their game.” The emails showed that DNC officials explored ways to undermine U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign against Clinton and raised questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was really an atheist. The disclosures confirmed Sanders’ frequent charge that the party played favorites against him and clouded a party convention Clinton hoped would signal unity, not division. Two U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hack could be part of a broader campaign by Russian President Vladimir Putin to push back against what he thinks is an effort by the European Union and NATO, a military alliance of European and North American democracies, to encircle and weaken Russia. One of the officials called the fear “a hangover” from Putin’s service in the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency. “Time and again, we’re seeing Russia push back at what Putin considers Russia’s mortal enemies,” said the other official. “He’s been actively attacking the U.S.-backed rebels in Syria, buzzing ships and planes in the Black Sea and the Baltic, not to mention invading Ukraine and seizing Crimea. This fits the pattern.” Despite Clinton’s short-lived attempt as secretary of state to “reset” U.S.-Russian relations after U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the leaked emails could damage a candidate the Kremlin may consider hostile and benefit her opponent, who has been friendlier. Putin accused Clinton of stirring up protests against his rule after a December 2011 Russian parliamentary election that was marred by allegations of fraud, saying she had encouraged “mercenary” Kremlin foes by criticizing the vote. “She set the tone for some opposition activists, gave them a signal, they heard this signal and started active work,” Putin told supporters. Asked about claims that Russian intelligence had hacked the DNC to obtain the emails, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told NBC News’ Richard Engel “there is no proof of that whatsoever” and said “this is a diversion” pushed by the Clinton campaign. TRUMP’S WARMER TONEAnalysts said Russia’s goal may be much broader than simply meddling in the U.S. presidential election. “It’s a gross oversimplification to suggest that the Russian government is all-in for Donald Trump,” said Andrew Weiss, a Russia analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank. “It’s in Russia’s interest ... to portray the United States as riven with popular discontent, xenophobia and high-level political corruption,” Weiss said. “It fits nicely with the Kremlin’s standard narrative ... that the White House rushes to criticize others without getting its own house in order.” The Russian leader may well have been encouraged by Trump’s comments to The New York Times last week that with him in the White House, NATO might not automatically defend the Baltic states that were once a part of the Russian-led Soviet Union.     Despite public Trump-Putin exchanges of praise, Eugene Rumer, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia, warned against reaching any quick conclusions about Putin’s view of Trump.     “We can say with some degree of confidence that they don’t like Hillary,” Rumer said. “It’s less clear that they like Trump, although over the years the Russians have said they prefer to deal with the Republicans – (that) they are kind of hard-line but they can do deals.” A diplomat with experience working on Russia said the Kremlin also might be betting that Clinton will win and is sending a shot across her bow.     “Messing with her like this now puts her on notice that these are tough guys that she’s got to be really careful with,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A U.S. intelligence official who is reviewing the emails as part of the investigation into their origin said that those emails describing the privileges the Democratic National Committee showers on its wealthiest donors bolster the Russian narrative of an American political system rigged by the wealthy and riddled with corruption. “In addition to countering the U.S. narrative that the Russian government is a corrupt oligarchy, leaking these emails fits rather conveniently with Trump’s charges about a rigged system and ‘crooked Hillary’,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss domestic politics.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स के ईमेल लीक के पीछे, अमेरिकी विशेषज्ञों को एक रूसी उप-कथानक दिखाई देता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will not be bullied by the United States and will react strongly to any  wrong move  by Washington on Tehran s nuclear deal, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran was violating  the spirit  of the 2015 deal under which it got sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. State television quoted Khamenei as saying Iran was standing firm  and any wrong move by the domineering regime regarding the (nuclear accord) will face the reaction of the Islamic Republic.  Washington extended some sanctions relief for Iran on Thursday under the nuclear deal with world powers, but said it had yet to decide whether to maintain the agreement.  Trump must make a decision by mid-October whether to certify that Iran is complying with the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). If he does not, Congress has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.  Today, despite all the commitments and discussions in the negotiations, America s attitude toward these negotiations and their outcome is completely unjust and amounts to bullying,  Khamenei said in a speech to Iranian police academy graduates.  The Americans should know ...there will be no retreat by the Islamic Republic.  The Foreign Ministry in Tehran condemned as  continued Iranophobia  Washington s move on Thursday to impose sanctions on 11 individuals and firms, including two based in Ukraine, state news agency IRNA reported. The U.S. Treasury accused the 11 of supporting Iran s ballistic missile program or its Revolutionary Guards, or engaging in cyber attacks against the U.S. financial system. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday he believed Iran was in technical compliance with the nuclear deal but had stepped up destabilizing activities in Yemen and Syria and continued to have an active ballistic missile program.  None of that, I believe, is consistent with that preamble commitment that was made by everyone  in the nuclear deal, he told CBS   Face the Nation.  Iran said last month it could abandon the nuclear agreement  within hours  if the United States imposed any new penalties, after Washington ordered unilateral sanctions over Tehran s ballistic missile tests. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, speaking on Sunday before leaving to attend a U.N General Assembly meeting in New York, said Washington should join the countries that continued to support the nuclear deal, which he compared to a dinner party.  They can choose the right path and also enter the room where the food is served. We would not have a problem with that,  IRNA quoted Rouhani as saying.   The United States imposed unilateral sanctions, saying Tehran s ballistic missile tests violated a U.N. resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal and called on Tehran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Iran denies its missile development breaches the resolution, saying the missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.

Summary: ईरान के खामेनेई ने अमेरिका को परमाणु समझौते पर 'गलत कदम' उठाने के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina has given up on rescuing 44 crew members on a submarine that disappeared 15 days ago, though it will continue the search for the vessel with international assistance, a navy spokesman said on Thursday. The ARA San Juan had a seven-day supply of air when it reported its last position on Nov. 15. The crew had been ordered to return to a naval base in Mar del Plata after reporting water had entered the vessel through its snorkel.  More than double the number of days have passed where it would have been possible to rescue the crew,  navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference.  We will continue the search... there will not be people saved.   Some family members criticized the government for giving up, and for its means of communicating.  Luis Tagliapietra, whose son was on the submarine, said some 12 families had found out the rescue mission was abandoned from the televised news conference.  He also told television channel TN the government had been too slow to say the water entering the sub caused it to short circuit, which the navy confirmed on Monday. The navy had said earlier, on Nov. 23, that international organizations detected a noise that could have been the submarine s implosion the same day contact was lost.   I want to know what happened and I do not believe in any of the official hypotheses,  Tagliapietra said, his voice cracking up.   I have no words for it.   Some families had held out hope for a miracle and were organizing prayer groups together.  Balbi said 28 ships, nine planes and 4,000 people from 18 countries were involved in the search covering 557,000 nautical miles - more including radar monitoring.   Despite the magnitude of our search it has not been possible to find the submarine,  he said.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना ने लापता पनडुब्बी के चालक दल के लिए बचाव अभियान छोड़ दिया


DUBAI (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed and 200 injured by a quake in Iran s Kermanshah province on the Iraqi border on Sunday, the provincial deputy governor told state television. Mojtaba Nikkerdar told television that the exact numbers of casualties would not be available for several hours.

Summary: ईरान के पश्चिमी प्रांत में भूकंप से कम से कम 30 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Export-Import Bank on Tuesday  but approved four other board nominees, enough to restore the trade bank’s full lending powers upon their confirmation by the full Senate. The committee voted 13-10 against Scott Garrett as EXIM president in a rebuke to conservatives who saw the former New Jersey Republican congressman as an ally who would keep tight controls on the government export lender.  Garrett helped lead a 2015 effort to shut down EXIM to end a source of “corporate welfare” for giant manufacturers such as Boeing Co and General Electric. After his nomination he pledged to keep the bank “fully open” but struggled to persuade senators that he now believed in the bank’s core mission of providing taxpayer-backed loans and guarantees for U.S. export transactions. “I believe he’s a principled man who simply believes in the abolishment of the bank,” said Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who voted against Garrett along with South Carolina Republican Tim Scott and all Democrats on the panel. The White House’s director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, commented, “We are disappointed that the Senate Banking Committee missed this opportunity to get the Export Import Bank fully functioning again. We will continue to work with the committee on a path forward.”  The committee, however, approved Trump’s nominations for EXIM’s first vice president, Kimberly Reed, and three other board members: former Louisiana congressman Spencer Bachus, Claudia Slacik and Judith DelZoppo Pryor. It also approved Mark Greenblatt as the agency’s inspector general. Confirmation of at least three board members will allow EXIM to resume approval of loans and guarantees above $10 million, returning the United States to export financing for major projects such as commercial aircraft, power turbines and  petrochemical plants for the first time since June 2015.  GE in a statement urged quick confirmation of the remaining EXIM nominees and hailed the committee vote as “a milestone for manufacturers across the U.S. whose customers require a fully-functioning EXIM Bank.” EXIM has a $42 billion backlog of deals in its pipeline awaiting approval, representing about 250,000 U.S. jobs based on Bureau of Labor Statistics multiplier data, said Scott Schloegel, an Obama administration appointee who still serves as the bank’s top officer.     Schloegel said with EXIM’s extended absence from large-scale export finance, many U.S. exporters have been unable to compete with China for some major projects in the power and technology sectors.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने EXIM चलाने के लिए ट्रम्प के चयन को अस्वीकार किया, अन्य नामितों को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the FBI earned $9.2 million last year as a partner in an international law firm, where he worked for clients ranging from Credit Suisse Group and Wells Fargo to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Disclosure forms produced for the Office of Government Ethics show Christopher Wray is also expected to receive millions more in payments when he leaves the King & Spalding law firm on his confirmation as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The forms and a letter from Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus, a designated ethics official for the Justice Department, were made public ahead of Wray’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Wray would succeed James Comey, whom Trump fired in May. Lofthus said in his letter that Wray would not receive a bonus, severance or contingency fees on leaving his firm but would receive a refund of his money in the firm’s capital account and a final partnership share distribution, unless he decided to forfeit it. To satisfy ethics concerns, Wray will not participate for one year in FBI matters that involve companies or people represented by his former law firm, Lofthus said in his letter. He also will not participate in matters involving his former clients for a year, unless he obtains a prior authorization. Wray’s financial disclosure forms show he provided legal services to a number of large international corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust Banks He also provided legal services to Christie during the “Bridgegate” scandal in which two of the Republican governor’s former associates were convicted of plotting to close down access lanes at the George Washington Bridge for nearly a week in 2013 in an act of political retribution. If he is confirmed, Wray will have 90 days to dispose of millions of dollars worth of stock he owns in firms ranging from Apple Inc and American Airlines to Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil, Lofthus said.  Wray served at the U.S. Justice Department from 2003 to 2005 under Republican President George W. Bush as an assistant attorney general in charge of its criminal division and oversaw the department’s Enron task force.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक नामित रे ने पिछले साल लॉ प्रैक्टिस में 92 लाख डॉलर कमाए।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said on Monday that he will support legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax system, leaving only two Republicans undecided as the bill approaches a final Senate vote this week. “Just finished reading the final Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It will cut taxes for working Utah families. I will proudly vote for it,” Lee said in a message released on Twitter. Republicans, who control the 100-seat Senate by only a 52-48 margin, can lose support from no more than two party lawmakers if the bill is to pass. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake have yet not said whether they will support the legislation. Senator John McCain, who has brain cancer, will not be present for the vote.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर ली का कहना है कि वह कर विधेयक के पक्ष में मतदान करेंगे


BISMARCK, N.D. (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders on Thursday explored staging an unconventional U.S. presidential debate  that would sideline Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and create a television spectacle that could attract huge ratings. The two men - a billionaire and a democratic socialist - expressed interest in a one-on-one encounter in California even though Republican and Democratic presidential candidates traditionally do not debate each other until the parties have selected their nominees. “I’d love to debate Bernie,” Trump told reporters in North Dakota, after he secured enough delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination. “I think it would get very high ratings. It would be in a big arena.” Basking in his newly sealed nomination at a later campaign rally in Billings, Montana, Trump said he expected to put 15 states in play in the general election, compared with three or four for a traditional Republican. He named California, Washington and Michigan among others.  Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email there were no formal plans yet for a debate. But Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told CNN there had been “a few discussions” between the campaigns about the details.         “We hope that he will not chicken out,” Weaver said. “We hope Donald Trump has the courage to get on stage now that he said he would.”     Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is running far behind Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election.  But a nationally televised debate with the presumptive Republican nominee would be a big boost to his chances in the California primary on June 7, when Clinton is likely to clinch the nomination.         Trump said a debate with Sanders could raise up to $15 million for charity. “I’d love to debate Bernie, but they’ll have to pay a lot of money for it,” he said. The idea was hatched during an appearance by Trump on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” late on Wednesday. Kimmel said he asked Trump about the debate at the suggestion of Sanders. “Game on,” Sanders tweeted. “I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.” Sanders himself appeared on Thursday night on the talk show, where he said Kimmel made it possible for a “very interesting debate” between “two guys who look at the world very, very differently.” Sanders added that the goal would be to have the debate in a stadium in California. He then had a warning for Trump.  If I become the Democratic presidential nomination, he said, “we’re going to beat him and beat him bad.” Clinton, who backed out of an agreement to debate Sanders before the California vote, said she did not think a Trump-Sanders showdown would happen. “This doesn’t sound like a serious discussion. I’m looking forward to debating Donald Trump in the general election. I really can’t wait to get on the stage with him,” she told CNN in a phone interview. A Fox News spokeswoman confirmed the network was trying to host a forum with Trump and Sanders. Representatives from other networks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “If it does come to pass, it would generate enormous ratings,” said Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University professor who has written extensively about presidential debates. “They are from two different planets. You have a real personality contrast. It would dominate media coverage.” Sanders, who has promised to continue his campaign through the Democratic nominating convention in July, has said he will do everything he can to ensure that Trump does not win the White House.         “Smart and bold move by Sanders,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said. “The Clinton people are furious but Bernie wins points for being so aggressive.” Clinton has tried to woo Sanders supporters as she turns her attention to the general election. But some Democrats worry his supporters - who are largely young, working-class and disillusioned with the Democratic Party establishment - will turn instead to political neophyte Trump, who has championed a populist agenda.     The debate would give Trump a national forum to criticize Clinton and try to win over Sanders supporters ahead of an expected Trump-Clinton general election contest, Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis said. “I think Sanders should think long and hard about giving Trump a forum,” Kofinis said. “It crosses a line, but apparently in this election there is no line.”           Dale Ranney, 62, a Trump volunteer who has been to 21 of his rallies, said she would be delighted to see Trump and Sanders debate. “I think it’s a great idea, any time you can get more information to the people, absolutely,” Ranney said. “Having Trump debate a socialist? Absolutely. Go for it.”

Summary: ट्रम्प, सैंडर्स ने राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए असामान्य बहस आयोजित करने की संभावना जताई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday rejected a bipartisan deal reached in the House of Representatives on legislation to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, calling it a concession to Wall Street. Breaking with the Obama administration, Sanders called on Senate colleagues to instead back an alternative he has proposed to allow the U.S. territory the same access to restructure its debt in bankruptcy court that is afforded to municipalities. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives last week unveiled a bill, hammered out in talks between lawmakers from both parties, that included a framework for restructuring Puerto Rico’s $70 billion in debt and putting the island’s financial operations under the control of a federal oversight board. A House vote is expected in the first week of June, ahead of a $1.9 billion debt payment due on July 1, but any legislation would have to clear the Senate as well. Democratic congressional leaders have acknowledged disagreements with some parts of the bill but said negotiations had led to a workable compromise, and the Obama administration has urged Congress to quickly pass it. “It is critical that Congress pass this as there are very significant bond payments due in July,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said last week. “Time is of the essence.” Sanders’ rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, has also backed the legislation. But Sanders, who represents Vermont as an independent but who caucuses with Democrats, said Wall Street would benefit at the expense of Puerto Rico’s workers. “This legislation looks out for the needs of Wall Street vulture funds first and foremost. That is unacceptable,” he wrote in a letter to Senate colleagues on Monday. He cited provisions exempting residents from new overtime protections and allowing minimum wage on the island to dip to $4.25 for a period of up to five years, far lower than the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25.  Instead, Sanders said the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department could find other solutions, such as providing loans to Puerto Rico’s electric authority and water agency, and directly purchasing new bonds issued by the U.S. commonwealth. (Refiles to add dropped letter in “Representatives,” paragraph 1.)

Summary: सैंडर्स ने प्यूर्टो रिको पर सौदे को अस्वीकार किया, वैकल्पिक पेशकश की


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Puerto Rico cannot pursue charges against people for the same crime that federal authorities have already prosecuted them, dealing a blow to the U.S. territory’s claim that while it is not a state it should be treated like one. The court ruled 6-2 in favor of defendants Luis Sanchez Valle and Jaime Gomez Vazquez, who were charged with illegally selling guns in 2008 by Puerto Rican authorities as well as federal prosecutors. The two pleaded guilty to the federal charges and then argued that Puerto Rico’s indictments should be dismissed because of the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution that bars people from being prosecuted twice for the same offense. A trial judge dismissed the Puerto Rico charges, but they were reinstated by an appeals court. In a March 2015 ruling, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruled against prosecutors, prompting the territory to appeal to the high court. On its surface, the case was about criminal law. But it also raised questions about the extent to which the Caribbean island, which has been a U.S. territory since 1898, has sovereign powers akin to any of the 50 U.S. states. The double jeopardy clause allows U.S. states and the federal government to prosecute people separately for the same actions because they are separate sovereign entities. The Supreme Court, in a ruling authored by Justice Elena Kagan, said that the original source of power for Puerto Rico’s Constitution came from the U.S. Congress, via a 1950 law. “Put simply, Congress conferred the authority to create the Puerto Rico Constitution, which in turn confers the authority to bring criminal charges,” Kagan wrote. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were from Puerto Rico, and Stephen Breyer dissented. Some experts saw the federal government’s argument against treating Puerto Rico as a separate governmental entity as having implications for another issue: how to deal with the territory’s debt crisis. In such a scenario, that argument could help establish a legal precedent that Puerto Rico is not a sovereign entity, possibly to justify imposing a federal control board or some other mechanism to address Puerto Rico’s roughly $70 billion in debt. The U.S. Congress is currently considering legislation on the issue. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of the month in another case involving Puerto Rico’s bid to revive a law that would allow it to cut billions of dollars in debt at public utilities in a key test in its quest to weather its crisis.

Summary: अमेरिका की शीर्ष अदालत ने प्यूर्टो रिको की संप्रभुता के दावे को झटका दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said on Monday it is seeking a provision to deter currency manipulation as part of its renegotiation of the North American Free trade agreement, a move that would set a precedent in a U.S. trade deal. In a letter to lawmakers setting out negotiating objectives, USTR Robert Lighthizer said that the pact should, “through an appropriate mechanism, ensure that the NAFTA countries avoid manipulating exchange rates in order to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage.” Neither Canada or Mexico is currently on a U.S. Treasury a “watch list” for possible currency manipulation.

Summary: मुद्रा हेरफेर पर नाफ्टा में 'उपयुक्त तंत्र' की तलाश करेगा यू. एस. टी. आर.


DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Brexit transition period of around two years envisaged in EU draft guidelines on Friday is a  decent amount of time  but a longer period could be needed to ratify a future trade deal, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.  Two years is a decent amount of time, we would be happy for it to be longer but we re also comfortable with two years,  Varadkar told a news conference after hailing Friday s agreement on the Irish border as  a very significant day  for the whole of the island.  I would add one word of caution to having a transition phase of two years, obviously what we re going to want to do is negotiate new treaties between the UK and EU. It can take many years to negotiate treaties and how long the transition phase should be, in my view, must be linked to how long it will take us to secure ratification of those treaties.

Summary: आयरलैंड के प्रधानमंत्री दो साल की ब्रेक्सिट संक्रमण अवधि को लेकर सतर्क