WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have decided to pursue a short-term measure to keep the government funded at current levels until March in order to give incoming President-elect Donald Trump more of a say on budget and appropriations issues, lawmakers said on Thursday. The decision, which surfaced as House Republicans prepared to meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence, calls for replacing a funding measure that expires on Dec. 9 with a similar resolution that would run through March 31. Lawmakers said the short-term measure would allow Trump to have greater input on setting funding priorities for the remainder of fiscal year 2017, which ends on Sept 30. “I think the new, incoming government would like to have a say-so on how spending is allocated,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters. “And so we are working with ... the new Trump administration on the timing of that on the continuing resolution.” Democrats and some Republicans described the decision as a mistake that could lead to a more difficult appropriations task next year. Representative Hal Rogers, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, expressed disappointment at the decision, which suspends months of work by lawmakers and their staffs on full-scale appropriations bills Congress had intended to enact before year end. “I am extremely hopeful that the new Congress and the new administration will finish these bills,” Rogers said in a statement, adding that his panel would immediately begin working on the new measure, known as a continuing resolution. Representative Charlie Dent, a Republican member of Rogers’ committee, called the decision a mistake following an election in which Democrats were able to increase their Senate minority.  “It will be harder to pass an omnibus in March,” Dent said. “And we’ll have a smaller margin in the senate to help us. I’d rather clear the decks for a new administration. But apparently the new administration would like to be able to put their imprint on this.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the continuing resolution would only perpetuate uncertainty about government funding.  “They’re making a big mistake for themselves. They’re going to have a kettle of fish in March that they can’t even imagine,” she said. Some conservative House Republicans have sought a continuing resolution that would expire at the same time as the legislative limit on the government debt.

Summary: हाउस रिपब्लिकन अल्पकालिक सरकारी वित्तपोषण विधेयक का पीछा करते हैं


REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Angry over a string of political scandals, Icelanders may usher a long dominant center-right party out of the exit door in national elections on Saturday, handing power to a charismatic center-left opposition leader. Katr n Jakobsd ttir, 41, of the Left-Green Movement, has campaigned on a platform of restoring trust in government and leveraging an economic boom to increase public spending. With hair slick down, red lipstick, black coat and heels, Jakobsd ttir cast her vote in sunny Reykjavik.  I m feeling very good about today, and I ll have to be optimistic,  she told Reuters after casting her vote. Accompanied by her husband and three sons, she cheerfully took time to mingle with voters, who headed to polls on a   for Iceland   warm autumn day of about 7 Celsius (45 Fahrenheit).  In the second snap parliamentary election in a year, the latest opinion polls showed her trailing Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson s pro-business Independence Party by a small margin. Both parties have polled around 20 percent for most of October. Whichever wins will likely nominate a prime minister who will then be invited to form a coalition government.   I think this will be an exciting election night as there has been a lot of movement in the polls,  Jakobsd ttir said.  We ll be waiting until the morning hours, I won t go to bed until six in the morning.  The Independence Party has been part of every government since 1980, except the coalition that served during the crisis years of 2009-2013, which included the Left-Greens, with Jakobsdottir as education minister.  In her favor this time is the fact that the left-leaning Social Democrats are likely to become the third-biggest party., and that Icelanders appear as primed for change as at any time in recent memory. The Nordic island of 340,000 people, one of the countries hit hardest by the 2008 global financial crisis, has staged a remarkable economic turnaround spurred by tourism.  But scandals, a growing sense of inequality and worries over immigration threaten stability in one of the world s most homogeneous nations. Benediktsson has been weakened by fallout from an attempt by his father to vouch for the character of a convicted pedophile. The previous snap election took place late in 2016, after the Panama Papers revelations showed several government figures  involved in an offshore tax haven scandal. That gave a boost to the anti-establishment Pirate Party but its support has since waned. Forming a government this time could take months, as polls show a further five parties winning more than the five percent of votes needed to enter parliament.  I just hope something changes, and there ll be more cooperation,  said Ingunn Erlendsd ttir, 73, a retired ministry employee.  We are only a small nation of just over 300,000, and we need to stand together,  said the pensioner, adding that she has traditionally voted for the right but this time cast her ballot for a left-wing party. Known for her even temper, Jakobsdottir quickly became a popular figure in Iceland after being elected to parliament in 2007, and is one of the few high-profile politicians who have avoided scandal.  Our campaign has been fun, and we ve taken it you could say back to the roots. Walking door to door, having meetings and meeting people in the real world,  she said.  While most parties agree that investment is needed in areas like welfare, infrastructure and tourism, the debate is around how it will be financed. The left-leaning parties, including Jakobsd ttir s, want to finance spending by raising taxes on the wealthy, real estate and the powerful fishing industry.  Having presided over the privatization of banks, financial sector liberalization and the economy s collapse and eventual economic recovery during its several stints in power, the Independence Party has said it wants to fund infrastructure spending by taking money out of the banking sector.

Summary: थके हुए आइसलैंडवासियों के चुनाव में जाने के कारण वामपंथी सत्ता के कगार पर हैं


(Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday: Trump signs a revised executive order banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States but removing Iraq from the list, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts. Iraq expresses “deep relief” at Trump’s decision to remove it from a list of countries targeted in a U.S. travel ban. Demand for travel to the United States in the coming months is flat following a positive start to the year, with uncertainty over a possible new U.S. travel order likely deterring visitors, a travel analysis company says. TRUMP-OBAMA Trump still has confidence in FBI Director James Comey, the White House says, despite Comey’s assertiveness in challenging Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped him during the 2016 election campaign. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives unveil long-awaited legislation to repeal much of the Obamacare healthcare law, including its expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor. Trump tells Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the United States is with Japan “100 percent” over phone talks they hold to discuss North Korea’s latest missile launches, Abe tells reporters. The White House says the United States is deploying an advanced anti-missile defense system to South Korea as part of steps to bolster its ability to defend against North Korean ballistic missiles.     Attorney General Jeff Sessions defends his conduct at a January confirmation hearing where he denied having contacts with Russian officials during the course of the presidential campaign when he was an adviser to Donald Trump. Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro says a $65 billion U.S. trade deficit with Germany is “one of the most difficult” trade issues, and bilateral discussions are needed to reduce it outside of European Union restrictions.  The Japanese government says its trade minister and his U.S. counterpart, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, agree to meet as soon as possible to prepare for bilateral economic talks. Two Republicans senators are joining four Democrats in demanding the White House provide more information about an executive order that has sown confusion among international organizations involved in family planning, AIDS treatment and other healthcare issues. The Trump administration is reviewing the possibility of a key change to U.S. biofuels policy requested by oil refiners and Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor and special adviser on regulations to Trump, a White House official says.

Summary: हाइलाइट्सः ट्रम्प प्रेसीडेंसी 6 मार्च को शाम 7.50 बजे ईएसटी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A criminal justice bill awaiting a vote by the U.S. Senate would reduce federal prison costs by $722 million over the next 10 years by releasing thousands of federal prisoners early, congressional forecasters said on Wednesday. Federal benefits received by the newly released prisoners would increase direct spending by $251 million and reduce revenues by $8 million over the same period, according to the estimate by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. The new savings estimate buoyed supporters of the bipartisan measure to lower mandatory minimum sentences for some non-violent federal drug offenders, which is central to President Barack Obama’s efforts to overhaul the country’s federal criminal justice system and reduce prison overcrowding.  “We have an obligation to change the way we think about incarceration, and today’s CBO report shows that we have a fiscal obligation as well,” said the bill’s co-authors, U.S. senators Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, and Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, in a statement. The bill was revised last month to exclude prisoners convicted of violent crimes in an effort to garner more support among conservatives.  Still, its prospects for moving to a full Senate vote remain unclear. Some key Republican senators are reluctant to support the bill until it includes changes to “mens rea” laws that govern criminal intent.  Parallel sentencing reforms await a floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. A White House study last month found that current sentencing and incarceration policies strain state budgets, take people out of the work force and pull families apart more than they reduce crime or boost the U.S. economy. (Refiles to fix misspelling of “mens rea” in sixth paragraph.)

Summary: कांग्रेस के पूर्वानुमानकर्ताओं को सजा सुधारों से बड़ी बचत दिखाई देती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump pulled off one of the biggest upsets in American political history when he toppled Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday - and he did it using far less cash than his rival.     Relying heavily on an unorthodox mix of social media, unfiltered rhetoric, and a knack for winning free TV time, the New York real estate businessman likely paid less than $5 per vote during his insurgent White House bid, about half what Clinton paid, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance records and voting data. Those figures assume the candidates spent all the funds they raised.     Trump’s cost-effective win has upended prevailing concepts about the influence of money in American politics and raised the question of whether a lean, media-savvy campaign can become the new model for winning office in the United States.     Political strategists and academics tend to agree, however, that Trump’s performance would be tough to repeat. A household name for his luxury brand resorts, reality TV stardom, and ability to surround himself with non-stop controversy, Trump held advantages that many political candidates lack.     “I think this is a case where Trump had unique characteristics as a candidate that allowed him to pursue a different type of strategy,” said Tony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College in Maine.      In total, Trump raised at least $270 million since launching his campaign in June 2015, a little more than a third of the money that Obama’s re-election campaign spent in 2012, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Elections Commission.  With vote counting wrapping up in the early hours of Wednesday, Trump had won some 59 million votes nationwide in the general election. That amounts to less than $5 per vote for the $270 million he spent.     According to data analytics firm mediaQuant, Trump garnered about $5 billion worth of free media coverage during the election campaign, more than twice the amount earned by Clinton, a lifelong politician who served as secretary of state, senator, and first lady at different times in her career.     mediaQuant adds up all the unpaid coverage the candidates earn in newspapers, magazines and social media and then compares the sum to what a comparable amount of coverage, with the same kind of reach, would have cost in advertising.      Trump has also frequently dominated news cycles with provocative rhetoric that breaks taboos, including unabashed insults targeting women he dislikes over Twitter, or unusual policy proscriptions like his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country to prevent domestic attacks, or to force Mexico to pay for a multi-billion dollar border wall to keep out immigrants.     Trump made his self-funding a selling point early in his campaign as he fended off 16 Republican rivals for the party nomination, arguing that by eschewing big donors he was not beholden to special interests.      But once he secured the nomination, Trump changed course and began fundraising in earnest, replicating the small dollar fundraising juggernaut of another insurgent candidate, Democrat Bernie Sanders, along the way.         Clinton raised at least $521 million, according to filings.          The former secretary of state stuck to the more traditional campaigning model of launching expensive television ads and funding hundreds of staffers who fanned across the country to work to increase voter turnout on Election Day.      She spent more than $237 million on television ads and more than $42 million on hundreds of staffers.     She also benefited from spending by the Super PACs supporting her candidacy, which are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money but cannot coordinate directly with the campaign. More than a dozen people, including hedge fund magnate Donald Sussman and global financier George Soros, wrote multi-million checks to Priorities USA, the primary PAC supporting her campaign, according to filings.     Michael Traugott, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, said the traditional U.S. model for picking presidents might seem odd to people in other nations, where campaigns are shorter and require less cash.     “The system is clearly broken,” Traugott said.

Summary: 5 डॉलर से कम पर, ट्रम्प के वोट सस्ते आए


(Reuters) - Authorities in Philadelphia will station prosecutors throughout the city on election day to respond to any reports of voter intimidation or other illegal activity after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that polling might be “rigged” in this mostly minority city. Philadelphia is one of many U.S. municipalities wrestling with how to respond to Trump’s call for supporters to “watch” polling places, and corresponding promises from civil rights groups that they will send their own backers to the polls. “All of our election judges will be provided with cell phones that have direct access to the district attorney’s office of Philadelphia,” said Tim Dowling, chief deputy to City Commissioner Lisa Deeley. “As soon as you cross the line, you’re going to be dealing with law enforcement.” The Nov. 8 presidential election has been among the most contentious in the nation’s history. Trump, whose campaign has been shaken by allegations that he groped numerous women after a video surfaced in which he made lewd comments about groping women, has refused to promise that he will accept the results of the election if he loses to Democrat Hillary Clinton. This week, Trump told supporters to “watch” polling places in such cities as Philadelphia, St. Louis and Chicago - all with large minority populations. As Trump has slipped in the polls, he has repeatedly said the election is “rigged” against him. Fearing that to be true, voters in Denver have been calling officials seeking reassurance, said Amber McReynolds, the city’s director of elections.  “Voters will call in and say, ‘Is the election rigged?’ McReynolds said. “We try to explain how the process works. ... Rigging an election is pretty much impossible.” Various election experts, including Republicans, have said that it is virtually impossible to rig a presidential election, and numerous studies have shown that voter fraud in U.S. elections is very rare. In Arizona, a traditionally Republican state where polls have recently begun to show an increase in support for Clinton, poll workers are being trained to deal with an expected onslaught of observers, said Elizabeth Bartholomew, spokeswoman for elections officials in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. In North Carolina, where a local Republican party headquarters was badly damaged on Sunday in an unsolved arson attack, state elections officials are taking extra steps to address poll security. On Wednesday, the state elections board’s executive director, Kim Strach, sent county elections officials a memo outlining examples of prohibited behavior at polling places and emphasizing that state and federals laws bar intimidation and coercion at the polls. In Philadelphia, teams from the district attorney’s office will be stationed throughout the city, ready to respond at a moment’s notice, Dowling said. The city is also increasing security at polling places, demanding for the first time identification even from credentialed poll-watchers sent by political parties. The city has activated such teams in previous elections, but this year there are more, and they will be set up at police stations. “Because of all the rhetoric, we’re erring on the side of caution,” Dowling said. Despite the high-profile nature of the claims, fears about intimidation at polling places may be overblown. Some of Trump’s supporters have distanced themselves from his remarks about watching the polls. Many jurisdictions allow poll watchers, but they generally have to be credentialed and their numbers are limited. Several elections officials said they had so far not received an unusually high number of requests for poll-watcher credentials. In Leon County, Florida, for example, where the state capital of Tallahassee is located, 55 people affiliated with the Democratic Party had registered as poll watchers to observe early voting, which begins Monday. Two had signed up on behalf of Trump, and none for the Republican Party, Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections for the county. “We don’t believe there will be any problems at the polls,” he said. Florida civil rights activist Becca Guerra said she is not worried about voter intimidation inside polling places because of rules on electioneering and on poll watchers, but voters may have trouble outside in the parking lot. “We are training our folks to be the eyes and ears,” she said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के 'चुनाव में धांधली' के दावे के बाद मतदान सुरक्षा उपायों को बढ़ाया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday postponed signing an executive order that is expected to require the heads of government agencies to play a more direct role in reviewing and managing risks to networks under their control. Trump, at a White House event with top officials to discuss his order, said his initiative would “hold my Cabinet secretaries and agency heads accountable, totally accountable, for the cyber security of their organizations.” “We must defend and protect federal networks,” he said. A signing ceremony was planned for Tuesday afternoon but an aide said it had been postponed. When signed, the order will give the White House budget office a central role in assessing cyber risks for the entire executive branch, and will require agency heads to develop plans to modernize aging information technology systems, a White House official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Cyber breaches featured in the run-up to the Nov. 8 election, which Trump won over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, most notably with the hacking and leaking of Democratic National Committee emails. Trump said hackers tried to penetrate the Republican National Committee as well but that they failed. Trump vowed his administration will work with the private sector to ensure owners and operators of critical infrastructure  to make sure they have the support they need from the federal government to guard against cyber threats. Trump said he would take steps to ensure cyber security is central to the U.S. military.

Summary: साइबर सुरक्षा बढ़ाने के लिए विभागों को आदेश देंगे ट्रंप


MOSCOW (Reuters) - It is hard to hold a dialogue with the current U.S. administration because it prefers diktat to dialogue, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Saying that Russia was worried about the worsening of its relations with the United States, Putin said Washington had financed Ukraine’s radical opposition and assisted a coup d’etat there. Russia was then forced to protect ethnic Russians living in Ukraine, he told an economic forum. “There is a need to behave like partners and take each other’s interests into account,” Putin said, referring to U.S.-Russian ties. “We are ready for that.”

Summary: रूस के पुतिन ने कहा कि अमेरिकी प्रशासन के साथ बातचीत करना मुश्किल है


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi congratulated Donald Trump on Wednesday on his victory in the U.S. presidential election and said he hoped his election would unleash a new era of closer ties with Washington. “The Egyptian Arab Republic is looking forward to the period of Donald Trump’s presidency to imbue new spirit into the path of Egyptian-American ties with more cooperation and coordination in the interests of both the Egyptian and American people,” he said in a statement.

Summary: मिस्र के सिसी ने ट्रम्प को बधाई दी, घनिष्ठ संबंधों के नए युग की प्रतीक्षा की


(Reuters) - New Jersey prosecutors on Friday said they would not pursue criminal misconduct charges against Governor Chris Christie in connection with the “Bridgegate” scandal. The Office of the Bergen County Prosecutor said in a letter to a local judge it did not have sufficient evidence to prove allegations that Christie knew about a plot to close lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in order to punish a local mayor for failing to endorse Christie’s re-election bid. “The reason is simple, but compelling - that charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the letter said. Bill Brennan, a retired firefighter and activist who announced he would run for governor this year, filed the citizen complaint against Christie last September. Two former Christie allies were convicted last year of orchestrating the lane closure plot, and U.S. prosecutors introduced evidence at trial suggesting the governor was at least aware of the scheme. Christie has steadfastly denied that he knew about the closures at the time. Roy McGeady, a municipal judge in Fort Lee, had found probable cause to allow the case against Christie to proceed after a hearing at which Brennan testified. Christie’s lawyer was not permitted to argue or cross-examine, McGeady said, because the governor was not a defendant until probable cause was established. Bergen County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol rejected Christie’s subsequent request to toss the complaint outright. But she agreed with both Christie’s lawyers and county prosecutors that McGeady erroneously denied the governor’s attorney an opportunity to participate. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said in the letter that citizen complaints typically allege minor crimes of which the complainant has personal knowledge. The letter said criminal misconduct was far outside that scope. “In short, a matter of this gravity should not have been heard by a municipal court judge,” the letter said. Brian Murray, a spokesman for Christie, applauded the decision on Friday. “The Governor is gratified that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office has ended this baseless fiasco began by Mr. Brennan and perpetuated by Judge McGeady,” Murray said in a statement. “It is right and appropriate that this injustice against the Governor is finally over.”

Summary: अभियोजक न्यू जर्सी के गवर्नर के खिलाफ ब्रिजगेट के आरोपों का पीछा नहीं करेंगे


(Reuters) - Shares of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies fell on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he was working on a “new system” to reduce prices in the industry, without providing details of his plan. Trump’s comments came as he backed a Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. “I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry,” Trump tweeted. “Pricing for the American people will come way down!” Pharmaceutical and biotech shares fell broadly after Trump’s tweet, but had pared back steeper initial losses by afternoon trading. Shares of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Merck & Co (MRK.N) were down about 0.5 percent, while Eli Lilly & Co (LLY.N) dropped 1.1 percent. The Nasdaq Biotechnology index .NBI was 0.8 percent lower, pausing momentum for the index, which has climbed about 12 percent this year after a brutal 2016. “I’m skeptical about what it is that he might do that would actually have a material impact on drug prices,” said Paul Heldman, managing partner at Heldman Simpson Partners, which follows healthcare issues for institutional investors out of Washington. “I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m just not there yet that he has some sort of broad plan that has a big impact in the marketplace that will actually become law,” Heldman said. U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he would meet with Trump on Wednesday to discuss efforts to lower prescription drug prices. Trump has long vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare. The House Republicans’ legislation would eliminate the requirement that most Americans obtain medical insurance and create a system of tax credits to encourage people to purchase private insurance. After Monday’s release of the replacement plan, hospital stocks fell, with Tenet Healthcare (THC.N) and Community Health Systems (CYH.N) each down more than 5 percent. Shares of health insurers were mostly modestly higher. Trump’s tweet was his latest criticism of drug prices. As president-elect, he said in January that the industry was “getting away with murder” in what it charges the government for medicines. He told Congress last week that more needs to be done to bring down “artificially high” prices for prescription drugs. While drug stocks have reacted to Trump’s comments, “so far there seems to be no there, there,” said Ira Loss, senior healthcare analyst with Washington Analysis.  Loss noted that Republicans historically are wary of “non-market solutions to drug pricing.” “I think there is a big disconnect between what he’s talking about ... and what the natural instincts of a Republican-controlled Congress are,” Loss said. Brad Loncar, manager of the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF (CNCR.O), said Trump’s comments are “the type of statement that would have sent biotech stocks down 4 percent six months ago.” “The fact that hasn’t come anywhere near that so far today I think is a good sign the market has learned to wait for specifics on these things and not overreact,” Loncar said. “Even tweets have a law of diminishing returns.”

Summary: मूल्य निर्धारण प्रणाली के बारे में ट्रम्प के ट्वीट के कारण दवा निर्माता के शेयरों में गिरावट आई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s choice of billionaire Betsy DeVos to be education secretary was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, but only after Vice President Mike Pence was called in to break a tie that threatened to defeat her. The tie-breaking vote, which Senate officials said was unprecedented to confirm a Cabinet nominee, followed an all-night debate on DeVos as Senate Democrats tried to pressure at least one more Republican to oppose her and defeat the nomination. Only two Republicans joined the 46 Democrats and two independents in opposition to DeVos. Critics have called her unprepared to lead the Department of Education after a rocky Senate confirmation hearing. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer immediately derided the proceeding. “This cabinet nom is so unqualified, so divisive, that @MikePenceVP had to drive down Pennsylvania Ave to cast the deciding vote,” he wrote in a Twitter post after the vote. Under the U.S. Constitution, the vice president also serves as president of the Senate, with the power to cast votes only when there are ties on nominations or legislation. Republican Trump tweeted his congratulations to the nominee and Pence praised her. “Today’s vote to confirm Education Secretary @BetsyDeVos was a vote for every child having a chance at a world-class education,” the vice president wrote in a Twitter post. Ultimately, only Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined the Democrats and two independents in opposition to DeVos. That left 50 Republicans supporting her in the 100-member chamber. Historically, Cabinet nominees with weak support in the Senate ask the president to withdraw their nomination, which DeVos did not do. DeVos is married to the heir and former chief executive of Amway, which sells household and personal care items. She is also the daughter of the founders of Prince Corp, a Michigan car parts supplier, and sister of Erik Prince, the founder of the security company formerly known as Blackwater USA, now called Academi. As Monday night’s debate wound down, Schumer said of DeVos: “She disdains public education where 90 percent of our students are.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, urging her confirmation, said it was time to “end the unprecedented delay by Democrats” on the Cabinet nominations by Trump, who took office on Jan. 20. DeVos has been an advocate of charter schools, which operate independently of school districts and frequently are run by corporations. Democrats are concerned she will promote charter schools in a way that would undercut public schools, which have long been the anchor of the U.S. education system. Teachers unions, a major constituency for the Democratic Party, roundly opposed DeVos, a philanthropist and investor, to lead the department, which sets education policy for younger children and universities and also administers a college financial aid program of $1 trillion.  The Consumer Federation of America urged DeVos to confront the problem of millions of Americans in default on student loans. “The new secretary needs to put borrowers and taxpayers first, rather than focusing on helping the student loan and for-profit college industries pump up their profits,” it said. Following the cliffhanger vote on DeVos, the Senate promptly limited debate on Trump’s choice of Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. A final vote on Sessions’ nomination is expected sometime this week. Also up for Senate debate soon are Trump’s nominations of Representative Tom Price to be secretary of Health and Human Services and ex-banker Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary. All three face opposition from Senate Democrats. Also facing a rough ride is Trump’s choice of Andrew Puzder to be secretary of labor. Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc, has admitted to employing an undocumented immigrant as a house cleaner.

Summary: डेवोस ने अमेरिकी शिक्षा सचिव के रूप में पुष्टि की क्योंकि पेंस ने संबंध तोड़ दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - From plush penthouse apartments on the Upper East Side to bars in midtown Manhattan, New York’s financial community watched in stunned dismay on Wednesday as Republican Donald Trump clinched the White House. An early party mood quickly soured as donors and supporters of Hillary Clinton realized that the Democratic candidate, Wall Street’s preferred choice because she represented the status quo, had lost. Many were stuck for words. “Not really much to say,” said Marc Lasry, a billionaire credit investor. Trump’s unpredictable pronouncements and opposition to free-trade agreements have made the real estate mogul unpopular with many financiers, who fear that he could disrupt global trade and damage geopolitical relationships. The U.S. dollar sank and stocks plummeted as investors fled risky assets. S&P 500 index futures crashed. Joseph Peiffer, a lawyer who has represented investors and others in class-action lawsuits, cracked open a third bottle of wine, his “only in the case of an emergency” bottle, while watching the returns during an election night party he hosted for about 20 friends and family members in his hometown of New Orleans. “This seems like enough of an emergency to break it open,” he said. Trump’s pronouncements on the financial sector have perplexed Wall Street. On the one hand, he has pledged to dismantle much of the regulation put in place after the financial crisis, known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. On the other hand, he has called for a “21st century” version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that required the separation of commercial and investment banking. Trump has not said what that version would entail other than saying that he would prioritize “helping African-American businesses get the credit they need.”  “Sometimes you hear him on the stump criticizing the banks,” Peiffer said. “Then his policy paper says he wants to deregulate the bank. The two things don’t jive. But who knows what he really thinks. And we won’t know that until he does it.” For Trump supporters who work on Wall Street, his victory is a vindication. “I’m very happy,” said Matthew Tyrmand, a private investor and contributor to the Breitbart News website, who was attending a Young Republicans party at a bar off Madison Avenue. Tyrmand, who had shorted stocks ahead of the election - a bet that stock prices will fall - said he had been called “delusional” for predicting a Trump win. Tyrmand said Trump would be good news for markets because he understands the benefit of letting businesses fail. He predicted equity markets would go through a prolonged correction before recovering. “We will be healthier long term,” he said. Around Tyrmand, other Trump supporters hugged one another, sang “God Bless America”, clinked glasses and called out “M-A-G-A!” - the acronym for Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”  But in one corner of the bar, a man and a woman downed shots before starting on fresh pints of beer. Asked if the drinks were out of celebration or depression, the response was quick: “Depression,” the man said, declining to give his name. “But either way we drink” Matthew Farley, a lawyer with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in New York, said he had been warning friends and colleagues about an electoral upset for months.  “I told them that ... a significant portion of the country wanted someone to do a cannonball into the pool and mess up the status quo,” said Farley, who advises Wall Street brokerages on regulation and arbitration issues. “The cannonball party is not united. They’re progressives and conservatives, but they’re fed up with the status quo and all they know is that anything is better than what we got.” Trump supporter Steven Chiavarone, associate portfolio manager for Federated Global Investment Management Corp, a fund that invests in stocks, bonds and currencies globally, said the market gyrations should not be seen as a harbinger of doom. “The world doesn’t end. Assuming capitalism survives, you manage through the volatility and then find the opportunity.”

Summary: ट्रम्प की जीत से वॉल स्ट्रीट के अभिजात वर्ग स्तब्ध


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Kafr Aqab is no one s dream destination: the overcrowded neighborhood separated from adjacent East Jerusalem by Israel s barrier in the occupied West Bank is notorious for rutted roads, drugs and violence. But for Palestinians in marriages in which one partner comes from the West Bank and the other from territory Israel had declared to be part of the Israeli state, the slum is a haven where they can live legally together. When 23-year-old Yacout Alqam, a resident of East Jerusalem, first met her fianc , she loved that he was  very kind. Very free. Everything.   There was just one catch:  The problem of identification cards,  said Alqam, the wide smile on her small frame fading.  Hailing from East Jerusalem, Alqam carries an Israeli-issued Jerusalem residency card, which provides her many benefits but not actual citizenship. Israel annexed the area after the 1967 Middle East war in a move not recognized internationally.  Her fiance, Adham Abu Lateefa, 23, is a Palestinian from the West Bank, territory also captured by Israel in 1967 but where the Palestinian Authority administers limited self-rule. Holding a West Bank identification card, Lateefa cannot, under Israeli rules, live in East Jerusalem. Alqam cannot live in the West Bank without risking the loss of her residency permit, as she must prove she resides in Jerusalem to keep it. So along with what residents describe as apartments full of other  mixed  couples, he and Alqam see a solution in a sort of twilight zone, in Kafr Aqab. Since its inhabitants pay Jerusalem municipal taxes, Alqam can live in Kafr Aqab and still be considered an East Jerusalem resident. And because Israel s barrier and a military checkpoint separate Kafr Aqab from the city, her fiance can reside there, even with his West Bank identification card. Thanks to its special status, Kafr Aqab, once a small neighborhood of several thousand people, now has a population in the tens of thousands who live in dilapidated high-rise buildings where apartments sell for about a quarter of what they cost in the rest of East Jerusalem. Haya Khader, a Palestinian teacher from East Jerusalem, married her high school sweetheart, a West Bank resident, 18 years go. Soon after they wed, a Palestinian uprising erupted and Israel built the barrier, calling it a bulwark against attacks on its cities. Palestinians see it as a land grab. Khader said she hates living in Kafr Aqab, where she said  no one is responsible for us , leading to poor municipal services. Israeli authorities rarely venture in, she said, while the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction.  Khader said she is resigned to the situation. But Alqam is holding out hope that her fianc  will be granted a permit to live in Jerusalem through Israel s family unification law. (This version of the story corrects cost of apartments in paragraph 10)

Summary: प्यार में कुछ फिलिस्तीनियों के लिए, यह झुग्गी-झोपड़ी रहने के लिए एकमात्र जगह है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, taking up an issue that has infuriated Republican President Donald Trump, went on the attack against leaks on Friday, warning of a possible crackdown both on reporters and their sources inside the federal government. In a move derided by critics as an attack on the free press, Sessions said the administration was reviewing policies on forcing journalists to reveal their sources.  It is, however, difficult to prosecute members of the news media in the United States for publishing leaked information. Sessions also told the employees of government agencies to stop leaking and called the issue a matter of national security.     Trump has repeatedly voiced anger over a steady stream of leaks to the media about him and his administration since he took office in January.  Some have been related to probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; others have concerned infighting in the White House.     “One of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas,” Sessions told reporters as he announced administration efforts to battle what he called a “staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country.” “We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited,” the nation’s top law official said.  His boss, Trump, has repeatedly criticized news outlets and their work as “fake news,” and administration officials have criticized the use of anonymous sources, a standard journalistic practice. A media subpoena is a writ compelling a journalist to testify or produce evidence, with a penalty for failure to do so.  The fact that the administration is reviewing its policy leaves open the possibility of sentencing journalists for not disclosing their sources.     “Every American should be concerned about the Trump administration’s threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists,” said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union. “A crackdown on leaks is a crackdown on the free press and on democracy as a whole.” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters the department was just starting to review the policy on media subpoenas and could not say yet how it might be changed. But he did not rule out the possibility of threatening journalists with jail time.     Historically, government employees or contractors who give sensitive information to the media are much more likely to be prosecuted than the reporters who receive it. U.S. regulations give journalists special protections, barring them from law enforcement that might “reasonably impair newsgathering activities.” Federal prosecutors must get special permission from the U.S. attorney general before issuing a subpoena to try to force a member of the news media to divulge information to authorities. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed in 2005 for refusing to reveal a source about stories on Iraq, but she cut a deal with prosecutors before she was formally charged.   In addressing the wider issue of leaks, Sessions said the Justice Department has tripled the number of investigations into unauthorized leaks of classified information and that four people have already been charged. “We are taking a stand,” said Sessions, who in recent weeks has been publicly criticized by Trump for his performance in the job, including for what Trump called his weakness on the issue of going after leakers. “This culture of leaking must stop,” Sessions said. It is not illegal to leak information, as such, but divulging classified information is against the law. Some of the more high-profile leaks in the Trump administration have revealed White House infighting in articles that would appear not to involve divulging classified information.         Sessions did not immediately give the identities of the four people charged, but said they had been accused of unlawfully disclosing classified information or concealing contacts with foreign intelligence officers. Rosenstein did not give the exact number of leak investigations the Justice Department is currently handling, only that this number has tripled under the Trump administration.  In the latest major leak to the media, the Washington Post published transcripts on Thursday of contentious phone calls that Trump had in the early days of his administration with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. “No government can be effective when its leaders cannot discuss sensitive matters in confidence or to talk freely in confidence with foreign leaders,” Sessions said of that case.     One tool Sessions has for prosecuting leakers is the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law that was designed to stop leaks to America’s enemies. Federal prosecutors have used it 12 times to charge individuals for disclosing information to the media, eight of them under Democratic former President Barack Obama.   The most recent case, and the first under Trump, was the Justice Department’s indictment in June of Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a U.S. intelligence contractor accused of leaking a classified National Security Agency report about Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ने लीक करने वालों, पत्रकारों के खिलाफ हमला किया


(Reuters) - Myanmar  feels sad  over a U.S. decision to sanction a military general, a government spokesman said, after Washington linked the commander last week to abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.  This targeted sanction is based on unreliable accusations without evidence, as we have repeatedly said, so we feel sad for that,  Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told Reuters by phone late on Tuesday. The Trump administration announced on Dec. 21 that it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine. The United States, as well as the United Nations, have called the crackdown  ethnic cleansing . About 655,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and sought shelter over the border in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.  The United States said American officials had  examined credible evidence of Maung Maung Soe s activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages . The military and the civilian government of Suu Kyi have denied allegations of widespread abuse in Rakhine.  The testimonies of Rohingya refugees were only  talking stories , Zaw Htay said, adding that Myanmar would act if it received  reliable and strong evidence  that its troops committed crimes.  We have told international governments and human rights groups including the U.N. that the current government is committed to protecting and promoting human rights,  said Zaw Htay. The U.S. Treasury said Maung Maung Soe, former chief of the army s Western Command, would have his U.S. assets frozen and Americans could no longer deal with him. Reuters was unable to determine if Maung Maung Soe had business interests in Myanmar or elsewhere. Maung Maung Soe was transferred from his post in Rakhine and  put in reserve , an army spokesman told Reuters on Nov. 13. No reason was given, but the military said the same day action would be taken against officials who were  weak in acquiring information  and who allowed the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to spread through Muslim villages in Rakhine. Reuters was unable to contact Maung Maung Soe. Major General Tun Tun Nyi of the military s public relations division, the True News Information Unit, said he had no comment on the sanctions and declined to answer questions on Maung Maung Soe. As well as dominating the country s politics for decades, Myanmar s army - known as the Tatmadaw or  Royal Force  - has gained notoriety for brutal counter-insurgency tactics employed against rebels seeking autonomy in the borderlands since independence from Britain in 1948, according to historians and human rights monitors.  But since it began ceding power in 2011 - albeit under a constitution that keeps soldiers in key posts - the army has sought to burnish its image as a modern fighting force. It has defended its actions in Rakhine, with military investigators concluding that troops adhered to rules of engagement and sought to minimize civilian casualties while responding to  terrorist  provocations. But the spiraling Rohingya crisis has dashed hopes of expanding engagement with Western armies, Andrew Selth, an academic who has researched Myanmar s armed forces, wrote in September.  This is a significant loss for the Tatmadaw, which is keen to learn about foreign military policies and practices,  Selth wrote on the website of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.  Such contacts would have also helped its officers learn about international norms of behavior and the role of armed forces in democracies.  Myanmar s military does not provide detailed biographies of senior officers. In February last year, a state media report said Maung Maung Soe was a brigadier general in the far south of the country, near the border with Thailand. He was referred to as a major general in charge of the military s Western Command in October, 2016, shortly after ARSA attacked three border posts there, killing nine guards. In the weeks after the attacks, Rohingya villagers told Reuters of gang rapes by soldiers and extrajudicial killings. Two military sources told Reuters that Maung Maung Soe oversaw battalions Nos. 352, 551, 564 and 345, which led the so-called  clearance operations , and he reported directly to a Bureau of Special Operations in the capital Naypyitaw. His forces were again in combat following more widespread ARSA attacks on Aug. 25 this year, although troops from elite units that report straight to Naypyitaw were airlifted into Rakhine ahead of those attacks. New York-based Human Rights Watch said in October that Battalion 564 was identified by villagers as taking part in an alleged massacre of scores of people in the village of Maung Nu, close to the unit s base in the Buthidaung area. The day Maung Maung Soe s replacement as the commander in Rakhine was announced, the military released a report saying its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities, including in Buthidaung.

Summary: म्यांमार का कहना है कि 'अविश्वसनीय आरोपों' के आधार पर जनरल के खिलाफ अमेरिकी प्रतिबंध


HARARE (Reuters) - Four tanks were seen heading toward the Zimbabwe capital Harare on Tuesday, witnesses said, a day after the head of the armed forces said he was prepared to  step in  to end a purge of supporters of ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa. A Reuters witness saw two other tanks parked beside the main road from Harare to Chinhoyi, about 20 km (14 miles) from the city. One of the tanks, which was pointed in the direction of the capital, had come off its tracks. Soldiers on the scene refused to talk to Reuters. (This version of the story was refiled to fix typo in second paragraph)

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की राजधानी की ओर बढ़ रहे टैंक देखे गएः गवाह


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Americans were looking for clarity on leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s world views, they might  have come away disappointed from Thursday night’s debate. Asked who he trusts on national security, Trump had warm words for three men with world views that differ from one another, and who diverge sharply on some key issues from Trump himself. They are former diplomat Richard Haass and retired U.S. Army officers Gen. Jack Keane and Col. Jack Jacobs. His mention of the eclectic trio did little to satisfy mounting calls for him to announce a list of his campaign foreign policy advisors, who traditionally take top posts should he be elected. His debate comments appeared to be more words of admiration for the three men than a signal he was forming the nucleus of a national security team. Trump has been rejected by a significant swath of his party’s foreign policy establishment. Almost 110 Republican foreign policy veterans have signed a letter pledging to oppose Trump, saying his proposals would undermine U.S. security. The three men Trump mentioned have different views of the 2003 Iraq invasion, arguably the most controversial foreign policy decision in a generation. Trump says he opposed the war, calling it a disastrous intervention and accusing the administration of then President George W. Bush of misleading Americans. Keane is a defense hawk who helped devise the 2007 Iraq “surge” — a move to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq to quell sectarian strife — and served as an informal consultant to Bush. Keane told Reuters on Friday he has never spoken to Trump. Keane, now chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said he has briefed seven presidential candidates from both parties, whom he declined to identify.  “I don’t comment publicly on any candidate, their proposals, their policies. I have never done. I won’t do it,” he said. Haass is a centrist foreign policy thinker and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank seen as a fixture of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. The State Department’s policy planning director at the time of the Iraq invasion, he wrote later that he was largely against the war. “I did not believe in the Iraq war,” Haass said in a 2009 interview with National Public Radio. Trump has proposed barring Muslims from entering the United States, demanded that Mexico fund a wall to control illegal immigration across the U.S. border, and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has called for building up the U.S. military while also saying he wants allies to pick up more of the burden in conflicts such as Syria and Iraq. He has vowed to destroy Islamic State. A spokeswoman for Haass, Iva Zoric, said that he briefed Trump on foreign policy in August 2015. In a tweet late on Thursday, Haass wrote: “I do not endorse candidates. What I have done is offered to brief all candidates, & have briefed several, D(emocrat) & R(epublican) alike.” Jacobs, now a frequent television commentator, won the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military decoration, in the Vietnam War. He has expressed skepticism regarding large scale American military interventions in the Middle East and has suggested that waterboarding, an interrogation technique that many call torture and that Trump has endorsed, is ineffective.  Trump softened his stance on torture on Friday, saying he would not order the U.S. military to break international laws on how to treat terrorism suspects. Jacobs has been critical of political leaders who send American troops on missions without what he considers a well-defined strategy. Jacobs, writing in 2007, criticized the post-invasion plan for Iraq, including the “foolish decision” to disband the Iraqi army. Pressed on Thursday night to identify his foreign policy advisers, Trump said that Haas and Keane were “excellent” and that he liked Jacobs “very much.” Jacobs declined to comment on whether he was helping Trump. “I have many people that I think are really excellent but in the end it’s going to be my decision” on national security matters,” Trump said. Keane, who appears frequently before congressional committees and on television, has accused U.S. President Barack Obama of not acting forcefully to help moderates in Libya and Syria. He called Obama’s 2011 withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq an “absolute strategic failure,” and charged that he lacks a strategy to contain the spread of Islamic State and help moderates in the region. Keane told Reuters that as a strict rule, he will not join campaigns as an advisor, nor endorse political candidates.   (Editing by Stuart Grudgings) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: ट्रम्प द्वारा प्रशंसित विदेश नीति के विचारकों के अलग-अलग विचार हैं


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The former al Qaeda branch in Syria has pledged to keep fighting government forces and their Russian and Iranian allies, and denounced ceasefire talks in Kazakhstan.   Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Friday to deploy observers on the edge of a  de-escalation  zone in Syria s Idlib province, which is largely under the control of Islamist insurgents.  While they hailed the agreement as a breakthrough after months of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, they gave few details. The move falls under a broader deal in which they would set up four such zones across Syria.   The de-escalation plan has eased fighting in parts of western Syria between rebel factions and government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.  But the ex-Nusra Front said the Astana process amounted to the surrender of rebel-held pockets, and what had started with a ceasefire would  end with restoring Bashar s rule to the areas . The group cut ties with al-Qaeda last year, rebranded, and now spearheads the Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance, controlling parts of the northwestern Idlib province, on the border with Turkey.  At least two million people live in Idlib, the largest populated area held by rebels - including some nationalist Free Syrian Army factions that have taken part in the Astana talks. Idlib s has population ballooned as thousands of civilians and fighters have left areas the Syrian army seized, with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias.  Tahrir al-Sham criticized FSA rebels who have attended the Astana meetings, which began with Moscow-led diplomatic efforts separate from U.N.-based peace talks in Geneva.  We fear the day will come when those factions will line up alongside Russian warplanes and fight those who reject Assad and his regime,  it said in its statement. Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior aide to Assad, said on Friday that attempts to divide Syria had failed, and repeated the government s vow to take back the entire country, including  Idlib and other areas . Assad has gained the military upper hand against an array of rebel groups, including some that have received backing from the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies.  Damascus views any presence of Turkish forces as illegitimate, Syrian state news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying on Saturday.  The deal for Idlib is temporary. Its main goal is reviving the old Damascus-Hama-Aleppo road...and for all kinds of traffic to flow to Aleppo,  the source said. The government took full control of Aleppo city, east of Idlib, last year in a major blow to rebels.  Critics have described the de-escalation plan as de facto partitioning of Syria after years of multi-sided conflict. Moscow, Tehran, and Ankara deny this and say the zones will be temporary, although they could extend beyond the initial six-month term.

Summary: पूर्व नुसरा ने सीरिया में लड़ाई जारी रखने की कसम खाई, डी-एस्केलेशन समझौते की निंदा की


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A record number of local tax and bond measures will fill the California ballot this November, including over $32 billion of proposed funding for education, infrastructure and homeless services. Some 650 local measures will go before voters, including 427 revenue measures. That is considerably more than the number proposed during any of the last five gubernatorial or presidential elections, according to data compiled by the local government finance consulting firm CaliforniaCityFinance.com. Previously, the most measure-packed election was in November 2014, with 268 local revenue measures. California is one of 24 states that allow initiative rights to its citizens. Voter-approved measures are used to raise revenues for specific construction projects, change tax policy, or create new laws.      In the Golden State and nationwide, a boom in bond proposals  follows years of federal cutbacks to state and local programs, continued low interest rates and years of unmet infrastructure needs. The largest monetary requests by local municipalities in California include $3.5 billion for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), $1.2 billion for Los Angeles homeless housing and services, and $950 million for affordable housing in Santa Clara County. There are 184 local measures to fund public school and community college projects, totaling more than $25 billion.  Michael Coleman, head of CaliforniaCityFinance.com, said the surge in education bond measures coincides with statewide Proposition 51, which authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds for public school facilities. Proposition 55 aims to increase education funding by extending upper income tax rates. “There’s a lot of folks that think this is the time to go for a new school bond,” said Coleman. “They see it as a synchronous message, and time to get in line for matching funds.” The Nov. 8 election is a focus for statewide propositions as well. There are 17 in total, regarding issues ranging from marijuana legalization to the public cost of prescription drugs, tobacco taxes and the death penalty.  The surge of ballot measures comes during an election year in which the presidential race is sure to draw large crowds to voting booths. There is also the lingering effect of low voter turnout during the November 2014 election that reduced the signature threshold for a proposition to qualify.  Across the country, 74 citizen-initiated measures fill state ballots, more than double the number certified in 2014, according to Natalie Cohen, senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. Growing populist sentiment and frustration with traditional government contributed to the groundswell, Cohen wrote in a recent report about upcoming ballot measures. In California, some local measures are reactive to state propositions. For example, Proposition 64 aims to legalize recreational cannabis, and 37 local measures would create marijuana taxes for local cities and counties.  Thirteen countywide measures would fund transportation improvements. “That’s coming from an acknowledged, pent-up demand for badly needed infrastructure repairs,” Coleman said. Eighty-eight measures would increase or extend local sale taxes. Another 39 support parcel taxes for road improvements, fire and emergency services, hospitals and police. Parcel taxes are flat taxes on properties that originated after Proposition 13 severely limited property taxes in 1978.  Three Bay Area measures would tax sugary beverages.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया के मतपत्र में स्थानीय राजस्व उपायों की रिकॉर्ड संख्या है


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday plans to demolish a culture center in Istanbul named after the founder of modern secular Turkey, in a move critics see as another attempt by the Islamist-rooted ruling party to roll back secularism. It marks Erdogan s second attempt to tear down the Ataturk Culture Centre (AKM), named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, after a previous plan to develop the site near Taksim Square in 2013 erupted into mass protests against Turkey s ruling AK Party. The project envisages building an opera house, theater hall, a conference center and cinema on the site, near Gezi Park, the epicenter of the 2013 protests. Four years ago Erdogan had wanted to build a replica Ottoman baracks at the site.  Today Turkey is starting something it should have done 10 years ago,  Erdogan said at a ceremony where he announced the project. He said the new building would be a  new and bigger  opera house, referring to it as  the New AKM Project . Erdogan, who served as mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s, has long argued for the need to replace the AKM, saying the building is not resistant to earthquakes. The AKM has been closed to the public for the past 10 years over disagreements regarding its renovation and infrastructure. Opponents, however, see the planned demolition as further proof that Erdogan, a pious Muslim, and his AK Party want to reverse the secular order established by Ataturk in the 1920s and to reduce the use of the state founder s name and image in public life. Turkey s chamber of architects said in a statement on Friday that demolishing the AKM was  a crime  and a violation of the constitution.  The countless warnings and criminal complaints we have filed to public offices over the years have not been processed and the law has been disregarded, the AKM has been intentionally abandoned to demolition,  the chamber said.  We are warning once again: For years, there have been willing crimes committed against history, culture, arts, society and the people in front of the eyes of the world,  it said, without elaborating. The new project, whose cost has not been disclosed, will increase the capacity of the building from 1,300 people to 2,500 people, the presidency said in a statement.  Separately, Erdogan said the project would also pave the way to pedestrianising Taksim Square, one of the busiest hubs in Istanbul.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगन ने सांस्कृतिक केंद्र को बदलने की योजना के साथ आलोचकों को नाराज किया


ROME (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency is seeking to open a refugee transit center in Tripoli early next year to resettle or evacuate as many as 5,000 of the most vulnerable refugees out of Libya each year, a senior U.N. official said on Friday. It is a small fraction of the total number of Libya s migrant population, estimated at as many as 1 million, but would be a welcome outlet for the 43,000 refugees that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates are now trapped in Libya.  We hope to have the (written) authorization soon,  Roberto Mignone, the UNHCR s representative in Libya, told Reuters in Rome. The U.N.-backed Tripoli government has already approved the project verbally, he said. The center, where migrants will be able to come and go as they please, will be in a former immigration police training facility. Once refurbished, it will be able to temporarily accommodate as many as 1,000 refugees and could be running by early 2018, Mignone said. Italy has become the main migrant route to Europe since an agreement between the EU and Turkey shut down smuggling through Greece last year, but arrivals have fallen sharply since July, when an armed group clamped down on departures. With the backing of the European Union, Italy has financed, trained and equipped by the Tripoli-based coast guard. With a national election due early next year, Italy is also promising tens of millions of euros to Prime Minister Fayez al-Seraj and municipal governments to put a stop to smuggling.  This strategy has drawn criticism from humanitarian groups that point to the dire conditions inside state detention centers, where Mignone said some 6,000 now are held, and in the much more numerous  camps  where smugglers hold migrants, often extorting them or forcing them to labor for free. Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti has said he is depending on the U.N. refugee and migration agencies to improve conditions for refugees and migrants now trapped in Libya.  We can t be the only solution,  Mignone said, also because Libya remains very dangerous and international staff still have very limited access to the country.  There are still many risks  for international staff, he said.  A month-and-a-half ago, there was an attack on a U.N. convoy 30 km (19 miles) from Tripoli with bazookas and machine guns. It was a miracle that the worst was avoided.  Some 1,200 of the most vulnerable refugees   which includes women, children, the sick or disabled and the elderly   have already been released from detention centers at the request of the UNHCR, and about 800 more should be let out soon, Mignone said.  While the UNHCR hopes to resettle many of them, it is a lengthy process. Many countries do not have a permanent diplomatic presence in Tripoli, further complicating matters. So the agency will seek to evacuate most of them, Mignone said, to emergency transit centers in Romania, Slovakia or even Costa Rica, where they will have more time to apply for resettlement. The agency is currently working to open another emergency transit center in Niger, he said.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र का लक्ष्य अगले साल की शुरुआत में लीबिया का पारगमन केंद्र खोलना है-वरिष्ठ अधिकारी


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday she knew nothing of allegations of inappropriate behavior by her most senior minister, forced to resign this week, until she read about them in a newspaper. Damian Green, 61, has been accused of making a sexual advance towards academic Kate Maltby, the daughter of a family friend, in 2015, suggesting it might further her career. May forced Green, one of her closest political allies, to resign on Wednesday night because of a separate scandal - lying about whether he knew pornography had been found on computers in his parliamentary office. An internal investigation requested by May and conducted by a senior government official said on Wednesday it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on Maltby s allegations but said it found them plausible. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph published on Friday, Maltby said she had told an aide in May s Downing Street office about Green s advances in 2016.  However May said she had not been aware of the accusations about Green until they became public last month when Maltby wrote about them.  I first learnt of these allegations when Kate Maltby wrote about them in the Times,  May said in a television interview while visiting a British air base in Cyprus on Friday.  I recognize that Kate Maltby was obviously extremely distressed by what had happened. Damian Green has recognised that, he said that in the letter that he wrote to me, and he has apologized. And I think that s absolutely the right thing to do.  Green quit after the review said he had made inaccurate statements following reports last month in the Sunday Times newspaper that police had found pornography on his office computers in the Houses of Parliament in 2008. He said he had not downloaded or viewed the pornography, but admitted making misleading statements. Two former police officers who publicly disclosed details about Green s computers are themselves facing investigation over whether they breached data protection laws. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said their actions had  the slight feeling of a vendetta . Green was appointed first secretary of state six months ago in a bid to shore up May s premiership following her disastrous June snap election that lost her party its majority in parliament, and is the third cabinet minister to quit in less than two months.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की प्रधानमंत्री मे का कहना है कि वह बर्खास्त डिप्टी के खिलाफ आरोपों से अनजान थीं


(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker James Donovan who was nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump as deputy Treasury secretary, has withdrawn his name, according to a person familiar with the matter. Donovan will return to Goldman, the person added, asking not to be named because the matter is private. He withdrew from the position for personal reasons, the person said. Donovan could not be reached immediately for comment but a Treasury Department official confirmed he was withdrawing. “Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin offers Jim his support and friendship as he focuses his attention on his family,” Treasury Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tony Sayegh said in a statement. “Jim has been an enormous asset to the department helping recruit and fill many of the senior jobs at Treasury. The Secretary appreciates Jim’s continued support of the President and his administration.”  Donovan joined Goldman in 1993 and has worked in investment banking, investment management and corporate strategy since then.  Donovan has given a lot of money to Republican candidates over the years, including his longtime client Mitt Romney who ran for president in 2012.  He is just one of several Goldman executives who were tapped for positions in the Trump administration, including top economic advisor Gary Cohn. Politico earlier reported the news on Donovan’s withdrawal.

Summary: गोल्डमैन के डोनोवन उप वित्त मंत्री के नामांकन से हटेंगेः सूत्र


SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday that neither the United States nor South Korea would tolerate further missile or nuclear tests by the reclusive state, with the U.S. attack on Syria showing its resolve. Pence and South Korean acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn  expressed disappointment over China’s retaliatory actions against South Korea in response to the deployment of U.S. missile defense system THAAD in the South, but reaffirmed their plan to go ahead with its deployment.

Summary: पेंस ने सीरिया हमले का हवाला देते हुए उत्तर कोरिया को अमेरिकी संकल्प का परीक्षण नहीं करने के लिए नोटिस दिया


CARACAS (Reuters) - Days before masked agents arrested him, family and friends pleaded with Eulogio Del Pino to flee, warning that he could be next among executives detained or pursued, one after another, in a mounting purge of Venezuela s faltering oil industry. But the former oil minister, detained by police before dawn on Nov 30, was reluctant to believe he could soon be among those targeted in what President Nicolas Maduro has characterized as a cleanup of the all-important sector.  I told him:  Go! ,  said one of three people who described the leadup to the former minister s detention.  But he told me  I haven t done anything wrong. I trust that they re not going to do anything bad to me.  That trust, the product of three years in which Del Pino held the top two jobs in Venezuela s oil ministry, now appears alarmingly misplaced. Maduro is charging Del Pino and many other former industry executives with corruption and blaming them for economic woes now crippling the Andean nation.  I m not going to shield anyone,  Maduro said in a speech on Nov 28, as he swore in a general who replaced Del Pino as oil minister.  If you re corrupt, you have to pay with jail and return what you ve stolen.  The crackdown has led to uncertainty, panic and paranoia across the sector, with as many as 65 former executives arrested over the past four months. Prosecutors, critics say, have provided scant evidence for the charges.  Corruption has long plagued the OPEC member s oil industry and much of the broader Maduro government, a leftist administration struggling with an imploding economy, soaring crime and debilitated public services. But critics of Maduro s beleaguered administration, and many within the oil industry itself, see the purge as nothing more than an effort to eliminate rivals within the sector and consolidate control ahead of presidential elections next year.  Maduro wants control of PDVSA and control of its cash flow,  said opposition legislator and economist Angel Alvarado, using the initials for state-controlled oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Venezuela s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. PDVSA and the oil ministry did not respond to requests for comment either.  It is not clear whether any of the charges against Del Pino are substantiated. Prosecutors, without presenting any evidence, accused him of belonging to a  cartel  that operated a roughly $500 million corruption scheme in the western state of Zulia.  But the Stanford-educated engineer, who led the ministry until Nov. 26 and PDVSA for three years before that, was previously known as a government loyalist, committed to Maduro s vision for  21st century socialism.  Only after he was ousted from the ministry, the three people familiar with his arrest said, did Del Pino finally begin to believe that his time was probably up. His final days as a free man illustrate how swiftly fortunes can shift for even senior officials in Maduro s government. Just after his firing, Del Pino told Reuters in a WhatsApp message:  I need a rest.        On Nov. 29, three days after his ouster, an exhausted Del Pino went to Avila, a verdant mountain that towers over Caracas, the capital, where he liked to hike, one of the people said. Del Pino found a quiet spot under a tree and recorded a video on his cell phone. He said he believed he was about to become a  victim  of an  unjustified attack.   Before sunlight the following morning, hooded and armed military intelligence agents burst into his home and arrested him. Footage of the detention showed Del Pino wearing the burgundy-colored soccer shirt of Venezuela s national team. Later that day, the video Del Pino recorded appeared on his Twitter account.  I hope the revolution will give me the right to a legitimate defense,  he said, referring to the government in the militant terms embraced by Maduro.  Del Pino did not respond to requests for comment on WhatsApp, where he had recently changed his profile picture from one of him in a PDVSA hat to one of his children. After Del Pino s detention, stunned workers at PDVSA s Caracas headquarters, where he was generally well-liked, watched the state TV footage on screens in company elevators.  Fear has gripped employees at both institutions, according to a half-dozen current and former PDVSA insiders as well as foreign oil executives. Managers are scared to sign routine documents in case it could be used against them. Maduro promoted Del Pino, who was born in the Canary Islands and holds a Spanish passport, from PDVSA s exploration and production division to the company s top job in 2014.  At the time, foreign oil executives and analysts largely welcomed the arrival of the genial and low-profile technocrat. He replaced Rafael Ramirez, a once-powerful loyalist of the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro s predecessor.  Ramirez, who dominated Venezuela s oil industry for a decade, sought to make PDVSA  redder than red.  He urged  workers to wear red shirts in support of Chavez s socialist movement and to attend pro-government rallies.  Del Pino, by contrast, eased up on revolutionary garb and attendance at militant gatherings. He also sought closer relationships with foreign partners frustrated by currency controls and a lack of professionalism at PDVSA.  Still, many PDVSA insiders and oil executives were ultimately disappointed with Del Pino s management. Instead of improvements, he presided over a major production fall that brought Venezuela s oil output to near 30 year-lows.  Del Pino ultimately found his hands tied at a company where intervention by the government is common. Last January, Maduro replaced many of his top executives with political and military appointees. Whether Del Pino and other arrested executives are ultimately found guilty or not, many in Venezuela see opportunism behind the ongoing purge, not a concerted effort to stamp out graft. The industry, after all, has been under tight control of the ruling Socialist Party since shortly after Chavez came to power in 1998. Although the government ridiculed a report last year by the opposition-run Congress, finding that some $11 billion went missing at PDVSA over a decade, it now recognizes that many voters support the anti-corruption stances espoused by rivals.  The opposition has been pushing for a fight against corruption, and now Maduro wants to appropriate that,  said Alvarado, the opposition lawmaker. After surviving major protests this year and pushing through a controversial pro-government legislative superbody, Maduro is feeling empowered, government officials said. He seeks to fortify his position for re-election next year. He is also expected to continue finding ways to target perceived threats to his political power. Some in Venezuela see Del Pino s arrest as a way of getting at an old rival: Ramirez, the former PDVSA boss.  Ramirez, until recently Venezuela s envoy to the United Nations, is believed by many in the government to have presidential ambitions.  Although Ramirez has not been mentioned by prosecutors, senior government officials increasingly refer to his time at PDVSA as a period when  mafias  were formed and executives like Del Pino grew ascendant.  This week, after Ramirez criticized the president in recent opinion articles online, Maduro fired him and summoned him back to Caracas, according to people familiar with the clash. Late Friday, police arrested Diego Salazar, a relative of Ramirez, in what prosecutors said was another corruption investigation. Ramirez did not respond to a request for information on Friday.

Summary: भागने की इच्छा, एक हताश वीडियोः वेनेजुएला के तेल उद्योग के अंदर सफाई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump did not ask former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey to pledge loyalty to him when the two had dinner in January, the White House said on Friday, disputing media reports. Asked whether the accounts were true, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “No.” “I think the president wants loyalty to this country and to the rule of law,” he said. Asked whether anyone in the White House had an audio recording of the dinner, as Trump suggested in a tweet earlier on Friday, Spicer said: “I’m not aware of that.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने एफ. बी. आई. के पूर्व निदेशक कोमी से वफादारी का वादा करने के लिए नहीं कहाः व्हाइट हाउस


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - Hurricane Irma is raging but we have great teams of talented and brave people already in place and ready to help. Be careful, be safe! #FEMA [0833 EDT] - Thank you, our great honor! bit.ly/2wK56rD [0851 EDT] - For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about - No action! [0942 EDT] - Welcome to the @WhiteHouse, Amir Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait! Joint press conference coming up soon: (link: 45.wh.gov/JointPressConf) 45.wh.gov/JointPressConf [1413 EDT] - Together, we will show the world that the forces of destruction and extremism are NO MATCH for the BLESSINGS of PROSPERITY and PEACE! [1548 EDT] -  During my trip to Saudi Arabia, I spoke to the leaders of more than 50 Arab & Muslim nations about the need to confront our shared enemies.. [1618 EDT] - I encourage EVERYONE in the path of #HurricaneIrma to heed the advice and orders of local & state officials! (bit.ly/2gOXyOO) [2057 EDT] - We will confront ANY challenge, no matter how strong the winds or high the water. I’m proud to stand with Presidents for #OneAmericaAppeal. [2133 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (7 सितंबर)-शेख सबाह, तूफान इरमा, डी. ए. सी. ए.


TOKYO (Reuters) - The leader of the small Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which out-performed expectations in an October vote, now hopes that by offering clear policy alternatives he can oust Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s coalition in the next election. One key to achieving that ambitious goal, said party founder Yukio Edano, is an economic platform that puts more weight on redistributing wealth, including by raising corporate taxes to push firms to use their cash reserves to raise wages.   Unless we have reasonable redistribution to achieve growth, domestic demand will not expand,  Edano, 53, told Reuters in an interview.   That is a clear difference from the LDP,  he said, referring to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The CDPJ was formed less than three weeks before the Oct. 22 election, after the then-main opposition Democratic Party s leader decided not to field candidates and encouraged them to run on Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike s novice conservative party s slate. It grabbed the top opposition spot in the lower house poll, although its 54 seats are dwarfed by the 283 won by Abe s conservative LDP.  Since we are the biggest opposition party, we must aim at a change in government in the next election, or else democracy is not functioning,  said Edano, who said he was surprised by his party s success.   That is our responsibility.  The next general election must be held by October 2021. The CDPJ opposes Abe s proposal to revise Article 9 of Japan s post-war constitution, which bans a standing military but has been interpreted to allow armed forces exclusively for self defence, and unlike the more authoritarian LDP, stresses civil rights rather than obligations to the state. The party appears to have a long way to go, given support at 7.9 percent against 38.1 percent for the LDP in a survey by NHK public broadcaster this week.  Edano s fighting words, however, mark a contrast from the failed Democratic Party s stance in recent polls, when it aimed only to keep Abe s coalition from winning a two-thirds  super majority  rather than ousting it. Edano said he would not repeat the mistakes of the Democrats, which from the start was an amalgam of conservatives, liberals and ex-socialists and ended up being plagued by infighting during its 2009-2012 term in office.  Our positions were clear,  he said, explaining why he thought the CDPJ outperformed opposition rivals.  We must not make our ideas and policies vague just to broaden (the party).  Edano said Abe s biggest defect was his apparent belief that a majority entitled him to do whatever he wanted. Abe, whose support was at 49 percent in the NHK poll, saw his ratings sink this year partly due to perceptions he had grown arrogant.  Democracy doesn t mean you get a blank cheque,  Edano said.    (This version of the story fixes typo in PM s name in first paragraph)

Summary: जापान के संवैधानिक डेमोक्रेटः बड़ी महत्वाकांक्षा वाली एक छोटी सी पार्टी


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Candidates allied with Argentine President Mauricio Macri enjoyed sweeping victories in Sunday s mid-term election, strengthening his position in Congress while dimming prospects for a political comeback by his predecessor Cristina Fernandez. A free-spending populist who nearly bankrupted the country during her 2007-2015 rule, Fernandez came in a distant second in her race for the Senate representing Buenos Aires, Argentina s most populous province. With 98 percent of ballots counted by the interior ministry, Macri s former education minister, Esteban Bullrich, had 41.34 percent versus 37.27 percent for Fernandez in the province that is home to nearly 40 percent of Argentine voters. Macri s  Cambiemos  or  Let s Change  coalition won the top five population centers of Buenos Aires City, and Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe and Mendoza provinces. No single party had won all five in a mid-term vote since 1985.  Today the change elected in 2015 has been consolidated,  Vice President Gabriela Michetti told voters.  The election results, largely in line with pre-vote opinion polls, robbed the opposition of the two-thirds majority needed to block presidential vetoes, said Ignacio Labaqui, a local analyst with New York-based consultancy Medley Global Advisors.  This is a significant boost for the Macri administration, particularly because of the defeat of Cristina in Buenos Aires province,  Labaqui said. Fernandez s second-place showing still grants her one of the province s three Senate seats under Argentina s list system. One third of the Senate and half of the house were elected, and Macri s coalition will not have a majority.  The private sector has worried about a political resurgence by Fernandez, who is loved by millions of low-income Argentines helped by generous social spending during her administrations.  Fernandez thanked voters at her campaign headquarters and said her Citizen s Unity party would remain a firm opposition to Macri s economic model. Critics say Fernandez s growth-at-all-costs policies stoked inflation and distorted the economy through heavy-handed  currency controls. She has been further isolated politically by graft accusations. Fernandez, who as a senator will have immunity from arrest but not from trial, says there may have been corruption in her government but denies personal wrongdoing. Bullrich and Fernandez were tied in a non-binding primary in August but Bullrich pulled ahead in polls soon after, helped by a burst of economic growth as Fernandez failed to unify the Peronist opposition behind her.  People are more confident in the future, the economy, in making investments. They are tired of corruption and populism,  said Cecilia de Francesca, a 50-year-old writer who was celebrating at the Cambiemos campaign headquarters.  Argentina s Merval stock index and its peso currency have strengthened on bets Fernandez would not get enough support to launch a serious bid for the presidency in 2019. Investors, particularly in Argentina s vast agriculture and budding shale oil sectors, have said they want to see Macri push through labor and tax reforms aimed at lowering business costs in Latin America s third-biggest economy.

Summary: मैक्री के गठबंधन ने अर्जेंटीना के मध्यावधि चुनाव में जीत हासिल की


(Reuters) - Protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers who responded with pepper spray outside a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Albuquerque, New Mexico, police said.     Hundreds of protesters tried to storm the convention center in New Mexico’s biggest city, knocking down barricades and throwing objects at a door and then hurling rocks and bottles at mounted police in riot gear, the Albuquerque Police Department said on Twitter on Tuesday and video posted online showed.  Several police officers were injured, the police tweeted.  Protesters chanted anti-Trump slogans, held anti-Trump signs and waved Mexican flags before the demonstration descended into chaos with some protesters standing on top of police cars.   Television footage showed officers responding by using pepper spray and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd. Police said they made arrests both outside and inside the rally, where protesters continually interrupted Trump’s speech.  No one at the police department was immediately available for comment. Protests have become common outside rallies for Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee, who has polarized opinion with his rhetoric against illegal immigration. He abandoned a rally in Chicago in March after clashes between his supporters and protesters. He has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the U.S. border and has promised to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. According to CNN, his supporters chanted “build that wall” during his rally on Tuesday in Albuquerque where a little less than half of the population is Hispanic or Latino.     “Watching thugs (and) punks in Albuquerque - en route to California. They don’t even know what they are protesting,” Trump aide Dan Scavino said on Twitter.  Trump heads on Wednesday to a rally in Anaheim, California, which has a growing Latino minority.

Summary: न्यू मैक्सिको में ट्रम्प की रैली के बाहर प्रदर्शनकारियों ने पुलिस पर पत्थर और बोतलें फेंकी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Clarence Thomas ended a decade of silence from the bench during Supreme Court arguments on Monday when the conservative justice unexpectedly posed questions during a gun rights case from Maine. His comments, which surprised courtroom observers and then held them rapt, focused on Thomas’ concern that people convicted of domestic-violence misdemeanors could permanently lose the right to own a firearm. Thomas has been a consistent vote on the court for robust gun rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. Thomas, 67, had not asked a question during oral arguments since Feb. 22, 2006, when he made queries during a South Carolina death penalty case. His words came just over two weeks after the death of fellow conservative Antonin Scalia, who had been one of the most outspoken justices during arguments as well as a strong advocate for gun rights. Thomas’ questions were directed at Ilana Eisenstein, an assistant U.S. solicitor general who was defending a federal firearms statute. At issue was when a prior state misdemeanor domestic assault conviction based on “recklessness” may lead to a person being barred from ever owning a gun again under federal law. His first words were, “Ms. Eisenstein, one question.” “Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?” Thomas asked. Eisenstein stressed that Congress was concerned about future harm by individuals convicted “of battering their family members.” She said lawmakers particularly wanted to prevent gun violence. Thomas asked whether either of the defendants involved in Monday’s cases had used a weapon against a family member. Eisenstein said no. “So ... the suspension is not directly related to the use of the weapon,” Thomas said. “It’s just a family member’s involved in a misdemeanor violation; therefore a constitutional right is suspended.” Thomas, the court’s only black justice, in the past has attributed his reluctance to ask questions to a few factors, some personal. He told a group of students in 2000 that his reluctance to speak during arguments arose from a shyness tracing to his birth in Pin Point, Georgia, and his childhood with his grandparents in nearby Savannah: “I had grown up speaking a kind of dialect.”  In part to avoid the ridicule of classmates, Thomas said, “I just started developing the habit of listening. ... I didn’t ask questions in college or law school. I could learn better just listening.” Thomas has also said he thinks his colleagues interrupt the lawyers too much and that the lawyers should be able to explain their positions.

Summary: थॉमस ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट में अपने दम पर लगाए गए एक दशक के मौन को समाप्त किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $68 billion increase in military spending next year with legislation that also provides money to start construction of President Donald Trump’s Mexican border wall. The bill increased spending on the U.S. capability to defend itself from foreign missile attacks amid growing concerns about North Korea’s increasing capacity to hit the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile after it successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in July. The money for the wall is dwarfed by the $658.1 billion the bill would provide for the Defense Department, an increase of $68.1 billion above the fiscal year 2017 enacted level and $18.4 billion above Trump’s budget request.      The House voted 235-192 for the fiscal 2018 spending bill that would provide $1.6 billion for initial construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, which was a centerpiece of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Democrats repeatedly have referred to any money for the wall as a “poison pill” and are likely to try to kill it in the Senate. Congress is up against an Oct. 1 deadline - the start of a new fiscal year - for either passing spending bills or temporarily extending funding at current-year levels to give negotiators more time to come to agreements. Funding for the wall was tucked into a wide-ranging national security appropriations bill at the last minute by Republican leadership, knowing that many House members who oppose the wall would not sink defense spending with a “no” vote. Trump has argued that a “big beautiful wall” was needed along the entire southwestern U.S. border and that Mexico would ultimately pay for its construction. Mexico has flatly refused to pay and in recent weeks Trump indicated that there could be portions of the border that are not conducive to a wall. Democrats and many Republicans in Congress have questioned the feasibility and effectiveness of a border wall, with immigration advocacy groups arguing that it would not stem the flow of illegal border crossings and would hurt U.S.-Mexico relations. In interviews in recent weeks with more than a half-dozen Republican senators from states that voted for Trump for president last November, only Ted Cruz of Texas embraced building the wall. Similarly, House Republicans representing districts along the U.S.-Mexico border have expressed opposition to the barrier, which could end up costing well over $21 billion. Representative Nita Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, called the wall a “waste ... that experts confirm is unneeded and ineffective and cuts against our values as Americans.” Furthermore, Lowey noted that Pentagon funding would run into a technical problem as it breaches a cap on defense spending by $72 billion. If the bill became law, she said, it actually would “trigger across-the-board cuts of 13 percent to every defense account” in order to stay within the cap.      The beefed up defense spending would allow the Pentagon to continue military activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots and hire more troops while providing soldiers with a 2.4 percent pay raise. It also would allow the Pentagon to undertake a shopping spree with money to buy ships and submarines, aircraft, tanks and other big-ticket items.   The House-passed bill also includes an increase for America’s nuclear weapons stockpile managed by the Department of Energy, as well as for U.S. Capitol Police following a June 14 shooting that gravely wounded Republican Representative Steve Scalise.       A $825 million increase for the Missile Defense Agency to more than $8.6 billion is more than Trump asked for and includes additional boosters and missile silos for the main system that would defend against an ICBM attack, a program run by Boeing Co.  Missile defense would also gain 14 more THAAD interceptors made by Lockheed Martin Co.

Summary: प्रतिनिधि सभा ने सैन्य खर्च बढ़ाया, ट्रम्प को सीमा पर दीवार बनाने के लिए धन दिया