WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Efforts to protect the greater sage grouse, a bird found in the western United States, do not pose a threat to the U.S. military, two senior Democratic House of Representatives lawmakers said on Tuesday. Debate over the bird was intense a year ago when the House Armed Services Committee was finalizing its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, the $600 billion  annual bill setting out U.S. defense policy. Arguing that protecting the sage grouse would put large swaths of the western United States off limits for military training, House Republicans included a ban on making the bird an endangered species in the House version of the 2016 NDAA. The measure was stripped out as the bill was considered by the Senate and not in the legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama. But it is again in the House version of the 2017 NDAA, which the House armed services panel will debate on Wednesday. Representatives Adam Smith, the top Armed Services Democrat, and Raul Grijalva, his counterpart on the Natural Resources Committee, released letters from Department of Defense officials saying that land use plans intended to protect the bird will not affect military training, operations or readiness to any significant degree. “These letters put to bed once and for all the silly speculation that a few birds could hamstring the greatest fighting force in the history of the world,” Grijalva said in a statement.

Summary: अमेरिकी सेना ऋषि ग्राउस का सामना कर सकती है, सांसदों का कहना है


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday appointed a seven-member board to oversee a financial restructuring for Puerto Rico, a majority Republican panel that some market analysts saw as favorable for bondholders of the U.S. territory, which has been crippled by a $70 billion debt crisis. Among the board members, who Obama appointed on the recommendation of legislative leaders, are Arthur Gonzalez, a Democrat and a retired bankruptcy judge who oversaw the Chapter 11 cases of Chrysler and Enron, and Carlos Garcia, a Republican and the former head of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank who now runs private equity firm BayBoston. The other appointees are Republicans Andrew Biggs, David Skeel and Jose Carrion III, and Democrats Jose Ramon Gonzalez and Ana Matosantos. The idea of a fiscal control board, known colloquially as La Junta in Puerto Rico, is largely reviled on the island, which has a 45 percent poverty rate and whose chronic economic slump has helped spur rampant outmigration. Among the messages by protesters and graffiti artists plastered around San Juan are: “Wake up! They’re selling our homeland!” and “Say no to oppression.”  But from a market perspective the board figures to be a positive for creditors of the island, said David Tawil, president of hedge fund Maglan Capital. He particularly cited Garcia, calling him “an investor guy, very intertwined with everything that has happened up until now.” And the Democrats on the panel are more moderate than expected, Height Securities analyst Daniel Hanson said in note. Jose Gonzalez, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, may be the “key swing vote” for creditor-friendly policies, Hanson said. Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Chas Tyson, in a note last week, listed Jose Gonzalez, a former Santander executive, as a potential creditor ally because of his “significant experience in Puerto Rico’s banking sector.” The board was created under the federal law known as PROMESA, passed earlier this year, which will bring Puerto Rico’s finances under federal oversight and give it the authority to restructure some of its debt. The board will be tasked with assessing and certifying annual budgets and a fiscal recovery plan presented by the island’s government, as well as facilitating debt restructuring talks on the island, possibly through a bankruptcy-like process. One interesting pick is Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Though Republicans are generally seen as creditor-friendly, Skeel, a restructuring industry veteran, has repeatedly called for a broad-based restructuring in Puerto Rico.  But he has also stressed that creditor rights should be protected in such a scenario, possibly a good sign for the fate of Puerto Rico’s general obligation debt. That debt is viewed as sacrosanct in municipal debt markets, but it has no legal security under bankruptcy law, which has given some GO holders reason to fret. Importantly, much of the negotiation tactics may be driven by the team of lawyers and financial advisers the board will ultimately select to represent it.      Restructuring consultant Martha Kopacz, of Phoenix Management Services, and veteran bankruptcy lawyer Richard Levin, of Jenner & Block, are among the professionals said to be lobbying to represent the board, according to people familiar with the situation.  House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, each chose two members of the board, while House and Senate Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, Democrats, made one pick apiece. Obama chose the seventh member.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको निरीक्षण बोर्ड नियुक्त


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said that if elected in November he would “most likely” choose a U.S. Supreme Court justice from the list of 11 people he released on Wednesday. “We are going to choose from, most likely from this list. But at a minimum we will keep people within this general realm,” Trump said in an excerpt of an interview to be broadcast Wednesday night on Fox News.

Summary: ट्रम्पः 'सबसे अधिक संभावना' सूची से सुप्रीम कोर्ट के किसी नामित व्यक्ति का चयन करेंगे


LONDON (Reuters) - British civil servants will vote next month on nationwide strike action to put pressure on the government to abandon its 1 percent cap on public sector pay rises, their main trade union said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Theresa May s government is considering lifting the cap for at least some public-sector workers later this year, according to media reports earlier this week, as disquiet grows over pay restraint that has lasted since 2010. But on Wednesday May would not commit to lift the cap for nurses - who are widely thought likely to get an increase - after opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn challenged her in parliament over wages in the public and private sector. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), the main union for civil servants, said it would ballot nearly 200,000 members between Oct. 9 and Nov. 6 to assess appetite for what would be their first nationwide strike since October 2014. If there are no concessions on pay after the first ballot, the union will hold a second ballot to confirm support for specific strike action.  Pay misery for public servants must end and the government must restore public-sector pay to levels that allow working people to live with the dignity and security they deserve,  Mark Serwotka, the PCS s general secretary, said in a statement. The PCS said it wanted pay rises of at least 5 percent for all public-sector workers. Average weekly earnings in the public sector rose by 1.3 percent over the past year, compared with a 2.2 percent rise in private-sector wages. Consumer price inflation was 2.6 percent over the same period. Some 5.4 million Britons work in the public sector, of whom just over 400,000 work in the civil service. Most public-sector staff work as teachers or in the National Health Service.

Summary: ब्रिटिश सिविल सेवकों के संघ ने राष्ट्रव्यापी हड़ताल का आह्वान किया


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump next week at the G20 summit in Germany, the Mexican foreign ministry said on Thursday via Twitter. The election of Trump and his early days in office sent U.S.-Mexico relations to a new low due to his threats to slap tariffs on Mexican-made goods and a plan to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants. The foreign ministry said the two leaders would review progress in various aspects of the bilateral relationship, and that more details would be published in due course. In late January, a planned meeting between the presidents was canceled following a Twitter dispute over Trump’s pledge to make Mexico pay for the wall. The American president has since shied away from that demand. Trump’s administration also moved toward talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), toning down earlier threats to pull out of the pact with Mexico and Canada. This month, the U.S. and Mexican governments resolved a long-standing dispute over the sugar trade, while agricultural ministers from the three NAFTA countries met and said there were “relatively few” differences over farm trade to resolve in talks.

Summary: जी-20 सम्मेलन में ट्रंप से मिलेंगे मेक्सिको के राष्ट्रपति


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is encouraging businesses to borrow and spend to power the economic growth that has underpinned his long rule. But after years of expanding credit, some Turks are wary. Ankara hardware store owner Nurgul says she and her husband have never taken out a loan for their joint business and she is suspicious of banks.  I think they want more people in debt,  she said.  I ve borrowed for my mortgage and that left me with an excessive amount of debt.  The president, who has purged the civil service of suspected opponents since an attempted coup last year and is expected to run for reelection in 2019, shares her mistrust. He dubs interest rates  means of exploitation  and has declared himself their enemy. Since winning a narrow victory in a referendum in April to create a powerful new executive presidency, he has had Turkey s banks in his sights, calling on them to cut interest rates to contribute to the country s growth.  We will pressure the banks, especially state banks,  he said last week.  We will pave the way for investors to access credit easily.  Government stimulus measures include expanding a credit guarantee fund, guaranteeing some of the loans banks write to smaller businesses. It has backed loans worth 210 billion lira ($60 billion) so far. Bank loans grew by 12 percent in the first seven months of this year, almost double the rate in same period last year, according to regulatory data, a trend some economists say is worrying. Turkey has had one of the largest private credit expansions of any emerging market over the last decade, said William Jackson of Capital Economics in London.  Typically when you get credit booms on that scale, they are followed by a rise in non-performing loans and strains in the banking sector,  he said.  It s hard to say when those might emerge, but I think it s clearly a big risk.  Non-performing loans are at 3.1 percent after 3.2 percent last year. Cemil Ertem, chief economy adviser to the president, said he expected the ratio to fall to 2-2.5 percent in time, on the back of stiff selection criteria applied by the credit guarantee fund. Since becoming prime minister nearly a decade and a half ago, Erdogan has built his reputation on years of stellar growth. His AK Party has embarked on massive infrastructure projects, building roads, hospitals, subways and high-speed rail, and lifting millions out of poverty. In 2002, Turkey s per capita GDP averaged $3,660, behind both Libya and Gabon, according to World Bank data. Last year, it was three times that at around $11,000. Turkey now sits comfortably among the world top 20 economies and government ministers expect expansion of at least 5 percent this year, after a slowing to 3.2 percent last year.  The economy is a priority after the referendum process,  said Hatice Karahan, an Erdogan adviser. Soner Cagaptay, a fellow at the Washington Institute think-tank and author of  The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey , said sustaining prosperity was vital for the president s election prospects.   Erdogan wins because he delivers economic growth. He has built a plurality - not yet a majority - that supports the AKP because he lifted so many people out of poverty,  Cagaptay said. The AKP has a loyal support base of religious conservatives but needs economic growth to retain its wider appeal, analysts say. Hurt by a faltering economy, it took 41 percent of the vote in June 2015 parliamentary elections, its worst showing since coming to power, although it regained ground in a second vote that year. Cagaptay estimates that about 10 percent of the electorate, or roughly 20 percent of AKP voters, are not die-hard Erdogan supporters.  It s that base that could easily abandon him should there be an economic collapse,  he said. While credit rating agency Fitch rates Turkey s debt as  junk  - citing the political risks that followed the failed coup attempt - it notes the economy is stronger than its peers. The government recorded a 1 percent budget deficit last year, one of the lowest in emerging markets, despite sheltering 3 million refugees from the war in neighboring Syria. But that is now changing.  Stimulus measures will weaken fiscal performance in 2017,  Fitch said in July, referring to government forecasts of a deficit of 2 percent of GDP this year. That figure is still relatively strong and the government said last month Turkey would maintain fiscal discipline by reeling in spending. Rather than borrowing, some economists say Turkey should focus on boosting its saving rate and foreign investment, something the government has pledged to do, along with an emphasis on structural reforms to spur growth. Foreign investment stood at $12.3 billion last year, down by more than $5 billion from a year ago, amid concern over the rule of law. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs since the coup attempt and 50,000 people have been arrested.

Summary: तुर्की के ब्याज दरों के दुश्मन ने विकास को बढ़ावा देने के लिए बैंकों को निशाना बनाया


CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois judge on Friday said she would decide next month whether she had jurisdiction over a voter’s complaint that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz should not be on the state’s primary ballot because he was born in Canada. Lawrence Joyce, a lawyer and pharmacist, filed a complaint in January with the Illinois State Board of Elections saying that under the U.S. Constitution, the Texas senator cannot run for president since he is not a “natural born” citizen. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta of a Cuban father and an American mother. The Board rejected Joyce’s complaint - saying Cruz became a natural-born citizen at the moment of his birth because of his mother’s citizenship - so he petitioned the Cook County Circuit Court to review that decision. Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby said she was not sure she had jurisdiction, and set a March 1 hearing for arguments on whether to dismiss the complaint. The complaint comes in the wake of repeated attacks on Cruz about his eligibility by New York businessman and presidential rival Donald Trump. Children born abroad to American citizens can immediately be registered as U.S. citizens through a consular report of birth abroad, but Joyce said that process is a form of naturalization. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in January found that one quarter of Republicans did not think Cruz was qualified to be president because of his birthplace.  Cruz and Trump are locked in a battle to win the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Cruz won the first nominating contest in Iowa while Trump prevailed in New Hampshire. “A potential nightmare scenario may be developing if Ted Cruz becomes the nominee and is then forced to resign the nomination,” Joyce told reporters. He backs Republican candidate Ben Carson but said no candidate was involved in his lawsuit. Voters in New York and in Alabama have also filed legal challenges to Cruz’s eligibility. “It is widely assumed and believed that no court is going to invalidate a presidential candidate on this issue,” said Gerald Rosenberg, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Lawyers for both Cruz and the Illinois State Board of Elections said they would present motions to dismiss the case based on jurisdiction and because they said Lawrence did not properly serve notice of his complaint. The Illinois primary is March 15 but early voting has already begun.

Summary: इलिनोइस न्यायाधीश क्रूज़ पात्रता शिकायत पर अधिकार क्षेत्र का फैसला करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress face their first major budget test next week, with the threat of a U.S. government shutdown potentially hinging on his proposed Mexican border wall as well as Obamacare funding. With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, keeping the federal government operating is a basic test of their ability to govern, but their task could become even more complicated if they insist on using the spending legislation to bring about contentious policy changes. Not only must Republicans overcome intraparty ideological divisions that stopped major healthcare legislation last month, but they will have to win over some opposition Democrats with provisions that could be distasteful to conservatives. With the Senate reconvening on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday after a two-week recess, lawmakers will have only four days to pass a spending package to keep the government open beyond April 28, when funding expires for numerous federal programs. “I think we want to keep the government open,” Trump said on Thursday, adding he thinks Congress can pass the funding legislation and perhaps also a revamped healthcare bill. Democratic support depends on what provisions Republicans demand in the bill. Democrats have signaled they would not cooperate if it contains money for one of Trump’s top priorities, a southwestern border wall intended to combat illegal immigration, or if it ends federal subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which Republicans want to repeal. Democrats also want federal funds maintained for Planned Parenthood, which many Republicans oppose because the women’s healthcare provider performs abortions. Another obstacle would be if Trump demands large defense spending increases coupled with deep cuts to domestic programs Democrats want to protect. Late on Thursday, leading House Democrats were voicing skepticism a deal could be reached by the deadline. In a telephone call for House Democrats, Representative Nita Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said: “I don’t see how we can meet that deadline” and avoid having to pass a short-term extension, according to an aide on the call. The second-ranking House Democrat, Representative Steny Hoyer, told his fellow Democrats that they should only support such a short-term measure if a deal on long-term bill is reached and only finishing touches remained, the aide said. Republican leaders face a familiar balancing act: satisfying the party’s most conservative members while not alienating its moderates. Rules in the 100-seat Senate mean Trump’s party also would need the support of at least eight Democrats even if the Republicans remain unified, giving the opposition party leverage. House Republican leaders would need some Democratic votes if the most conservative lawmakers object to the bill, as they did to the healthcare plan championed by Speaker Paul Ryan. With congressional elections looming next year, Republicans acknowledge the stakes are high. “Even our most recalcitrant members understand that if you shut down the government while you’re running it and you control the House and the Senate, you can’t blame anybody but yourself,” said Representative Tom Cole, a senior House Appropriations Committee Republican. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the Trump administration was willing to talk to Democrats about funding for Obamacare subsidies in exchange for their agreement to include some Trump priorities such as the wall, the defense hike and more money for immigration enforcement. “It is ripe for some type of negotiated agreement that gives the president some of his priorities and Democrats some of their priorities. So we think we’ve opened the door for that,” Mulvaney said. Democrats reacted negatively. “Everything had been moving smoothly until the administration moved in with a heavy hand. Not only are Democrats opposed to the wall, there is significant Republican opposition as well,” said Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The government was last forced to close in October 2013, when Republican Senator Ted Cruz and some of the most conservative House Republicans engineered a 17-day shutdown in an unsuccessful quest to kill Democratic former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. “These kind of bills can’t pass without a reasonable number of the party of the minority in the Senate, and we are optimistic we will be able to work all that out,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at the start of the spring recess. A deal is needed because Congress was unable to approve funding for the entire 2017 fiscal year that ends in September and has relied on stop-gap spending legislation. Congress has passed no major legislation since Trump took office in January, and he has ambitious hopes for major tax-cut legislation, infrastructure spending and other bills. With the difficulty passing a bill with so many divisive elements, lawmakers next week might need to buy time by passing a short-term bill lasting possibly one to three weeks, maintaining current spending levels. “That would be a setback: not catastrophic, but not a good thing, and a sign that you can’t govern,” Cole said. A federal closure would shutter National Park Service destinations like the Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Government medical research would be suspended. Thousands of federal workers would be furloughed with thousands more working without pay until the shutdown ends, including homeland security personnel. Some veterans benefits could be suspended. Time would stand still in the U.S. Capitol with nobody on duty to wind the 200-year-old “Ohio Clock” just outside the Senate chamber.

Summary: ट्रम्प, रिपब्लिकन को अमेरिकी सरकार के बंद को टालने के मुश्किल काम का सामना करना पड़ता है


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced plans on Monday to force all lawmakers to declare they are not dual nationals as he seeks to defuse a political crisis that saw his deputy ejected from parliament.  Turnbull s center-right coalition government was thrown into disarray last month when the High Court ruled that five lawmakers who were dual nationals, including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, were ineligible for parliament. The Australian leader has been facing down calls since for a full audit of parliamentarians to ensure they comply with the country s constitution, which bars foreign nationals from sitting in parliament to prevent split allegiances.  The High Court ruling expelled three members of the Liberal-National coalition government from parliament, while a fourth resigned days later after confirming he also had dual nationality. The other affected lawmakers were from minority parties, with the main opposition Labor Party yet to be ensnared. Turnbull said his plan, unlike an audit, would put the onus on lawmakers to check their own situation and anybody found to have made a false declaration would be in contempt of parliament. Lawmakers will be required to produce documents to prove any second citizenship has been renounced.   Members and senators have been put squarely on notice now and so they will be turning their mind to their own affairs and the issues of citizenship,  Turnbull told reporters in Canberra. The new laws would apply to both existing and prospective lawmakers. Those already in parliament would be given 21 days to make a declaration from the date it comes into force, while new lawmakers would have the same period of time from their swearing in.  Turnbull said he hoped to push the changes through parliament in the last remaining sitting days this year. That will require support from the Labor Party, which suggested a similar plan last week.  Turnbull has said previously that the court s interpretation of the constitution was  very strict . He has flagged potential changes to the constitution, noting that more than half of Australia s population of 24 million was either born overseas or has a parent who was born overseas. A referendum would be needed to change the constitution. All seven lawmakers in the High Court case, two of whom were cleared to remain in parliament, accepted that they were dual nationals at the time of their election but claimed they were unaware of their status. Some were conferred a second nationality by birth, others by descent.

Summary: राजनीतिक संकट को समाप्त करने के लिए ऑस्ट्रेलियाई प्रधानमंत्री सांसदों को नागरिकता घोषित करने के लिए मजबूर करेंगे


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has been investigating how Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, funds local non-profit groups for anti-tobacco lobbying, government documents show, making it the latest foreign non-government organization to come under scrutiny. Prime Minister Narendra Modi s government has since 2014 tightened surveillance of non-profit groups, saying they were acting against India s national interests. Thousands of foreign-funded charities  licenses have been canceled for misreporting donations. Critics, however, say the government has used the foreign funding law as a tool to silence non-profit groups which have raised concerns about the social costs of India s rapid economic development.  The intelligence wing of India s home ministry last year drafted a note on Bloomberg Philanthropies, raising concerns that the foundation was running a campaign to  target  Indian tobacco businesses and  aggressively  lobby against the sector. Though the three-page note, reviewed by Reuters, said the Bloomberg initiative s  claimed intention to free India of tobacco cannot be faulted  given the known risks from tobacco, it highlighted the sector s importance, noting it brings in nearly $5 billion in annual revenue for governments, and provides a livelihood for millions of people.  Foreign interests making foreign contributions ... for purposes of lobbying against an established economic activity raises multiple concerns,  the note said, including, it said, an  adverse economic impact  on 35 million people. The June 3, 2016 note, marked  SECRET  and circulated to top government officials, including in Modi s office, has not previously been reported. The probe continued until at least April this year, another government document showed. Rebecca Carriero, a spokeswoman for Michael Bloomberg and New York-based Bloomberg Philanthropies, declined to comment as they were unaware of any investigation. A home ministry spokesman said  queries which relate to security agencies cannot be answered.  Modi s office did not respond to an email seeking comment. The ministry s note was one of the factors behind the rejection of a foreign funding license renewal of at least one Bloomberg-funded India charity last October, said a senior government official aware of the investigation. Michael Bloomberg, one of the world s richest people and a former New York City Mayor, has committed nearly $1 billion to support global tobacco control efforts. One of his focus countries is India, where tobacco kills 900,000 people a year. Other than funding Indian NGOs, Bloomberg s charity has in the past worked on improving road safety and supported federal tobacco-control efforts. In 2015, Modi called Michael Bloomberg a  friend , and the two agreed on working together on India s ambitious plan to build so-called smart cities. The home ministry note said the Bloomberg charity successfully lobbied for the introduction of bigger health warnings on cigarette packs,  contrary  to the recommendations of a parliamentary panel. While the panel called for the size of warnings to be more than doubled to 50 percent of a pack s surface area, the health ministry sought a higher figure of 85 percent. Despite protests from India s $10 billion cigarette industry, the Supreme Court last year ordered manufacturers to follow the more stringent health ministry rules. That, the note said, was the first of the three-phase Bloomberg campaign targeting India s tobacco industry. It did not explain how exactly the Bloomberg charity lobbied. While the note mirrored some of India s tobacco lobby s positions - such as how anti-smoking policies could adversely impact farmers - the government official said the investigation was not done at the behest of the industry.  Anti-tobacco lobby wants to kill revenue generating activities,  the official said. A health ministry official, however, said:  We don t see tobacco as an economic activity.  He added that the health ministry was unaware of the home ministry s note on Bloomberg Philanthropies. India has stepped up scrutiny of NGOs registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). In 2015, the home ministry put the Ford Foundation on a watch list and suspended Greenpeace India s FCRA license, drawing criticism from the United States. Earlier this year, the government banned foreign funding for the Public Health Foundation of India, a group backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saying it used foreign donations to  lobby  for tobacco-control policy issues,  which is prohibited under FCRA.      In the Bloomberg case, the home ministry note included a chart showing how funds flowed from Bloomberg Philanthropies to its partner, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which was then funding five local FCRA-registered NGOs. These NGOs, the note said, were being used by the Bloomberg charity for  anti-tobacco lobbying activities.  The FCRA license of at least one of them - the Institute of Public Health (IPH) Bengaluru - was not renewed in October, in part due to the home ministry s note, the government official said. The IPH said it was told by the home ministry that its license was not being renewed on the basis of a  field agency report , but no details were given. It was unaware of the investigation on Bloomberg Philanthropies. In April, the home ministry wrote to the federal health ministry, citing an  inquiry into foreign funding  for lobbying to change laws in India. The letter, seen by Reuters, mentioned the Bloomberg initiative and directed the health ministry to report on anti-tobacco lobbying by foreign donors in other countries where tobacco is widely used. The health ministry has not yet sent that report, another government official said. The health ministry did not respond to questions. For a graphic on Bloomberg's efforts to reduce tobacco use globally click tmsnrt.rs/2iD1QcX

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ब्लूमबर्ग चैरिटी की भारत द्वारा तंबाकू विरोधी फंडिंग, लॉबिंग के लिए जांच की गई-दस्तावेज़


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May told her cabinet on Tuesday Britain s objective in leaving the EU should be a deal that enables it to set rules suited to its situation, her spokesman said after a cabinet meeting to establish long-term goals for exit talks. Having secured a deal to move European Union departure negotiations to the next stage last week, Tuesday s discussion marked the start of May s next battle over Brexit: what kind of long-term relationship will Britain have with the bloc? In making that decision, May must manage deep divisions at home, including among senior ministers, over whether to align Britain s economic future with the EU, or diverge from the bloc and seek a more global role. She will then have to go out and strike a deal in Brussels, where the EU is adamant that Britain cannot enjoy the full benefits of membership after leaving, wary of the need to deter others members from following suit.  The PM said it was clear what the cabinet s objective is: a deal which secures the best possible trading terms with the EU, enables the UK to set rules that are right for our situation and facilitates ambitious third-country trade deals,  the spokesman said. The meeting lasted almost two hours and saw 25 ministers speak on a subject at the heart of the country s fraught debate over leaving the EU. It was the first time cabinet has tackled the so-called  end state  of the negotiations since the referendum vote to leave in June last year. Further cabinet talks are expected early next year to firm up the best means of achieving May s goals - the stage of the discussion most likely to push ideological differences between  hard  and  soft  Brexiteers out into the open. Asked whether there was agreement on May s key aims, the spokesman said:  Yes, it s clear what we want to achieve. It was set out in a good, clear, detailed discussion in which there were contributions from a large majority of the cabinet.  On the eve of the meeting, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier offered a reminder of the difficult talks that also lie ahead in Brussels, repeating the bloc s position that London s huge financial sector would not be given special treatment. May s spokesman said she had ruled out a final economic partnership with the EU modeled on the European Economic Area - whose members allow free movement in exchange for full access to the EU s single market - and her aim was to get a more ambitious deal than the one signed between Canada and the EU last year.  The Brexit Secretary (David Davis) and the prime minister were clear that Britain would be seeking a bespoke deal.   Before talks resume in Brussels, May must maintain a delicate balancing act to keep hardline Brexit ministers like foreign minister Boris Johnson behind her, without alienating those like finance minister Philip Hammond who believe Britain should be more wary of diverging from EU norms and standards. May needs the full backing of her cabinet after a misjudged snap election in June stripped her Conservative Party of its majority in parliament, weakening her authority both at home and in Brussels. Should she stumble, opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says he is ready to take her place, predicting another national election in 2018 in an interview with Grazia magazine.  The veteran socialist led Labour to unexpected gains in the June 8 vote, and has promised to deliver a Brexit more focused on protecting jobs and workers rights. That has been interpreted as meaning preserving ties with the EU in many areas. But, May has outlasted many of the dire prognoses offered after her June election flop. That is partly due to fears that fresh elections would put Corbyn in charge, and partly because few Conservative rivals want the task of delivering a decision which remains unpopular with large swathes of the electorate. A poll on Saturday showed 51 percent of Britons would now keep EU membership while 41 percent want to leave the bloc. The shift was mostly among those who did not vote in last year s referendum, while around nine in 10  leave  and  remain  voters were unchanged in their views.

Summary: ब्रिटेन यूरोपीय संघ छोड़ने के बाद 'हमारी स्थिति के लिए सही' नियम निर्धारित करना चाहता हैः मे के प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Wisconsin governor ordered the state legislature back into special session on Tuesday to consider an incentive package that would award Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn $3 billion over 15 years in mostly cash incentives and waive several state environmental reviews.  Foxconn said last week in a White House ceremony it plans to build a $10 billion LCD flat screen factory in southeast Wisconsin. The company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (2317.TW), hopes to open the 20 million-square-foot plant in 2020 at a 1,000-acre site and will initially employ 3,000 people. Republican Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn said the company ultimately may employ 13,000 people at the site.  The draft bill released Monday discloses new details of the expensive incentive package that Wisconsin offered as it competed with six other states to land the project that it says will also generate 22,000 ancillary jobs and 10,000 construction jobs. The Republican-controlled legislature will take up the measure on Tuesday but it is not clear when they will vote. If the incentives are approved, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation would then negotiate a formal contract with Foxconn on the project, said Mark Maley, a spokesman for WEDC. Tim Bartik, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Michigan who studies government tax incentives, said the Foxconn package is at least six times the average U.S. award but similar to some deals for auto plants and planemaker Boeing Co (BA.N). Foxconn is a major supplier to Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for its iPhones but the company has not said if the Wisconsin factory would produce any parts for Apple. Under the legislation, Foxconn can receive up to $200 million per year in refundable tax credits, capped at $2.85 billion if meets capital and employment compensation targets. It can also avoid paying $150 million in sales taxes on building materials, equipment and supplies. Although the state measures to attract Foxconn are labeled tax incentives, they largely would be paid in cash since the effective Wisconsin state tax rate is 0.4 percent on manufacturers. In addition to incentives, President Donald Trump suggested the investment decision was due to his election and promised changes in corporate regulatory and tax policy. The incentives include up to $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for job creation and up to $1.35 billion in state income tax credits for capital investment. Foxconn is eligible for additional local incentives. The company is eligible for refundable tax credits equal to 17 percent of wages paid instead of the typical 7 percent and 15 percent of capital costs instead of 10 percent. Wisconsin also agreed in the draft legislation to issue up to $252.4 million in state debt to reconstruct parts of Interstate 94 near the sites that the company is considering sites in Kenosha and Racine counties near the border with Illinois.  The draft legislation released by Walker waives a required state environmental impact statement and allows the company to discharge dredged or fill material into some wetlands without state permits. The legislation also would allow Foxconn to connect artificial bodies of water with natural waterways without state permits. Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that one reason Wisconsin was appealing is because of its proximity to abundant fresh water from Lake Michigan needed to build panels. The legislation also waives requiring approval for the project by the Public Service Commission, which oversees power and water utilities in Wisconsin.

Summary: विस्कॉन्सिन 3 अरब डॉलर के फॉक्सकॉन प्रोत्साहन पैकेज पर विचार करेगा


MADRID (Reuters) - One of the priorities for Spain s government is restoring  normality and legality  in the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament on Wednesday. Catalonia is facing direct rule from Madrid from Friday, due to an independence bid which Spanish courts have ruled contravenes the country s 1978 constitution.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया में वैधता बहाल करना स्पेन सरकार की प्राथमिकता हैः प्रधानमंत्री राजोय


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is interviewing five potential nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by the death last month of Justice Antonin Scalia, a source familiar with the process told Reuters on Wednesday. The source said those under consideration were federal judges Sri Srinivasan, Jane Kelly, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Paul Watford and Merrick Garland. The five have been reported to be on the short list of potential nominees, but the source said they were the only ones currently under consideration. Outside groups have said that President Barack Obama is likely to consider someone who is a woman or a member of a racial minority and was previously confirmed to a judgeship by a strong majority in the U.S. Senate. The process of filling the spot that was held by Scalia, one of the court’s most conservative justices, has ignited a partisan battle in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would not hold hearings on anyone nominated to the Supreme Court by Obama, a Democrat. Republicans who control the Senate do not want to see the court shift ideologically to the left and say the next justice should be picked by the winner of the Nov. 8 election.  Senate Democrats are demanding a vote on Obama’s nomination. Kelly, who worked as a lawyer in Iowa, is considered a strong candidate because she has been supported by Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings on potential nominees.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस अमेरिकी सुप्रीम कोर्ट के पांच संभावित नामांकित व्यक्तियों का साक्षात्कार ले रहा हैः स्रोत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders expressed disappointment on Friday after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would not debate Sanders ahead of California’s June 7 primary. “I heard that he was going to debate me, then I heard that he was not going to debate me, then I heard that he was going to debate me. Now you’re telling me that he is not going to debate me. Well, you know, I hope that he changes his mind again,” Sanders said in a video clip posted on an ABC News Twitter account.

Summary: ट्रंप के बहस से हटने से सैंडर्स निराश


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Jacob Zuma s spokesman said on Friday there was no basis for reports that the South African president would axe his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, speculation about which has weighed on the currency and bonds. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, of which Zuma is leader and Ramaphosa deputy, has been riven by bitter infighting ahead of a party conference in December at which a new leader will be chosen.      It s rumors and gossip, and we don t comment on them at all,  Zuma s spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga told Reuters. Ramaphosa, a trade unionist-turned-business tycoon, is viewed as the most likely rival candidate to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former chairwoman of the African Union, who is Zuma s pick for the leadership and is the president s ex-wife.  He has recently stepped up criticism of Zuma s scandal-plagued government. Asked in parliament on Thursday whether he might be sacked, Ramaphosa said only that he would accept the president s decision if he lost his job. On Friday, a spokesman for the deputy president said:  We are aware of the speculation, but it is just speculation.      Trade union federation Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP), both partners in the ANC s ruling alliance, have endorsed Ramaphosa, 64, for the leadership. South Africa will elect a new president in 2019, and whoever the ANC picks in December is likely to take over from 75-year-old Zuma as the country s leader. Zuma is under pressure to step down before then, with a recent South African court ruling that nearly 800 corruption charges against him should be reinstated prompting more calls for the president to go. Zuma reshuffled his cabinet for the second time in seven months on Tuesday, irking some within the ruling alliance by sacking a minister belonging to the SACP and appointing a close ally to oversee an opaque nuclear deal.  Analysts say Zuma may make further changes before December to strengthen his hand going into the ANC s elective conference. Speculation that he might remove Ramaphosa, who was the ANC s chief negotiator during the 1990s transition from apartheid, weighed on the rand and bonds, which underperformed emerging market peers on Friday versus a firmer dollar.  Other emerging markets are weaker but not as much as the rand. That s because of lingering political uncertainty, especially these rumors about Zuma axing Ramaphosa,  said currency dealer at TreasuryOne Wichard Cilliers. Ramaphosa told parliament on Thursday that  if (Zuma s) decision is to remove me, I will accept that as a decision that will be taken by the president and I will continue serving the people of South Africa in one form, shape or another . Speaking on Friday, Ramaphosa returned to the subject of corruption within the government and state-owned companies, which is expected to be a main theme of his leadership campaign.   Our state has been captured by people who ... want to milk the state, who want to rob our country of the money that belongs to the people,  Ramaphosa told members of the National Education Health & Allied Workers  Union (Nehawu) in Cape Town.     Our state is now being talked about in the rest of the world in the most negative terms, captured by certain interests, by certain families, by certain individuals.  Wealthy friends of Zuma, the Guptas, have been accused by ANC and opposition politicians of using their close relationship with the president and his allies to influence the awarding of government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  Zuma and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing and the Indian-born South African businessmen and their companies have not been charged with any crime in South Africa.  Regulators in the United States and Britain are looking into links between the Gupta family, the South African government, and banks they may have used to move money as a corruption investigation escalates. In a statement on Friday, Dlamini-Zuma denied she had any links to the Gupta family.

Summary: ज़ूमा के प्रवक्ता ने दक्षिण अफ्रीका के उप राष्ट्रपति को बर्खास्त किए जाने की खबरों को खारिज किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein pressed her case on Monday for recounts of U.S. presidential ballots in three states, and locked horns with President-elect Donald Trump over her motives. Stein sued Pennsylvania election officials in federal court, demanding a statewide recount. Michigan workers began a Stein-requested recount after a federal judge there ordered one without delay. In Wisconsin, a recount that Stein requested continued into a second week.  Even if all three recounts are completed, they are extremely unlikely to change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election in which the three states, which had voted Democratic in recent presidential elections, helped seal a victory for Trump, a Republican.  On Sunday, Trump proclaimed Stein’s effort a failure and questioned her motives, saying on Twitter: “Just a Stein scam to raise money!” At a news conference on Monday across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan, Stein said every dollar she raised for the recount was going to an account for that purpose. She has raised $7.2 million toward a $9.5 million goal, according to her website. “We urge Donald Trump to look at the facts, not to make up the facts,” Stein said.  Stein said her recount push in the three “Rust Belt” states was not meant to change the election’s result but to focus attention on concerns about the integrity of voting systems in the three states. Trump and his supporters have fought to end the recounts by filing lawsuits.  “We are here to assure Donald Trump that there is nothing to be afraid of,” Stein said. “If you believe in democracy, if you believe in the credibility of your victory, put down your arms, end your bureaucratic obstruction.” Some voting machines in Pennsylvania lack a paper trail, making them vulnerable to hacking or other problems, she said.  A few Trump allies protested Stein’s appearance with her supporters at Trump Tower, where Trump’s offices and apartment home are located. “I think the people out here today don’t believe in democracy,” said Jim MacDonald, a 67-year-old actuary from the borough of Queens. He held a sign that read: “Dr Jill is a quack,” and said he voted for Trump. “He’s their president whether they like it or not,” MacDonald said. Stein took about 1 percent of the popular vote, far behind Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Although Clinton won the national popular vote, she lost to Trump in the Electoral College, the 538-person body chosen state-by-state that actually selects the president.  Trump won a projected 306 electoral votes and is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 20. Stein won no Electoral College votes. Federal law requires states to resolve disputes over the appointment of electors by Dec. 13, adding pressure on Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to wrap up any recounts. In Wisconsin, the recount has produced only minor shifts because of human error, state officials said on Monday. In one county, Clinton gained 13 votes that were not counted on Election Day because voters used non-standard pens to mark their ballots. An initial request by Stein for a recount in Pennsylvania failed on Saturday after a state judge ordered her campaign to post a $1 million bond. A federal lawsuit was her next best option, she said. A spokeswoman for Pennsylvania election officials said they would not comment on pending litigation. In Michigan, the state said on Monday that a recount of presidential ballots had begun after an order from a federal judge directing officials to complete the process by Dec. 13. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued the written order early on Monday after a Sunday night hearing in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan. Goldsmith ordered that, once started, the recount “must continue until further order of this court.” The state had planned to wait until Wednesday to begin the recount. In his ruling, Goldsmith wrote that “budgetary concerns are not sufficiently significant to risk the disenfranchisement of Michigan’s nearly 5 million voters.” The Michigan Republican Party filed court papers to appeal Goldsmith’s ruling.  Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, sued on Friday to halt the requested recount in the state, which Trump won by about 10,700 votes. The Michigan Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing on Schuette’s suit for Tuesday afternoon.  Although the Clinton campaign did not initiate the recount effort, it says it is participating to make sure the process is fair to all sides.

Summary: ट्रम्प को दरकिनार करते हुए, ग्रीन पार्टी ने तीन राज्यों में फिर से गिनती का पीछा किया


KIGALI (Reuters) - The mother and sister of a prominent critic of Rwanda s president said on Friday all three of them had been tortured and deprived of food as they were held in jail on charges of forgery and inciting insurrection. Adeline Rwigara told a court she and her daughters were handcuffed day and night. She is being held alongside her daughter Diane Shima Rwigara, a 35-year-old accountant who tried to stand against President Paul Kagame in August elections. Diane Rwigara, who is accused of faking the registration papers for the election, was eventually barred from running and Kagame went on to win with 98.8 percent of the vote. She has repeatedly accused Kagame of stifling dissent and criticized his Rwandan Patriotic Front s tight grip on the country since it fought its way to power to end Rwanda s 1994 genocide.  Kagame has repeatedly denied cracking down on dissent. Justice minister Johnston Busingye on Friday declined to comment of the torture allegations, saying they were a matter for the court.  Since August 29, I and my children were tortured,  Adeline told the panel of three judges.  We were handcuffed day and night, without eating or drinking,  Adeline said, adding they had once gone without food and medication for a week. Diane s younger sister Anne said the family has also been kept in solitary confinement.  Imagine staying in a closed room for 24 hours without access to fresh air. At least allow us to bask in the sun for 30 minutes and be visited,  she said. Diane Rwigara was in court but did not speak. Their lawyer Buhuru Pierre Celestin told the court that their confinement violated international conventions. In response, prosecutors told the court that the defendants  rights were respected, without commenting on the torture allegations. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said the government routinely and unlawfully detained and tortured detainees with beatings, asphyxiations, mock executions and electric shocks. Asked by Reuters to respond to Rwigara s torture accusations, Minister of Justice Johnston Busingye said:  Issues raised in court are determined by the court. If there is a claim of torture in court, the court is the proper place to examine it and determine what happened.  The trial will resume on Monday.

Summary: रवांडा के राष्ट्रपति के प्रतिद्वंद्वी की मां ने अदालत को यातना के बारे में बताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An effort in the U.S. Senate to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to use a secretive surveillance order has delayed a vote on a popular email privacy bill, casting further doubt on whether the legislation will become law this year. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday postponed consideration of a measure that would require government authorities to obtain a search warrant before asking technology companies, such as Microsoft  and Alphabet Inc’s Google , to hand over old emails. A version of the Senate bill unanimously passed the House last month. Currently, federal agencies do not need a warrant to access emails or other digital communications more than 180 days old due to a provision in a 1986 law that considers them abandoned by the owner.  But Republican party senators offered amendments Thursday that privacy advocates argued contravened the purpose of the underlying bill and would likely sink its chances of becoming law. Those amendments include one by Senator John Cornyn, the second ranking Republican in the Senate, that would broaden the FBI’s authority to deploy an administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter to include electronic communications transaction records such as the times tamps of emails and their senders and recipients. Senators Patrick Leahy and Mike Lee, the Democratic and Republican authors of the email privacy bill, agreed to postpone the vote to give time to lawmakers to review the amendments and other provisions of the bill that have prompted disagreement.  NSLs do not require a warrant and are almost always accompanied by a gag order preventing the service provider from sharing the request with a targeted user.  The letters have existed since the 1970s, though the scope and frequency of their use expanded greatly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.  In 2015 requests for customer records via NSLs increased nearly 50 percent to 48,642 requests, up from 33,024 in 2014, according to a U.S. government transparency report. The Obama administration has for years lobbied for a change to how NSLs can be used, after a 2008 legal memo from the Justice Department said the law limits them largely to phone billing records. FBI Director James Comey has said the change needed essentially corrects a typo. The Senate Intelligence Committee this week passed a bill to fund the U.S. intelligence community that contains a similar provision that would allow NSLs to be used to gather email records.  Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, voted against the proposal and said it “takes a hatchet to important protections for Americans’ liberty.”

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. निगरानी प्राधिकरण के विस्तार पर जोर देने से अमेरिकी ईमेल गोपनीयता विधेयक को खतरा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of 11 Republican state attorneys general are protesting an investigation into whether Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N) violated consumer protection laws when selling fossil fuel products, according to a court filing.  Top prosecutors for Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, all of whom are Republicans, filed a brief in U.S. District Court in Manhattan supporting a lawsuit by Exxon to halt a probe by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Schneiderman and Healey, both Democrats, are looking at whether the company violated consumer protection laws by selling fossil fuels while failing to reveal information about the effects of burning them on the global climate. In their brief, the attorneys general said Healey and Schneiderman were abusing their power and violating Exxon’s rights to free speech by “using law enforcement authority to resolve a public policy debate” over whether carbon emissions cause climate change, a debate they claim is not settled. The brief cites a May 17, 2016, article in the conservative magazine the National Review by Scott Pruitt, who at the time was attorney general for Oklahoma and earlier this year was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming “scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.”  An overwhelming majority of scientists believe that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels is a major contributor to global climate change, triggering sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. Pruitt said in a CNBC interview on March 9 that he did not agree carbon dioxide emissions were a “primary contributor” to climate change. “The attorneys general have raised important constitutional and legal issues in support of our position that the investigations by New York and Massachusetts are politically based and in bad faith,” said Exxon spokesman Scott Silvestri, adding that the probes were “an attempt to silence political opponents who disagree on the appropriate policies to address climate change.” In 2015, Schneiderman reached a settlement with Peabody Energy (BTU.N) after a similar probe of whether the coal company appropriately conveyed its financial risks associated with climate change. The company agreed to change language in its public statements as part of the settlement.  “We will continue to pursue our fraud investigation under New York law, despite attempts by Exxon and Big Oil’s beneficiaries to delay and distract from the serious issues at hand,” said Schneiderman’s spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick. The case is Exxon Mobil Corporation v. Healy, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-cv-02301.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन अभियोजकों का कहना है कि एक्सॉन जांच असंवैधानिक है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson canceled public  events on Tuesday after a van carrying three volunteers and a campaign staffer slid on ice in Iowa, flipped on its side and was hit by another vehicle, his campaign said.  One of the volunteers, Braden Joplin, 25, died after being taken to a trauma center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the hospital said in a statement released by the Carson campaign. The other three people were treated and released from a hospital in Atlantic, Iowa, the statement said. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, was traveling from South Carolina to Omaha where he planned to meet with Joplin’s family members and offer his condolences, the hospital statement said. Carson is among a dozen Republican presidential candidates crisscrossing Iowa before the state’s Feb. 1 caucuses, the nation’s first contest to determine the party’s nominee in November’s presidential election.  (Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Eric Walsh; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: कार्सन ने कर्मचारियों की घातक कार दुर्घटना के बाद अभियान कार्यक्रम रद्द किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and the FBI will return to Congress next week to testify before lawmakers about their heated disagreement over law enforcement access to encrypted devices, a congressional committee announced on Thursday.  Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, and Amy Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will testify on separate panels before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday, in addition to other law enforcement officials and technology experts. FBI Director James Comey appeared before a separate congressional committee last month to defend his agency’s pursuit of a court order to compel Apple’s assistance in unlocking an iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. Sewell also testified at that hearing. The FBI has since abandoned the San Bernardino case, a surprising development that came after a still-secret third party helped the government hack into the iPhone. But the U.S. Justice Department redoubled its efforts last week to use the courts to force Apple’s cooperation in cracking encrypted iPhones by announcing plans to continue with an appeal in an unrelated New York drug case. Other witnesses appearing include Thomas Galati, chief of the New York Police Department’s intelligence bureau; Charles Cohen, commander of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; and Matthew Blaze, a professor and computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier this week, two U.S. senators released draft legislation that would empower courts to order technology companies to hand over data “in an intelligible format,” even if encryption has rendered that data inaccessible to anyone other than the owner. Security researchers and civil liberties advocates say the bill amounts to a ban on strong encryption, which is necessary to keep malicious hackers at bay and protect the overall security of the Internet.

Summary: एन्क्रिप्शन को लेकर कांग्रेस में एप्पल और एफ. बी. आई. के बीच फिर होगी झड़प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s choice to run the U.S. Transportation Department, Elaine Chao, defended the president-elect’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan as a “bold vision” on Wednesday in an overwhelmingly friendly Senate confirmation hearing. While there is criticism of Chao, in particular on environmental issues, there is no significant opposition to her nomination and she is expected to be confirmed.  She served as labor secretary under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and was the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She was deputy secretary of transportation under President George H. W. Bush. She was introduced by her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Florida’s Bill Nelson, noted his wife’s friendship with Chao. Chao will take a leading role in Trump’s plans to rebuild crumbling U.S. roads and bridges with a $1 trillion fund. He would offer private investors who put money into projects an 82 percent tax credit but critics say it is unclear how they could recoup investments in most projects without sharply increasing costs for users of most roads and bridges. Chao described the plan to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as a “bold vision” and acknowledged the need to work on the issue of paying investors back. “For them (partnerships) to be truly effective, there need to be revenue streams that need to be assured,” she added. “We all know that the government doesn’t have the resources to do it all.”  Chao is nominated to head a department with such wide-ranging responsibilities as oversight of the nation’s airports and highways, fuel-economy rules for autos and probes into auto makers for safety recalls of key parts like airbags.  She declined to take positions on issues like whether the job of air traffic control should be privatized, concerns over the safety of shipments of crude oil by rail, foreign airlines like Norwegian Air Shuttle’s push to move into the U.S. market and regulation of developing technology like autonomous vehicles and drones. Chao faced no questions about her memberships on corporate boards. Chao is on the board of Wells Fargo & Co which has struggled since September after it agreed with regulators to pay $190 million in fines and restitution to settle charges that its employees wrongly created as many as 2 million accounts without customer authorization. Chao is an immigrant from Taiwan who arrived in the United States at age 8. Her father, James S.C. Chao, is founder of the Foremost Group, an international shipping company.

Summary: अमेरिकी परिवहन उम्मीदवार चाओ ने पुष्टि सुनवाई में कोई बाधा नहीं डाली


PARIS (Reuters) - Four adolescents were killed when a train smashed into a school bus on a level crossing outside the town of Perpignan in southwestern France on Thursday. Images from the scene showed the bus split in two, with a long line of emergency vehicles on an approach to the crossing. Another 20 people were injured in the crash, 11 of them seriously, according to French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who traveled immediately to the scene. Most of the injured were schoolchildren aboard the bus, aged 13-17. Philippe told reporters the authorities were focused on getting accurate information to families, a process  made difficult by the question of identification of those who have died and some of the injured.  A crisis coordination center has been set up at Millas town hall on Perpignan s western outskirts, about 850 kilometers (530 miles) from Paris. According to local media reports, the bus was transporting pupils from the town s Christian Bourquin college.  All my thoughts (are with) the victims and their families,  French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter. The causes of the crash are unknown, pending a full investigation, officials said. The bus and train drivers both survived and will be interviewed by police. The train was carrying 25 passengers and traveling at 80 kmh, the regulatory speed for the section of track where the collision occurred, a spokeswoman for the national SNCF railway told Reuters. Three train passengers sustained relatively minor injuries, according to the interior ministry. Witnesses had reported that the barriers of the crossing were down at the moment of impact, the SNCF spokeswoman said, adding that all such preliminary information was  subject to confirmation  by investigators. France has suffered several serious rail accidents in recent decades. One of the deadliest was in 1988, when a commuter train heading into Paris  Gare de Lyon crashed into a stationary train, killing 56 people, after its brakes failed.

Summary: फ्रांस में ट्रेन की चपेट में आने से चार स्कूली बच्चों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump delivered his first speech before the United Nations on Tuesday, touting U.S. sovereignty and threatening to  totally destroy  North Korea. Trump has been critical of the United Nations and complained about the cost to the United States of helping to fund the 193-nation body. Below are some comments he has made about it over the years. Remarks at luncheon hosted by U.N. Secretary General September 19, 2017  For years I ve been a critic, but I ve also been somebody that said that the United Nations has tremendous potential.  Remarks at U.N. General Assembly September 19, 2017  Too often the focus of this organization has not been on results, but on bureaucracy and process.   The United States is one out of 193 countries in the United Nations, and yet we pay 22 percent of the entire budget and more. In fact, we pay far more than anybody realizes.     Remarks at lunch with U.N. Security Council Ambassadors April 24, 2017  I also want to say to you that I have long felt the United Nations is an underperformer but has tremendous potential.  There are those people that think it s an underperformer and will never perform.  Twitter Dec. 26, 2016  The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!  American Israel Public Affairs Committee speech March 21, 2016  Which brings me to my next point, the utter weakness and incompetence of the United Nations. The United Nations is not a friend of democracy, it s not a friend to freedom, it s not a friend even to the United States of America where, as you know, it has its home. And it surely is not a friend to Israel.  Twitter Oct. 3, 2012  The cheap 12 inch sq. marble tiles behind speaker at UN always bothered me. I will replace with beautiful large marble slabs if they ask me.  Twitter Sept. 8, 2011  Why is the UN planning to attack @Israel s sovereignty and ignore Iran s nuclear program? The US should look at future funding.  Senate committee hearing on renovation of U.N. headquarters July 21, 2005  I am a big fan, a very big fan of the United Nations and all it stands for. I cannot speak as to what has been happening over the last number of years because it certainly has not been good, but the concept of the United Nations ... is very important to me and very important to the world as far as I am concerned.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः संयुक्त राष्ट्र के बारे में ट्रम्प ने क्या कहा है


ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman threatened a prominent opposition lawmaker with legal action on Monday for calling the Turkish leader a fascist dictator. In some of the most blistering criticism of Erdogan by a high-profile politician in recent memory, Bulent Tezcan, spokesman for the main opposition People s Republican Party, attacked what he said was a  fearful atmosphere  in Turkey.  If you try to scare people and to create a fearful atmosphere by showing legal words as illegal ones we will not be deterred,  Tezcan said in a speech in the western city of Tekirdag, criticizing local judicial authorities. His comments appeared to be in defense of the local mayor, a CHP member, who was questioned by authorities this month after he reportedly called Erdogan a  dictator  at a party congress.    I don t know if our mayor said that or not. I, here in Tekirdag, say it now:  Erdogan is a fascist dictator ,  Tezcan said. Tezcan s comments prompted a swift backlash from Erdogan s office and lawmakers from his ruling AK Party.  Bulent Tezcan s hate speech is an example of disgrace for the main opposition,  Erdogan s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Twitter.  This is not politics, but rather enmity towards the people s will. Legal measures will be sought in this regard.  Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases against people including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and schoolchildren on accusations of insulting him. Following a failed coup in July 2016, Erdogan said he would drop outstanding suits, in a one-off gesture.  Nonetheless, rights groups and some Western governments have voiced concern that Turkey is sliding toward authoritarianism. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and more than 50,000 jailed pending trial on suspicion of links to the failed coup. Erdogan says such measures are necessary to ensure stability and defend Turkey from multiple security threats.

Summary: तुर्की के सांसद ने एर्दोगन को बताया 'फासीवादी तानाशाह', कानूनी कार्रवाई की दी धमकी


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities ordered private television channels to go off air on Saturday during a police and paramilitary crackdown on Islamist protesters in the capital. The suspension was ordered by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority for violating media regulations showing live coverage of a security operation, a statement from the regulator said. State-run Pakistan Television continued to  broadcast, but aired a talk show discussing politics. Pakistani police used tear gas and watercannon and fought running battles with stone-throwing Islamist activists, as they moved to clear a protest by the religious hard-liners who have blocked main routes into Islamabad for more than two weeks.

Summary: पाकिस्तान ने इस्लामी विरोध पर कार्रवाई के दौरान टीवी चैनलों को प्रसारण बंद करने का आदेश दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State insurgent group said on Friday that a referendum on Kurdish independence in northern Iraq  carries a lot of risks.  The envoy, Brett McGurk, told reporters:  The (Kurdish) referendum just carries an awful lot of risks and that s not something the United States can control. ... In terms of the consequences of the referendum it s not something that we can fully control, (it) just carries a lot of risks.

Summary: अमेरिकी विशेष दूत का कहना है कि कुर्द जनमत संग्रह में 'बहुत सारे जोखिम' हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump last week amid an agency probe into alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election, has agreed to testify before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee at a public hearing, the committee said in a statement on Friday. The hearing will be scheduled after the May 29 Memorial Day holiday, the statement said.

Summary: सार्वजनिक सत्र में सीनेट पैनल के सामने गवाही देंगे कोमी


JUBA (Reuters) - A South Sudanese army commander on trial for his role in an attack on aid workers has been found dead in military custody, an army spokesman said on Friday. The attack by soldiers at the Terrain Hotel in the capital Juba was one of the worst on aid workers since South Sudan plunged into civil war in 2013.  The rape of five foreigners and murder of their local colleague occurred on July 11, 2016 as President Salva Kiir s troops won a three-day battle in Juba over opposition forces loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar.  Lt. Col. Luka Akechak was found dead last weekend, army spokesman Santo Domic Chol told Reuters on Friday. Chol said Akechak had fallen sick  some weeks ago  and received medical treatment in Juba but did not recover.  The military custody told us that the man was found dead in the morning.  Akechak was the unit commander at the hotel on the day of the attack and is one of more than a dozen South Sudanese soldiers standing trial in a military court.  The army spokesman said that in the last hearing, one of the rape survivors who testified said she witnessed Akechak directing the soldiers to raid property at the hotel.   The next hearing in the trial is scheduled for Wednesday.  Lawyer Philip Manyang, who is representing survivors of the attack in court, told Reuters that survivors would be testifying by video conference in a closed session.

Summary: सहायता कर्मियों के बलात्कार, हत्या के मुकदमे में दक्षिण सूडान के कमांडर मृत पाए गए


BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping of China is expected to place trusted allies in the Communist Party s key decision-making Politburo during a leadership reshuffle at the 19th party Congress this autumn, according to multiple Chinese sources and foreign diplomats. A key measure of Xi s power will be how many of his allies are installed on the 25-member committee. At least 10 Politburo members are slated to retire due to an unwritten rule that politicians step down if they are 68 or older when they take on a new five-year term. And the youngest Politburo member, Sun Zhengcai, 53, is out of the running. He served as Chongqing party boss before being put under investigation in July for disciplinary violations, Communist Party jargon for corruption. The fate of the top corruption watchdog, Wang Qishan, 69, is also the subject of widespread conjecture. It is unclear if he will retain his seat in the elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, despite his age, and therefore his spot on the wider Politburo. The State Council Information Office, which doubles as the  spokesman s office for the cabinet and party, declined to comment on Politburo candidates when reached by telephone and fax.  Possible newcomers to the Politburo among Xi s allies (surnames in alphabetical order): Cai Qi, 61, has enjoyed a meteoric rise under Xi and is considered a shoo-in after he was named party boss of Beijing in May, despite not being a full or alternate member of the wider Central Committee. Since 1987, whoever holds the office of Beijing party chief has also been a Politburo member. Cai overlapped with Xi during the future president s 17-year stint in the southeastern province of Fujian, and in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, where Xi was party boss from 2002 to 2007. Cai is a native of Fujian. Chen Miner, 56, was seen to have performed strongly as the leader of Guizhou province before being named party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing on July 15, replacing Sun. Chen, a native of Zhejiang, is also virtually assured of a seat in the Politburo given his position in Chongqing, the sources said. Chen is a dark horse candidate to catapult straight onto the Standing Committee. Chen Quanguo, 61, was promoted to party chief of the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, bringing along with him the tough ethnic management policies he implemented at his previous post in Tibet. Chen has never worked closely with Xi. Chen Xi, 64 this month, a native of Fujian, is tipped to be promoted to minister of the party s organization department, overseeing the promotion and deployment of party officials. He is currently vice-minister at the department. Chen shared a dormitory with Xi when the two attended the prestigious Tsinghua University in the late 1970s. Ding Xuexiang, 55 this month, is likely to become director of the General Office of the Central Committee. He is currently No 2 in the General Office, which oversees day-to-day operations of the Politburo. Ding worked for Xi when the latter was party boss in Shanghai. He Lifeng, 62, chairman of the cabinet s National Development and Reform Commission, is a strong candidate to become one of five state councillors, a rank above cabinet minister but below vice premier. If he is named one of four vice premiers next March, he would be a favorite for the Politburo. He worked in Fujian from 1984 to 2009, overlapping with Xi, who was governor from 2000 to 2002. Huang Kunming, 60, a native of Fujian, is the front-runner to become the party s propaganda minister. He is currently No 1 vice-minister. He followed Xi from Fujian to Zhejiang. Li Hongzhong, 61, is party secretary of the northern port city of Tianjin. He never worked under Xi previously, but has been an ardent supporter of Xi s policies. Li Qiang, 58, a native of Zhejiang, is currently party boss of the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu. Li was Xi s right-hand man when Xi was party boss of Zhejiang. Li Xi, 60, currently party chief of the northeastern province of Liaoning, is seen to be in line for promotion to head a bigger province. He once worked in Xi s home province, Shaanxi, in China s northwest. Liu He, 65, is Xi s key economic advisor and a strong candidate to become a state councilor or vice premier. When then-U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon visited Beijing in 2013, Xi introduced Liu as  very important to me , according to the Wall Street Journal. Liu holds a master s degree in public administration from Harvard University s Kennedy School of Government. Ma Xingrui, 57, was once the chief engineer of China s lunar program. Now the governor of Guangdong province, he is one of two candidates for party secretary, the top post, in the booming southern region. If successful, he would be assured of a Politburo seat. Wang Xiaohong, 60, is a candidate to lead either the police or the national security apparatus. He is currently a vice minister of public security and a vice mayor of Beijing. Wang cut his teeth in his home province Fujian, overlapping with Xi. Xia Baolong, 64, once touted to take over as security tsar, stepped down as party boss of Zhejiang province in April. In a surprise move, he was sidelined to the No 2 position in parliament s environmental protection and resources conservation committee, which may hurt his chances to join the Politburo. Xia, who ordered the tearing down of hundreds of church crosses in Wenzhou city in 2015, was Xi s deputy in Zhejiang. Ying Yong, 59, a native of Zhejiang, is currently mayor of Shanghai and a candidate to become party boss of the country s financial capital. He worked under Xi in Zhejiang as deputy police chief, the No 2 corruption watchdog and an appeals court acting chief judge. You Quan, 63, has been the Communist Party secretary of coastal Fujian province since December 2012. A native of Hebei province with a background in economics, he is a former chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.  (In entry on Cai Qi, makes clear that since 1987 the Beijing party chief office-holder, not Cai himself, has also had a seat on the Politburo)

Summary: राष्ट्रपति के सभी लोगः चीन के पोलित ब्यूरो ने शी की शक्ति का एक पैमाना तैयार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will speak to Republican members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday about the Republican healthcare legislation before Congress, congressional aides said. Republicans are divided over the healthcare overhaul, which is Trump’s first major legislative initiative. It aims to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare, the healthcare program of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. A House vote is expected on the bill on Thursday.

Summary: स्वास्थ्य देखभाल पर मंगलवार को हाउस रिपब्लिकन से बात करेंगे ट्रम्पः सहयोगी


(Reuters) - A lobbyist whose firm made payments to a law firm employing the son of late New York state senator Thomas Libous, at a time it regularly lobbied the once-influential politician, agreed to pay $10,000 to settle ethics charges related to a corruption probe. The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Friday said Fred Hiffa arranged for payments totaling $50,000 over one year to the Westchester County law firm Santangelo, Randazzo & Mangone, which employed Libous’ son Matthew. Hiffa was accused of violating the gift ban provision of a New York lobbying law by causing his former Albany-based firm Ostroff, Hiffa & Associates Inc to make the payments starting in 2006, while he lobbied the senator on behalf of clients. Prosecutors have said the payments were meant to defray the cost of Matthew Libous’ salary and a lease of a Range Rover. Mark Glaser, a lawyer for Hiffa, declined to comment. Once the state senate’s second-highest ranking Republican and chairman of its transportation committee, Thomas Libous was found guilty by a federal jury in July 2015 of lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents investigating the law firm’s hiring of his son. The former senator, from Binghamton, was later sentenced to six months of home confinement, after he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. He died in May 2016 at age 63. Matthew Libous was separately convicted in January 2015 on tax charges, and sentenced to six months in prison. Hiffa’s former firm is now known as Ostroff Associates Inc. It had no immediate comment.

Summary: लॉबिस्ट ने दोषी ठहराए गए राज्य सीनेटर से जुड़ी न्यूयॉर्क नैतिकता जांच का निपटारा किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to pressure China s president when they meet next month in Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea out of a belief that Xi Jinping s consolidation of power should give him more authority to do so. Trump leaves Nov. 3 on a trip that will take him to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be his first tour of Asia since taking power in January and one with a major priority: Preventing the standoff with North Korea from spiraling out of control. Xi is immersed in a Communist Party Congress expected to culminate in him consolidating his control and potentially retaining power beyond 2022, when the next congress takes place. Trump believes that Xi should have even more leverage to work on the North Korea problem.  The president s view is you have even less of an excuse now,  said one official.  He s not going to step lightly.  Trump wants to gain some serious cooperation from China to persuade Pyongyang to either change its mind or help deprive it of so much resources that it has no choice but to alter its behavior, the official said. Trump has heaped praise on Xi in recent weeks in hopes of gaining Chinese cooperation and has held back from major punitive trade measures. In an interview with Fox Business Network s Maria Bartiromo, Trump said he wants to  keep things very, very low key  with Xi until the Chinese leader emerges from the party congress.  I believe he s got the power to do something very significant with respect to North Korea. We ll see what happens. Now with that being said, we re prepared for anything. We are so prepared, like you wouldn t believe,  Trump said in the interview, to air on Sunday. Trump has traded bitter insults with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, using his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month to dismiss Kim as a  rocket man  on a suicide mission for his repeated nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. He said if threatened, the United States would  totally destroy  North Korea. Kim in recent weeks said the United States would face an  unimaginable strike  from North Korea if provoked. CIA chief Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that North Korea could be only  months  away from gaining the ability to hit the United States with nuclear weapons.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया पर लगाम लगाने के लिए चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग पर दबाव डालेंगे ट्रंपः अधिकारी


(Reuters) - A man suspected of shooting an Idaho pastor who led a prayer at a rally for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was arrested on Tuesday, broadcaster KXLY reported. Police confirmed to the news outlet that 30-year-old Kyle Odom was taken into custody in Washington D.C. in connection with the Sunday afternoon shooting of Senior Pastor Tim Remington outside the Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Remington had led a prayer at a Cruz rally on Saturday. Reuters could not independently verify the report as representatives for the police department could not be immediately reached for comment.

Summary: इडाहो के पादरी को गोली मारने का संदिग्ध गिरफ्तारः मीडिया


BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese envoy exchanged views on the Korean peninsula issue with North Korean officials during a visit to North Korea, China s state news agency Xinhua said on Monday. It did not immediately give details, but Song Tao, head of the international department of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, has been in Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Communist Party Congress in Beijing.

Summary: चीनी राजदूत ने उत्तर कोरिया में कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप के मुद्दे पर विचारों का आदान-प्रदान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A political fight over the federal government’s role in Michigan’s water contamination crisis spilled onto the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday as Democrats threatened to block a bipartisan energy bill if it fails to include immediate aid for the city of Flint. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan told reporters that a “solid agreement” that appeared to be in hand on Tuesday now seemed to be falling apart. “As a senator from Michigan, I intend to make it very clear that they can’t ignore the families of Flint,” Stabenow said when asked about prospects for the energy bill.

Summary: मिशिगन जल संकट पर लड़ाई में अमेरिकी ऊर्जा बिल पकड़ा गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banks and credit card companies could be prevented from blocking customers from banding together to sue them under a rule released by the country’s consumer finance agency on Monday. In releasing the rule, which goes into full effect in eight months, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired the first shot in a likely brutal political battle between Republicans and Democrats over regulators’ reach into banks’ workings and customer rights. Banks blasted the rule, which bars financial firms from forcing customers to agree to settle disputes only through arbitration as a condition of opening new accounts, but consumer advocates said it will make sure wronged customers have their day in court. “Mandatory arbitration” clauses that block customers from filing or joining a class-action lawsuit appear in contracts for a wide variety of products. The rule was proposed last year under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat who appointed the current director of the CFPB, Richard Cordray. Republicans now control both Congress and the White House, and are already looking into stopping it in its tracks. Just before the CFPB unveiled the final rule, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika wrote Cordray to raise “safety and soundness” concerns with a draft version he had read and asked the CFPB to share data it used in crafting the rule, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Reuters.  The CFPB did not share the final rule with him ahead of the announcement, according to an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency spokesman. In the letter, Noreika, appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, cited a section of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law that allows his office to set aside possibly unsafe CFPB rules. Eliminating mandatory arbitration “could result in less effective consumer protection and remedies, while simply enriching class-action lawyers,” he wrote, adding the rule “may potentially decrease the products and services offered to consumers, while increasing their costs.” In the final rule, the bureau requires financial companies to give customers the option of arbitration or of banding together to sue in class actions. Companies must also provide redacted records of claims and awards reached through arbitration, which the CFPB will post on its website beginning in July 2019. Rule critics say class actions are costly, suck up time and result in lower awards for consumers. In recent months, they have worked to undo regulations barring the fine print from contracts for nursing-homes and for-profit colleges. Supporters say Americans have the right to take complaints to court, and group lawsuits are effective in publicly correcting bad corporate behavior. They say arbitrations are secretive and rigged in favor of companies. California may soon allow state residents to sue financial institutions after clauses inserted into Wells Fargo account-opening agreements blocked customers from suing over the bank’s creation of unauthorized accounts in their names. Calling the new CFPB rule “anti-consumer,” the Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Jeb Hensarling said Congress should reject it under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which gives lawmakers power to kill newly minted regulations. The Consumer Bankers Association has already begun lobbying lawmakers to use the CRA on the rule, said its president Richard Hunt.  Cordray, too, told reporters on a call he expects Congress to look into nullifying the rule but questioned the level of support for the move. Congress has already banned mandatory arbitration clauses for mortgages and contracts involving members of the military, he said.     Meanwhile, one of Washington’s most powerful lobby groups and CFPB critics, the Chamber of Commerce, said it will “consider every approach to address our concerns,” which many interpreted as a threat to sue.

Summary: नए नियम में अमेरिकी बैंकों को उपभोक्ता वर्ग की कार्रवाई की अनुमति देने की आवश्यकता है


WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - When Mike Sylvester entered a career training center earlier this year in southwestern Pennsylvania, he found more than one hundred federally funded courses covering everything from computer programming to nursing. He settled instead on something familiar: a coal mining course.   I think there is a coal comeback,  said the 33-year-old son of a miner. Despite broad consensus about coal s bleak future, a years-long effort to diversify the economy of this hard-hit region away from mining is stumbling, with Obama-era jobs retraining classes undersubscribed and future programs at risk under President Donald Trump s proposed 2018 budget. Trump has promised to revive coal by rolling back environmental regulations and moved to repeal Obama-era curbs on carbon emissions from power plants.   I have a lot of faith in President Trump,  Sylvester said. But hundreds of coal-fired plants have closed in recent years, and cheap natural gas continues to erode domestic demand. The Appalachian region has lost about 33,500 mining jobs since 2011, according to the Appalachian Regional Commission.  Although there have been small gains in coal output and hiring this year, driven by foreign demand, production levels remain near lows hit in 1978. A White House official did not respond to requests for comment on coal policy and retraining for coal workers. What many experts call false hopes for a coal resurgence have mired economic development efforts here in a catch-22: Coal miners are resisting retraining without ready jobs from new industries, but new companies are unlikely to move here without a trained workforce. The stalled diversification push leaves some of the nation s poorest areas with no clear path to prosperity. Federal retraining programs have fared better, with some approaching full participation, in the parts of Appalachia where mining has been crushed in a way that leaves little hope for a comeback, according to county officials and recruiters. They include West Virginia and Kentucky, where coal resources have been depleted. But in southern Pennsylvania, where the industry still has ample reserves and is showing flickers of life, federal jobs retraining programs see sign-up rates below 20 percent, the officials and recruiters said. In southern Virginia s coal country, participation rates run about 50 percent, they said.  Part of our problem is we still have coal,  said Robbie Matesic, executive director of Greene County s economic development department.   Out-of-work miners cite many reasons beyond faith in Trump policy for their reluctance to train for new industries, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen former and prospective coal workers, career counselors and local economic development officials. They say mining pays well; other industries are unfamiliar; and there s no income during training and no guarantee of a job afterward.  In Pennsylvania, Corsa Coal opened a mine in Somerset in June which will create about 70 jobs   one of the first mines to open here in years. And Consol Energy recently expanded its Bailey mine complex in Greene County.  But Consol also announced in January that it plans to sell its coal holdings to focus on natural gas. And it has commissioned a recruitment agency, GMS Mines and Repair, to find contract laborers for its coal expansion who will be paid about $13 an hour - half the hourly wage of a starting unionized coal worker. The program Sylvester signed up for was set up by GMS. The new hiring in Pennsylvania is related mainly to an uptick in foreign demand for metallurgical coal, used in producing steel, rather than domestic demand for thermal coal from power plants, the industry s main business. Some market analysts describe the foreign demand as a temporary blip driven by production problems in the coal hub of Australia. Officials for U.S. coal companies operating in the region, including Consol and Corsa, declined requests for comment.   The coal industry has stabilized, but it s not going to come back,  said Blair Zimmerman, a 40-year veteran of the mines who is now the commissioner for Greene County, one of Pennsylvania s oldest coal regions. We need to look at the future.  The Pennsylvania Department of Labor has received about $2 million since 2015 from the federal POWER program, an initiative of former President Barack Obama to help retrain workers in coal-dependent areas. But the state is having trouble putting even that modest amount of money to good use. In Greene and Washington counties, 120 people have signed up for jobs retraining outside the mines, far short of the target of 700, said Ami Gatts, director of the Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency. In Westmoreland and Fayette counties, participation in federal job retraining programs has been about 15 percent of capacity, officials said.  I can t even get them to show up for free food I set up in the office,  said Dave Serock, an ex-miner who recruits in Fayette County for Southwest Training Services. Programs administered by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal and state partnership to strengthen the region s economy, have had similar struggles. One $1.4 million ARC project to teach laid-off miners in Greene County and in West Virginia computer coding has signed up only 20 people for 95 slots. Not a single worker has enrolled in another program launched this summer to prepare ex-miners to work in the natural gas sector, officials said. Greene County Commissioner Zimmerman said he d like to see a big company like Amazon or Toyota come to southwestern Pennsylvania to build a distribution or manufacturing plant that could employ thousands.  But he knows first the region needs a ready workforce. Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Robinson said the company the company typically works with local organizations to evaluate whether locations have an appropriate workforce and has no current plans for distribution operations in Western Pennsylvania. Toyota spokesman Edward Lewis said the company considers local workforce training an  important consideration  when deciding where to locate facilities.  Sean Moodie and his brother Steve spent the last two years working in the natural gas industry, but see coal as a good bet in the current political climate.    I am optimistic that you can make a good career out of coal for the next 50 years,  said Sean Moodie. Coal jobs are preferable to those in natural gas, they said, because the mines are close to home, while pipeline work requires travel. Like Sylvester, the Moodie brothers are taking mining courses offered by Consol s recruiter, GMS. Bob Levo, who runs a GMS training program, offered a measure of realism: The point of the training is to provide low-cost and potentially short-term labor to a struggling industry, he said.   That s a major part of the reason that coal mines have been able to survive,  he said.  They rely on us to provide labor at lower cost.  Clemmy Allen, 63, a veteran miner and head of the United Mineworkers of America s Career Centers, said miners are taking a big risk in holding out for a coal recovery. He s placing his hopes for the region s future on retraining. UMWA s 64-acre campus in Prosperity, Pennsylvania - which once trained coal miners - will use nearly $3 million in federal and state grants to retrofit classrooms to teach cybersecurity, truck driving and mechanical engineering.  Unlike when I worked in the mines,  he said,  if you get laid off now, you are pretty much laid off.  Follow Trump s impact on energy, environment, healthcare, immigration and the economy at The Trump Effect - www.reuters.com/trump-effect (Refiles to remove repeated words  the company  in paragraph 26)

Summary: ट्रम्प के कोयले की वापसी का इंतजार करते हुए, खनिकों ने फिर से प्रशिक्षण लेने से इनकार कर दिया