Growing discomfort at law firms representing Trump in US election lawsuits

 

In the same way as other huge law offices, Jones Day, whose roots return to Cleveland in the last part of the 1800s, has highly esteemed speaking to dubious customers.

There was Big Tobacco. There was the Bin Laden family. There was even the detested proprietor of the Cleveland Browns football crew as he moved the establishment to Baltimore.

Presently Jones Day is the most unmistakable firm speaking to President Trump and the Republican Party as they get ready to wage a legitimate war testing the aftereffects of the political decision. The work is strengthening worries inside the firm about the legitimacy and insight of working for Mr. Trump, as indicated by legal counselors at the firm.

Working with Mr. Trump — with his set of experiences of fiery way of talking, meritless claims and refusal to pay what he owes — has since quite a while ago instigated acid reflux among legal advisors, temporary workers, providers and banks. Be that as it may, the worries are taking on new earnestness as the president looks to raise questions about the political race results.

Some senior attorneys at Jones Day, one of the nation's biggest law offices, are stressed that it is propelling contentions that need proof and might be helping Mr. Trump and his partners sabotage the uprightness of American decisions, as indicated by interviews with nine accomplices and partners, who talked on the state of secrecy to ensure their positions.

At another enormous firm, Porter Wright Morris and Arthur, situated in Columbus, Ohio, attorneys have held inner gatherings to voice comparative worries about their company's political race related work for Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, as per individuals at the firm. At any rate one legal counselor quit in fight.

As of now, the two firms have documented at any rate four claims testing parts of the political decision in Pennsylvania. The cases are forthcoming.

The most recent salvo went ahead Monday night, when the Trump lobby documented a suit in government court in Pennsylvania against the Pennsylvania secretary of state and various area political decision sheets. The suit — documented by legal advisors at Porter Wright — affirmed that there were "abnormalities" in casting a ballot over the state.

As of late, Mr. Trump and his partners have been attempting to fund-raise to bankroll their lawful endeavors. A portion of the gathering pledges supplications have noticed that a part of gave cash may be utilized to square away the mission's current obligations, instead of to support new legitimate endeavors.

While it isn't clear which law offices will document the suits, Jones Day has been one of Mr. Trump's most immovable lawful counselors.

As Mr. Trump lobbied for president in 2016, a Jones Day accomplice, Donald F. McGahn II, filled in as his external legal advisor, driving relate battles in basic states. Mr. McGahn later became Mr. Trump's White House counsel, prior to getting back to Jones Day.

Indian Americans hold GOTV rally in California in support of Biden, Harris

 

Indian Americans held a Get out the Vote (GOTV) rally in the US province of California on the side of Democratic official candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris for the November 3 races.

For the fate of this and next the age of Indian Americans and satisfy our American dream, it is essential to decide in favor of Biden and Harris this political race, prominent hotelier Ashok Bhatt said at the GOTV rally composed on Sunday by business person couple Ajay and Vinita Bhutoria.

Choosing Harris as the principal lady VP of the nation is history really taking shape, Bhatt said.

It's a pride and pleased both for us all, he said at the occasion that was gone to by entrepreneurs, educators, specialists, business visionaries, chosen authorities, network pioneers, and understudies.

There are over 1.3 million Indian Americans in the milestone conditions of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Nevada.

I don't believe anyone's discussing this one is likely the most significant appointment of our lifetime… there's such a great amount in question. At the same time. At the present time, in our nation, we are confronting up front at any rate four emergencies that have joined, Bhutoria said.

He said that the nation is presently confronting general wellbeing emergency, monetary emergency, racial shamefulness and environmental change.

It is significant for us all to decide in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, particularly I appeal to all Indo-Americans in milestone states to decide in favor of Biden, Harris, he said.

Later the members of the assembly likewise called banking and effort in milestone states.

Joe Biden sought 'hidden info' on Trump's incoming NSA: Ex-spy chief

 

US' previous covert operative boss has guaranteed that three weeks before the January 2017 presidential initiation, Joe Biden in his ability as the VP had requested that knowledge authorities "reveal the shrouded data" on the approaching public security consultant of then president-elect Donald Trump.

Trump's first public security guide Michael Flynn was the most elevated positioning authority trapped by the unique insight investigation into Russian intruding in the 2016 political decision. Flynn had to leave right off the bat in the Trump administration for deceiving Vice-President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian government authorities.

During his location to the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Wednesday, previous Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell comprehensively denounced the Obama organization's investigation into conceivable Trump-Russia arrangement in the 2016 political race.

"As Acting Director of National Intelligence, I saw the Democrats' whole case for Russian intrigue. What's more, what I saw made me debilitated to my stomach," he said.

The previous covert agent boss claimed that the Obama-Biden organization furtively propelled an observation procedure on the Trump lobby, and hushed the many bold insight authorities who opposed it.

"They introduced fake data as realities. They misled judges. At that point they grouped whatever sabotaged their case," he claimed.

"After Donald Trump won the political race, when they ought to have proceeded with the American custom of helping the duly elected president progress into the White House, they attempted rather to undermine him considerably more.

"Previous Vice President Joe Biden requested that insight authorities reveal the shrouded data on President Trump's approaching National Security Advisor (Flynn) three weeks before the (presidential) Inauguration, Grenell asserted.

In his RNC discourse, Grenell additionally commended Trump's 'America First international strategy'.

In four years, Trump has driven even some Washington Democrats to concede to the Chinese danger. On economic agreements that advantage Americans first. On collusions that share obligation, he said.

Trump or Biden? Global equity markets to chart their own course: Analysts

 

With Joe Biden picking India-conceived Kamala Harris as his running mate in the up and coming presidential races in the US, most experts state the result may not make any difference much in the long haul for most worldwide value markets, including India.

"I don't think the agreement is that Trump will return to control and that will be useful for the market. In the US, there are next to no arrangement switches that the administration has for the financial exchanges separated from the loan costs. What's more, that will proceed with independent of who will be the president," says Shankar Sharma, bad habit executive and joint overseeing chief at First Global.

The US markets, he accepts, are based on the cocaine of low financing costs and this will keep proceeding too. "US Government or President, in contrast to the developing markets, including India, doesn't immediate much business to organizations. For whatever length of time that financing costs are kept low, the positively trending market is a genuinely oiled machine that continues running, minor knocks in any case," Sharma said.

As things stand, Democratic presidential applicant Joe Biden is driving President Donald Trump in five of the six battleground states. Biden, as indicated by an ongoing survey, is driving Trump broadly by six – 50 percent to 44 percent – and by as much as 6 rate focuses across five battleground states, reports recommend.

"President Trump may for sure be following Biden in household surveys, yet it is maybe insignificant who involves the White House after November with the two Republicans and Democrats anxious to decrease their dependence on and commitment with China, similarly the same number of other Western nations are looking to do likewise," says Jan Lambregts, overseeing chief and worldwide head of money related markets research at Rabobank International.

Why Trump's Covid-19 relief orders may not put money in workers' pockets

 

President Donald Trump's new leader requests to help Americans battling under the financial downturn are far less clearing than any pandemic alleviation charge Congress would pass.

Trump acted Saturday after exchanges for a second pandemic alleviation bill arrived at a stalemate. Democrats at first looked for a $3.4 trillion bundle, yet said they brought down their interest to $ 2 trillion. Republicans had proposed a $1 trillion arrangement.

The are inquiries concerning how compelling Trump's estimates will be. A request for supplemental joblessness protection installments depends on state commitments that may not appear.

A finance charge deferral may not convert into all the more going through cash for laborers relying upon how managers execute it.

Be that as it may, the president is attempting to stem a slide in the surveys with a demonstration of activity three months before he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the November political decision.

Here is a gander at the four leader orders.

Joblessness INSURANCE

The president moved to continue paying a supplemental government joblessness advantage for many Americans jobless during the episode.

His request called for installments up to $400 every week, 33% not exactly the $ 600 individuals had been accepting under an advantage that lapsed a month ago.

What number of individuals will get the advantage and for how long is available to address. Trump said the installments would be supported 75 percent by the national government and 25 percent by states.

In any case, it is hazy if states will pay that share, given intense spending setbacks in the midst of the financial downturn. The central government had been taking care of the full expense of the now-terminated $600 supplement.

Ariel Zetlin-Jones, partner teacher of financial aspects at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said a few states have just drained their joblessness remuneration trust reserves and have mentioned government advances to continue making installments.

Why Donald Trump still needs to try harder to resolve Covid-19 crisis in US

With reviving of the economy and youngsters coming back to class a half year since the destructive infection was first revealed in the United States, US President Donald Trump despite everything needs to recapture control on the emergency activated by the pandemic in an offer to fix an appointive triumph in November, which runs straightforwardly through the soundness of his country.
As per The Washington Post, Trump's weaknesses have astounded even a portion of his most faithful partners, who progressively have asked why the president has not at any rate emulated a feeling of order over the emergency or passed on empathy for the a huge number of Americans hurt by it.
A portion of his partners and adversaries have even concurred that the President has fizzled at the one undertaking that could assist him with accomplishing every one of his objectives - going up against the pandemic with a reasonable methodology and predictable authority.
Individuals near Trump, many talking on state of secrecy, opined that the President's failure to entirely address the emergency is because of his practically neurotic reluctance to concede blunder; a positive input circle of excessively blushing appraisals and information from consultants and Fox News.
Lately, with in excess of 145,000 Americans now dead from the infection, the White House has endeavored to update - or possibly rejigger - its methodology. The organization has resuscitated news briefings drove by Trump and gave the President projections indicating how the infection is presently destroying Republican states brimming with his voters.

For some, in any case, the inquiry is the reason Trump didn't alter sooner, understanding that the way to about the entirety of his objectives - from a financial recuperation to a constituent triumph in November - runs legitimately through a sound country in charge of the infection.

Trump's promise on new immigration action creates confusion, contradictions

President Donald Trump is promising new executive action on immigration as he returns to the defining issue of his administration. But Trump has offered contradictory and confusing statements about his plans in recent days.
His comments come after the Supreme Court rejected his efforts to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programme, which protects young immigrants brought to the country as children.
Trump said last month that he would quickly be filing paperwork to address the court's concerns, but has yet to make a move.
The latest confusion about Trump's thinking started with a Telemundo interview earlier this month in which the president said he would soon be signing an immigration bill" a very good bill and merit-based bill and that one of the aspects of the bill is going to be DACA." "We're going to have a road to citizenship, he added.
The problem: No such bill exists to sign and there is zero appetite in Congress to wade into the divisive issue with four months to go before the election and in the middle of a pandemic.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he would instead be signing a big executive order that would include DACA.
But, we put it in, and we'll probably going to then be taking it out. We're working out the legal complexities right now, but I'm going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order," he said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere quickly tried to walk back the meandering comments, saying that Trump was working on an executive order to establish a merit-based immigration system to further protect US workers."
Trump, he added, has long said he is willing to work with Congress on a negotiated legislative solution to DACA" one he said could include citizenship but not "amnesty. Trump apparently did not get the message.

We're going to take care of DACA because I'm going to be doing, in the not-too-distant future, pretty soon I'm going to be signing a new immigration action very, very big merit-based immigration action that, based on the DACA decision, I'll be able to do, he said Tuesday, adding to the confusion.

Donald Trump's campaign sues The Washington Post, claims defamation

Current Affairs
President Donald Trump's crusade on Tuesday sued The Washington Post, asserting maligning in two conclusion articles distributed a year ago that it said dishonestly guaranteed the battle plotted with Russia.
The claim refers to a June 13 feeling piece by Greg Sargent that said Trump "attempted to plot with" a "clearing and deliberate" assault by Russia against the 2016 US presidential political race.
It likewise refers to a June 20 assessment piece by Paul Waldman that solicited "who comprehends what kind of help Russia and North Korea will provide for the Trump crusade, since he has welcomed them to offer their help?" "The announcements were and are 100 percent bogus and slanderous," Jenna Ellis, a senior lawful guide to the Trump battle, said in an announcement.
Kristine Coratti Kelly, VP of correspondences at the Post, said it was "frustrating to see the president's crusade board of trustees turning to these sorts of strategies and we will enthusiastically protect this case." Trump has abraded at media investigation and over and over lashed out against the paper and its proprietor, Amazon author Jeff Bezos. The claim, recorded US District in Washington, came seven days after the crusade sued The New York Times for slander over an opinion piece that asserted a compensation among Trump and Russia.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the two claims meritless.
"Any individual who thinks about the First Amendment ought to be grieved by the Trump crusade's rehashed endeavors to rebuff and threaten the president's faultfinders," said Brian Hauss, staff lawyer for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

He talked in light of the slander suit against the Post....READ MORE

Obama or Nixon: Which template would Donald Trump's India visit follow?

Current Affairs
While it wasn't an official visit, the primary inhabitant of the White House to arrive on the shores of India was Ulysses S Grant, and likely not the last with, suppose a dodgy feeling of style. The eighteenth President of the United States, Grant served two continuous terms in office somewhere in the range of 1869 and 1877 and was likewise the Commanding General of the US Army when the Civil War was won. Not long after his term finished, Grant and his better half Julia set out on a more than multi year world visit that expected to extend the US as an outward looking force prepared to draw in with the world. Award landed in Mumbai in February 1879 on board USS Richmond and embraced the standard excursion, on elephant back, to the Taj Mahal in Agra, whereupon the Grants thought it lovely yet not more than the Capitol Hill building. Award met the then Viceroy Robert Lytton in Kolkata and pronounced adoration for his dad Edward Bulwer-Lytton's books. In 1982, the San Jose State University organized the yearly, whimsical Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to grant the most noticeably terrible conceivable opening lines of a novel as a tribute to Bulwer-Lytton's "It was a dull stormy night" in his 1830 work Paul Clifford.
It is not yet clear what hesitant explorer Donald J Trump, the 45th President of the US on his two-day visit between February 24-26 makes of the straightforward Sabarmati Ashram, the Taj Mahal, or the 'Kem Cho, Trump' rally in Ahmedabad where PM Narendra Modi guarantees there would be "millions and millions" in participation.

Past the bearhugs and protestations of incredible individual bond between the two chiefs, this visit conveys a more value-based flavor than other ongoing presidential excursions to India. Not at all like previously, an economic agreement between the two involves centerstage, given the setting of Trump's residential strategy needs. Trump, oneself maintained ace of arrangement making has as of late named India "duty ruler" in a tweet pointing towards India's penchant to vigorously...Read More

China records first coronavirus death in Beijing as toll climbs to 106

Current Affairs
The new strain of coronavirus spreading across China claimed its first victim in Beijing, officials said on Tuesday, as the death toll climbed to 106, the United States warned citizens against trips to the country and financial markets recoiled again at the potential impact on the world's second-biggest economy.
Amid mounting concern about the virus on Chinese social media, the National Health Commission said in a statement that all but six of those killed by the previously unknown flu-like virus were in Wuhan, Hubei province. Though cases of the virus have been confirmed in other countries, no fatalities have been reported outside China.The city of 11 million, where the virus emerged late last year, is now under effective lockdown. Footage shared on China's Twitter-like Weibo social media platform showed residents of apartment compounds in the city chanting "Wuhan, you can do it!" and singing the national anthem out of their windows.
Tuesday's death toll was up from 81 as of the day before, while the number of total confirmed cases in China surged to 4,515 as of Jan. 27, from 2,835 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.Global stocks fell, oil prices hit three-month lows, and China's yuan dipped to its weakest level in 2020 as investors worried about damage to the economy from travel bans over the Lunar New Year holiday period, which China extended in a bid to keep people at home.

Officially known as '2019-nCoV', the newly identified coronavirus can cause pneumonia, but it is still too early to know just how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads.U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday offered China whatever help it needed, while the State Department said Americans should "reconsider" visiting all of China due to the virus.Canada, which has two confirmed cases of the virus and is investigating 19 more potential cases, warned its citizens to avoid travel to Hubei province...Read More

Trump again offers to 'help' resolve Kashmir issue, meets Pak PM in Davos

Current Affairs
President Donald Trump has said that the US is viewing the improvements among India and Pakistan over Kashmir "intently" and rehashed his idea to "help" resolve the longstanding debate between the two neighbors as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan uninvolved of the World Economic Forum here in the Swiss ski resort.
Tending to the media with the Pakistan Prime Minister preceding their private gathering on Tuesday, President Trump declared that exchange and outskirts were both basic focuses for talk, while Khan said that for him, Afghanistan was the top need. Trump told Khan, whom he alluded to as "my companion", that he would address Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the continuous Kashmir issue. The US president is relied upon to visit India in the coming weeks, denoting his first visit in the wake of taking up his post in the White House.
"What's happening among Pakistan and India on the off chance that we can help, we absolutely will. We have been watching it intently and it's a respect to be here with my companion," he said. "The Pakistan-India struggle is a major issue for us in Pakistan and we anticipate that the US should consistently have its impact in deescalating the pressures, on the grounds that no other nation can," Khan said.

President Trump has over and over offered to intercede following India's August 5 choice to disavow the unique status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, bringing out solid response from Pakistan which has been attempting to internationalize the Kashmir issue. New Delhi has guarded the move, saying Jammu and Kashmir is an essential piece of India and the issue was carefully inside to the nation, and the unique status arrangements just offered ascend to fear mongering in Jammu and Kashmir...Read More

Thunberg, Trump to offer conflicting visions at climate-focused Davos

Current Affairs
The distinctly contradicted dreams of US President Donald Trump and Swedish youngster dissident Greta Thunberg on environmental change will conflict in Davos on Tuesday as the World Economic Forum attempts to look up to the hazards of an Earth-wide temperature boost on its 50th gathering.
The four-day get-together of the world's top political and business pioneers in the Swiss Alps gets going looking to meet head-on the perils to both the earth and economy from the warming of the planet. Trump, who has more than once communicated incredulity about environmental change, is set to give the primary keynote address of Davos 2020 on Tuesday morning, on a similar day as his reprimand preliminary opens at the Senate in Washington.
Around a similar time, Thunberg will likewise go to a gathering at the discussion, where she is relied upon to underline the message that has motivated millions around the globe - that administrations are neglecting to wake up to the truth of environmental change. The gathering's very own Global Risks report distributed a week ago cautioned that "environmental change is striking harder and more quickly than many expected" with worldwide temperatures on track to increment by in any event three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) towards the century's end.
There are no desires that the two, who have traded thorns through Twitter, will really meet, yet the packed setting and exceptional timetable mean an opportunity experience can't be precluded. At the point when Trump and his company strolled through UN central station a year ago at the yearly General Assembly, a photograph of the adolescent gazing in clear wrath at the president from the sidelines turned into a web sensation.

Maintainability is the popular expression at the gathering, which started in 1971, with heel crampons gave out to members to urge them to stroll on the frigid avenues as opposed to utilize vehicles...Read More

Macron, Trump agree to extend talks on France's digital tax: Report

Current Affairs
The Indian Railway’s ticketing portal has filed a complaint against a fake website selling tourism packages in its name and even has a copycat digital assistant.The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has warned the website (www.irctctour.com) is duping people with fraudulent transactions.
"The tourism portal is the website of IRCTC where the various tour packages and services of IRCTC are displayed," says the fake website, which copies the design and features of the genuine portal.IRCTC sent an email to its registered users and even had put up a message on its portal about the fake website.
irctctour.com The tourism portal is the website of IRCTC where the various tour packages and services of IRCTC, says the fake website
IRCTC is the only entity authorised by the Indian Railways to provide online railway tickets, catering services to railways and packaged drinking water at railway stations and in trains. It is the world's second-busiest and highest of 1.5 million to 1.6 million tickets every day. Meanwhile, IRCTC Tourism offers tour facilities to over 1.05 million persons annually. The various tourism business segments of IRCTC include luxury train tours, Bharat darshan special tourist trains, rail tour packages, international and domestic air packages, land tour packages, hotel booking, etc. Its official portal is irctctourism.com.

Earlier, IRCTC warned its customers not to disclose any confidential information related to their account number, ATM card, PIN, TPIN, UPI details over phone or through e-mails. It notified users that attempts were being made to fraudulently withdraw money from their accounts. IRCTC also said that it never makes phone calls, sends e-mails/SMS asking customers to give their personal or security information for refunds, TDR or in any other case....Read More

Iraq asks foreign troops to leave; Trump threatens Iran with retaliation

Current Affairs
Iraq's parliament called on Sunday for US and other foreign troops to leave as a backlash grows against the US killing of a topIranian general, and President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to target Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates.
Deepening a crisis that has heightened fears of a major Middle East conflagration, Iran said it was taking another step back from commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.
Iran's most prominent general, Qassem Soleimani, was killed on Friday in a U.S. drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, an attack that carried U.S.-Iranian hostilities into uncharted waters.
An Iranian government minister denounced Trump as a "terrorist in a suit" after the U.S. president sent a series of Twitter posts on Saturday threatening to hit 52 Iranian sites, including targets important to Iranian culture, if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets to avenge Soleimani's death.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Washington from Florida on Sunday evening, Trump stood by those comments.
"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," he said.
Democratic critics of the Republican president have said Trump was reckless in authorizing the strike, and some said his comments about targeting cultural sites amounted to threats to commit war crimes. Many asked why Soleimani, long seen as a threat by U.S. authorities, had to be killed now.

Republicans in Congress have generally backed Trump's move.....Read More

Lawless impeachment will be political suicide for Democrats, says Trump

Election News
President Donald Trump spread out a rankling assault continuously Wednesday against House Democrats' vote to arraign him, saying the gathering demonstrated "profound scorn and scorn for the American voter" and would pay for it in the 2020 political race.
"This rebellious, fanatic indictment is a political suicide walk for the Democratic party," Trump told a horde of supporters in Battle Creek, Michigan, as the last count of a vote to reprimand him was being relied on the House floor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic administrators "have marked themselves with an unceasing sign of disgrace," he included.
Back in Washington, the House received two articles of prosecution against the president as he talked at the assembly, offering an exceptional split-screen display of the political hardship partitioning the country. Underscoring the political retribution for Trump, he went through the night in Battle Creek - a Republican fortress that helped him win the generally Democratic state in 2016.
The setting offered the president a responsive crowd to make his reply. At the point when a dissident upset his discourse, the group booed noisily and the president blamed the occasion's security protects for not being progressively physical in evacuating the lady, who he called "sickening."
"You got the opportunity to get somewhat more grounded than that, people," Trump said.

The main bit of the discourse addressed a scope of issues inconsequential to arraignment. As votes were depended on the first of two articles of denunciation - that Trump manhandled the intensity of his office - he was adulating F-35 military pilots. At the point when the House received the article, he was pouncing upon the "abnormal media." The disappointment Trump has shown mirrors the potential mischief prosecution does to his re-appointment crusade....Read More

'They want it': Trump approves US-China trade deal to halt Dec 15 tariffs

Election News
President Donald Trump signed off on a phase-one trade deal with China, averting the Dec. 15 introduction of a new wave of U.S. tariffs on about $160 billion of consumer goods from the Asian nation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal presented to Trump by trade advisers Thursday included a promise by the Chinese to buy more U.S. agricultural goods, according to the people. Officials also discussed possible reductions of existing duties on Chinese products, they said. The terms have been agreed but the legal text has not yet been finalized, the people said. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
The administration has reached out to allies on Capitol Hill and in the business community to issue statements of support once the announcement is made, they said. Before meeting his trade advisers, Trump engaged with members of the Business Roundtable, which represents some of the largest U.S. companies, people said.
Global stocks hit a record high and bond yields climbed on optimism over trade. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that the U.S. and China are “VERY close” to signing a “BIG” trade deal, also sending equities higher. The yuan surged the most in a year.
“They want it, and so do we!” he tweeted five minutes after equity markets opened in New York, sending stocks to new records.

Trump changed his mind on deals with China before. Negotiators have been working on the terms of the phase-one deal for months after the president announced in October that the two nations had reached an agreement that could be put on paper within weeks.The U.S. has added a 25% duty on about $250 billion of Chinese products and a 15% levy on another $110 billion of its imports over the course of a roughly 20-month trade war...Read More

Followed Trump's orders on pressuring Ukraine, says senior US diplomat

International News
A senior US diplomat told lawmakers on Wednesday that President Donald Trump expressly ordered him and others to help pressure Ukraine into investigating a political rival of the president, providing some of the most significant testimony to date in the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry.
In remarks that also put Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the center of the Ukraine controversy, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said Pompeo was “fully supportive” of the efforts to push Ukraine into carrying out two investigations that would benefit Trump politically at home.
Sondland, a wealthy hotel entrepreneur and Trump donor, said he worked with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine issues on “the president’s orders,” further detailing Trump’s active participation in a controversy that threatens his presidency.Giuliani’s efforts earlier this year to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son “were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit” for the Ukrainian leader, Sondland said, using a Latin term meaning to exchange a favour for another favour.
The ambassador testified that he told Vice President Mike Pence in September that US security aid to Ukraine had been stalled apparently because of Trump’s demand for the investigations.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong and specifically denied any quid pro quo. On Wednesday, Trump said he does not know Sondland well but he seems like a “nice guy.” Sondland described Trump in May telling him along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and then-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker to work with Giuliani on Ukraine policy at a time when the former New York mayor was working to get the Ukrainians to do the politically motivated investigations.....READ MORE

Trump impeachment hearings begin Wednesday. Here's how it will unroll

International News
The start of open hearings in the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump on Wednesday will give the American public their first chance to witness live the explosive showdown between Democrats and Republicans over the US leader's future.
The hearing before the House Intelligence Committee marks the second phase of the impeachment investigation into allegations that Trump abused his powers by seeking help for his 2020 reelection campaign from Ukraine.
Trump is under threat of becoming only the third president in US history to be impeached -- formally charged with violating his duties as president or committing crimes, and placed on trial in the Senate.With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, impeachment appears highly likely, as soon as the end of 2019.
But the Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, a bulwark against him being convicted and removed from office -- unless they turn against him.
There is still much to do, but analysts believe the entire process could be completed before the end of January.
On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee takes the impeachment investigation public after six weeks of closed-door depositions from White House, State Department and other officials.Those depositions have already painted a fairly complete picture of how Trump and aides, including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, pressured Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to open investigations that could conceivably find political dirt against the Democrats and Trump's possible 2020 election rival Joe Biden.

Some of the witnesses who already testified privately will be recalled to face the public panel, starting with Ambassador William Taylor, Washington's top diplomat in Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent on Wednesday, and former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on Friday.The aim is to further compile the evidence against the president, or, for Republicans, in his support....READ MORE

Donald Trump imposes sanctions on Turkey as Syrian crisis escalates

International News
Protesting Turkey's military offensive into northeast Syria, US President Donald Trump on Monday announced he will authorise sanctions against Turkish officials, raise steel tariffs and end negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal. Turkey launched a cross-border assault on Kurdish fighters on Wednesday after the US decided to withdraw troops from Syria, a move criticised by the Republicans, with some terming it a "betrayal" of the Kurds.
"This (executive) order will enable the US to impose powerful additional sanctions on those who may be involved in serious human rights abuses, obstructing a ceasefire, preventing displaced persons from returning home, forcibly repatriating refugees or threatening the peace, security or stability in Syria," Trump said in a statement.
Turkey's military offensive is endangering civilians and threatening peace, security and stability in the region, he said, adding that he has been perfectly clear with his Turkish counterpart that his action is precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes.
"I'm fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey's economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path," the president said.
Trump said he will be issuing the executive order authorising imposition of sanctions against current and former officials of Turkey and those contributing to destabilising Syria.The order will authorise a broad range of measures, including financial sanctions, the blocking of property, and barring entry into the US, he said, adding that the US will immediately stop negotiations with Turkey on a $100 billion trade deal.

 Steel tariffs will be increased back up to 50 per cent, the level prior to the reduction in May, Trump said....READ MORE

World leaders come up short at UN summit as millions demand climate action

International News

Millions of people in 170 countries took to the streets to protest. World leaders lined up at the United Nations to pledge action. A 16-year-old girl, close to tears, shamed them for robbing her of a future.
The pressure to act on climate change is mounting. Titans of global business and politics gathered in New York this week for a series of events, including the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, to acknowledge that more must be done -- but fell short of saying exactly what will be done.
“Time is running out in the court of public opinion, because time is running out to address climate change,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told heads of state and business chiefs at the Global Business Forum on Wednesday. “It’s right for them to hold our feet to the fire.”
The stakes have indeed never been higher. Temperatures have already risen 1 degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 1880s. The world must limit that warming to no more than 2 degrees above Industrial Revolution levels, the UN has warned, to avoid the most catastrophic of droughts, floods, mass migrations and conflicts. “You can just feel the groundswell of popular sentiment, that the urgency of this is elevated,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive David Solomon said during the forum.
When asked whether there’s enough information out there to determine his own bank’s exposure to climate change, Solomon said, “We’re working on it. The answer is we’re working on it.” It was a response that underscored both the heightened awareness among leaders that they will be held responsible for global warming and the work that still lays ahead of them.

 The meetings were still “far too much a chance for people to beat their chests and say they’re making change,” said Brad Cornell, a business professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “But who is making real change?”....Read More