Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 08:19:24
South Korea: Kim Jong Un offers to meet Donald Trump, North Korea to halt nuclear tests http://p.dw.com/p/2u072
North Korea has offered to enter negotiations and halt nuclear and missile tests, South Korea’s national security director said in Washington after meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.
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Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:13:53
GOP leaders signal they will try to narrow Trump's tariffs
Congressional GOP leaders have signaled they want to narrow the administration's steel and aluminum tariffs before they are implemented, the same day President Trump pushed forward with the measures despite widespread GOP backlash.
Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hinted Thursday that they will try to limit Trump's decision to levy a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum.
Lawmakers have a finite amount of time to try to soften the tariffs. Trump noted during the White House event that they will take effect within 15 days.
Both McConnell's and Ryan's home states face potential retaliatory penalties. The European Union, for example, has threatened tariffs on Harley Davidson, which is based in Wisconsin, and bourbon, for which Kentucky is famous.
Trump said on Thursday that Canada and Mexico would be exempted from the tariffs as they try to negotiate a larger trade agreement.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:14:56
Trump agrees to meet with Kim
President Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May in an effort to see North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s national security adviser said Thursday night.
Chung Eui-yong made the announcement during a brief and hastily arranged statement outside the White House after meeting with Trump and administration officials, saying Trump accepted the meeting in order "to achieve permanent denuclearization."
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:15:35
Paul Manafort pleads not guilty to Mueller's fraud charges
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty on Thursday to additional criminal charges ranging from bank fraud to filing false tax returns. His trial will begin on 10 July.
US special counsel Robert Mueller brought the charges as part of a wide-ranging investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, possible obstruction of justice, and alleged financial crimes by Manafort and others.
Trump has denied that his campaign colluded with Russia.
Manafort has also pleaded not guilty to separate charges including conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy against the United States. His trial on those charges is due to begin on 17 September.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:16:50
Ireland's government approves abortion referendum bill
The Irish government has agreed the wording of a national referendum on abortion to be held by the end of May which could radically transform the lives of thousands of women and signal a further loosening of the grip of the Catholic church.
The cabinet, meeting on International Women’s Day, approved a bill on Thursday allowing the long-anticipated referendum to go ahead.
Voters will be asked if they want to repeal article 40.3.3 – known as the eighth amendment – which since 1983 has given unborn foetuses and pregnant women an equal right to life, effectively enshrining a ban on abortion in the country’s constitution.
If Ireland votes in favour of repeal, the government has said it will introduce legislation permitting unrestricted abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Currently, terminations are only allowed when the life of the mother is at risk, and the maximum penalty for accessing an illegal abortion is 14 years in prison.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:19:14
Italy's first black senator: my election shows far right is not anti-immigration
Italy’s first black senator has said his election for the League has proved that the far-right party, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric helped it to its best ever result on Sunday, has no problem with legal migration.
Campaigning under the party slogan “stop the invasion”, Toni Iwobi, a 62-year-old businessman originally from Nigeria, won his seat in Spirano, a small town in the Lombardy province of Bergamo, as the party took almost 18% of the vote nationwide.
Iwobi, who owns an IT company, came to Italy in the late 1970s to study in Perugia. He later moved to Spirano, where he said he found the two loves of his life: his Italian wife and the League, then known as the Northern League. He became a councillor for the party in 1995.
Iwobi, a Catholic, argues that people should travel to Italy legally, just like he did. “I came on a student visa,” he said. “During that period over 40 years ago, coming here meant needing a visa. My party is fighting to restore legal immigration.”
“Anybody running away from a country because of conflict and war has to be hosted,” said Iwobi. “But anybody leaving their country for the wrong reason and travelling to others in the wrong way has to be stopped. Immigration shouldn’t cost thousands of lives at sea and neither should it cost a cent to the host country,” he said.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:52:50
French foreign minister quits Socialist Party
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced his departure from the center-left Socialist Party (PS) on Thursday.
The announcement came after a number of other senior Socialists had called on the 70-year-old veteran politician to make a choice between President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government and the opposition PS, which took a major hit in voter support last year following an unpopular five-year presidential stint by Socialist President François Hollande, AFP reported.
Le Drian served as defense minister for Hollande before joining Macron’s Cabinet, a move which interim Socialist leader Rachid Temal has said makes him a “de facto” member of Macron’s La République En Marche (LRM) party, according to Le Figaro.
Le Drian, however, ruled out joining LRM.
He also criticized the party for acting in “sectarian and childish opposition” to the government, adding that Macron is “the way to transform our country.”
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:56:12
Turkey jails dozens of journalists
Turkey sentenced 25 journalists to prison terms ranging from three years to seven and half years on Thursday. The defendants were accused of "knowingly and willingly" aiding exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has been blamed by Ankara for the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016.
Well-known reporter Murat Aksoy was given a 25-month sentence for aiding a terrorist organization, while pop singer and columnist Atilla Tas received 37 months for the same crime.
"I always said I trust the judiciary, I always believe in it. I dissented, I did nothing else. If dissent is a crime in a country, that is how guilty I am," Tas was quoted as CNNTurk as saying.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 12:59:14
Donald Tusk rules out Brexit deal on financial services
Speaking in Dublin on Thursday after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Tusk said he had offered the U.K. a robust free-trade agreement covering goods in all sectors, with zero tariffs, but added: “Services are not about tariffs. Services are about common rules, common supervision and common enforcement to ensure a level playing field, to ensure the integrity of the single market and, ultimately, also to ensure financial stability. This is why we cannot offer the same in services as we can offer in goods. It’s also why FTAs don’t have detailed rules for financial services.”
Tusk said the U.K. needed to do more than complain.
“When I was in London last week I heard very critical comments by Prime Minister May and others about the way the Irish border issue was presented in the draft withdrawal agreement,” Tusk said. “We know today that the U.K. government rejects a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, the EU single market and the customs union. While we must respect this position, we also expect the U.K. to propose a specific and realistic solution to avoid a hard border.”
“As long as the U.K. doesn’t present such a solution,” he said. “It is very difficult to imagine substantive progress in Brexit negotiations.”
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 16:45:50
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel confirms he will not be part of next government
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel confirmed on Thursday that he will not be part of Chancellor Angela Merkel's new grand coalition government.
The decision was made by the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) leadership, Gabriel said, adding that he was told of the decision late on Wednesday.
On Thursday, reports suggested that Justice Minister Heiko Maas would succeed Gabriel as head of the Foreign Ministry. German news agency dpa, as well as news weekly Der Spiegel, said they had learned of Maas' new position through party sources.
After almost two decades in regional politics in his home state of Saarland, Maas was part of the SPD's team negotiators that went on to form a coalition government with Merkel's conservatives in 2013. He was subsequently appointed German Justice Minister.
One of Maas' most well-known achievements from his four years in the role was his online hate speech law (also known as NetzDG), which forces social media companies to delete offensive potentially illegal content. While the law is divisive, it has been cited as an exemplary means of combating online hate crime and fake news.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-9 18:15:25
Two Koreas Remain Worlds Apart After Seven Decades of Separation
The National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a federal lawsuit over gun control legislation on Friday, just hours after Florida’s governor Rick Scott signed it into law.
Lawyers for the NRA want a federal judge to block the new age-restriction on buying a gun – raised to 21 from 18 – from taking effect, saying it violates the second amendment.
The new legislation raises the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21, extends a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns, and bans bump stocks that allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire. It also creates a so-called “guardian” program that enables teachers and other school employees to carry handguns.
The new measures come in the wake of the 14 February shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. The 19-year-old gunman used a legally purchased assault rifle to attack the school, which had expelled him.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-10 08:43:51
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Filibuster_HK
2018-3-10 08:55:32
Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga now 'brothers'
US allies including Australia, Japan, and the 28-member European Union asked Washington to grant them waivers from the new US tariffs on imported steel and aluminum on Friday. Previously, US President Donald Trump said "real friends" might be exempt from the controversial measures.
When signing the document on Thursday, Trump also said Canada and Mexico would be granted exemptions pending a new deal on the NAFTA trade agreement. Canada is the biggest supplier of steel imported by the United States.
The tariffs are set to go into effect in two weeks.
South Korea said it would ask for an exemption and might complain to the World Trade Organization if its request is rejected, according to officials in Seoul. Brazil, Australia, and Argentina all asked for waivers as well.
In China, steel and metals associations urged the government to retaliate if tariffs are imposed and impose dues on American coal.
http://p.dw.com/p/2u072
North Korea has offered to enter negotiations and halt nuclear and missile tests, South Korea’s national security director said in Washington after meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.