Bruising Fight Looms Over Key Donald Trump Nominees

February 2, 2017

Washington, Feb 2: President Donald Trump has seized a chance to swing the US Supreme Court back to conservative leanings but a drawn-out battle loomed Wednesday over this and other nominations, jarring with his vow to sweep aside politics as usual.

BruisingFight

Trump, in the second week of his already-unorthodox presidency, nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, whose death last year sent the Supreme Court rocketing to the top of the list of presidential campaign issues.

"He'll be approved very quickly," Trump declared on Wednesday.

But that confidence belies what looks to be a tough confirmation fight in the Republican-controlled Senate, after Trump's party refused for much of last year to fill the vacant court seat with Barack Obama's nominee.

Trump is pushing for Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell to prevent a likely Democratic filibuster by using what is known as the "nuclear option."

That procedure would change Senate rules to push Gorsuch through with a simple majority in the 100-seat chamber rather than a supermajority of 60 votes. Republicans hold 52 Senate seats.

"If we end up with that gridlock I would say, 'If you can, Mitch, go nuclear,'" Trump said on Wednesday.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer pushed right back.

"The answer should not be to change the rules of the Senate, but to change the nominee to someone who can earn 60 votes," Schumer said.

McConnell has not revealed whether he would seek to invoke the nuclear option.

The acrimonious row over Trump's ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries has further complicated efforts to get his cabinet nominees confirmed.

Secretary of state pick Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was expected to be confirmed in a Senate vote Wednesday.

But some Democrats demanded further review of his record. Tillerson "needs to tell us where he stands on this dangerous policy," Senator Martin Heinrich said.

'Governing By Tantrum'

Democrats have vowed to slow-walk confirmation votes on several cabinet nominees.

Their boycott of votes on two Trump picks was dramatically overturned Wednesday when leaders of the Senate finance committee suspended the panel's rules and approved the nominees for Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, and health, Tom Price, with no Democrats present.

Democrats also boycotted a committee vote Wednesday for Scott Pruitt, Trump's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Republican Senator Jerry Moran, speaking to a half-empty hearing room, described it as "governing by tantrum."

Despite the obstruction, Trump's attorney general pick Jeff Sessions was finally approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday following an eight-day delay.

The Supreme Court is likely to be a protracted fight.

If confirmed, Gorsuch would tilt the bench five-to-four in conservatives' favor.

At 49, the silver-haired jurist from Colorado with a flair for writing incisive rulings is the youngest nominee in a generation.

His appointment could have a major impact on cases ranging from business regulation to gender rights to gun control.

'Special Burden'

Gorsuch was a remarkably orthodox pick for a president who has scythed through norms and precedent during his brief time in office.

Like Scalia, Gorsuch is considered an "originalist" -- guided in his legal thinking by the constitution's original intent and meaning.

Democrats warn they will probe carefully to ensure that he holds centrist views and is not intent on rewriting existing law.

Schumer, on the Senate floor, charged that the new administration has shown "less respect for the rule of law than any in recent memory," placing a "special burden on this nominee" to be an independent jurist.

The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of many of the most sensitive issues of US life and law. Its members are named to life terms so their influence is long-lasting.

With an eye to a bitter Congressional fight Gorsuch headed Wednesday to Capitol Hill with Vice President Mike Pence to huddle with McConnell.

"We're all thrilled" with Trump's pick, the Senate majority leader said, as he expressed eagerness to begin the confirmation process.

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News Network
June 19,2020

London, Jun 19: Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner who once took a bullet for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan, was over the moon on Friday after completing her degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Britain's prestigious Oxford University.

Malala, 22, who attended Oxford's Lady Margaret Hall college, took to Twitter to share two pictures that show her celebrating the milestone with her family.

"Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford," she said in the tweet, accompanied by two pictures - one showing her sitting with her family in front of a cake that says: 'Happy Graduation Malala', and the other in which she is covered with cake smiling for the camera.

In the tweet, the famed human rights activist also revealed her plans for the immediate future - Netflix, reading and sleeping.

"I don't know what's ahead. For now, it will be Netflix, reading and sleep," she wrote.

Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban militants in December 2012 for campaigning for female education in the Swat Valley in northeastern Pakistan.

Severely wounded, she was airlifted from one military hospital in Pakistan to another and later flown to the UK for treatment.

After the attack, the Taliban released a statement saying that they would target Malala again if she survived.

At the age of 17, Malala became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her education advocacy in 2014 when she shared the coveted honour with India's social activist Kailash Satyarthi.

Unable to return to Pakistan after her recovery, she moved to Britain, setting up the Malala Fund and supporting local education advocacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya.

The Taliban, who are against girls' education, have destroyed many schools in Pakistan.

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Agencies
April 21,2020

Washington D.C., April 21: North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger following a surgery this month, according to a US intelligence official with direct knowledge.

Kim recently missed the celebration of his grandfather's birthday on April 15, which raised speculation about his well-being. He had been seen four days before that at a government meeting, according to intelligence reports cited by CNN.

The National Security Council and Office of the Director of National Intelligence have however declined to comment on the matter.

CNN has also reached out to the CIA and the State Department for comment and sought comment from the South Koreans.

Kim's absences from official state media often spark speculation and rumors about his health. North Korea has no free press and is often a black hole when it comes to the country's leadership. Analysts are heavily reliant on scanning state media dispatches and watching propaganda videos for any semblance of a clue.

Kim last appeared in North Korean state media on April 11. April 15 -- North Korea's most important holiday, the anniversary of the birth of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung -- came and went without any official mention of Kim Jong Un's movements.

Experts are unsure of what to make of Kim's absence from any festivities celebrating his grandfather. When North Korean leaders have not shown up to these important celebrations in the past, it has portended major developments. But it has also turned out to be nothing.

"There have been a number of recent rumours about Kim's health (smoking, heart, and brain). If Kim is hospitalized, it would explain why he wasn't present on the important April 15th celebrations," said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea. "But, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumors about Kim Jong-un or his father. We'll have to wait and see."

Kim Jong Il's absence from a parade celebrating North Korea's 60th anniversary in 2008 was followed by rumblings that he was in poor health. It was later revealed he had a stroke, after which his health continued to decline until his death in 2011.

Kim Jong Un disappeared from the public eye for more than a month in 2014, which also prompted speculation about his health. He returned sporting a cane, and days later South Korean intelligence said that he had a cyst removed from his ankle.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

Wuhan, Feb 23: Ninety-seven more people died in China due to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 2,442, officials said on Sunday, as a team of WHO experts visited the worst-affected Wuhan city in Hubei province.

By the end of Saturday, a total of 2,442 people had died of the disease and 76,936 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said in its daily update on Sunday.

Ninety-six deaths were reported from Hubei province and one from Guangdong province on Saturday besides 648 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, it said.

Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December last, reported 630 new confirmed cases, taking the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 64,084, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The NHC also said China's daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the fifth consecutive day, indicating that cases of infections are coming down.

Saturday saw 2,230 people walk out of hospital after recovery, much higher than the number of the same day's new confirmed infections, which was 648, Xinhua reported.

A total of 22,888 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Saturday, NHC said.

Meanwhile, a team of public health experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) visited Wuhan on Saturday to conduct a detailed probe about the virus which reportedly originated from a seafood market in the city in December last year.

The NHC said WHO experts along with their Chinese counterparts who formed a joint investigation team have held talks with the local health authority in Wuhan and visited relevant healthcare institutions.

The UN team comprises specialists from the United States, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore and South Korea, Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post reported.

The 12-member team, which arrived in China on Monday, was initially designated to visit only Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, while the worst-affected Hubei province and its capital Wuhan were missing from the list.

However, the team was finally given permission to visit Wuhan by the Chinese government.

Besides controlling the spread of the virus, a major task for the WHO team along with their Chinese counterparts was to come up with standard medicine to cure the disease.

The NHC said on Saturday that the team had met top Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan in Guangdong, and visited the centre for disease control and prevention in Guangdong and the city of Shenzhen, and Sichuan.

The specialists also discussed quarantine measures, the wild animal trade and community prevention measures with their Chinese counterparts, it said.

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