Trump open to keeping 'amended' version of Obamacare: WSJ

November 12, 2016

Washington, Nov 12: Donald Trump has indicated that he will consider retaining an "amended" version of the Affordable Care Act, a marked shift in stance on his major campaign promise of repealing President Barack Obama's flagship healthcare law.

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The President-elect made the apparent U-turn after his meeting with Obama at the White House this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. In an interview with the newspaper, Trump said his priority is to move "quickly" on Obamacare, which has become "expensive and unworkable".

At the same time, he "showed a willingness to preserve at least two provisions" of the law after the outgoing president Barack Obama asked him to reconsider repealing it during their meeting at the White House on Thursday, the daily said.

"Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Trump said. "I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that."

According to the Journal, Trump said he favours retaining a key part of Obamacare that stops insurers from refusing to cover people because they have existing conditions, as well as a provision that allows parents to provide years of additional coverage for children on their insurance policies. "I like those very much."

Trump also appeared to be committed on his promises of bringing jobs back through improved international trade deals and massive infrastructure investment, besides focusing on defeating ISIS.

"I want a country that loves each other. I want to stress that," Trump said in his first interview after winning the November 8 presidential elections, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton after mounting one of the most divisive campaigns in recent memory.

Trump said he would create jobs through nationwide infrastructure projects and improved international trade deals.

He also said he would preserve American jobs by potentially imposing tariffs on products of US companies that relocate overseas, thereby reducing the incentive to move plants abroad, the Journal reported.

Trump so far has spoken to several world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is yet to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said he got a "beautiful" letter from Putin.

On Syria, he said his main focus would be defeating ISIS rather than removing its current president Bashar al-Assad.

"My attitude was you're fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria...Now we're backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are," Trump said.

If the US attacks Assad, Trump said, "we end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria."

On the Israel-Palestine conflict, Trump said hopes to craft a deal. "That's the ultimate deal. As a deal maker, I'd like to do the deal that can't be made. And do it for humanity's sake," Trump told the daily.

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News Network
April 19,2020

Washington, Apr 19: President Donald Trump has expressed his doubts over the official Chinese figures on the number of deaths in their country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, claiming that the fatalities were way ahead of the US.

Trump's comments come two days after another 1,300 fatalities were added to the official count in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started. The revision puts China's overall death toll to more than 4,600.

"We are not number one; China is number one just so you understand," Trump told reporters at a White House news conference on Saturday. "They are way ahead of us in terms of death. It's not even close."

According to Trump, when highly-developed healthcare systems of the UK, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain had high fatality rates, it was O.33 in China.

The president asserted that the actual number was much more than the official Chinese death toll figures, which he said were "unrealistic".

"You know it, I know it and they know it, but you don't want to report it. Why?" he asked. "You will have to explain that. Someday I will explain it."

He also highlighted that on a per-capita basis, the mortality rate in the US was far lower than other nations of Western Europe.

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News Network
April 25,2020

Bueno Aires, Apr 25: Dozens of prisoners at a jail in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires rioted on Friday demanding urgent health measures after confirmation of a coronavirus case inside the facility.

Police surrounded the prison, which holds around 2,200 inmates, as explosions were heard, news agency reporters at the scene said.

A group of prisoners managed to climb onto a roof, burn mattresses and throw objects at security guards trying to quell the uprising.

Authorities have yet to comment on the riot or whether there are any injuries.

Inmates could be heard shouting demands for a judge to hear their case and for better protection against the pandemic, just a few days after a warden at the Villa Devoto prison was confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus.

"COVID-19 in Devoto, genocidal judges," read a banner hung from the prison roof. "We refuse to die in prison," read another.

The inmates are demanding, among other things, that releases that were pending before the pandemic be processed.

Several other riots broke out in prisons last week, including in Florencio Varela in Buenos Aires province where one inmate died and 20 were injured.

Argentina has been in lockdown since March 20 and has recorded more than 3,400 coronavirus cases and 167 deaths.

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News Network
April 22,2020

London, Apr 22: The toll from coronavirus in the United Kingdom has jumped above 18,000 after 759 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the Department of Health and Social Care announced in a statistical bulletin on Wednesday.

In total, 18,100 people have died in the UK hospitals after contracting COVID-19 as of 16:00 GMT on Tuesday.

A further 4,451 new cases of the disease were reported over the preceding 24 hours up to 08:00 GMT on Wednesday, the ministry said. The total number of cases reported since the start of the outbreak now stands at 1,33,495.

On Tuesday, the Office of National Statistics published a report stating that the coronavirus disease death toll as of April 10, when accounting for deaths in care homes and private residences, was 41 per cent higher than the government's figures.

In parliament on Wednesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock stated that the United Kingdom has reached the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, praising the social distancing measures enforced in the country.

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