Sponsored
The severe weather condition that led to the postponement of the meeting between German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump is no joke.
So far, nearly 7,700 US flights have been canceled and thousands of schools have closed. Winter storm warnings and watches have been hoisted over a region stretching from Ohio and West Virginia into Maine.
Local and state authorities warned residents to be prepared and to avoid unnecessary travel as winds in some coastal areas could hit 50 mph to 60 mph, reducing visibility to zero.
At the moment, snow is falling in Washington DC up through Philadelphia, and New York City.
About 18 million people are under a blizzard warning and millions more are under a winter storm warning. States of emergency have been declared in Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City school districts will be closed along with many government offices.
Beijing on Saturday warned the US that the One China policy was non-negotiable, after Donald Trump suggested he could abandon the decades-old diplomatic principle and boost ties with Taiwan.
“It is not up for negotiation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement.
“There is only one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable region of China, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing China.”
Trump has threatened to get tough with what he sees as unfair Chinese trade practices, and suggested that the One China policy could become a bargaining chip.
“Everything is under negotiation, including One China,” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday.
Trump has already irked China by accepting a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen after he won the presidential election, upending decades of diplomatic precedent in which the White House has foregone direct communication with the leader of Taiwan.
Beijing considers the island to be a breakaway province to be brought back within its fold, by force if necessary.
“We urge the relevant party in the United States to realise the extreme sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and to respect commitments made by previous American governments (and) avoid undermining the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations,” Lu Kang added.
Beijing first warned the US president elect on the issue in December, after the billionaire businessman said he did not see why Washington must “be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade”.
The Asian giant said it could back “forces hostile to the US” if Trump followed through with his threats.
Trump also defended his controversial call with President Tsai in his interview with the Journal.
“We sold them $2 billion of military equipment last year. We can sell them $2 billion of the latest and greatest military equipment but we’re not allowed to accept a phone call” he said.
Brazil’s Senate, by a wide margin, removed leftist President Dilma Roussefffrom office on Wednesday.
The country’s first female president’s offence was that she broke budgetary laws.
Senators voted 61-20 to convict Rousseff for illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending.
The Senators, however did not succeed in barring Rousseff from public office for eight years.
Her conservative former Vice President Michel Temer, who has run the country since her suspension in May, will be sworn-in to serve out the remainder of her term through 2018.
The impeachment has polarized the country and paralyzed its politics for nine months.
Brazil’s first female president has denied any wrongdoing and said the impeachment process was aimed at protecting the interests of the country’s economic elite and rolling back social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians from poverty during the last decade.
Her opponents, however, have hailed the chance to turn the page on a drawn-out political crisis, the country’s worst recession in generations and a sweeping corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras.
Motorists honked car horns in the Brazilian capital in a blaring tribute to the removal of a president whose popularity had dwindled to single figures since winning re-election in 2014.
In Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, fireworks exploded in celebration after the vote.
Temer has vowed to boost an economy that has shrunk for six consecutive quarters and implement austerity measures to plug a record budget deficit, which cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating last year.
However, he is likely to face bitter political opposition from the Workers Party, which has vowed to take to the streets in protest.
Photo Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Argentine's football team Twitter handle has confirmed that Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has resumed training with the national team, after he decided to rescind his decision of retiring from the national team.Over a month ago, the Argentina football star retired from international duty after failing to lead the national team to glory at Copa America.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
