US presidential debate: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump spar over jobs, taxes

US presidential debate: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump spar over jobs, taxes

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump took to the stage on Monday to begin their first-ever presidential debate and immediately sparred over jobs, taxes, the Islamic State (IS), guns and the former secretary of state's undisclosed emails, media reports said.

Clinton is held to have won the first presidential debate, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

According to the poll of debate watchers, 62 per cent of voters who watched the debate thought Clinton won, while only 27 per cent said that Donald Trump came out on top.

On prosperity, taxes and jobs

Moderator Leslie Holt of NBC News opened the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York, with the first topic being "Achieving Prosperity", where the first question about putting money back into Americans' pockets and creating jobs was directed to Clinton,CNN reported.

Clinton, the first woman to represent a major US party in the presidential race, mentioned her granddaughter's birthday, and talked about everything from gender pay gaps, to paid family leave, to presidential temperament.

She started her speech by defending the idea of creating "an economy for all" and stressed that she intends to do so "by having the wealthy pay their fair share", EFE news reported.

Also Read: US presidential debate: Poll says 62% viewers think Clinton won, only 27% say Trump did better

"I also want to see more companies do profit sharing. If you help create the profits, you should be able to share in them, not just the executives at the top," she said, and stressed that "the central question in this election is really what kind of country we want to be in".

Clinton insisted she would work to achieve equal pay between men and women, paid paternity leave and debt-free college.

Clinton accused her rival for being one of the real estate tycoons who benefited from the economic crisis that hit the country in 2008.

Trump conceded the point saying, "It's called business."

On Trump's business practices

On Trump's tax returns and Clinton's emails

On the Islamic State

On police shootings

On gun control

On the 'birther' issue

On supporting the result of the elections

Clinton said, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but I certainly will support the outcome of this election."

Trump pointed that he would "... want to make America great again. We are a nation that is seriously troubled... If she wins, I will absolutely support it."

The debate is divided into 6 segments with 15 minutes given to each nominee. Two minutes will be allotted to answer a question asked by the moderator, two minutes to reply and the remaining time for the nominees to debate.

This is the 20th US presidential debate and is being organised by the Read Full Story >>>

Donald Trump's paid maternity leave plan gets Hillary Clinton rejoinder

Donald Trump's paid maternity leave plan gets Hillary Clinton rejoinder

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has introduced an unorthodox childcare plan, becoming a rareRepublican calling for paid maternity leave.

Introduced on Tuesday by his daughter Ivanka, who asserted that childcare issues were at the "root of wage inequality by disproportionately affecting women", Trump tried to soften his image at an event held in Pennsylvania, a former stronghold for moderate Republicans that has trended Democratic in recent years, the Guardianreported.

Trump also asserted that "my opponent has no childcare plan". Clinton has in fact made a number of detailed proposals on childcare.

Clinton in June last year first outlined a programme for universal pre-kindergarten and in May this year proposed to cap childcare costs at ten per cent of household income and to introduce 12 weeks of paid family leave.

Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser to Clinton, described Trump's plan as "half-baked and completely out of touch". read full story >>>

Donald Trump wants allies to share burden of security

Donald Trump wants allies to share burden of security

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that if elected he would ensure that America's European and Asian allies meet the NATO obligation of spending two per cent of their GDP on defence.

"Only five of the 28 member NATO countries meet their obligations to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. I will convene a summit of our European and Asian allies to make sure everyone is sharing in the burden of security. We are paying tremendous amounts of money to secure other nations, to protect and defend other nations," Trump said at an election rally in Iowa.

"We are going to be made whole. We have no choice. This isn't 30 years ago. This isn't 40 years ago. And I believe properly asked, we'll be in a very good position and they will be very nice about it," he said as he slammed the foreign policy of the Obama Administration in particular that of the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Whether it's her e-mails, her disasters in Iraq, Libya and Syria, or her failures on the economy, of which it's been disastrous, Hillary Clinton lacks the judgement, temperament and moral character to lead this country. She does. You know it. Everybody knows it," he said amidst applause from the cheering audience. read full story >>>

Email fallout: 3 Democratic National Committee executives resign

Email fallout: 3 Democratic National Committee executives resign

The chief executive of the Democratic National Committee and two other top officials have resigned in the wake of an email hack that embarrassed the party on the eve of its presidential nominating convention.

CEO Amy Dacey, chief finance officer Brad Marshall and communications director Luis Miranda left their jobs today, the party said in a statement.

The resignations are the latest fallout from the hacked emails, which exposed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with some party officials disparaging Sanders.

Marshall wrote the most explosive email, questioning Sanders' Jewish faith and suggesting he could be portrayed as an atheist. He has apologized for the missive.

Earlier, party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned her position and, after being booed at a pre-convention appearance last week in Philadelphia, chose not to speak from the convention stage.(more)

Time for Trump to stop hiding: Hillary Clinton

Time for Trump to stop hiding: Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton alleged that her Republican rival Donald Trump does not even respect Americans enough to do what every other presidential candidate has done for decades and released their tax returns.

"It's time for Trump to stop hiding," Clinton said at an election rally in Omaha, Nebraska.

"My husband and I have put out I think about 33 or 34 years' worth if you're interested. He doesn't even respect the American people enough to do what every other presidential candidate has done for decades and release them," she said.

"It's time to stand up for working families. It's time to make clear that when the middle class thrives, America thrives. And that's what we're going to get back to doing," she said adding that she would not rest until they get wages and income rising.

Clinton's remarks came after billionaire investor Warren Buffet alleged that Trump is afraid to release his tax returns. Read More

Facebook to live stream US Democratic, Republican conventions

Facebook to live stream US Democratic, Republican conventions

Social networking giant Facebook has partnered with the US television network ABC for a non-stop live streaming of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

The Republican National Convention started in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday night and will run till Thursday while the Democratic National Convention is set for July 25-28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Not just livestreaming, Facebook will provide an in-depth coverage of both the events, reported on Monday.

Earlier, micro-blogging site Twitter had signed a deal with the US television network CBS to stream both the conventions.

Twitter has permission to broadcast the CBSN feed—the company's 24-hour digital news streaming service—and anyone online can watch for free even if they do not have a Twitter account. Read More

Trump seeks $10 million from former aide in disclosure case

Trump seeks $10 million from former aide in disclosure case

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seeking $10 million in damages from a former senior campaign consultant, Sam Nunberg, alleging that Nunberg leaked confidential information to reporters in violation of a nondisclosure agreement.

In a court filing obtained by The Associated Press, Nunberg accuses Trump of trying to silence him "in a misguided attempt to cover up media coverage of an apparent affair" between senior campaign staffers.

The document cited a New York Post story about a public quarrel between the staffers published last month.

The legal dispute reflects Trump's efforts to aggressively protect the secrecy of his campaign's inner workings.

The case is spelled out in court documents that sought to block private arbitration proceedings that Trump initiated in May. Read More

'No to Trump, yes to Hillary': Indian diaspora in the US tells New Delhi

'No to Trump, yes to Hillary': Indian diaspora in the US tells New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), given its recent anti-immigrants election campaign in Assam and the perception that the Republican administrations have been friendlier towards India, should have found an alter ego in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But the Indian diaspora in the United States, even its more prosperous sections, have conveyed to the BJP’s overseas arm that they were unlikely to support Trump in the US presidential elections due in November.

Overseas friends of BJP chief Vijay Chauthaiwale was in the US in the latter half of June. He travelled across the US to meet representatives of Indian diaspora associations. There are literally dozens of associations of each linguistic group. The Rockefeller Foundation — Aspen Institute Diaspora Programme (RAD) survey in July 2014 — had identified 224 important diaspora associations of Indian linguistic, regional and religious groups.

Chauthaiwale also had a meeting with Thomas Shannon, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Barack Obama administration. Shannon was on a four day visit to India in end-June and early July and met Indian political leaders, diplomats and academics.

The feedback, from talking to American politicians and Indian diaspora, was unanimous. That Donald Trump, despite the upswing in India-US relations during the Republic administration of George W Bush from 2000 to 2008, cannot be supported because of his anti-immigration stance and xenophobic statements.

In contrast, Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton is familiar with India and has visited the country several times. Former US President Bill Clinton met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the funeral of Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew. The Clintons had a 45-minute meeting with the PM during his maiden US visit in September 2014. India-US relations had improved during the second term of Bill Clinton, with him visiting India during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000. Read More

Trump targets to raise $10 million

Trump targets to raise $10 million

The campaign of Donald Trump, presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party, has set a target of raising another $10 million by the month end, according to an email sent on Monday.

Over the last few days, the Trump campaign raised $11 million, it said adding it is working to "shatter records" by raising another $10 million in the remaining four days of June.

The mass email seeking funds was sent by his son Eric Trump, who described it as the most ambitious fund raising campaign yet.

"Hillary Clinton's campaign machine and her liberal media allies are desperate. First, they claimed we raised too little. Then, when donors like you helped us to raise $11 million in just a few days, they claimed we were lying," the junior Trump wrote in his first fund raising email.

A real estate tycoon from New York, Donald Trump had self-funded his campaign during the primary elections. He started raising money for the general election in May.

In May, Clinton out-raised him. However, Trump argues that he started fund raising only in the last few days of May.

The Trump campaign says its fund raising activities have gained pace this month.

"The truth is we did better than $11 million and no amount of spin from Crooked Hillary's machine can change that fact. We cannot let them get away with this," Eric Trump said.

"That's why we set another Trump-sized goal. We are working to shatter records again this week — by raising another $10 million before the Federal Election Commission's 2nd quarter fund raising deadline this Thursday at midnight. Afterwards, our results will be covered heavily by the media," he wrote. Read More

Clinton boasts double-digit lead as support for Trump plunges

Clinton boasts double-digit lead as support for Trump plunges

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is holding a 12-point lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump as support for the latter tumbled in the past month, a poll released on Sunday showed.

Clinton enjoys 51% of support among Americans, up by seven points from May, compared to Trump's support at 39%, which is down by seven points, according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll.

This is Clinton's biggest lead over Trump since last fall and is a dramatic reversal from the May poll, in which Trump led Clinton slightly by 46% to 44%, Xinhua news agency reported citing the poll.

The poll discovered that 56% of American voters believe Trump stands against their beliefs, while 64% said Trump does not have the necessary credentials to be president.

Clinton's lead over Trump narrows to 10 points by 47% to 37%, when the two third-party presidential candidates were mentioned in the poll.

Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson gains 7% of support, while Green Party's Jill Stein garners only 3%, according to the poll.

The controversial comments on women, minorities and Muslims made by Trump may have contributed to his recent slide in the poll, as the majority of American voters regard them as biased.

Overall, 66% of Americans think Trump's remarks as "unfairly biased," while only 29% said they are "not unfairly biased".

Even among the Republicans, 41% think Trump's remarks are "unfairly biased", while 53% said they are "not unfairly biased".

Trump has been criticised recently for publicly attacking a Mexican-Americanjudge overseeing the Trump University fraud case. Read More

Clinton has delegates to win Democratic nomination: AP survey

Clinton has delegates to win Democratic nomination: AP survey

Striding into history, Hillary Clinton will become the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major US political party, capturing commitments from the number of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

Clinton's rise to presumptive nominee arrived nearly eight years to the day after she conceded her first White House campaign to Barack Obama. Back then, she famously noted her inability to "shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling."

Campaigning this time as the loyal successor to the nation's first black president, Clinton held off a surprisingly strong challenge from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

He mobilised millions with a fervently liberal message and his insurgent candidacy revealed a deep level of national frustration with politics-as-usual, even among Democrats who have controlled the White House since 2009.

The former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic nomination on Monday with a decisive weekend victory in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates.

Those are party officials and officeholders, many of them eager to wrap up the primary amid preference polls showing her in a tightening race with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Clinton has 1,812 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. She also has the support of 571 superdelegates, according to an Associated Press count.

The AP surveyed all 714 superdelegates repeatedly in the past seven months, and only 95 remain publicly uncommitted. Sanders plans to make the case to superdelegates that he is better positioned to beat Trump in November.

While superdelegates can change their minds, those counted in Clinton's tally have unequivocally said they will support her at the party's summer convention.

Since the start of the AP's survey in late 2015, no superdelegates have switched from supporting Clinton to backing Sanders.

"We really need to bring a close to this primary process and get on to defeating Donald Trump," said Nancy Worley, a superdelegate who chairs Alabama's Democratic Party and provided one of the last endorsements to put Clinton over the top.

Clinton had a muted reaction to her claim on the nomination Monday night as she campaigned in California. She told a cheering crowd she was on the brink of a "historic, unprecedented moment," but said there was still work to be done in the six states to vote today.

Win or lose, Trump won't dent US biz in Asia: Wagar

Win or lose, Trump won't dent US biz in Asia: Wagar

The US private sector will not sever seven decades of investment in Southeast Asia because of who occupies the White House, said US ambassador to Singapore Kirk Wagar.

Acknowledging a high number of inquiries generated by Donald Trump's presidential bid, Wagar said while his country's democratic process was noisy, it had built-in checks and balances.

"The one that is always forgotten is the private sector," Wagar said in an interview on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore.

Estimating that around 50 million Southeast Asian citizens had either worked for or had interaction with a US company over the last 70 years, Wagar said he did not "think that the chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, of Facebook or General Motors is going to decide on their investment strategy on whether Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are president."

Trump's emergence as the Republican presidential nominee, and his opposition to the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact that's been led by the US, has prompted concern among Southeast Asian nations that Obama's Asia rebalancing strategy might be quickly followed by a pivot away, if Trump wins in November. Clinton, who is still in a race with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, has also spoken against the pact, which would bind nations in a bloc that currently excludes China. The focus has now turned to attempts to get the agreement ratified by Congress in a brief window after the November vote. (Read More)

Video showing Hillary Clinton 'lying for 13 mins straight' goes viral

Video showing Hillary Clinton 'lying for 13 mins straight' goes viral

Democratic presidential front- runner Hillary Clinton has come under fire in a new viral video that purports to show her lying or changing her stance on various topics "for 13 minutes straight" with the set of clips notching up over 7 million hits online.

The video is a long highlight reel of Clinton contradicting herself or saying things that turned out not to be true on issues from gay marriage and Wall Street to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and her private email server.

The video, posted by a YouTube user, entitled "Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight", could exacerbate her low polling numbers.

The video showing at the start makes it clear that the project, which has been viewed almost 7.5 million times, was not a "pro-Trump video" and the Republican presumptive nominee would be the next target.

On gay marriage, the video shows Clinton backing a traditional view of marriage in 2004 and 2010, before changing to support gay marriage in 2013 and then accusing an NPR radio host in 2014 of "playing with my words" when the host accuses her of changing her tune. Read More