USA

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) –A high-ranking International Monetary Fund (IMF) official announced a full deal with Argentina “is very close,” as the Government of President Alberto Fernández hopes it will be next week, so that it can be put up for Congressional approval at the start of the new Legislature, March 1.

According to Casa Rosada sources, only the final details were still missing from the agreement. “We do not expect to close the deal this weekend, but in the middle of the next one,” the sources said. “It will surely be in the next fifteen days,” they added.

NEW YORK, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's approach to deal with trade deficits has failed and the country has to make big adjustments in its economic structure, a renowned U.S. economist has said.

"You can't fix your deficit problem by going after your largest deficit trading partner. It didn't work with Japan. It's not working with China," Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, said Wednesday at an online dialogue organized by the Asia Society, a non-profit New York-based institution.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — After agreeing to a $73 million lawsuit settlement with gun-maker Remington, the families of nine Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims say they are shifting their focus to ending firearms advertising with macho, military themes that exploit young men’s insecurities, all in the hopes of preventing more mass shootings.

The families say Remington used those kinds of ads to promote its AR-15-style rifles like the one used to kill 20 young children and six educators inside the Newtown, Connecticut, school on Dec. 14, 2012.

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

Mainstream US media continues to celebrate the supposed strength of the US economy. Almost daily, headlines speak of hopeful numbers, sustainable growth, positive trends and constant gains. The reality on the ground, however, tells of something entirely different, which raises the questions: Are Americans being lied to? And for what purpose?

New York, Feb 19 (AP) Former President Donald Trump faced one legal setback after another this week as a judge ruled he must sit for a deposition in New York to answer questions about his business practices, his accounting firm declared his financial statements unreliable, another judge rejected his efforts to dismiss conspiracy lawsuits and the National Archives confirmed that he took classified information to Florida as he left White House.

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. securities regulators responded to allegations that they are harassing Elon Musk, writing in a letter that they’re following a judge’s instructions in trying to speak with the Tesla CEO’s lawyers about his posts on Twitter.

In a letter dated Friday, Steven Buchholz of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s San Francisco Office wrote that the judge handling a securities case against Musk encouraged both sides to confer before raising issues with the court.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Lawmakers in the Maryland House of Delegates outlined a tax-relief package on Friday that would steer about $300 million over five years to working and middle class families, partly by cutting the state’s sales tax on goods like diapers, car seats and diabetic care products.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected efforts by former President Donald Trump to toss out conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers, saying in his ruling that the former president’s words “plausibly” led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling that Trump’s words during a rally before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kim Potter, the former suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. Wright’s family denounced the sentence as too lenient and accused the judge of giving more consideration to the white officer than the Black victim.

Potter was convicted in December of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 killing of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist. She was sentenced only on the more serious charge in accordance with state law.

NEW YORK, Feb 18 (APP): The visiting Pakistan parliamentary delegation leader, Sardar Talib Hasan Nakai, MNA, told a gathering of Pakistani community activists that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government was working diligently to ensure the people’s welfare, and it’s success in combating the coronavirus pandemic was recognized internationally.