Harris or Trump? Millions vote in tense, tight US election

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks during his final campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the early hours of November 5, 2024, and US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) speaks during a campaign rally on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024. Jeff Kowalsky and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP  

The volatile, dramatic US presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump headed to an unpredictable finish Tuesday, with millions of Americans casting their votes in one of the tightest elections of modern times.

The result -- which may be known overnight or not for days -- carries major consequences, either making Harris the first woman in arguably the world's most powerful job or handing power back to Trump and his nationalist "America First" agenda.

As voters formed long lines across the country, several bomb threats were reported at polling stations, while police at the US Capitol -- where Trump's supporters rampaged following his 2020 defeat -- arrested a man who smelled like fuel and was carrying a flare gun.

Both the FBI and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said the bomb threats, while not credible, appeared to originate from Russia.

Polls show one of the tightest races in modern times between Democratic Vice President Harris, 60, and Republican Trump, 78, who would be the first felon president, the oldest ever to take office and only the second to serve non-consecutive terms.

Harris made a late, dramatic entrance into the race when President Joe Biden dropped out in July, while Trump has ridden out two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction.

Tens of millions of voters were expected to cast their ballots Tuesday, on top of the 83 million who have already voted early, and both candidates put in a final word to try to sway the last undecided voters.

After criss-crossing the country, Harris returned to Washington where she called in to radio stations in swing states and took a few calls personally at a phone bank for voters.

"We've got to get it done. Today is voting day, and people need to get out and be active," Harris told Atlanta station WVEE-FM.

She described her opponent as "full of vengeance. He's full of grievance. It's all about himself."

'IF IT'S A FAIR ELECTION'

Trump voted in Florida near his Mar-a-Lago residence, saying he felt "very confident" and that he wanted to be "very inclusive."

But he aired concerns about the vote count -- heightening fears he will reject the result and cite fraud if he loses.

"If it's a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it," he said.

Trump has repeated baseless claims of election fraud while saying he should "never have left" the White House in 2021.

Casting a ballot in Arizona, Trump backer Camille Kroskey, 62, said she was voting in person due to concerns about voting fraud.

"I want to make sure I drop my ballot where it's going to actually land somewhere," she told AFP.

"Now, will it get counted?" she asked. "I don't know."

US stance on West PH Sea won’t change even with new president — analyst

In perhaps the most crucial battleground state, Pennsylvania, Harris voter Marchelle Beason, 46, said the lines were "way, way, way more" than in the last election.

"We're so divided right now, and she's about peace. And everything that her opponent has to say is really negative," she added.

MAJOR CONSEQUENCES

At the same school, 56-year-old Darlene Taylor, wearing a homemade Trump shirt, said her main issue is to "close the border."

Trump has vowed an unprecedented deportation campaign of millions of undocumented immigrants if elected.

The election is being watched closely around the world including in the war zones of Ukraine and the Middle East.

Harris has vowed to keep up support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion and to put a greater effort in ending the Gaza war, although she has also voiced support for Israel.

Trump has promised a quick end to the Ukraine war, likely by pressing Kyiv into concessions, and has made clear he will give freer rein to Israel, which relies on US support.

"We can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America -- indeed, the world -- to new heights of glory," Trump told his closing rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Harris hammered home her opposition to Trump-backed abortion bans in multiple states -- a vote-winning position with crucial women voters.

Control of Congress is also at stake, with Republicans widely expected to win back control of the Senate.

US election: When will we know who won?

Agence France-Presse

Facebook exec says 'no plans' to end Trump ban

Facebook does not intend to lift the suspension on outgoing President Donald Trump, the platform's second in command Sheryl Sandberg said Monday. 

"Our ban is indefinite. We have said at least through the transition. But we have no plans to lift it," Facebook's chief operating officer said at an online forum organized by Reuters. 

The social network last week suspended Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the aftermath the violent invasion of the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters, which disrupted the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.

Twitter went a step further on Friday by deleting Trump's account, depriving him of his favorite megaphone. 

Trump also was hit with suspensions from services like Snapchat and Twitch. 

"Our policies are applied to everyone," Sandberg said, noting that the platform has removed posts by the president's son and "other world leaders."

"This shows that even a president is not above the policies we have." 

In announcing the suspension last week, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said Trump used the platform to incite violent and was concerned he would continue to do so. 

Zuckerberg in late October warned about the potential for social unrest after the election.

Sandberg admitted that the platform faced some hiccups in the 2016 US presidential election, failing to do enough against manipulative campaigns orchestrated from Russia, but she said Facebook had learned from its errors.

Before the November 3 presidential election, the social network stepped up efforts to combat disinformation campaigns and suspended many accounts, groups and pages with violent or hate-filled content. 

Facebook said Monday that it is taking similar precautions leading up to the inauguration of Biden as president on Jan. 20, using the same teams to battle misinformation and content that could incite violence.

Content containing the phrase "stop the steal" will be removed from Facebook and Instagram, according to executives Monika Bickert and Guy Rosen.

A group by that name was removed from the social network late last year, Facebook said.

"We’ve been allowing robust conversations related to the election outcome and that will continue," Bickert and Rosen said in a post.

"But, with continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in DC, we’re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration."

Facebook is also keeping in place a pause on all ads in the US about politics or elections, meaning no ads from politicians including Trump, according to Bickert and Rosen.

Asked about criticism the social media titans exert outsized power, Sandberg said she was in favor of more regulation and said she hoped to work with the Biden administration, which will take office on January 20. 

"We are a private company and we have a service we provide and it is our responsibility to make sure that service is not used for things it shouldn't be used for, like what happened last Wednesday," she said.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook's Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

Facebook employees critical of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to remove an inflammatory comment from US President Donald Trump took their dissent public over the weekend on Twitter, praising the rival social media firm for taking action and rebuking their own employer.

Many tech workers at companies including Facebook, Google and Amazon have become active on social justice issues in recent years and urged their employers take action and change policies.

Still, the criticism of Zuckerberg marked a rare case of high-level employees publicly taking their own CEO to task, with at least three of the seven critical posts seen by Reuters coming from people who identified themselves as senior managers.

“Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," wrote Ryan Freitas, whose Twitter account identifies him as director of product design for Facebook’s News Feed. He added he had mobilized "50+ likeminded folks" to lobby for internal change.

Jason Toff, identified as director of product management, wrote: "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we’re showing up. The majority of coworkers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard."

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the employee dissent.

Twitter on Friday hid a tweet from Trump that included the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" behind a warning label. It explained the tweet violated Twitter's rules against "glorifying violence" but was being left up as a "public service exception."

Facebook declined to take action on the same message, with Zuckerberg saying in a Facebook post on Friday that while he found the remarks "deeply offensive," the company decided they did not violate its policy against "incitements to violence."

Some of the dissenting employees directly praised Twitter's response.

"Respect to @Twitter’s integrity team for making the enforcement call," wrote David Gillis, identified as a director of product design. In a long Twitter thread he said he understood the logic of Facebook's decision, but said: "I think it would have been right for us to make a 'spirit of the policy' exception that took more context into account."

Toff was one of several Facebook employees who were organizing fundraisers for non-profit groups assisting protesters in Minnesota. Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post early Monday that the company would contribute an additional $10 million to social justice causes.

"Giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it’s newsworthy," wrote another Facebook manager, Andrew Crow, head of design for the Portal product. "I disagree with Mark’s position and will work to make change happen." (Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore. Editing by Jonathan Weber and Chizu Nomiyama)

-reuters-

US opposition pushes trade court to brink of collapse

GENEVA - The World Trade Organization's capacity to settle international disputes, a core function throughout the body's 25-year history, is on the brink of collapse following relentless US opposition.

The appellate branch of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), sometimes dubbed the supreme court of world trade, was a target of US criticism before President Donald Trump took office.

His predecessor Barack Obama's administration began a policy of blocking the appointment of appeals judges over concerns that their rulings violated American interests.

Trump's trade team has both extended that policy and escalated the fight.

Barring a shock breakthrough in the coming days, the court will cease functioning on Wednesday.

The WTO appellate branch normally counts seven judges but has just three left -- the minimum required to hear an appeal. Two more judges are due to retire on Tuesday.

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo warned on Friday that the organization was facing a stark choice.

"You could restore the impartial, effective, efficient two-step review that most members say they want," he said.

"Alternatively, your choices could open the door to more uncertainty, unconstrained unilateral retaliation -– and less investment, less growth, and less job creation."

Various reform proposals have secured broad support.

But according to EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, there can no solution without US buy-in because the WTO works on consensus.

"This is a dispute between the 163 members of the WTO and the US," she told the European parliament last month.

US WTO envoy Dennis Shea argued on Friday that Washington had "engaged constructively over the past year" to resolve the crisis, but would not relent until its concerns were fixed.

"This is not an academic question; we will not be able to move forward until we are confident we have addressed the underlying problems and have found real solutions to prevent their recurrence," he told a WTO meeting.

TRUMP 'KILLED' IT

US concerns regarding the WTO appeals court include allegations of judicial overreach, delays in rendering decisions and bloated judges' salaries.

But top American trade officials have also insisted that the US Constitution does not permit a foreign court to supersede an American one -- and that WTO appellate judges assert such superiority in international trade law.

Washington reportedly threatened to block the WTO's 2020 budget over the dispute, raising the prospect of a January 1 shutdown.

The US ultimately backed a provisional budget compromise on Thursday but it included substantial appellate body cuts.

"There is no question the Trump administration has killed the appellate body," said Edward Alden, a trade expert at the Council of Foreign Relations think-tank.

"That was its intention, and it has succeeded."

WHAT NEXT?

The appellate body's demise will place international trade disputes in legal limbo.

Countries will still be able to file grievances and dispute panels can issue rulings, but nations unhappy with those rulings can simply delay enforcement by filing an appeal to a non-functioning court.

The European Union, Canada and others have reaffirmed their commitment to a two-step dispute process, arguing that the right of appeal is essential in any legal system.

Brussels and Ottawa have agreed to set up a temporary appellate process, which mirrors the WTO court, and would handle any bilateral disputes that arise during the impasse. Norway has joined that accord.

Leading WTO members also say they are open to wider reform.

"We have made clear that we are fully committed to tackling the root causes of the discontent around the existing system," the EU ambassador to the WTO Aguiar Machado told AFP.

Another Western diplomat who requested anonymity told AFP the European Union was willing to tackle concerns about the court's "excesses" but said the US must first agree to begin recruiting new judges -- a non-starter for Washington.

Some have suggested that a solution might have to wait until after next year's presidential election in the United States.

In the meantime, the WTO has been left diminished.

Since its founding in 1995, the organization has been tasked with promoting liberal international trade through a rules-based system backed by a dispute settlement process.

Trade promotion has faltered as the body has struggled to agree any major new deals and Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations predicted: "There will never be another big, liberalising trade round."

Certainly, court-backed rule enforcement appears certain to suffer a heavy blow next week.

"The WTO needs both its legs, litigation and negotiation" said Elvire Fabry of Jacques Delors Institute.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bloomberg calls for Trump defeat, takes new step towards 2020 run

WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg called Tuesday for President Donald Trump's defeat in 2020 as he took a new formal step towards joining the Democratic presidential race.

"Officially filed in Arkansas to be on the ballot for the Democratic primary," tweeted the former New York mayor along with a photograph of himself submitting the paperwork -- four days after doing the same in Alabama.

Both states have early deadlines to register for the primaries.

"We must defeat Trump. He has failed us at every turn," the 77-year-old added.

Bloomberg's personal appearance to sign his ballot papers in Little Rock is a strong public signal that the centrist tycoon will officially leap into the already-crowded Democratic primary field.

"Mike wanted to go and do the filing himself" in Arkansas, Bloomberg spokesman Jason Schechter told The New York Times.

"If he runs, he's going to go to states that Democrats never go to in the primary campaign. We're starting that today in Arkansas."

Bloomberg, who like Trump is a septuagenarian white New York billionaire, said back in March that he wouldn't run, but more recently has been toying with the idea of throwing his hat in the ring, according to an adviser.

He has changed his political affiliation on multiple occasions, including switching from Democrat to Republican when he successfully ran for mayor of New York in 2001. He became an independent 6 years later.

Bloomberg is believed to be concerned that the Democratic Party has shifted too far left in recent years, and that a progressive nominee like senators Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would lead to Trump's re-election.

Experts say a Bloomberg candidacy could hurt the current frontrunner Joe Biden, the former vice president who is the leading centrist in the race.

Trump last week predicted that Bloomberg would "hurt Biden" if he ran, saying "there's nobody I'd rather run against than Little Michael."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Is Trump's love affair with Fox News fading?

WASHINGTON - Last month after Donald Trump watched Fox News lob what he called "softball questions" at a Democratic lawmaker, the US president delivered a crisp smackdown of his favorite network: "Fox sure ain't what it used to be."

After years of often fawning coverage by Fox, particularly from its pro-Trump anchors like Sean Hannity, the commander in chief appears to be tilting his media gaze toward a younger, more right-wing rival, cable outfit One America News Network (OANN).

The small upstart broadcaster was launched only recently, in 2013, by technology millionaire Robert Herring, who sought a more conservative alternative to mainstream media behemoths like CNN.

Today it seeks to outfox Fox by drawing extra attention from Trump, who has been voicing his displeasure with the ratings leader over everything from presidential polling to its hosting of Democratic candidate town halls.

Last week in a tweet to his 63 million followers, the president managed to disparage Fox and his mainstream news foil CNN, while heaping praise on the new object of his media affection.

EMBRACING A NEWCOMER 

"Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith, the lowest rated show on @FoxNews. Actually, whenever possible, I turn to @OANN!" Trump posted.

Since March he has tweeted links to OANN stories or shared his appreciation of the network 13 times.

The relationship has been years in the making. In 2015 Trump was interviewed by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, when she guest-hosted OANN's show "On Point."

At his first press conference as president-elect, in January 2017, Trump took a question from an OANN reporter. OANN was then called on dozens of times at the daily briefings in Trump's first 100 days in office.

During his June 2018 press conference in Singapore, following the summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Trump took a question from OANN White House correspondent Emerald Robinson, but not before gushing about her network.

'IT'S REALLY BEAUTFUL' 

"Thank you for the nice way you treat us. We appreciate it," he said. "Really, it's very good. It's really beautiful what you do."

The San Diego-based operation describes itself as "straight news, no opinion." But the pro-Trump agenda is crystal clear, more than a dozen current and former employees told The Washington Post in 2017.

Herring himself, in his pinned tweet, describes OANN as "the president's favorite new outlet."

When Fox cut away from broadcasting a Trump rally in New Hampshire on Thursday, Herring tweeted, "We will never cut away!"

'WASTING AIRTIME' 

OANN has faced accusations of promoting conspiracy theories and peddling Kremlin propaganda.

"Yeah, we like Russia here," a staffer assigned to brief new OANN producer Ernest Champell told him, according to The Daily Beast. Champell left, disillusioned, four months later.

"The network has a history of race-baiting and presenting anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-abortion reporting," according to Media Matters, a progressive nonprofit group that says its mission is "analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation."

While OANN's influence in the White House may far outweigh its position in the news media landscape, Trump clearly retains an affinity for several people in the Fox organization.

The show "Fox & Friends" remains his go-to morning program; Trump has phoned in on numerous occasions as president.

Perhaps that is why Democratic longshot contender Julian Castro purchased ad time during "Fox & Friends" this week, airing a spot in which he directly addresses Trump and blames him for inspiring the El Paso shooter who massacred 22 people early this month.

POLLS 'HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE' 

Sean Hannity, the network's popular anchor, campaigned for Trump in 2016.

But friction emerged this week when Hannity expressed support for CNN anchor Chris Cuomo after a video of Cuomo in a heated argument at a New York bar went viral.

It was a sharp contrast to Trump, who tweeted that Cuomo -- the brother of New York's Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo -- was "nuts" and showed a "total loss of control" in the incident.

The president expressed frustration when Fox aired multiple town halls in recent months featuring Democrats who are trying to unseat him in 2020, including South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, currently fifth in major polling.

"Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete," Trump tweeted in May. "Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems."

Fox News presidential polling is also a concern for Trump, whose job approval rating in the network's mid-August poll dipped substantially, to 43 percent, while his disapproval rating spiked to 56 percent, its highest since October 2017.

In head-to-head matchups, the poll shows Trump losing to major Democratic candidates, including to frontrunner Joe Biden by 12 percentage points and to liberal Bernie Sanders by 9. 

Fox polls "have always been terrible to me," he tweeted in late July.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

China to impose tariffs on US goods despite Trump warning

WASHINGTON/BEIJING - China said on Monday it would impose higher tariffs on a range of US goods, striking back in its trade war with Washington shortly after US President Donald Trump warned it not to retaliate.

China's finance ministry said it plans to set import tariffs ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent on 5,140 US products on a target list worth about $60 billion. It said the tariffs will take effect on June 1.

The announcement came less than two hours after Trump warned Beijing not to retaliate after China said it "will never surrender to external pressure."

The White House and US Trade Representative's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Global equities fell sharply on Monday as hopes of an imminent trade deal between the world's two largest economies were crushed. Major US stock index futures were down about 2 percent.

The trade war escalated on Friday after Trump hiked tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, saying China had reneged on earlier commitments made during months of trade negotiations.

Beijing had vowed to respond to the latest US tariffs. "As for the details, please continue to pay attention. Copying a US expression - wait and see," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing on Monday.

Trump warned China not to intensify the trade dispute and urged its leaders, including President Xi Jinping, to continue to work to reach a deal. "China should not retaliate-will only get worse," he said on Twitter.

"I say openly to President Xi & all of my many friends in China that China will be hurt very badly if you don't make a deal because companies will be forced to leave China for other countries," Trump wrote.

STEADY DRUM BEAT

Trump last week also ordered US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, a move that would affect an additional $300 billion worth of goods.

Asked about the threat, Geng said: "We have said many times that adding tariffs won't resolve any problem ... We have the confidence and the ability to protect our lawful and legitimate rights."

Chinese state media kept up a steady drumbeat of strongly worded commentary on Monday, reiterating that China's door to talks was always open, but vowing to defend the country's interests and dignity.

In a commentary, state television said the effect on the Chinese economy from the US tariffs was "totally controllable."
"It's no big deal. China is bound to turn crisis to opportunity and use this to test its abilities, to make the country even stronger."

Before high-level talks last week in Washington, China tried to delete commitments from a draft agreement that Chinese laws would be changed to enact new policies on issues from intellectual property protection to forced technology transfers. That dealt a major setback to negotiations.

Trump has since defended the US tariff hike and said he was in "absolutely no rush" to finalize a deal.

Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday there was a "strong possibility" Trump will meet China's Xi at a G20 summit in Japan in late June. 

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Makini Brice in Washington; Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Jeffrey Benkoe and Paul Simao)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

China backtracked on nearly all aspects of US trade deal- Reuters sources

WASHINGTON/BEIJING - The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world's two largest economies, according to three US government sources and three private sector sources briefed on the talks.

The document was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core US demands, the sources told Reuters.

In each of the seven chapters of the draft trade deal, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: theft of US intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.

US President Donald Trump responded in a tweet on Sunday vowing to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent on Friday – timed to land in the middle of a scheduled visit by China's Vice Premier Liu He to Washington to continue trade talks.

The stripping of binding legal language from the draft struck directly at the highest priority of US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer - who views changes to Chinese laws as essential to verifying compliance after years of what US officials have called empty reform promises.

Lighthizer has pushed hard for an enforcement regime more like those used for punitive economic sanctions – such as those imposed on North Korea or Iran – than a typical trade deal.

"This undermines the core architecture of the deal," said a Washington-based source with knowledge of the talks.

"PROCESS OF NEGOTIATION"

Spokespeople for the White House, the US Trade Representative and the US Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a briefing on Wednesday that working out disagreements over trade was a "process of negotiation" and that China was not "avoiding problems".

Geng referred specific questions on the trade talks to the Commerce Ministry, which did not respond immediately to faxed questions from Reuters.

Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were taken aback at the extent of the changes in the draft. The two cabinet officials on Monday told reporters that Chinese backtracking had prompted Trump's tariff order but did not provide details on the depth and breadth of the revisions.

Liu last week told Lighthizer and Mnuchin that they needed to trust China to fulfill its pledges through administrative and regulatory changes, two of the sources said. Both Mnuchin and Lighthizer considered that unacceptable, given China's history of failing to fulfill reform pledges.

One private-sector source briefed on the talks said the last round of negotiations had gone very poorly because "China got greedy".

"China reneged on a dozen things, if not more ... The talks were so bad that the real surprise is that it took Trump until Sunday to blow up," the source said.

"After 20 years of having their way with the US, China still appears to be miscalculating with this administration."

FURTHER TALKS THIS WEEK

The rapid deterioration of negotiations rattled global stock markets, bonds and commodities this week. Until Sunday, markets had priced in the expectation that officials from the two countries were close to striking a deal.

Investors and analysts questioned whether Trump's tweet was a negotiating ploy to wring more concessions from China. The sources told Reuters the extent of the setbacks in the revised text were serious and that Trump's response was not merely a negotiating strategy.

Chinese negotiators said they couldn't touch the laws, said one of the government sources, calling the changes "major."

Changing any law in China requires a unique set of processes that can't be navigated quickly, said a Chinese official familiar with the talks. The official disputed the assertion that China was backtracking on its promises, adding that US demands were becoming more "harsh" and the path to a deal more "narrow" as the negotiations drag on.

Liu is set to arrive in Washington on Thursday for two days of talks that just last week were widely seen as pivotal – a possible last round before a historic trade deal. Now, US officials have little hope that Liu will come bearing any offer that can get talks back on track, said two of the sources.

To avert escalation, some of the sources said, Liu would have to scrap China's proposed text changes and agree to make new laws. China would also have to move further towards the US position on other sticking points, such as demands for curbs on Chinese industrial subsidies and a streamlined approval process for genetically engineered US crops.

The administration said the latest tariff escalation would take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday (0401 GMT), hiking levees on Chinese products such as internet modems and routers, printed circuit boards, vacuum cleaners and furniture.

The Chinese reversal may give China hawks in the Trump administration, including Lighthizer, an opening to take a harder stance.

Mnuchin - who has been more open to a deal with improved market access, and at times clashed with Lighthizer – appeared in sync with Lighthizer in describing the changes to reporters on Monday, while still leaving open the possibility that new tariffs could be averted with a deal.

Trump's tweets left no room for backing down, and Lighthizer made it clear that, despite continuing talks, "come Friday, there will be tariffs in place." 

(Additional reporting by Chris Prentice in NEW YORK, and Jing Xu and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING Editing by Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Twitter shares lift off as profits soar; Trump weighs in

WASHINGTON -- Twitter shares flew higher Tuesday after a surprisingly robust quarterly report, which sparked a fresh tirade from President Donald Trump over his claims of unfair treatment by social media.

The first-quarter report showed a profit of $191 million, compared with $61 million a year earlier, while revenues increased 18 percent to $787 million for the short messaging platform.

Twitter shares soared 15.6 percent to close at a nine-month high of $39.76 after the update from the short messaging platform, showing gains in advertising revenue and some signs that its user base is growing.

Trump, arguably the platform's most prominent user, sought to claim credit for the strong Twitter results while renewing his allegations of bias.

On his Twitter feed, Trump said the results were good but could be better "if Twitter wasn't playing their political games" and argued for "more, and fairer, companies."

Twitter's global user base appeared to show modest growth even as the company transitions to a different way of measuring it.

The longstanding metric of monthly active users was 330 million in the January-March period, an increase of nine million from the past quarter but down slightly from a year ago.

But Twitter no longer will use that measure, switching instead to "monetizable" daily active users -- 134 million in the past quarter, up from 120 million last year.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey said Twitter is benefiting from its moves to root out abusive and inauthentic content that had hurt Twitter's reputation.

"We are taking a more proactive approach to reducing abuse and its effects on Twitter," said Dorsey.

"We are reducing the burden on victims and, where possible, taking action before abuse is reported."

Twitter has also faced intense pressure from governments around the world to remove "hate speech" and incitements to violence.

Dorsey said much of the effort to deal with inappropriate content is based on machine learning and other technical tools, enabling Twitter to "proactively" remove tweets that violate its terms of service.

"Our number one priority as a company continues to be health," Dorsey told a conference call.

He added that Twitter aims to become "more conversational" and has launched a prototype for a new app called "twttr," with the goal of "making conversation on Twitter feel faster, more fluid and more fun."

Dorsey said the experimental app enables users "to see the entire conversation on one surface" without needing to click through various tweets.

TRUMP TAKES CREDIT 

The messaging platform has become an important tool for celebrities, politicians and journalists, but has failed to grow as quickly as Facebook and other social media among mainstream internet users.

Its troubles had sparked speculation that it might need to sell itself to survive.

Trump, who uses the platform for policy and political commentary, appeared to take credit for Twitter's turnaround, even as he renewed his claims of bias.

"The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump," the president tweeted after the quarterly update, borrowing a quote from a television journalist.

"So true, but they don't treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people."

Shortly after, but away from TV cameras, Trump received Dorsey at the White House, the president's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told AFP, without detailing their discussions.

Trump then tweeted again, confirming the meeting.

"Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!" Trump said alongside a photo of Dorsey and others in the Oval Office.

Twitter told AFP that Dorsey "had a constructive meeting" with Trump at the president's invitation.

"They discussed Twitter's commitment to protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 US elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis," Twitter said.

Trump has over several months maintained that Twitter and other Silicon Valley platforms have discriminated against conservatives, a claim roundly rejected by tech firms.

The quarterly results appear to show Twitter on a positive track, according to Jasmine Enberg of the research firm eMarketer.

Enberg said the move to use monetizable daily active users -- those seeing ads on the platform -- leads to a "value proposition to advertisers" to reach "a committed, though not very large user base when compared with other social platforms."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

TIMELINE: Big moments in Mueller investigation of Russian meddling in 2016 US poll

Here is a timeline of significant developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow.

2017

May 17 - US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and to look into any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump's campaign.

The appointment follows President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 and days later Trump attributed the dismissal to "this Russia thing."

June 15 - Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports.

Oct. 30 - Veteran Republican political operative and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who worked for the campaign for 5 pivotal months in 2016, is indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States and money laundering as is his business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for Trump's campaign.

- Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.

Dec. 1 - Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month who also had a prominent campaign role, pleads guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington.

2018

Feb. 16 - Federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and 3 firms, including a Russian government propaganda arm called the Internet Research Agency, accusing them of tampering to support Trump and disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The accused "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 US presidential election" according to the court document filed by Mueller.

- An American, Richard Pinedo, pleads guilty to identity fraud for selling bank account numbers after being accused by prosecutors of helping Russians launder money, buy Facebook ads and pay for campaign rally supplies. Pinedo was not associated with the Trump campaign.

Feb. 22 - Manafort and Gates are charged with financial crimes, including bank fraud, in Virginia.

Feb. 23 - Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agrees to cooperate and testify against Manafort at trial.

April 3 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller's investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the probe.

April 9 - FBI agents raid home, hotel room and office of Trump's personal lawyer and self-described "fixer" Michael Cohen.

April 12 - Rosenstein tells Trump that he is not a target in Mueller's probe.

April 19 - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter in the election campaign, joins Trump's personal legal team.

June 8 - Mueller charges a Russian-Ukrainian man, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort business partner whom prosecutors say had ties to Russian intelligence, with witness tampering.

July 13 - Federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 and staged releases of documents. Russia, which denies interfering in the election, says there is no evidence that the 12 are linked to spying or hacking.

July 16 - In Helsinki after the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly contradicts US intelligence agencies that concluded Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda. Trump touts Putin's "extremely strong and powerful" denial of meddling. He calls the Mueller inquiry a "rigged witch hunt" on Twitter.

Aug. 21 - A trial jury in Virginia finds Manafort guilty of 5 counts of tax fraud, 2 counts of bank fraud and 1 count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.

- Cohen, in a case brought by US prosecutors in New York, pleads guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. Cohen is subsequently interviewed by Mueller's team.

Aug. 31 - Samuel Patten, an American business partner of Kilimnik, pleads guilty to unregistered lobbying for pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine.

Sept. 14 - Manafort pleads guilty to 2 conspiracy counts and signs a cooperation agreement with Mueller's prosecutors.

Nov. 8 - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump's request. He had recused himself from overseeing the Mueller inquiry because of his contacts with the Russian ambassador as a Trump campaign official. Trump appoints Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a critic of the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general.

Nov. 20 - Giuliani says Trump submitted written answers to questions from Mueller, as the president avoids a face-to-face interview with the special counsel.

Nov. 27-28 - Prosecutors say Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators, which Manafort denies. Trump says he has not ruled out granting Manafort a presidential pardon.

Nov. 28 - Giuliani says Trump told investigators he was not aware ahead of time of a meeting in Trump Tower in New York between several campaign officials and Russians in June 2016.

Nov. 29 - Cohen pleads guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to Congress about the length of discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. "I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1's political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1," says Cohen, who previously identified "individual 1" as Trump.

- The president criticizes Cohen as a liar and "weak person."

Dec. 12 - Two developments highlight growing political and legal risks for Trump: Cohen sentenced to 3 years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the election; American Media Inc, publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, strikes deal to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments. Publisher admits payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump's statements.

2019

Jan. 25 - Longtime Trump associate and self-proclaimed political "dirty trickster" Roger Stone charged and arrested at his home in Florida. Stone is accused of lying to Congress about statements suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of plans by Wikileaks to release Democratic Party campaign emails that US officials say were stolen by Russia.

Feb. 21 - US judge tightens gag order on Stone, whose Instagram account posted a photo of the judge and the image of crosshairs next to it.

Feb. 22 - Manhattan district attorney's office is pursuing New York state criminal charges against Manafort whether or not he receives a pardon from Trump on federal crimes, a person familiar with the matter says. Trump cannot issue pardons for state convictions.

Feb. 24 - Senior Democratic US Representative Adam Schiff says Democrats will subpoena Mueller's final report on his investigation if it is not given to Congress by the Justice Department, and will sue the Trump administration and call on Mueller to testify to Congress if necessary.

Feb. 27 - Cohen tells US House Oversight Committee Trump is a "racist," a "con man" and a "cheat" who knew in advance about a release of emails by WikiLeaks in 2016 aimed at hurting rival Clinton. Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the campaign even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, Cohen testifies.

March 7 - Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case to almost 4 years in prison. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

March 13 - Manafort is sentenced to about 3-1/2 more years in prison in the Washington case, bringing his total prison sentence in the 2 special counsel cases to 7-1/2 years.

- On the same day, the Manhattan district attorney announces a separate indictment charging Manafort with residential mortgage fraud and other New York state crimes, which unlike the federal charges cannot be erased by a presidential pardon.

March 22 - Mueller submits his confidential report on the findings of his investigation to US Attorney General William Barr.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pelosi says Trump 'just not worth' impeaching

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, America's most powerful Democrat, said in remarks published Monday that she does not support impeaching Donald Trump, arguing the Republican president is "just not worth it."

"I'm not for impeachment," Pelosi told The Washington Post in a wide-ranging interview, the strongest signal yet that the Democratic leadership is deeply hesitant about taking such an explosive step to remove a sitting president.

"Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path, because it divides the country," she said.

"And he's just not worth it."

Trump and his associates face multiple investigations, including one headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that is looking into Russian influence on the 2016 US election and potential collusion between Trump's team and Moscow.

And in explosive congressional testimony late last month, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen branded the president a conman and cheat and sought to implicate his ex-boss in multiple crimes.

Even as she waves off calls to impeach Trump, Pelosi -- who in January began her second stint as speaker after Democrats won back the House in midterm elections -- stressed that she does not believe he is fit to lead the nation.

"I don't think he is" fit to be president, she said in the interview. "I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity-wise unfit."

The investigations and related testimony like Cohen's may or may not produce evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors on the president's part. 

Some rank-and-file House Democrats, like freshmen liberal Rashida Tlaib, are keen to being impeachment proceedings. Their ranks are sure to grow if more serious evidence of presidential wrongdoing emerges.

Others remain concerned that for now, an effort to oust Trump before the election might backfire, energizing an angry Republican base and antagonizing voters Democrats would need in the next election.

Some in the party would prefer a political battle against Trump at the ballot box, rather than an impeachment effort waged in Congress.

And with the Senate in Republican control, Trump's ouster would be far from assured.

Pelosi pointed to the excruciating process of president Bill Clinton's impeachment by the House in 1998, and his subsequent acquittal by the Senate.

"That was horrible for the country," she said.

Congressman Jerry Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said earlier this month that while it was "very clear" that Trump has obstructed justice, "impeachment is a long way down the road."

Nadler's committee launched a sprawling new investigation last week that is sure to take months, demanding documents from 81 persons or entities connected to Trump.

But he told ABC News that ahead of any impeachment proceedings, lawmakers would need to convince the American public that members were "not just trying to... reverse the results of the last election."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

War of words rages as Pelosi blocks Trump's speech to Congress

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump intensified his war of words with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday after she effectively blocked him from delivering his annual address in Congress during the government shutdown, now in its 33rd day.

The growing acrimony came on the eve of a pair of US Senate votes that appear unlikely to end the longest-ever shutdown -- and as furloughed federal workers vented their fury on Capitol Hill.

The president and his Republicans still have the better part of a week to resolve differences with Democrats and get federal operations going again, allowing his State of the Union speech to proceed.

But the prospects were dim, with the Senate votes -- one on Trump's plan that includes money for his border wall, the other by Democrats seeking to reopen government before negotiating border security -- bound to fail on Thursday.

Traditionally the president's annual speech, scheduled for next Tuesday, is delivered before a joint session of Congress in the ornate chamber of the House of Representatives.

In an effort to force the hand of Pelosi, who had already urged Trump to reschedule due to shutdown-related security shortcomings, the president wrote to her saying it would be "so very sad for our Country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!"

Pelosi, who has become the face of Democratic opposition to Trump in Congress, pushed back, informing the president that the House would not authorize the speech in the chamber.

"Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened," said Pelosi.

The rejection sent Washington's establishment into uncharted territory, and all but forced Trump to retreat over his address.

"The State of the Union speech has been cancelled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn't want to hear the truth" about border security, Trump told reporters, adding that he is considering an "alternative" for the speech.

"We'll be announcing what we'll do," he said.

'WILL WORK FOR PAY'

The shutdown, which has seen some 800,000 federal employees left without pay for a month, was triggered by Trump's refusal to sign funding bills in December.

This was in retaliation for the Democrats' refusal to approve funds for extending walls along the US-Mexico border.

With the closure of about one quarter of federal agencies affecting millions of Americans, hundreds of government workers who have not been paid in weeks used the power of protest to publicize their plight, peacefully occupying a congressional office building for several hours.

Some held posters or paper plates with messages including "Will work for pay" and "Do your job -- so Americans can do theirs."

And with no solution in sight, they were bracing for Friday, when they expect to miss their second paycheck in a row.

Trump says he will not reopen government before his wall funding comes through. But he also pointed the finger and Pelosi and her caucus.

"It's really a shame, what's happening with the Democrats," he said. "They've become radicalized."

The votes in the Republican-controlled Senate have the potential to break the impasse, but since both need to clear a 60-vote threshold to advance in the 100-member chamber, their passage is unlikely.

Government shutdowns are a disruptive political ritual that have occurred in various administrations and are almost unique to the American system.

This one is the longest on record, and has left a broad swath of federal workers unpaid -- among them airport security officers, FBI agents, museum workers, US Coast Guard personnel, and Environmental Protection Agency personnel charged with monitoring toxic chemicals or other pollutants.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

John Kerry to Trump: 'Resign'

DAVOS, Switzerland - Former US secretary of state John Kerry said Tuesday he was not ruling out another tilt at the White House in 2020 but that in the here and now, Donald Trump should quit.

"I've told people I have not taken it off the table, but I'm not sitting around actively planning a (2020) campaign, or doing something, no," Kerry, 75, told CNBC television at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Kerry was the Democrats' defeated candidate in 2004 and if he did pursue a long-shot bid again, he would join a growing field from his party. 

On Monday, Senator Kamala Harris entered the fray, bidding to become the first African-American woman to hold the presidency.

On current affairs, Kerry said the government shutdown in Washington -- triggered by President Trump's demands for a border wall -- was "utterly disgraceful" and "embarrassing for our country".

Trump was guilty of "lies", not least over the Paris climate accord, Kerry added during a discussion with UN oceans envoy Peter Thomson and Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist for environmental group WWF.

Asked what message he would give Trump were the president sitting opposite him, Kerry said to laughter: "Resign."

jit/jj

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump and Pelosi again butt heads but others see possible paths

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump bitterly attacked top Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Sunday and she again insisted that he end the government shutdown before border security talks can begin, but there were hints of possible movement.



Trump lashed out on Twitter a day after Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, dismissed as a "non-starter" his offer to extend temporary protection to about a million immigrants in return for $5.7 billion for the wall he wants on the Mexican border to fulfill a signature campaign promise.

Government shutdowns are a disruptive political ritual that have occurred in various administrations and are almost unique to the American system. But this one is the longest on record. It has left about 800,000 federal workers unpaid -- among them airport security officers, FBI agents, museum workers, and Coast Guard members.

"Nancy Pelosi has behaved so irrationally & has gone so far to the left that she has now officially become a Radical Democrat," the president tweeted. "She is so petrified of the 'lefties' in her party that she has lost control."

It was Trump's most direct attack on Pelosi since the partial government shutdown began, and appeared to reflect a mounting sense of frustration.

Pointedly ignoring his personal comments, Pelosi on Twitter emphasized the need to end the impasse, which has inflicted increasing pain after one month, with some government employees having to turn to food banks or local charities to get by.

"Reopen the government, let workers get their paychecks and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border. #EndTheShutdown," she tweeted.

'GOOD-FAITH COMPROISE'

While Pelosi and other Democrats dismissed Trump's offer, Republicans insisted that it represented actual movement by the president.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has been leading the administration's contacts with Congress, said the Senate would put the proposal to a vote as early as Tuesday. He called it "a good-faith compromise."

The planned vote also reflects a shift by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He insisted previously that he would not take up any shutdown bill unless both Trump and Democratic leaders backed it.

"In a very real sense, what President Trump did here was he set the table for a deal," Pence said on "Fox News Sunday."

The bill's fate was far from clear. Republicans hope to lure the votes of a few Democrats from Trump-friendly states to reach the 60 votes needed, but they may lose some hard-line conservatives in the process.

MOST BLAME REPUBLICANS

The Trump administration -- increasingly blamed by Americans for the shutdown -- is trying to balance demands of those hard-liners and Democrats who adamantly oppose spending the $5.7 billion Trump wants for a wall.

Trump has regularly warned of what he says is a serious criminal threat from undocumented migrants entering the country, which is grappling with a surge in arrivals by families and children who say they are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.

Democrats have offered more than $2 billion for a range of other border-security measures.

They assailed Trump's new offer as cynical, noting that it was the president who -- by moving earlier to end the DACA program protecting 700,000 young immigrants and to expel about 300,000 others in a separate program -- had placed in jeopardy many of those for whom he now offers temporary protection.

But anti-immigrant voices also attacked Trump's offer as tantamount to amnesty for the undocumented -- a toxic concept for many conservatives.

"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer. It is a 3 year extension of DACA," Trump said in another tweet. DACA was former president Barack Obama's program to shield undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.

Trump said that there would be "no big push" to remove the 11 million people in the country illegally, before warning: 'but be careful, Nancy!"

His immigration crackdown has not stanched the influx of migrants, and a new group of about 400 Hondurans -- the fourth since October 13 -- headed north on Saturday, officials there said.

Still, as the costs of the US shutdown mounted, both sides in the standoff appeared to be casting about cautiously for a road ahead.

"The vote this week (in the Senate) is not to pass the bill," said Senator James Lankford, a Republican, "It's to open up and say, can we debate this? Can we amend it? Can we make changes? Let's find a way to get the government open."

Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, said that "I would not rule out a wall in certain circumstances."

He suggested that Democrats were amenable to negotiating if Trump would stop demonizing the party and its leaders and provide assurances that he would not suddenly shift positions.

"The notion that we have come from a (focus on a) wall to some other thing is moving it along," he told ABC's "This Week," "but we have to sit down and talk."

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who plans to seek the presidency in 2020, told CNN it was urgent that both sides "come together and have a real conversation and hash out the differences."

But Representative James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, insisted that the government must first be reopened.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump says transgender policy seeks to 'protect the country'

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that transgender issues were in flux and he aims to protect the country after a report that his administration was considering defining gender as male or female based on genitalia at birth drew widespread condemnation.

"We have a lot of different concepts right now. They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now," Trump said amid a protest outside the White House and outpouring of criticism on social media about the proposal.

Asked about a campaign promise to protect the LGBT community, Trump said: "I'm protecting everybody. I want to protect our country."

Under a proposal first reported by the New York Times on Sunday, the Trump administration would narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth and it would be unchangeable later in life.

The move would remove recognition of and protections for transgender people under US civil rights laws promoted by the prior administration of President Barack Obama in health care, schools and the military.

About 1.4 million US adults identify as transgender, according to a 2016 estimate by the Williams Institute, a research center at UCLA Law School focused on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.

The reported proposal comes little more than a week after New York City created a gender-neutral "X" option for birth certificates, joining California, Oregon, Washington state and New Jersey in offering a third gender category on the government-issued identity documents.

Medical experts said on Monday that defining gender based on genitalia at birth is scientifically inaccurate and may harm patients' health.

Dr. Joshua Safer, executive director of Mount Sinai Hospital's Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, said the Trump administration's definition is "not consistent with current western medicine or science in terms of how we actually operate or define sex of individuals."

"Sex of individuals is not correlated always with their genitals at birth, or with their chromosomes," said Safer, who also serves as president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Most transgender people live with a profound sense that the gender assigned to them at birth was wrong and transition to the opposite sex, while others live a non-binary or gender-fluid life.

"We urge the administration to ensure all public health policy is firmly rooted in science, and to keep discrimination and political interference out of our nation’s health,” said Dr. Lisa Hollier, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Beyond the broader issues raised by the administration memo, doctors said the new policy would be impossible to apply to "intersex" babies who are born with ambiguous genitalia or reproductive organs.

"Trump's definition does not even take this entire group of patients into consideration," said Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family medicine and LGBT care specialist in Phoenix.

If the administration's recommended definition is adopted, these patients will likely be assigned a male or female sex at birth, which can have devastating long-term psychological and health consequences, she said. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com