| Washington U.S. President Donald Trump is proposing to slash the corporate income tax rate and offer multinational businesses a steep tax break on overseas profits brought into the United States, officials said. Trump will also call for a sharp cut in the top rate on pass-through businesses, including many small business partnerships and sole proprietorships, to 15 percent from 39.6 percent, an administration official said. Trump's proposal will not include a controversial "border-adjustment" tax on imports that was floated by Republicans in the House of Representatives as a way to offset revenue losses resulting from tax cuts. Public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states have invested millions of dollars in an investment fund that owns a New York hotel and pays one of President Trump's companies to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records. That arrangement could put Trump at risk of violating an obscure constitutional clause, some legal experts say. The U.S. Congress was moving closer to crafting a deal to avoid shutting down the government at the stroke of midnight on Friday, but the details and even broad strokes of an agreement were still murky. Trump’s 100 days: Trump’s victories dimmed by misfires Today Trump will order a review of national monuments created over the past 20 years with an aim toward rescinding or resizing some of them - part of a broader push to reopen areas to drilling, mining and other development.
Syria French intelligence has concluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northern Assad or members of his inner circle ordered the strike, a declassified report showed.
North Korea The U.S. military started moving parts of an anti-missile defense system to a deployment site in South Korea, triggering protests from villagers and criticism from China, amid tension over North Korea's weapons development. Turkey
Turkish authorities arrested more than 1,000 people they said had secretly infiltrated police forces across the country on behalf of a U.S.-based cleric blamed by the government for a failed coup attempt last July.
A boy greets a veteran in a wheelchair during the annual ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day march through central Sydney, Australia, April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore
China A Chinese court sentenced a U.S. citizen to three-years and six-months in prison for espionage but then ordered she be deported, her lawyer said, in a case that has added to U.S.-China tension.
China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier. China says its Silk Road initiative is helping create "a new era of globalization" open to all, according to a draft communique for a summit next month on the project, as Beijing burnishes its free trade credentials amid protectionist forces elsewhere.
France French President Francois Hollande told government ministers to do all they can to ensure the biggest defeat possible for far right leader Marine Le Pen in the May 7 vote for the presidency against Emmanuel Macron, his spokesman said.
Business World stocks hit a record high today after strong earnings and the prospect of tax cuts for corporate America pushed U.S. shares to stratospheric levels and the euro held onto recent gains as political concerns in France ebbed. PepsiCo reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit as the company benefited from demand for its healthier drinks and snacks and kept a tight leash on costs. As scores of investment bankers profit from the fee bonanza offered by Chinese companies hunting for deals in the United States, one group is conspicuously absent - Chinese banks.
‘I was just saving them (for myself)” Serena Williams had no intention of sharing her pregnancy with the world last week but spilled the beans when she accidentally uploaded a photo of herself captioned "20 weeks" on Snapchat, the world number one said.
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