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Donald Trump’s return to the White House is set to reshape US foreign policy, promising potentially radical shifts on multiple fronts as war and uncertainty grip parts of the world. During his campaign, Trump made broad policy pledges, often lacking specific details, based on principles of non-interventionism and trade protectionism - or as he puts it “America First”. His victory signals one of the most significant potential disruptions in many years in Washington’s approach to foreign affairs in the midst of parallel crises. We can piece together some of his likely approach to different areas from both his comments on the campaign trail and his track record in office from 2017 to 2021. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in a day”. When asked how, he suggested overseeing a deal, but has declined to give specifics. A research paper written by two of Trump’s former national security chiefs in May said the US should continue its weapons supply to Ukraine, but make the support conditional on Kyiv entering peace talks with Russia. To entice Russia, the West would promise to delay Ukraine’s much-wanted entry into Nato. The former advisers said Ukraine should not give up its hopes of getting all of its territory back from Russian occupation, but that it should negotiate based on current front lines. Trump’s Democratic opponents, who accuse him of cosying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, say his approach amounts to surrender for Ukraine and will endanger all of Europe. He has consistently said his priority is to end the war and stem the drain on US resources. Follow live election night updates Full results: Check the count state by state US election weighs on Ukraine's frontline soldiers It’s not clear how far the former advisers’ paper represents Trump’s own thinking, but it’s likely to give us a guide to the kind of advice he’ll get. His “America First” approach to ending the war also extends to the strategic issue of the future of Nato, the transatlantic all-for-one and one-for-all military alliance set up after the World War Two, originally as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. Nato now counts 32 countries and Trump has long been a sceptic of the alliance, accusing Europe of free-riding on America’s promise of protection. Whether he would actually withdraw the US from Nato, which would signal the most significant shift in transatlantic defence relations in nearly a century, remains a matter of debate. Some of his allies suggest his hard line is just a negotiating tactic to get members to meet the alliance’s defence spending guidelines. But the reality is Nato leaders will be seriously worried about what his victory means for the alliance’s future and how its deterrent effect is perceived by hostile leaders. The Middle East As with Ukraine, Trump has promised to bring “peace” to the Middle East - implying he would end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon - but has not said how. He has repeatedly said that, if he had been in power rather than Joe Biden, Hamas would not have attacked Israel because of his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran, which funds the group. Broadly, it’s likely Trump would attempt to return to the policy, which saw his administration pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, apply greater sanctions against Iran and kill Gen Qasem Soleimani - Iran’s most powerful military commander. In the White House, Trump enacted strongly pro-Israel policies, naming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv - a move which energised Trump’s Christian evangelical base, a core Republican voter group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump the “best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House”. But critics argue his policy had a destabilising effect on the region. The Palestinians boycotted the Trump administration, because of Washington’s abandonment of their claim to Jerusalem - the city that forms the historical centre of national and religious life for Palestinians. How Israelis and Palestinians see US election US calls for Israel ceasefire with Hezbollah They were further isolated when Trump brokered the so-called “Abraham Accords”, which saw a historic deal to normalise diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab and Muslim countries. They did so without Israel having to accept a future independent Palestinian state alongside it - the so-called two-state solution - previously a condition of Arab countries for such a regional deal. The countries involved were instead given access to advanced US weapons in return for recognising Israel. The Palestinians were left at one of the most isolated points in their history by the only power that can really apply leverage to both sides in the conflict - further eroding their ability as they saw it to protect themselves on the ground. Trump made several statements during the campaign saying he wants the Gaza war to end. He has had a complex, at times dysfunctional relationship with Netanyahu, but certainly has the ability to apply pressure on him. He also has a history of strong relations with leaders in the key Arab countries that have contacts with Hamas. It’s unclear how he would navigate between his desire to show strong support for the Israeli leadership while also trying to bring the war to a close. Trump’s allies have often portrayed his unpredictability as a diplomatic asset, but in the highly contested and volatile Middle East in the midst of a crisis already of historical proportions, it’s far from clear how this would play out. Trump will have to decide how - or whether - to take forward the stalled diplomatic process launched by the Biden administration to get a Gaza ceasefire in return for the release of the hostages held by Hamas. America’s approach to China is its most strategically important area of foreign policy - and one which has the biggest implications for global security and trade. When he was in office, Trump labelled China a “strategic competitor” and imposed tariffs on some Chinese imports to the US. This sparked tit-for-tat tariffs by Beijing on American imports. There were efforts to de-escalate the trade dispute, but the Covid pandemic wiped out this possibility, and relations got worse as the former president labelled Covid a “Chinese virus”. While the Biden administration claimed to take a more responsible approach to China policy, it did, in fact, keep in place many of the Trump-era tariffs on imports. What Chinese people want from the US The trade policy has become closely linked to domestic voter perceptions in the US about protecting American manufacturing jobs - even though much of the long-term jobs decline in traditional US industries like steel has been as much about factory automation and production changes as global competition and offshoring. Trump has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping as both “brilliant” and “dangerous” and a highly effective leader who controls 1.4 billion people with an “iron fist”- part of what opponents characterised as Trump’s admiration for “dictators”. The former president seems likely to shift away from the Biden administration’s approach of building stronger US security partnerships with other regional countries in a bid to contain China. The US has maintained military assistance for self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control. Trump said in October that if he returned to the White House, he would not have to use military force to prevent a Chinese blockade of Taiwan because President Xi knew he was “[expletive] crazy”, and he would impose paralysing tariffs on Chinese imports if that happened. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dl0e4l7lzo
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Nickname: Wolf Age:22 Link with your forum profile: https://csblackdevil.com/forums/profile/60628-wolf17/ How much time do you spend on our channel ts every day?: - Where do you want to moderate? Check this topic: journalists section How much time you can be active on the Journalists Channel?:- Link with your last request to join in our Team:first Last 5 topics that you made on our section:made 6
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Calling Vice President Kamala Harris “a liar,” former President Donald Trump claimed that he never wanted to terminate the Affordable Care Act – an accusation Harris has repeatedly levied against him on the campaign trail. “Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing,” the former president posted on X Thursday. Facts First: Trump is trying to rewrite history. Repealing and replacing the landmark health reform law, po[CENSORED]rly known as Obamacare, was among his top campaign promises when he first ran for president in 2016, and he spent the initial months of his term pushing Congress to pass legislation to do just that. Trump revived the idea early in the current campaign before backtracking. At September’s presidential debate with Harris, he called the Affordable Care Act “lousy” and said “we” are working on “things” to replace it Even before he ran for office, Trump was crusading on Twitter, now known as X, to repeal the law signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama. During his 2016 campaign, he promised supporters that he would quickly dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Within hours of taking office in January 2017, he issued an executive order aimed at rolling back the law. After the GOP-led House of Representatives passed a repeal bill in May 2017, Trump called them to the White House for a celebratory appearance and said Obamacare was “essentially dead.” “This is a great plan. I actually think it will get even better. This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it,” Trump said. However, even though Republicans controlled Congress and the White House that year, they failed to unite behind a plan to do so, ending any serious attempts to completely jettison the Affordable Care Act. Trump spent the rest of his term chipping away at the law. The former president revived the debate over the law’s fate in November 2023, when he wrote on his Truth Social platform that he’s “seriously looking at alternatives” and that the failure to terminate it “was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!” Trump has recently tried to change his tack – promising to come up with a health care plan that’s better. “What we will do is we’re looking at different plans,” Trump said at September’s debate, noting that he had “concepts of a plan.” “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our po[CENSORED]tion, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then, I’d run it as good as it can be run,” he said. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/31/politics/aca-trump-repeal-affordable-care-act/index.html
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The Toyota RAV-X is the latest in a lineup of concept cars debuting this week at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The RAV-X is based on a plug-in-hybrid RAV4 and rides two inches higher with a 6.3-inch-wider track thanks to a heavily reworked suspension. Toyota also fitted the concept with unique front and rear bumpers, skid plates, and a roof spoiler. The Toyota 4Runner and Land Cruiser were ideal candidates to be converted into off-road-focused concepts for the 2024 SEMA show. Now Toyota is getting more experimental with yet another concept geared towards getting off the beaten path. The RAV-X is based on a 2024 RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid and draws inspiration from the burly machines that conquer the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. The RAV-X makes its debut this week at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The concept was crafted by the Toyota Service Parts and Accessories Development (SPAD) team, which fully reworked the suspension and tweaked the body for better off-road performance and a true motorsports-influenced look. The SPAD group aimed to create a halo car for the RAV4 lineup and was in charge of the entire process, from sketches to designing in CAD and 3-D-printed parts. The biggest upgrades live within the wheel wells, where Toyota fitted a long-travel suspension that lifted the RAV-X by two inches and increased the track width by 6.3 inches over the standard RAV4. The off-road SUV sports custom 2.5-inch internal-bypass dampers from Fox at the front and rear, which feature dual-speed compression adjustment. The dampers also include external reservoirs up front and piggyback-style reservoirs at the rear to maintain ideal oil temperatures. Additionally, Toyota fashioned forged aluminum front lower control arms and forged aluminum rear upper supports. No major changes were made to the powertrain, which consists of a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine mated to a trio of electric motors and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Toyota stated that the output was 302 horsepower "before being paired with a ram air intake," implying that the RAV-X makes a few more ponies than a standard plug-in RAV4. To protect the powertrain, the RAV-X wears front and rear skid plates, and the rocker panels were raised to provide more ground clearance. A redesigned front bumper emulates those of Dakar racers like the GR DKR Hilux that won the rally in 2023, with large cooling ducts, integrated Rigid LED lights, and a pair of red tow hooks. The RAV-X also dressed up with wider fenders, extra ventilation on the hood, red mud flaps, and a rear spoiler. The inner section of the taillights was replaced by a large black trim piece, itself wearing a small lip spoiler. The rear bumper also features a high-clearance dual exhaust, and the RAV-X rides on 17-inch forged aluminum wheels shod in 265/65R-17 tires. The wheels are painted white, with red accents up front and black accents at the rear. It seems unlikely that the RAV-X will ever reach production, but it certainly looks the part. We would welcome a more capable off-road variant of Toyota's po[CENSORED]r SUV. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a62807194/toyota-rav-x-concept-sema/
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Is a slower, more mindful pace of life the answer to stress – or is it just another unachievable, privileged lifestyle brag? Meet the author who battled burnout with "a year of nothing". How does the idea of doing nothing for a year sound? No work, no emails, no career progression, no striving or achieving or being productive. For many of us, such a thought might once have brought its own anxiety attack – surely, work is status, earning money is achievement, and being busy is a brag? But these days, a year of nothing is more likely to sound dreamy, even aspirational – there has been, as they say, a vibe shift. Millennials are embracing the concept of #SlowLiving – the hashtag has been used more than six million times on Instagram (despite posting on Insta being fairly antithetical to its principles of a mindful, sustainable lifestyle, with much reduced screen-time). Gen Z, meanwhile, have pioneered quiet quitting and "lazy girl jobs", where one does the minimum at work to preserve your energy for the more meaningful parts of your life, be that hobbies, relationships, or self-care. And people across the generations are united to wanting to work less: in the UK, the concept of the four-day week is gaining serious traction. To be facetious about it: hustle is out, and rest is in. And this is something Emma Gannon knows all about: the prolific author, podcaster, and Substack entrepreneur published A Year of Nothing – her account of taking an entire 12 months off – earlier this year. It quickly sold out when published earlier this summer, and has proved so po[CENSORED]r it will now be reprinted and available to buy in November. Not that it was, initially, a lifestyle choice: Gannon suffered such extremely bad burnout, she had no choice but to stop working. Her account of her year of rest and recuperation is now published in two small, sweetly readable volumes by The Pound Project, charting her journey back to health via gentle activities such as journaling, watching children's TV, birdwatching, and the inevitable cold-water swimming (which Gannon knowingly acknowledges is a cliché for "Millennial writers with their bobs and tote bags", but comes to love anyway). Having been fully on-board with the girl-boss culture of the 2010s, Gannon had already stepped away from that with her last book, The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having It All, which explored how relentlessly striving for success rarely brings true happiness. But it was experiencing complete burnout that forced her to really confront the importance of rest. "Looking back, there were lots of red flags – feeling very confused, pulsating headaches, not being able to focus on things in the room, quite scary stuff. But I over-rode it, [thinking]: 'I'm busy, I've got to crack on'," she recalls. Suddenly, in 2022, her body went into a forced shut-down mode. "Couldn't look at a phone, couldn't look at a screen, couldn't walk down a street without feeling fragile. It was the feeling that, 'oh you can't muddle your way through this – you have to stop'. Many people with chronic burnout have to get to that point before they'll take time off [work], because we're so conditioned in this society to push through at all costs. "But we were designed to have naps, and [walks in] the park. To go for a swim, and look at the sky. That stuff's really important," Gannon insists. And she's determined to carry the lessons from her burnout, and her recovery, into a slower, more spacious life. "Nothing is worth your health." But she's far from ploughing a lonely furrow, here – a scan of the self-help or pop philosophy sections of your local bookshop, or indeed a glance at the list of recommended reading at the back of A Year of Nothing, reveals a flourishing crop of books encouraging us to slow the heck down. Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy became a sensation in 2019, linking our frazzled brains to how profit-hungry technology and social media use up our attention and distract us. She advocated re-wiring our awareness to the natural world around us, and to our own interiority. Odell is also part of a wave of writers encouraging active resistance to the relentless "goal-oriented" expectation that, "in a world where our value is determined by our productivity", every hour and minute of our time should be put to good use – if not at work, then in self-improvement. Resisting the pressure to always be optimising can also be found in Oliver Burkeman's surprisingly comforting 2021 book Four Thousand Weeks – which reminds us that life is brief, and we will never get everything on our to-do list done. Rather than seeking to be ever-more efficient, he argues that we should focus on what really matters (spoiler alert: it's probably not hitting inbox zero), ditch perfectionism and completism, and live more fully in the present. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240724-why-doing-nothing-intentionally-is-good-for-us-the-rise-of-the-slow-living-movement
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The po[CENSORED]tion of the corncrake, one of Scotland's rarest birds, has seen a "promising" increase on the isle of Canna, the National Trust for Scotland says. A survey on the small island in the Inner Hebrides found 12 to 14 calling mates compared to one or two in previous seasons. Corncrakes have been in decline due to intensive agricultural methods and are one of 26 priority species listed by the trust. The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) said the "buoyant" po[CENSORED]tion can be attributed to new farming practices that support conservation. NTS ranger Tom Allen said: “Canna farm is a great example of prioritising both the production of high-quality livestock and creating a haven for wildlife and achieving success in both. “We’re really heartened by the success of corncrake on our farmland, and we hope this is a sign that things are moving in the right direction. Corncrakes migrate from Africa to breed on islands including Lewis, Harris, Mull, Orkney and parts of the north-west Highland coast and Argyll. The birds are counted by listening for the call of males. The isle of Canna has five designated areas of farmland for corncrake. NTS said it aims to increase the corncrake po[CENSORED]tion to 50 calling males, which would account for approximately 6% of the current UK po[CENSORED]tion. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgzny7e23go
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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says his team must accept that "everything is more difficult" this season as they aim to maintain their high standards. Premier League champions City suffered a first league defeat of the season against Bournemouth on Saturday, three days after losing to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup by the same 2-1 scoreline. They will seek to bounce back and maintain their unbeaten start in the Champions League on Tuesday, when they travel to face soon-to-be Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim's Sporting. "I know our standards but we've lost just one [league] game. Maybe we are going to lose again in the [next three games in the] Premier League against Brighton, Tottenham and Liverpool," Guardiola said. "We are just two points behind Liverpool who are a top-class team. We've started well in the Champions League but I know people expect us to win 38 league games and win the Treble every season as these are our standards." Manchester City have had several first-team injuries to contend with, including losing midfielder Rodri for the rest of the season after the Ballon d'Or winner ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in September. Guardiola said his side were in "trouble" after suffering more injuries in the midweek loss at Spurs and they were without key players such as John Stones, Ruben Dias and Kevin de Bruyne at the weekend. "The reason it is difficult is because we have had a lot of absentees, which can happen in some seasons," Guardiola said. "To win the Treble, everything has to be on the same page with injuries, but this is not possible this time. "The teams are very strong and everything is more difficult and we have to accept that. That is the challenge." Sporting boss Amorim, 39, has two more games as the club's head coach before taking over at Manchester United - including the Champions League match against his new team's rivals. The Portuguese coach says Manchester United fans may think "the new Alex Ferguson has arrived" if his team beat Manchester City on Tuesday. Both City and Sporting are on seven points from three Champions League games so far but City won 5-0 on aggregate when the sides met in the last 16 of the competition in 2022. "I feel like I'm a better coach [now]," said Amorim, whose side have won 14 of their past 15 games in all competitions. "Unfortunately what I feel is that Guardiola has also become an even better coach, so the gap remains. [City have] the best team in the world and the best coach in the world." Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00. Related topics https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/c238450zre1t
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Never in recent US political history has the outcome of a presidential election been so in doubt - this is not a contest for the faint of heart. While past elections have been narrowly decided - George W Bush's 2000 victory over Al Gore came down to a few hundred votes in Florida - there's always been some sense of which direction the race was tilting in the final days. Sometimes, as in 2016, the sense is wrong. In that year, polls overestimated Hillary Clinton's strength and failed to detect a late-breaking movement in Donald's Trump favour. This time around, however, the arrows are all pointing in different directions. No-one can seriously make a prediction either way. Most of the final polls are well within the margin of error, both nationally and in the seven key battleground states that will decide the election. Based on statistics and sample sizes alone, that means either candidate could be ahead. It is this uncertainty that vexes political pundits and campaign strategists alike. There have been a smattering of surprises - not least one notable example, a recent respected survey of Republican-leaning Iowa giving Harris a shock lead. But the major polling averages, and the forecasting models that interpret them, all show this as a coin-toss contest. Just because the outcome of this election is uncertain, that doesn't mean the actual result won't be decisive - a shift of a few percentage points either way, and a candidate could sweep all of the battleground states. If the voter turnout models are wrong and more women head to the polls, or more rural residents, or more disaffected young voters - that could dramatically shift the final results. There could also be surprises among key demographic groups. Will Trump really make the inroads with young black and Latino men that his campaign has predicted? Is Harris winning over a larger proportion of traditionally Republican suburban women, as her team is hoping? Are elderly voters - who reliably vote every election and tend to lean to the right - moving into the Democratic column? Americans anxious as two nations collide Once this election is in the rear-view mirror, we may be able to conclusively point to a reason why the winning candidate came out on top. Perhaps, in hindsight, the answer will be obvious. But anyone who says they know how things will turn out right now is fooling you - and themselves. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm276e04z77o
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