| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? 09:28 - Jul 9 with 17511 views | Shaky |
This story about Trump's war on healthcare is going to take some beating:
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U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials
By Andrew Jacobs
The New York Times. July 8, 2018
A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly.
Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.
American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.
When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.
The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.
The showdown over the issue was recounted by more than a dozen participants from several countries, many of whom requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from the United States.
Health advocates scrambled to find another sponsor for the resolution, but at least a dozen countries, most of them poor nations in Africa and Latin America, backed off, citing fears of retaliation, according to officials from Uruguay, Mexico and the United States.
“We were astonished, appalled and also saddened,” said Patti Rundall, the policy director of the British advocacy group Baby Milk Action, who has attended meetings of the assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, since the late 1980s.
“What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on best way to protect infant and young child health,” she said.
In the end, the Americans’ efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure – and the Americans did not threaten them.
The State Department declined to respond to questions, saying it could not discuss private diplomatic conversations. The Department of Health and Human Services, the lead agency in the effort to modify the resolution, explained the decision to contest the resolution’s wording but said H.H.S. was not involved in threatening Ecuador.
“The resolution as originally drafted placed unnecessary hurdles for mothers seeking to provide nutrition to their children,” an H.H.S. spokesman said in an email. “We recognize not all women are able to breast-feed for a variety of reasons. These women should have the choice and access to alternatives for the health of their babies, and not be stigmatized for the ways in which they are able to do so.” The spokesman asked to remain anonymous in order to speak more freely.
Although lobbyists from the baby food industry attended the meetings in Geneva, health advocates said they saw no direct evidence that they played a role in Washington’s strong-arm tactics. The $70 billion industry, which is dominated by a handful of American and European companies, has seen sales flatten in wealthy countries in recent years, as more women embrace breast-feeding. Overall, global sales are expected to rise by 4 percent in 2018, according to Euromonitor, with most of that growth occurring in developing nations.
The intensity of the administration’s opposition to the breast-feeding resolution stunned public health officials and foreign diplomats, who described it as a marked contrast to the Obama administration, which largely supported W.H.O.’s longstanding policy of encouraging breast-feeding.
During the deliberations, some American delegates even suggested the United States might cut its contribution the W.H.O., several negotiators said. Washington is the single largest contributor to the health organization, providing $845 million, or roughly 15 percent of its budget, last year.
The confrontation was the latest example of the Trump administration siding with corporate interests on numerous public health and environmental issues.
In talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Americans have been pushing for language that would limit the ability of Canada, Mexico and the United States to put warning labels on junk food and sugary beverages, according to a draft of the proposal reviewed by The New York Times.
During the same Geneva meeting where the breast-feeding resolution was debated, the United States succeeded in removing statements supporting soda taxes from a document that advises countries grappling with soaring rates of obesity.
The Americans also sought, unsuccessfully, to thwart a W.H.O. effort aimed at helping poor countries obtain access to lifesaving medicines. Washington, supporting the pharmaceutical industry, has long resisted calls to modify patent laws as a way of increasing drug availability in the developing world, but health advocates say the Trump administration has ratcheted up its opposition to such efforts.
The delegation’s actions in Geneva are in keeping with the tactics of an administration that has been upending alliances and long-established practices across a range of multilateral organizations, from the Paris climate accord to the Iran nuclear deal to Nafta.
Ilona Kickbusch, director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, said there was a growing fear that the Trump administration could cause lasting damage to international health institutions like the W.H.O. that have been vital in containing epidemics like Ebola and the rising death toll from diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the developing world.
“It’s making everyone very nervous, because if you can’t agree on health multilateralism, what kind of multilateralism can you agree on?” Ms. Kickbusch asked.
A Russian delegate said the decision to introduce the breast-feeding resolution was a matter of principle.
“We’re not trying to be a hero here, but we feel that it is wrong when a big country tries to push around some very small countries, especially on an issue that is really important for the rest of the world,” said the delegate, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said the United States did not directly pressure Moscow to back away from the measure. Nevertheless, the American delegation sought to wear down the other participants through procedural maneuvers in a series of meetings that stretched on for two days, an unexpectedly long period.
In the end, the United States was largely unsuccessful. The final resolution preserved most of the original wording, though American negotiators did get language removed that called on the W.H.O. to provide technical support to member states seeking to halt “inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children.”
The United States also insisted that the words “evidence-based” accompany references to long-established initiatives that promote breast-feeding, which critics described as a ploy that could be used to undermine programs that provide parents with feeding advice and support.
Elisabeth Sterken, director of the Infant Feeding Action Coalition in Canada, said four decades of research have established the importance of breast milk, which provides essential nutrients as well as hormones and antibodies that protect newborns against infectious disease.
A 2016 Lancet study found that universal breast-feeding would prevent 800,000 child deaths a year across the globe and yield $300 billion in savings from reduced health care costs and improved economic outcomes for those reared on breast milk.
Scientists are loath to carry out double-blind studies that would provide one group with breast milk and another with breast milk substitutes. “This kind of ‘evidence-based’ research would be ethically and morally unacceptable,” Ms. Sterken said.
Abbott Laboratories, the Chicago-based company that is one of the biggest players in the $70 billion baby food market, declined to comment.
Nestlé, the Switzerland-based food giant with significant operations in the United States, sought to distance itself from the threats against Ecuador and said the company would continue to support the international code on the marketing of breast milk substitutes, which calls on governments to regulate the inappropriate promotion of such products and to encourage breast-feeding.
In addition to the trade threats, Todd C. Chapman, the United States ambassador to Ecuador, suggested in meetings with officials in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, that the Trump administration might also retaliate by withdrawing the military assistance it has been providing in northern Ecuador, a region wracked by violence spilling across the border from Colombia, according to an Ecuadorean government official who took part in the meeting.
The United States embassy in Quito declined to make Mr. Chapman available for an interview.
“We were shocked because we didn’t understand how such a small matter like breast-feeding could provoke such a dramatic response,” said the Ecuadorean official, who asked not to be identified because she was afraid of losing her job.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador- |  |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:06 - Jul 10 with 2875 views | Kilkennyjack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:03 - Jul 10 by valleyboy |
When did you last spend some time in London recently???? |
Last week mate, u ? |  |
| Beware of the Risen People
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:19 - Jul 10 with 2855 views | BrynCartwright |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 16:30 - Jul 10 by Highjack |
If more people breastfeed then it would hurt the profits of the baby milk industry decimating the jobs of those who work within it. Aren’t politicians right to protect big industries, jobs and the markets at all costs?
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HJ..There are instances when playing devil's advocate are hilarious examples of educated witticism, and then there are what you did. Get a grip will you? You would really prefer companies to make profits from selling artificial titty milk than children benefiting from a more natural, accessible and beneficial alternative? You've gone down in my estimation. Nestle helping to kill kids is not good hombre. |  |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:26 - Jul 10 with 2849 views | Highjack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:28 - Jul 10 by Shaky |
You don't see any distinction between supporting business operating ethically versus unethically, for example killing people?
I don't know what to say, except that you are in no way playing devils advocate if you are unable to detect any nuance between those positions. Putting it kindly. |
If I were the evil king of an evil baby milk producing company and somebody suggested a specific demographic to kill, babies would be low on the list considering they are my companies primary target audience. |  |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:27 - Jul 10 with 2842 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:06 - Jul 10 by Kilkennyjack |
Last week mate, u ? |
I’m glad you didn’t get stabbed. |  | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:35 - Jul 10 with 2830 views | BrynCartwright |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:26 - Jul 10 by Highjack |
If I were the evil king of an evil baby milk producing company and somebody suggested a specific demographic to kill, babies would be low on the list considering they are my companies primary target audience. |
Think you're a bit pissed up on a school night. Go to bed before you really make a dildo of yourself. | |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 00:17 - Jul 11 with 2805 views | Highjack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:19 - Jul 10 by BrynCartwright |
HJ..There are instances when playing devil's advocate are hilarious examples of educated witticism, and then there are what you did. Get a grip will you? You would really prefer companies to make profits from selling artificial titty milk than children benefiting from a more natural, accessible and beneficial alternative? You've gone down in my estimation. Nestle helping to kill kids is not good hombre. |
Devils advocate is when you take a contrary stance opposite to what you believe in to explore or to expand debate. For the record I completely disagree with the stance take by the US administration on this issue, i would always encourage breast feeding when possible. I also understand that some women choose not to breast feed for many reasons. This is when manufactured milk formula is handy. That is their choice. I am not a mother. I do not have tits. Well I have little ones but I am on a diet, I have also never fired out a human being headfirst through my pelvic girdle and genitals. So I am not qualified to make that choice or say what’s better for any mother.
I was merely pointing out the juxtaposition of shaky’s constant argument on brexit that our politicians should always act to protect big business, jobs and the market over the concerns of the general populace. This is what the US administration is doing here. Protecting the profits of a multi billion dollar industry over the potential health of young kids in a foreign country.
They or nestle are not trying to kill anyone. Baby milk formula is not poisonous. It’s just not as beneficial as mothers milk as it lacks vital antibodies etc. | |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 07:17 - Jul 11 with 2748 views | Loyal |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:09 - Jul 10 by londonlisa2001 |
Every American I know thinks he’s a complete embarrassment and can’t stand him. |
I will admit the ones I know are in the more manual labour side of things, but of course he has ddcent support or he couldnt be president. I think he could wellmfomit again.
I was told ...
Many Trump apologists actually support him deep down but are too scared to be judged. |  |
| Nolan sympathiser, clout expert, personal friend of Leigh Dineen, advocate and enforcer of porridge swallows.
The official inventor of the tit w@nk. | | Poll: | Who should be Swansea number 1 |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:50 - Jul 11 with 2710 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 07:17 - Jul 11 by Loyal |
I will admit the ones I know are in the more manual labour side of things, but of course he has ddcent support or he couldnt be president. I think he could wellmfomit again.
I was told ...
Many Trump apologists actually support him deep down but are too scared to be judged. |
Scared to be judged lol. I have a “make America great again” baseball cap and shall be wearing in down the Liberty this season. | | | |
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 13:09 - Jul 11 with 2670 views | Lord_Bony |
The first day of the annual NATO summit kicked off the way many expected it would: President Trump hurling accusations and insults, and allies responding that progress was being made to strengthen and modernize the alliance.
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” Trump said on arriving at NATO headquarters Wednesday morning, “They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline, and you tell me if that is appropriate because I think it’s not,” he added, launching a new line of attack against one of Washington’s closest allies.
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:27 - Jul 11 with 2616 views | Jonathans_coat |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:09 - Jul 10 by londonlisa2001 |
Every American I know thinks he’s a complete embarrassment and can’t stand him. |
I was speaking to a seemingly intelligent, reasonably successful American businessman last week. He thinks Trump is just what the county need because “the left” have had a free reign, and too much power in America for a long time?
I believe my response was along the lines of “what left!”. There is no real left wing politics in America whatsoever! There is a centre-right party, and a far right party.
In my experience, most Americans are as polically blinkered as this. They have no idea what “right” and “left” is, or at least what the rest of the world considers them to be. |  | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 15:54 - Jul 11 with 2594 views | Shaky |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:27 - Jul 11 by Jonathans_coat |
I was speaking to a seemingly intelligent, reasonably successful American businessman last week. He thinks Trump is just what the county need because “the left” have had a free reign, and too much power in America for a long time?
I believe my response was along the lines of “what left!”. There is no real left wing politics in America whatsoever! There is a centre-right party, and a far right party.
In my experience, most Americans are as polically blinkered as this. They have no idea what “right” and “left” is, or at least what the rest of the world considers them to be. |
A lot of urbane and internationally well-travelled Americans harbour quite significant resentment at often being treated like country bumpkins when travelling abroad generally and in Europe especially.
They get a bit of a kick from what they see as Trump giving us a bit of a bloody nose.
Psychologically it is is not unlike the Brexit referendum effect that generated a reaction against 'elites'. [Post edited 11 Jul 2018 16:00]
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 17:28 - Jul 11 with 2557 views | Kilkennyjack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 23:27 - Jul 10 by peenemunde |
I’m glad you didn’t get stabbed. |
Thank you.
It was very nice, as usual. | |
| Beware of the Risen People
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 17:53 - Jul 11 with 2535 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 17:28 - Jul 11 by Kilkennyjack |
Thank you.
It was very nice, as usual. |
Whatever floats your boat I say.
Personally I’d rather visit Mogadishu - be safer there too. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:19 - Jul 11 with 2513 views | Humpty |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 17:53 - Jul 11 by peenemunde |
Whatever floats your boat I say.
Personally I’d rather visit Mogadishu - be safer there too. |
Good job the balloon didn't go up when you were in the army.
You seem a little timid for a soldier if you don't mind me saying. [Post edited 12 Jul 2018 0:03]
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 09:53 - Jul 12 with 2409 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 13:09 - Jul 11 by Lord_Bony |
The first day of the annual NATO summit kicked off the way many expected it would: President Trump hurling accusations and insults, and allies responding that progress was being made to strengthen and modernize the alliance.
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” Trump said on arriving at NATO headquarters Wednesday morning, “They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline, and you tell me if that is appropriate because I think it’s not,” he added, launching a new line of attack against one of Washington’s closest allies.
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The problem is people don’t like the truth. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:06 - Jul 12 with 2402 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:19 - Jul 11 by Humpty |
Good job the balloon didn't go up when you were in the army.
You seem a little timid for a soldier if you don't mind me saying. [Post edited 12 Jul 2018 0:03]
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Bernard Montgomery was also a very timid person. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:41 - Jul 12 with 2386 views | Ace_Jack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:06 - Jul 12 by peenemunde |
Bernard Montgomery was also a very timid person. |
Hark at monty  |  | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 13:10 - Jul 12 with 2348 views | Humpty |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:41 - Jul 12 by Ace_Jack |
Hark at monty |
F*ck me it's Viscount DGT of Starbucks. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:06 - Jul 12 with 2329 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 13:10 - Jul 12 by Humpty |
F*ck me it's Viscount DGT of Starbucks. |
Well it was you who made a totally irrelevant remark.
It’s like me saying you come across as an idiot, but don’t let that get you down - many idiots have still made a success of things - so chin up 👠| | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:10 - Jul 12 with 2326 views | Ace_Jack |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:06 - Jul 12 by peenemunde |
Well it was you who made a totally irrelevant remark.
It’s like me saying you come across as an idiot, but don’t let that get you down - many idiots have still made a success of things - so chin up 👠|
yeah, the current President of the United States for one! | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:31 - Jul 12 with 2311 views | Humpty |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:06 - Jul 12 by peenemunde |
Well it was you who made a totally irrelevant remark.
It’s like me saying you come across as an idiot, but don’t let that get you down - many idiots have still made a success of things - so chin up 👠|
Righto.
It's also the first time I've ever heard Montgomery described as timid.
Not like you to be completely wrong about something. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 15:28 - Jul 12 with 2295 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 14:31 - Jul 12 by Humpty |
Righto.
It's also the first time I've ever heard Montgomery described as timid.
Not like you to be completely wrong about something. |
Maybe you take up reading and try and educate yourself. | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:24 - Jul 12 with 2262 views | Shaky |
Wow.
Juncker clearly decided getting merry was preferable to listening to Trump's electoral college victory story again. . .
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| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 19:47 - Jul 12 with 2233 views | peenemunde |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 18:24 - Jul 12 by Shaky |
Wow.
Juncker clearly decided getting merry was preferable to listening to Trump's electoral college victory story again. . .
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Scandalous.
If anyone turned up for work pi$$ed, they’d be sacked.
And remainers want this idiot in charge of them.....🤣 | | | |
| Trump Evilometer: How Low Can He Go? on 10:20 - Jul 14 with 2110 views | Shaky |
Trump's ambassador lobbied Britain on behalf of jailed right-wing activist Tommy Robinson
By Mark Hosenball
Reuters World News, July 14, 2018 / 12:19 AM / Updated 6 hours ago
LONDON (Reuters) - Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained to the British ambassador in Washington D.C. about the treatment of an English right-wing activist who is in jail for disrupting a trial, according to three sources familiar with the discussion.
Brownback raised the case of the activist known as Tommy Robinson in a June meeting with Sir Kim Darroch, Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, according to a British official and two sources close to the organizers of a pro-Robinson demonstration planned for London on Saturday.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, though he also uses other aliases, is a founder of the English Defense League, which has organized violent demonstrations against Islamic immigrants in the UK in the past decade. More recently, Robinson has branded himself a journalist and campaigner against Islamic extremism, a move that won him contacts with American anti-Muslim activists.
Robinson was arrested in late May outside a courthouse in Leeds, England, while making video recordings about a trial related to child molestation and jailed for 13 months for violating English law limiting publicity during criminal trials.
Brownback raised the jailing of Robinson during a meeting with Darroch that covered a range of “religious freedom issues”, the British official confirmed earlier this week.
Brownback told Darroch that if Britain did not treat Robinson more sympathetically, the Trump administration might be compelled to criticize Britain’s handling of the case, according to the two sources in contact with organizers of the planned pro-Robinson demonstration.
The sources said Robinson’s supporters, who have also been in touch with the Trump administration about the issue, were concerned that he could be attacked by other prisoners.
Reuters was unable to determine why the top U.S. official responsible for defending religious freedom would try to intervene with the British government on behalf of an activist who has expressed ant-Islamic views.
Brownback, who is a former governor of Kansas and former U.S. senator, was not available for comment. However, on Thursday a U.S. State Department spokesman said the “characterizations” of Brownback’s meeting with Darroch by Reuters sources were “completely false” but the spokesman did not elaborate further.
The British Embassy had no comment on further details of the discussion.
Last week, the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia group, said it was sponsoring and organizing a “Free Tommy Robinson” demonstration in London near the British Parliament on Saturday in collaboration with British and European groups.
The event was expected to merge with a demonstration in support of U.S. President Donald Trump, who appointed Brownback, according to the British newspaper The Independent.
Demonstration organizers said in a leaflet which circulated in London this week that Republican U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar and Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders were scheduled to speak at its rally. U.S. Congressman Gosar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Wilders tweeted on Thursday that he would not attend the rally because the U.K. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Williams, told Dutch authorities Britain would not provide security for him.
British police said they were imposing restrictions on the event to “prevent serious disruptions” after protesters at a previous event made Nazi salutes and threw bottles at officers.
A spokesman for Hope Not Hate, a British anti-racism group, said, “In the week President Trump comes to the UK, his hand-picked diplomat allying himself with a far-right convicted fraudster perhaps shouldn’t be too much of a shock.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-britain-robinson/trumps-ambassador-
Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott | |
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