Data gathered from the API response

news-extractor.json

[
  {
    "author": [
      "WTOP Staff"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Sports', 'match_percent': 99.94},{'category': 'Business', 'match_percent': 0.06}"
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    "content": "WASHINGTON – The general manager of the Washington Nationals has denied rumors that the team is thinking of trading superstar outfielder Bryce Harper. On Tuesday morning, The Washington Post reported that after a sleepless night, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo told them “Bryce is not going anywhere. I believe in this team.” The denial caps off a 12-hour span in which it was reported that the team was entertaining offers for Harper and moving from potential contenders to potential sellers as the trade deadline approached. The deadline for nonwaiver trades is 4 p.m. Tuesday. After that, any players involved in a trade must be waived, with any team having the opportunity to pick them up if they’ll take on the player’s contract. MLB.com reported the Nationals had made it known to other teams that Harper is indeed available. The website added the Cleveland Indians have had regular talks about a possible Harper deal, but those discussions have not picked up any momentum. Ken Rosenthal of Fox reported the Nationals have been “ sending out feelers ” on Harper to gauge possible interest from other teams. Harper is a free agent at the end of the season, and the Nationals face the prospect of losing him then to another team without getting anything in return. Before the start of the 2018 campaign, Harper made it clear he did not want to discuss his future. Runaway division leaders the last two seasons, the Washington Nationals are struggling to stay in the 2018 race. With the team set to begin a home series against the Mets Tuesday night, the Nationals are six games out of first place in the NL East and six games out of the second wild-card spot.",
    "date": "2018-07-31T12:02:00",
    "icon": "https://wtop.com/wp-content/themes/wtop/assets/img/favicons/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png",
    "ogImage": "https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Nationals-Mets-July-14-AP-Resized.jpg",
    "title": "Nats’ GM denies rumors of Harper trade: Report",
    "url": "https://wtop.com/washington-nationals/2018/07/trade-bryce-harper-nationals-reportedly-listening-to-offers/"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Anisha Singh"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Education', 'match_percent': 99.88},{'category': 'Sports', 'match_percent': 0.12}"
    ],
    "content": "New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE today declared class 10 board exam results, which is available on the official websites of the board. This year, the overall pass percentage is 86.7% and four students topped the exams by scoring 499 out of 500. The toppers are Prakhar Mittal from DPS Gurgaon, Rimzhim Agarwal from RK Public school Bijnor, Nandini Garg from Scottish International school Shamli, and Sreelakshmi G from Bhavan Vidyalayas, Cochin. Girls have outperformed boys by 3.35%. Girls have a pass percentage of 88.67% and boys 85.32%.A total of 27,476 students have scored more than 95% marks, while 1,31,493 students have scored equal to or more than 90% marks. Thiruvananthapuram region has topped with a pass percentage of 99.60%, followed by Chennai (97.37%), and Ajmer (91.86%). Delhi has a pass percentage of 78.62%.The top three regions are Thiruvananthapuram with 99.60 pass percentage, Chennai with 97.37 pass percentage, and Ajmer with 91.86 pass percentage. Results can be checked on the CBSE's official website (www.cbse.nic.in), NIC hosted result portal (www.cbseresults.nic.in), Google search page, Bing search page, SMS Organizer app and UMANG app. This year more than 16 lakh students had appeared for the 10th board examination conducted by CBSE.How to check CBSE 10th result 2018? CBSE Class 10 result declared at www.cbseresults.nic.inStep one: Go to official CBSE results website: cbseresults.nic.inStep two: Click on the SSC Examination Result 2018 link. Step three: Enter the required information.Step four: Submit and check your result. CBSE 10th Result 2018 Declared: Live Updates The CBSE 10th result is released in the form of grades. For awarding the grades, the Board puts all the passed students in a rank order and awards grades as per the system given below:A-1: Top 1/8th of the passed candidatesA-2: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesB-1: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesB-2: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesC-1: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesC-2: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesD-1: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesD-2: Next 1/8th of the passed candidatesE: Failed candidatesClick here for more Education News",
    "date": "2018-05-29T15:28:00+02:00",
    "icon": "https://www.ndtv.com/images/icons/ndtv.ico",
    "ogImage": "https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2018-04/result-2018_650x400_71523525606.jpg",
    "title": "CBSE Class 10 Results Announced, 4 Students Tie For Top Rank",
    "url": "https://www.ndtv.com/education/cbse-10th-result-2018-declared-at-cbseresults-nic-in-1859272?pfrom=home-topscroll"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Francesca Chambers",
      "David Martosko"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Politics', 'match_percent': 99.98},{'category': 'Crime', 'match_percent': 0.02}"
    ],
    "content": "President Donald Trump said Thursday, hours after calling off a planned nuclear disarmament summit with North Korea, that the event planned for June 12 in Singapore isn't completely dead. But he warned Kim Jong-un that the United States military stands ready to jump into the breach if he tries anything 'foolish.' 'Hopefully everything's going to work out well with North Korea, and a lot of things can happen, including the fact that perhaps – and we'd wait – it's possible that the existing summit could take place or a summit at some later date,' Trump said before a bill-signing event in the White House's Roosevelt Room. 'Nobody should be anxious,' he counseled. 'We have to get it right.' Moments earlier he declared that he had 'decided to terminate' the meeting and challenged dictator the dictator Kim to scrap his nuclear ambitions in favor of joining the civilized world and escaping the West's economic stranglehold. 'All of the Korean people, North and South, deserve to be able to live together in harmony, prosperity and peace,' Trump said, but 'that bright and beautiful future can only happen when the threat of nuclear weapons is removed. No way it can happen otherwise.' 'If and when Kim Jong-un chooses to engage in constructive dialogue and actions, I am waiting,' he continued, punctuating the last three words. 'In the meantime, our very strong sanctions, by far the strongest sanctions ever imposed, and maximum pressure campaign, will continue as it has been continuing.' President Donald Trump said Thursday at the White House that a nuclear summit with North korea's dictator, which he had canceled hours earlier, might still take place – but he warned Kim Jong-un that America's military might stands ready to keep him in check Trump's letter to Kim on Thursday boasted of America's gargantuan nuclear arsenal, and he drove the point home at the White House. 'I've spoke to General Mattis and the Joint Chiefs of Staff,' he said. 'And our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere the world – that has been greatly enhanced recently, as you all know – is ready if necessary.' 'Likewise I have spoken to South Korea and Japan, and they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden, any of the costs associated by the the United States, in operations if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us.' 'Hopefully, positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of North Korea,' Trump told an audience of one watching in Pyongyang. 'But if they don't, we are more ready than we have ever been before.' Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters that the Defense Department represents one prong of Trump's 'maximum pressure' strategy, which combines economic sanctions, diplomatic tension and the weight of a constant military presence. 'We are ready to fight tonight. That's always been the case,' said White. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio threw a Twitter jab at Kim, writing that withdrawing from talks 'is 100% the right decision.' 'In the words of a wise man, “Congratulations, you just played yourself”,' Rubio added, addressing him directly. '#KJU doesn’t want a deal. He has deliberately sabotaged the talks over the last two weeks & was setting us up to take the blame.' On the Democratic side of the aisle, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez chided Trump in a statement that read: 'The art of diplomacy is much harder than the art of the deal.' 'We should have never legitimized a pariah regime without first setting clear boundaries,' Menendez argued. 'But in hastily agreeing to a summit and then being the one to walk away, President Trump must understand he has now weakened and further isolated the United States. Our allies and partners in the region are left questioning our reliability. Our leverage is less today than it was yesterday.' Menendez is the highest ranking Dmeocrat on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee. The president had called off his summit just hours earlier after a North Korean official hurled insults at Vice President Mike Pence. Trump wrote that it would be 'inappropriate' to hold talks after his regime again tested the limits of his patience: 'You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never be used.' North Korea 's vice foreign minister had slammed Pence for his 'unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya.' Choe Son Hui also said the future of the summit between Pyongyang and Washington was 'entirely' up to the United States. Trump wrote to Kim that as a result of the 'tremendous anger and open hostility,' he was pulling out of the June 12 meeting. 'I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,' Trump wrote. 'Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.' Kim's government had just hours earlier publicly destroyed much of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. Trump went on to say he hoped to meet Kim one day, and that previous dialogues between the two nations remained promising. Trump's letter to Kim followed a string of threats from the North to call off the summit that had been brokered to discuss a commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The president told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that he'd know whether he was moving forward with the Singapore summit 'next week.' That was before North Korea's latest volley, which included the assault on Pence. 'We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,' said Choe Son Hui, according to a report by North Korea's central news agency on Thursday. She added: 'I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president.' 'We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is (Pence), as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them.' Pence was a focal point in the initial stages of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea. He attended the Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympic Games in February alongside Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong. He did not talk to the North Korean emissary during the games, instead previewing during the trip another round of U.S. sanctions. In a Monday in an interview with Fox News that came as the summit hung in the balance, Pence responded to North Korean complaints about comments that had been made by Trump national security advisor John Bolton. Share this article 8.3k shares 'You know, there was some talk of the Libyan model last week. And as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn't make a deal,' he said. Pence warned, 'It would be a great mistake for Kim to think he could play Donald Trump.' I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president. We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is (Pence), as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on Mike Pence's interview with the Fox News Channel 'We really hope that Kim Jong-un will seize the opportunity to dismantle his nuclear weapons program, and do so by peaceable means.' In the letter calling off the June 12 summit, Trump indicated he'd be open to putting a new date on the calendar for talks with Kim, who he again thanked for releasing three American hostages earlier this month. 'I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters,' he said. 'Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was testifying on Capitol Hill on Thursday, in what was slated to be a hearing about the State Department's budget, when the White House circulated Trump's letter. 'I don't believe... that we're in a position to believe that there could be a successful outcome,' he told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members. 'I think that's what the president communicated pretty clearly in his letter.' In a Monday in an interview with Fox New's Martha MacCallum that came as the summit hung in the balance, Pence said, 'You know, there was some talk of the Libyan model last week. And as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn't make a deal' Pompeo said that the U.S. had reached out to North Korea about its own threats to cancel talks, 'and we had received no response to our inquiries from them.' 'I think the American team is fully prepared. I think we're rocking. I think we're ready. I think we're prepared for this meeting. I think President Trump is prepared for this meeting,' he said. 'We were fully, fully engaged over the past weeks to prepare for this meeting. So I disagree with your assessment that the Americans are not ready.' Trump's decision to postpone the nuclear summit was cautiously endorsed by Sen. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer as the Senate came into session on Thursday. 'On the very recent news that President Trump has canceled the planned summit with Kim Jong-un of North Korea: The fear many of us had was that the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un would be a great show that produced nothing enduring,' Schumer stated. 'If a summit is to be reconstituted, the United States must show strength and achieve a concrete, verifiable, enduring elimination of Kim Jong-un's nuclear capabilities.' Pompeo said on Wednesday that Trump was prepared to 'walk away' from the talks if it sensed that they're headed in the wrong direction. The diplomat who has twice met with Kim in North Korea since the beginning of April told lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, 'We have a generational opportunity to solve a major national security challenge.' 'We are clear-eyed about the regime's history. It's time to solve this once and for all. A bad deal is not an option,' the president's point-man on the summit asserted. 'The American people are counting on us to get this right. If the right deal is not on the table, we will respectfully walk away.' Revisiting the topic on Thursday at a Senate hearing, Pompeo said, 'I've had discussions with Chairman Kim personally. There have been other discussions. I am going to reserve some space for us to be able to conduct these discussions outside of the public sphere... I think we've made very clear what our objectives are.' Trump on Tuesday in the Oval Office told journalists asking about the June 12 summit, 'We’re moving along. We’ll see what happens. There are certain conditions we want to happen. I think we'll get those conditions.' He added, 'And if we don't, we won't have the meeting.' 'If it doesn’t happen, maybe it will happen later,' Trump said. 'Maybe it will happen at a different time.' The U.S. president also said, 'There's a very substantial chance that it won't work out, and that's OK.' South Korea's Moon Jae-in and Trump were meeting at the White House at the time to discuss the North's new demands. The New York Times had also reported that Trump was considering backing out of the face-to-face talks that could turn into an embarrassment for him. Trump is said to have surveyed aides the optics of Kim's own threats to cancel the June 12 meeting with Moon in a weekend phone call. North Korea apparently demolished its nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri on Thursday in what the regime said was evidence of its willingness to disarm. Journalists watched a series of explosions at entrances to the complex, which has been used for all six of the North's nuclear tests. The explosions were reportedly centered on three tunnels into the underground site and a number of observation towers. It is not known to what extent the facility was damaged because nobody was allowed inside and no international observers were present. Experts have speculated that the site was only superficially damaged and that Kim could easily reopen it at short notice. Others believe that the site was already out of commission following a powerful nuclear test last year, and that North Korea is simply destroying evidence of its nuclear weapons program. 'There was a huge explosion, you could feel it. Dust came at you, the heat came at you. It was extremely loud,' Sky News' Tom Cheshire, who was among the journalists invited, wrote on the British broadcaster's website. Mr Cheshire added that the entrances to the tunnels had been 'theatrically rigged' with plastic explosives and 'wires everywhere'. Yonhap news agency, citing South Korean reporters at the scene, said multiple explosions were heard throughout the day, beginning at 11am (3am GMT) until 4.17pm. The tunnel complex below Mount Mantapsan is believed to be based on old Soviet and American designs and is used for North Korea's nuclear tests. After the latest and most powerful test, in September last year, the mountain shifted - leading to speculation that part of the complex collapsed and rendered in unusable Chung Eui-yong, national security adviser to Moon, told reporters en route to Washington that he was not only on the call 'no such thing happened' and he is '99.9 percent' sure the meeting in Singapore will move forward. 'We have perceived none of that,' Chung said of reported nervousness on the part of the U.S. Trump said Tuesday for the first time that the summit could happen, just at a later date. 'It may not work out for June 12,' he said. He said that he doesn't 'want to waste a lot of time' on talks and suspects that Kim doesn't either. The U.S. president also said that he believes that Kim's surprise visit to Beijing in early May prompted the North Korean dictator to play chicken. Trump said his trip to Beijing last year was 'two of the great days of my life.' 'I don't think anybody's ever been treated better in China in their history.' But he said his counterpart in China, Xi Jinping, 'I think that President Xi is a world-class poker player.' Donald Trump abruptly called off his planned nuclear weapons summit with North Korean despot Kim Jong-un, citing insults Kim had lobbed at Vice President Mike Pence and warning him about the size and might of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Trump addressed a letter to Kim personally, and the White House released a copy of it on May 24: 'Dear Mr. Chairman: 'We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used. 'I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.' 'If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.' 'I think there was a little change in attitude from Kim Jong-un. So I don't like that,' he said. 'I can't say that I'm happy about it,' he said of the unexpected talks between Xi and Kim. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had told DailyMail.com on Monday morning that the summit was still on. 'I don't think the president gets cold feet about anything, so I think as the president has said, right now it's still on, if that changes, you'll find out about it,' he said in response to reports that Trump is the one who could back down. In his interview on Monday on Fox New's 'The Story' Pence had also said, 'The president remains open to a summit taking place, and we’ll continue to pursue that path even while we stand strong on the objective of denuclearization and extreme pressure campaign that’s underway today.' Kim had been taunting the U.S. since last week over annual military exercises on the Korean Peninsula that are conducted in conjunction with South Korea. The joint exercises were a condition of talks, however the North decided to use them anyway as a cudgel. The isolated regime also took issue with past statements that Bolton about denuclearization, leading the U.S. president to provide assurances last week that Kim would not be ousted if he abandons his nuclear weapons program. North Koea's deputy foreign affairs minister rejected the United States' terms of nuclear abandonment, shunning the 'complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization' of the Korean Penninsula and the 'total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons.' He explicitly took issue with the U.S. position of 'abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards' saying the proposed terms are 'essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.' Trump also said that he would not budge on total denuclearization of the peninsula, another facet of the meeting that Kim was refusing to agree to, yet said, 'I do think he's serious. I think he would like to see that happen.' In advance of the letter informing North Korea that the summit was off, the White House had faced charges that Trump was becoming Kim's puppet. 'Nothing could be further from the truth,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a reporter asking if the dictator was the on driving policy in the Trump administration. 'But they’re the ones that extended the invitation; we’ve accepted it. If they want to meet, we’re happy to do that. If they don’t, as the President has said, we’ll see what happens. But we’re going to continue the maximum pressure campaign in the meantime.' Trump said last week that he was willing to go 'onto the next step' if Kim backed away from the summit. He also said he was willing to guarantee that Kim would stay in power if he agrees to give up his nuclear ambitions. 'I'm willing to do a lot... He'll have protections,' Trump said. 'The best thing he could do is make a deal.' Providing assurances to Kim, Trump said that the deal he intends to make with North Korea would keep the dictator in power. He said that Kim wouldn't be ousted like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi was after he voluntarily dismantled his nuclear program in order to normalize relations with the U.S. 'In Libya that deal was decimated. There was no deal to keep Gaddafi,' he said. 'The Libyan model was a much different model. We decimated that country. We never said to Gaddafi, \"Oh, we're going to give you protection. We're going to give you military strength. We're going to give you all of these things.\" We went in and decimated him, and we did the same thing with Iraq.' With Kim it would be 'something where he'd be there, he'd be running his country. His country would be very rich,' Trump said. 'If we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un will be very, very happy,' he said.",
    "date": "2018-05-24T14:50:00+11:00",
    "icon": "http://dailymail.co.uk/favicon.ico?v=2",
    "ogImage": "https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/05/24/17/4C97BFC800000578-0-image-a-51_1527178745427.jpg",
    "title": "Trump says hours after canceling North Korea summit that it MIGHT still happen",
    "url": "https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5767219/Trump-CANCELS-summit-Kim-North-Korea-insults-Mike-Pence.html?mrn_rm=als1"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Chico Harlan"
    ],
    "classification": [
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    "content": "Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church teaching to fully reject the death penalty, the Vatican announced Thursday, saying it would work to abolish capital punishment worldwide. The revision to several sentences of the catechism, the compendium of Catholic beliefs, has the potential to recast debates around the world on how to handle those accused of the most heinous crimes. It adds a new wrinkle to the question of what it means to be pro-life — particularly in the United States, where Catholics who support the death penalty sit on the Supreme Court and govern states that permit executions. At the same time, it will test the church’s ability to influence with a moral authority weakened by decades of sex abuse scandals. The church’s updated teaching describes capital punishment as “inadmissible” and an attack on the “dignity of the person.” Previously, the church allowed for the death penalty in very rare cases, only as a means of “defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” Francis has for years been a vocal critic of the death penalty, calling it an “inhuman measure.” The Argentine pontiff has pointed to the church’s stance on the death penalty as evidence of how the Vatican can evolve: The church for centuries permitted executions, but in 1997, John Paul II dramatically narrowed the standards for when the punishment was permissible. Francis’s latest move places the issue toward the forefront of his own efforts to overhaul and modernize the Roman Catholic Church’s approach to social justice. “There is no doubt the pope wants politicians to pay attention to this,” said John Gehring, the Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, an advocacy group in Washington. “He is not just speaking internally. The pope wants to elevate this as a definitive pro-life issue.” The full political significance of the new teaching stands to emerge slowly, as priests and bishops speak more clearly about the death penalty to planet’s 1.2 billion Catholics. But in part because the practice has already been abolished in most countries with large Catholic populations — including throughout the European Union and across nearly all of South America — the United States is among the places where the shift could have the greatest consequence. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Catholic, presides over the state that carries out the highest number of executions. Several states have recently opened new discussions about abolishing the punishment. And in New Hampshire, one of the most heavily Catholic states, Gov. Chris Sununu in June vetoed a legislature-backed repeal of the death penalty, saying he didn’t want to send a message that the worst criminals might be “guaranteed leniency.” John Carr, the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, said the Vatican change could have a somewhat indirect effect. “I think what this does is get people to reexamine their own attitudes and convictions,” Carr said. “The death penalty in the United States probably will not come to an end through an act of Congress or a Supreme Court decision. It will essentially fade away as prosecutors don’t ask for it, juries don’t recommend it, and the rest of us don’t support it.” According to the Pew Research Center, public support for the death penalty in the United States has ticked up slightly since hitting a four-decade low in 2016, with 54 percent now approving of the punishment for those convicted of murder. The attitudes of Catholics mirror those of the nation, with 53 percent favoring the death penalty. “We’re not at the point where the church will deny communion to somebody who votes to uphold the death penalty,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a clearinghouse for data on the issue. “But I think it is getting harder and harder for the pro-death penalty Catholic legislators to reconcile their religious beliefs with their political beliefs.” The decision to change the catechism was approved in May but not announced until Thursday. Some traditionalist Catholics reacted with anger on social media, saying that Francis was trying to rewrite the church’s teaching to meet his personal views. “I think a lot of the pro-life people will feel that [Pope Francis] has undercut us,” said Bill Donohue, who calls himself a social conservative and is president of the New York-based Catholic League. “Why the need for the change? I see nothing in the comments coming from the Vatican that explains why something broke. This will only add to the confusion in the laity.” Others noted that the Catholic Church has long played a role advocating against the death penalty. In the United States, bishops have frequently petitioned for stays of execution. In 2001, Pope John Paul II even urged President George W. Bush to spare the life of Timothy McVeigh, whose Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people. More recently, in the predominantly-Catholic Philippines, the church has been at the center of a fight to prevent President Rodrigo Duterte from reinstituting the death penalty. The pope had said last year that the death penalty is “contrary to the Gospel,” noting that the faith emphasized the dignity of life from conception until death. Speaking before Congress in 2015, Francis said he was advocating for the “global abolition of the death penalty,” that “society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.” In a letter released Thursday that had been sent to bishops from the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Luis Ladaria noted the church’s stance on the death penalty stemmed from a “new understanding” of modern punishment, which should aim to rehabilitate and socially reintegrate those who have committed crimes. “Given that modern society possesses more efficient detention systems,” Ladaria wrote, “the death penalty becomes unnecessary as protection for the life of innocent people.” Ladaria said the church’s new teaching aims to “give energy” to a movement that would “allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect.”",
    "date": "2018-08-02T11:45:13+00:00",
    "icon": null,
    "ogImage": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/CXC4G7Mx3b6MApmQTeYv_90SjBU=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/XND37FEWL4I6RJTZWCJBF63JYI.jpg",
    "title": "Pope Francis changes Catholic Church teaching to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’",
    "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-changes-catholic-church-teaching-to-say-death-penalty-is-inadmissible/2018/08/02/0d69ef5e-9647-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html?noredirect=on"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Lucia Mutikani"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Business', 'match_percent': 65.54},{'category': 'Finance', 'match_percent': 34.46}"
    ],
    "content": "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in June, but steady wage gains pointed to moderate inflation pressures that should keep the Federal Reserve on a path of gradual interest rate increases this year. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 213,000 jobs last month as manufacturers stepped up hiring, the Labour Department said on Friday. The economy added 37,000 more jobs in April and May than previously reported. It needs to create about 120,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. “Overall the report is good news insofar as it suggests the economy still has some capacity to grow at an above-trend pace without generating much inflationary pressure,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. “Similarly, it should ease the concerns of the hawks (at the Fed) who worry that the Fed’s rate hike campaign is behind the curve.” The report showed strength in the economy before a trade war started between the United States and China, which analysts warned could slow hiring, especially in the manufacturing sector. The U.S. and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of the other’s imports on Friday. Washington is also engaged in fights with other major trade partners, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Trump argues that the duties are necessary to protect domestic industries from what he says is unfair competition from foreign manufacturers. Economists have warned the tit-for-tat tariffs could disrupt the supply chain, undermine business investment and raise prices for consumers, and wipe out the stimulus from a $1.5 trillion tax cut package that came into effect in January. The unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent in June from an 18-year low of 3.8 percent in May as 601,000 job seekers entered the labour force in a sign of confidence in the labour market. That was the first increase in the jobless rate in 10 months. The labour force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, rose to 62.9 percent last month from 62.7 percent in May. It had declined for three straight months. Average hourly earnings gained five cents, or 0.2 percent in June after increasing 0.3 percent in May. That kept the annual increase in average hourly earnings at 2.7 percent. But with a record 6.7 million unfilled jobs in April, economists are confident that wage growth will accelerate later this year. June’s moderate wage growth should, for now, allay fears of the economy overheating. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure hit the central bank’s 2 percent target in May for the first time in six years. Economists expect inflation will hover around its target because of labour market tightness. “Wages could rise at a faster pace in the future as the economy is humming and the labour market is tight,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at SS Economics in Los Angeles. “However, the ongoing trade war with China and our allies could hurt investment spending and hold back job and wage gains.” The dollar fell to a three-week low against a basket of currencies on the employment report. Prices for longer-dated U.S. Treasuries rose. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes touching two-week highs. ROBUST ECONOMY Economists polled by Reuters had forecast nonfarm payrolls increasing by 195,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate steady at 3.8 percent. Minutes of the Fed’s June 12-13 policy meeting published on Thursday were upbeat on the labour market. The U.S. central bank raised interest rates last month for the second time this year and has projected two more rate hikes by year end. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, rose to 7.8 percent last month from a 17-year low of 7.6 percent in May. The employment report together with data from the Commerce Department showing the trade deficit narrowed 6.6 percent to a 1-1/2-year low of $43.1 billion in May reinforced expectations of robust economic growth in the second quarter. Gross domestic product growth estimates for the April-June period are as high as a 5 percent annualised rate, more than double the 2.0 percent pace logged in the first quarter. But the Trump administration’s “America First” trade policy, is casting a pall over the outlook for the rest of the year and into 2019. Manufacturing, construction and other sectors heavily reliant on trade are seen taking a big hit from the tariff wars. “Fortunately the economy has a good head of steam going into a period of significant uncertainty in terms of the impact of higher tariffs across a broad range of imports and exports,” said Brian Bethune, chief economist at Alpha Economic Foresights in Boston. “Unequivocally, this is a nightmare situation.” Manufacturers hired 36,000 workers in June, the most in six months, adding to the 19,000 jobs created in May. The factory jobs were concentrated in the automobile industry, which had seen a decline in employment in May after a fire at a major parts supplier disrupted production. Construction payrolls rose by 13,000 last month after increasing by 29,000 jobs in May. There were gains in professional and business services employment as well as leisure and hospitality. But retailers cut 21,600 jobs last month, after boosting payrolls by 25,100 in May. Government payrolls increased by 11,000 jobs in June, buoyed by local government hiring.",
    "date": "2018-07-07T01:34:38+00:00",
    "icon": "https://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources_v2/images/favicon/favicon.ico",
    "ogImage": "https://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20180706&t=2&i=1280081077&w=1200&r=LYNXMPEE650AJ",
    "title": "U.S. job growth underscores economy's strength, tariffs a threat",
    "url": "https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-underscores-economys-strength-tariffs-a-threat-idINKBN1JW0ED"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Tom Howell Jr"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Politics', 'match_percent': 99.94},{'category': 'Business', 'match_percent': 0.04},{'category': 'Finance', 'match_percent': 0.02}"
    ],
    "content": "A Nebraska coalition said Thursday it submitted more than enough signatures to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot in November, making it the latest GOP-led state to seek a way around governors and legislators who oppose Obamacare. Insure the Good Life, which led the petition drive, said it submitted 133,000 signatures from across Nebraska to the secretary of state, exceeding the 85,000 valid signatures that are required. The state and county clerks will have 40 days to certify the signatures, though they can request extra time. Supporters of the initiative say that grabbing federal dollars under former President Barack Obama’s vision for expanding Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor, will cover 90,000 more Nebraskans and recoup roughly $1 billion in federal tax dollars over four years. “Let’s bring that money home — money that is already going to states like Arkansas, Iowa, and California,” said former state Sen. Kathy Campbell. Obamacare called on all states to expand Medicaid to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, though the Supreme Court made it optional in 2012. While federal taxpayers pick up most of the burden, states will have to pay for 10 percent of the cost of the expansion population in 2020 and beyond. Thirty-three states, plus D.C., have expanded, though holdout states say the rising state share would bust their budgets. Other critics point to lingering GOP efforts to replace Obamacare with a more conservative program. Nebraska is among four states that’ve sought to place the issue directly before the voters, instead of pleading with policymakers. Grassroots activists in Utah and Idaho appear to have gathered enough signatures for similar ballot initiatives in their states, while Maine voters approved expansion in 2017. Maine Gov. Paul LePage has blocked the expansion from proceeding until the legislature finds a way to pay for the state share without raising taxes on families or businesses, using one-time budget “gimmicks” or raiding a budget-stabilization fund. The governor recently appealed a court order that said his administration must submit a plan for expansion to the federal Health and Human Services Department. The Washington Times welcomes your comments on Spot.im, our third-party provider. Please read our before commenting.",
    "date": "2018-07-05T00:00:00",
    "icon": "http://twt-assets.washtimes.com/images/favicon.30333d68dff6.ico",
    "ogImage": "https://twt-thumbs.washtimes.com/media/image/2015/04/08/f2146b88ca651e0f730f6a7067002d13_s2048x1365.jpg?157fd7a2b2da4a762ebf407a263d15da8e5779ba",
    "title": "Nebraska coalition submits Medicaid-expansion petitions",
    "url": "https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/5/nebraska-coalition-submits-medicaid-expansion-peti/"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Dilsher Dhillon"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Business', 'match_percent': 100.0}"
    ],
    "content": "The Indian government’s flagship crop insurance scheme, PMFBY, faces a host of problems including delayed payment of claims and declining enrollment numbers. In light of this, the Indian government has moved to penalise insurers and state governments for delaying payments and imposed enrollment targets on insurance companies. The Indian government has also increased the risks that can be covered under the scheme. The new rules are set to come into effect next month. The Indian government’s flagship crop insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), was launched to great fanfare in 2016. Under the scheme, farmers were required to pay only 2% of the premium expenses, with the rest being borne in equal measure by the central and state governments. However, it has not exactly been the success story it was envisioned to be. The problems are manifold. State governments haven’t transmitted data to insurers on time, Claims payments have been delayed, sometimes for as long as 18 months , and enrollment numbers are declining. Around 48.4 million farmers signed up for the scheme in 2017-18, a 16% drop from the previous year. In light of this, the government has announced a number of changes to the scheme with the view of resolving the aforementioned problems. The first action is punitive in nature. The government has said it will penalise insurance companies and state governments for the delayed payment of claims. While insurers will face a 12% interest penalty if they don’t settle with farmers within two months of the prescribed deadline, state governments will also be hit with a 12% charge if they don’t transfer subsidies to insurers within three months. Secondly, the government has also imposed enrollment targets on insurers. They will be required to increase enrollments of non-loanee farmers by 10% on an annual basis. Unlike loanee farmers, non-loanee farmers do not receive subsidised crop loans as a result of a pre-existing scheme. Thirdly, to increase awareness of the programme, insurance companies have to spend 0.5% of the revenue earned in gross premiums on advertising and publicity for the scheme. The government has effectively outsourced its responsibility of promoting its own programme. Finally, the Indian government has also increased the risks that can be covered under the scheme. Farmers will now get coverage for hailstorms, crop fires, damage from animals, landslides and rainstorms. More importantly, farmers will now get 72 hours instead of 48 hours to inform state governments about crop damage. The new rules are set to come into effect from the beginning of the rabi crop season next month. Earlier this year, in February, the Ministry of Agriculture also launched an online portal for the scheme. The new portal was developed to facilitate a quicker settlement process by streamlining communication between state governments and companies as well as resolving discrepancies and lapses.",
    "date": "2018-09-19T16:00:00",
    "icon": "https://www.businessinsider.in/photo/21243610.cms",
    "ogImage": "https://www.businessinsider.in/photo/65871427/indias-government-has-modified-its-crop-insurance-scheme-to-attract-more-farmers.jpg?221918",
    "title": "India's government has modified its crop insurance scheme to attract more farmers",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.in/Indias-government-has-modified-its-crop-insurance-scheme-to-attract-more-farmers/articleshow/65871427.cms"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Shiv Visvanathan"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Politics', 'match_percent': 88.16},{'category': 'Business', 'match_percent': 8.45},{'category': 'Technology', 'match_percent': 3.39}"
    ],
    "content": "Elections are usually party games which a democracy conducts to keep a system dynamic. But the election of 2019 is different and the nature of the difference lies in the ethical and political challenges before us. The battle of 2019 is not merely a battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. As a party, the BJP has acquired a Mughal temperament communicating that it is a regime here to stay. The battle of 2019 is about the very idea of India, and every citizen has to decide the India or the idea of India he/she wants. Deep down, almost every major concept and ideal we have lived for is under threat either from majoritarianism or from mediocrity. This is not a mere battle of sterile parties. This is a test of citizenship where a mere vote is not enough. It requires imagination and agency to create the India of our dreams. This election cannot be a mere battle of parties. It is a political struggle where civil society — long suppressed — has to articulate itself. Civil society not only has to determine the fate of rights but also the creativity of public spaces now being destroyed by institutions like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad — mimic versions of civil society which rode on the coat-tails of the BJP. They have not been voted to power, they have usurped it. Worse, they have appropriated the space of civil society. This election is a battle for civil society to recover its lost spaces. In this context, civil society is not only fighting for its existence but it also has to challenge the nation state on issues of security and foreign policy. Thanks to the likes of Ajit Doval and a spate of thoughtless think tanks, internal and external security have merged, allowing the State to enter spaces which did not belong to it. One needs to rework the idea of security if civil society is to breathe again. Yet what is most disheartening today is the silence of civil society, the disappearance of what Amartya Sen dubbed ‘the argumentative Indian’ from public space. The hysterical mimicry we see on television is no substitute for the leisure and humour of the adda or the thoughtfulness of reasoned debate. Sadly, the media rarely debates political ideas today. It has already moved to the easy digestibility of policy which, today, is only a pre-emptive exercise preventing civil society from debating ideas. This election cannot be treated as a fait accompli only because Amit Shah thinks that he is here to stay. In this election, democracy has to prove that it understands democracy. It has to demonstrate that the pluralism of democracy cannot be substituted for by populism, majoritarianism or the lynch mob. In that sense, 2019 is an experiment for a different democracy, where the citizen re-emerges to challenge the party. In a deep way, this election will not decide merely a party; it will decide what kind of a democracy we are. This is why an act of voting is not enough. If democracy were to be reduced only to a numbers game, the voter would become a denuded entity without any sense of the deeper embeddedness of politics. Politics today demands a more creative agency, a more involved sense of inventiveness from the citizen as a political person. Otherwise citizenship will disappear into a few rudimentary roles like voter and consumer and lose the deeper holism of politics as a process. Politics cannot be defined by parties with Pavlovian reflexes about democracy but by citizens, networks and civil society. To reduce the battle only to the digital space would be silly. The idea of the public in India has to be revived to include a deeper sense of political tradition, memory and the variety of choices before a people. The political binaries imposed by any party should be rejected and a sense of pluralism has to be reinvented again. The challenges before the electorate are not the challenges which parties dictate but the problems that we derive through open debate. The battle today is between a bully-boy majoritarianism and the return to the creativity of public space. Without civil society, without the public becoming active, the next election will be an almost anti-democratic exercise. The citizen must realize that voting is only a final ritual of decision- making. He/she has to realize that without political activism, involvement, debate, experiment, the vote becomes a stamping pad ritual rather than a creative act of inventive politics. In this context, one has to mention that the word, opposition, and the idea of dissent have become misunderstood terms. They have lost their polysemy, and started marching in official uniforms enacting predictably official definitions. Consider dissent first. Dissent is a way of keeping alternative possibilities alive, of creating a whole which is more inclusive of the political parts instead of excluding or erasing them. Unfortunately, dissent has been distorted as anti-national. They create a literal rigor mortis of thought. The margins, the minorities, have been silenced and there is hardly any availability of eccentricity. We need new social imaginaries beyond the aridity of the nation state and the staleness of development as an idea. The word, opposition, becomes constrictive when it is restricted to knee-jerk responses to power. It is seen as rogation. The opposition does not merely challenge the current choices, it invents alternatives for the future. An opposition challenges the current definition of politics which is becoming an enclosure movement virtually decimating the world of alternatives. One has to turn these concepts into more experimental, life-giving exercises where India can invent new options, imaginations and possibilities for itself. One must bring the playfulness and inventiveness of new ideas back to politics. Instead of retreating because there are no options, one invests new possibilities, new ways of doing politics. A new style of debate where one looks squarely at violence, environment, inequality, exploring new ideas of energy, dreaming a Dalit idea of the city, bringing culture and politics together, is required. This new panchayat of ideas is what the university along with civil society can create. It is in this constructive way that the university as an institution, as a commons of knowledge, can respond to a regime which has sought to belittle it. One has to go further. The inanity of foreign policy and the way it is curdling democracy either in Kashmir or in rough the sheer tragedy of the Rohingya or the Assam crisis cannot be left to a few political managers. Society has to respond, create new fragments of storytelling, create what M.K. Gandhi called ashrams of the mind so one is no longer immobile, vulnerable, as one confronts the future. In fact, by reclaiming the idea of citizenship from the nation state, and the concepts of politics from the emptiness of party politics, 2019 can be the threshold where we reinvent democracy and politics. The idea of India is no ideological patent. It belongs to all of us and it is time we own up to it. The author is an academic associated with Compost Heap, a network pursuing alternative imaginations",
    "date": "2018-10-15T02:08:00",
    "icon": "http://telegraphindia.com/assets/images/favicon.png",
    "ogImage": "https://static.telegraphindia.com/derivative/THE_TELEGRAPH/1671830/2X1/imageb55ff041-7adb-4285-b6e0-02ce36e0faa2.jpg",
    "title": "A new panchayat of ideas",
    "url": "https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/a-new-panchayat-of-ideas/cid/1671830?ref=top-stories_home-template"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Kieran Leavitt"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Sports', 'match_percent': 100.0}"
    ],
    "content": "EDMONTON—Hopes for England’s soccer team will be passionately on display in Edmonton on Saturday morning with a group of rowdy expats cheering them on 6,500 kilometres from home. This is the first time England has been in the World Cup quarter-finals since 2006. Some might assume Danny Greenwood would prefer to be back in England to watch the team face Sweden, but that’s not the case. “This might surprise you, but I think what we have here is probably a little bit more rowdy and patriotic than it would be in England,” he said. “Because we’re all expats, we’re all in another country supporting where we come from, so I think that takes it up another notch.” Every England game of the World Cup has seen hundreds of expats fill the Sherlock Holmes Pub at the University of Alberta, Greenwood said. “Every single game, it’s been absolutely packed. It’s been rowdy and there’s been lots of singing. It’s been really good,” he said. “It’s not where I am, it’s who I’m with and that’s why I’ve done it, really,” Greenwood said, explaining why he has been organizing the England fan meetups at the pub. Greenwood said all the cards have lined up nicely for his team. He’s confident England can beat Sweden, and go on to face either the hosts Russia or Croatia in the semifinals — and win. The Pint on Whyte will be open for the 8 a.m. kickoff, with full bar service and free perogies for World Cup fans. O’Byrne’s Irish Pub on Whyte will be open, as well, and usually draws a large soccer crowd. However, Greenwood, who has been involved with the English expat soccer community for a long time, says Sherlock Holmes in the south end will be the place to watch.",
    "date": "2018-07-06T00:00:00",
    "icon": "http://thestar.com/favicon.ico",
    "ogImage": "https://images.thestar.com/YzNDJbHsW1EJvwmb1buuG-oU1Wg=/960x720/smart/filters:cb(1531005298300)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/edmonton/2018/07/06/expat-england-fans-in-edmonton-are-ready-to-kick-it-up-a-notch-for-world-cup-quarter-final/_36577216_10156268777065638_1085576464650207232_n.jpg",
    "title": "Expat England fans in Edmonton are ready to kick it up a notch for World Cup quarter-final",
    "url": "https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2018/07/06/expat-england-fans-in-edmonton-are-ready-to-kick-it-up-a-notch-for-world-cup-quarter-final.html"
  },
  {
    "author": [
      "Zoe Moore"
    ],
    "classification": [
      "{'category': 'Entertainment', 'match_percent': 94.22},{'category': 'Technology', 'match_percent': 4.75},{'category': 'Travel', 'match_percent': 1.03}"
    ],
    "content": "If you like Harry Potter then you’re going to go crazy for these Harry Potter wedding photos. Interested in Harry Potter? Add Harry Potter as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Harry Potter news, video, and analysis from ABC News. F27 Photography put together the stunning photo shoot in collaboration with some Harry Potter-loving vendors. From wands to the Deathly Hallows, this Potter-styled wedding has it all. The setting for the mystical photos was the Lodge at Malibou Lake in Agoura Hills, California. Photographers Leah and Isaac Hsieh used a mixture of the venues’ indoor and outdoor settings to create the gorgeous photos. According to the Hsiehs’, “The woodland colors and motifs were inspired by the Marauders Era of Harry's father James Potter and his best friends growing up in the 70s in the UK.” While there isn’t a sign that says Harry Potter, all of the subtle details are something any fan can recognize. Hand carved wands from Fire Rising Wands were used as table settings. The 9 3/4 place cards on the tables had wizard style calligraphy from How Des She Do It. The bride model, Grace Elizabeth, wore a stunning lace dress with a vintage feel from Camarillo Bridal Boutique. Her bouquet from Down Emery Lane stuck to the theme with fall like colors. Elizabeth’s model husband, Tristan Conner, wore a jewel-toned Burgundy suit that would be any wizard’s dream. Elizabeth and Conner’s hair and makeup was perfected to wizzarding standards by Pacheco Beauty. Chef Cordelia put together an array of foods, all within the same color scheme. She even made “charmed pumpkin cupcakes.” To end the night, Sugar Lab Bake Shop made a non-traditional wedding cake, complete with antlers. With all this inspiration, can’t wait to plan our next party.",
    "date": "2018-08-02T03:58:00-05:00",
    "icon": null,
    "ogImage": "https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/harry-potter-wedding-01-ht-jef-180801_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg",
    "title": "This Harry Potter photo shoot is giving us major wedding inspo",
    "url": "https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/harry-potter-photo-shoot-giving-us-major-wedding/story?id=56970493"
  }
]