U.S. lawmakers grilled Trump administration officials Tuesday about the war in Afghanistan, saying the new White House strategy was inconsistent and was not producing results. The comments made at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing reflected growing frustration in Congress about the U.S.-led war, which is entering its 17th year. As recently as November, General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, acknowledged that the conflict remained a stalemate. Since then, a wave of high-profile insurgent attacks have rocked the capital, Kabul. The Taliban now controls or contests almost half the country, according to latest U.S. estimates. Despite the setbacks, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, who is helping oversee the new White House strategy, gave a positive assessment of the conflict. "The president's South Asia strategy is showing some signs of progress," Sullivan said. "On the battlefield, we are seeing the Taliban's momentum begin to slow." But lawmakers from both parties expressed skepticism. "Something is clearly not working," said Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and longtime Afghan war critic. "By any standard, the current security situation is grim." Some lawmakers took aim at President Donald Trump, who last week said he didn't want to talk with the Taliban a statement that seemingly contradicted his own strategy. After Sullivan and a top Pentagon official told the lawmakers that the U.S. was in fact still open to negotiations with the Taliban, lawmakers pressed for more details. "You can see that the world and those involved in the peace process may be pretty confused about what the U.S. position is. What is it?" asked Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat. Sullivan said he thought Trump was expressing a reaction to last month's terrorist attacks, and was pointing out that "significant elements of the Taliban are not prepared to negotiate." "And it may take a long time before they are willing to negotiate," he added. But many in the Senate appear... What is likely true about Trump? Pick the correct answer from the following options: - he's willing to work with his generals. - his strategy for peace is effective. - he doesn't like Afghanistan. - not enough information
he doesn't like Afghanistan.

SINGAPORE President Donald Trump will leave Singapore Tuesday night after his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the White House said Monday, adding that talks between U.S. and North Korean officials "are ongoing and have moved more quickly than expected." A White House statement said Trump will hold a one-on-one meeting with Kim Tuesday morning, with only translators present, followed by a working lunch and an expanded bilateral meeting that will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and National Security Advisor John Bolton. The U.S. president will then address the media before flying out late Tuesday Singapore time. Previous reports had suggested Trump would leave on Wednesday. On the eve of the first encounter between a sitting U.S. president and a leader of North Korea, American officials are maintaining any resulting agreement must lead to an end of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile threats. There will not be a repeat of "flimsy agreements" made between previous U.S. administrations and North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Singapore on Monday. "The ultimate objective we seek from diplomacy with North Korea has not changed the complete, verifiable and irreversible de-nuclearization of the Korea peninsula is only outcome that the United States will accept," declared Pompeo. Sanctions will remain until North Korea completely and verifiably eliminates its weapons of mass destruction programs, added Pompeo. "If diplomacy does not move in the right direction, those measures will increase," he said. Pompeo said he is "very optimistic" the meeting Tuesday between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "will have a successful outcome." "It's the case in each of those two countries there are only two people that can make decisions of this magnitude and those two people are going to be sitting in the room together tomorrow," said Pompeo. He declined, however, to reveal any details of the... What did Trump think of his visit to France? he enjoyed it Pick the correct answer from the following options: - he felt young and dashing - not enough information - he thought it was lavish - he enjoyed it
not enough information

Young undocumented immigrants seeking permanent status in the United States received an unexpected boost Thursday on Capitol Hill as a small group of House Republicans mounted a last-minute effort to bring up an immigration vote in Congress. The group of eight Republicans some freed from political considerations by upcoming retirements and others facing tough re-elections races defied their own party leadership, quickly persuading 10 more Republicans to sign on to a petition that would force debate on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With all 193 Democrats expected to sign on, Republicans will have to persuade just seven more members of their own party to join the petition to trigger a vote on several immigration bills on the House floor. But Republican leadership said the effort would be wasted if the end result is a presidential veto. "I think it's important for us to come up with a solution that the president can support," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Thursday. These types of petitions are rare and seen as a threat to leadership's ability to direct legislative action. "It's better to use the legislative process," Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Wednesday. But that argument appears to be losing sway with House members who see an opportunity for legislative action in a mid-term election year. The growing group of House Republicans are joining Democratic colleagues who have long criticized Ryan for not bringing immigration bills up for a vote. "This is about making sure we're not consolidating power in the White House," said Representative Mia Love, a Republican from Utah and one of the first lawmakers to sign petition. The immigration issue had all but died after an effort to pass a DACA fix collapsed in the U.S. Senate earlier this year. The program has been the focus of fierce negotiations on Capitol Hill since last September, when President Donald Trump announced he was ending the 2012 Obama-era program and called for a legislative fix. When did 10 Republicans sign onto a petition? Pick the correct answer from the following options: - after 8 Republicans defied party leadership - after the President was presented with a solution - after immigrants voted in Capitol Hill - not enough information
after 8 Republicans defied party leadership