Hillary Clinton launches new political action group to fight Trump

'Onward Together' to encourage people to organise and run for office, writes Hillary

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has launched a new political action organisation to fight against US President Donald Trump's agenda and raise funds for five prominent progressive groups.

"I believe more fiercely than ever that citizen engagement at every level is central to a strong and vibrant democracy," Clinton said announcing the launch of her group 'Onward Together'.

"More than ever, I believe citizen engagement is vital to our democracy. I'm so inspired by everyone stepping up to organise and lead," the former Secretary of State, said to her supporters as she urged them to contribute to the "remarkable" spirit of political activism.

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The announcement comes as Clinton, 69, works to find a new role in an evolving political landscape.

The new group's website said it aimed to advance progressive values and reminded visitors that Clinton had won nearly 66 million votes in November's showdown with Trump.

"Onward Together will work to build a brighter future for generations to come by supporting groups that encourage people to organise and run for office," wrote the former Secretary of State.

Clinton becomes the latest high-profile Democrat to launch an independent group. Former President Barack Obama, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and 2004 Democratic nominee Howard Dean all helped create political organisations. Read more

Clinton's national lead over Trump touches double digit

Clinton's national lead over Trump touches double digit

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has gained a double digit national lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump who has been going through a rough patch over the past few weeks, according to a latest poll.

"The Clinton-Kaine ticket leads the Trump-Pence ticket by 10 points (49-39 per cent) in the race for the White House," Fox News said as it released results of its first poll after the conclusion of the back to back conventions last week.

While Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia is the vice presidential running mate of Clinton, Governor Mike Penceis Trump's running mate.

Clinton's double digit lead is considered to be significant as it is outside the margin of error.

A month ago, Clinton was up by six points (44-38 per cent, June 26-28), the report said.

According to the poll, however, 61 per cent of the respondents think Clinton is dishonest.

According to the report, Democrat is winning among the "Obama coalition", the key voting blocs that secured his re-election.(more)

Donald Trump 'unfit' to serve as US President: Barack Obama

Donald Trump 'unfit' to serve as US President: Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "unfit" to serve as President and lambasted Republicans for sticking with the businessman-turned-politician.

The strong rebuke came after Trump's criticism of the family of a slain Muslim US soldier, along with comments that displayed apparent confusion related to the Russian incursion into Ukraine, CNN reported.

"The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as President," Obama said at a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Singapore. "He keeps on proving it."

The Trump campaign responded by going after the Democratic nominee as well as the President.

"Hillary Clinton has proven herself unfit to serve in any government office," a Trump statement said, listing a number of policy concerns. "Obama-Clinton have single-handedly destabilised the Middle East, handed Iraq, Libya and Syria to ISIS, and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered at Benghazi."

Obama on Tuesday described his feelings about Trump as unprecedented, recalling disagreements with previous GOP presidential nominees Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney -- but never an outright sense they were unfit to serve.(more)

New software can recognise unseen events in YouTube videos

New software can recognise unseen events in YouTube videos

Scientists have developed a computer software that can recognise events in YouTubevideos, even those that it has not previously seen.

The new approach uses both scene and object features from the video and enables associations between these visual elements and each type of event to be automatically determined and weighted by a machine-learning architecture known as a neural network.

The approach not only works better than other methods in recognising events in videos, but is significantly better at identifying events that that the computer programme has never or rarely encountered previously, said Leonid Sigal, senior research scientist at Disney Research.

These events can include such things as riding a horse, baking cookies or eating at a restaurant.

"Automated techniques are essential for indexing, searching and analysing the incredible amount of video being created and uploaded daily to the Internet," said Jessica Hodgins, vice president at Disney Research.

"With multiple hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every second, there's no way to describe all of that content manually," Hodgins said. Read more.

'Modi's visit gave opportunity to assess Indo-US partnership': Obama administration

'Modi's visit gave opportunity to assess Indo-US partnership': Obama administration

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US provided an "important opportunity" to assess how the Indo-US partnership can help address global challenges and unleash opportunity in the economic and trade space, a topObama administration official said.

"There was a tremendous amount of support and goodwill and his words resonated in many many different audiences around town," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal toldPTI on the sidelines of an event here on Tuesday.

Following Modi's visit to Washington from June 6-8, Biswal had described the vision laid out by the Indian leader during his address to the US Congress as the 'Modi Doctrine'.

Biswal, in the city to speak at the launch of the Sri Lanka Policy Forum, saidModi doctrine was "a way of framing what I thought was an important vision" that the Prime Minister put forward in his speech to the US Congress.

"It's a recognition that both President (Barack) Obama and Prime Minister Modi said that we are each other's best partners in an important defining relationship, not only because of what wecan do for our own peoples through our partnership but because of the way we can really advance global concerns, address challenges and create betterment around the world."

She said Modi's visit was an "important opportunity" to talk about that kind of partnership and to best look at the "challenges that we see", including the challenges across the Indo-Pacific, climate change and "how we can move together to address them as well as unleash opportunity on the economic and trade space and in many other endeavors between our two countries."

Read more.

Hillary Clinton hopes to clinch Democratic nomination

Hillary Clinton hopes to clinch Democratic nomination

Ahead of Tuesday's key primaries, Hillary Clinton has exuded confidence that she will be able to secure enough delegates to become the Democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee.

"I believe, on Tuesday, I will have decisively won the popular vote and I will have decisively won the pledged delegate majority," Clinton told CNN in an interview.

After more than four months long presidential primary process, Clinton has 2,313 delegates and is short of just 60 delegates to reach the magical number of 2,383.

Even if she is defeated by her sole rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who has 1,547 delegates, in some of the key states like California on June 7, Clinton is all set to get 60 delegates to clinch the nomination.

"After Tuesday, I'm going to do everything I can to reach out to try to unify the Democratic Party, and I expect Senator Sanders to do the same. And we will come together and be prepared to go to the convention in a unified way to make our case, to leave the convention, to go into the general election to defeat Donald Trump," Clinton said.

The Democratic Party's convention is scheduled in July in Philadelphia where the winner of the primary season would be formally nominated as the presidential candidate for the November general elections.Read More.

Donald Trump a 'fraud', trying to scam people of US: Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump a 'fraud', trying to scam people of US: Hillary Clinton

The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump today intensified as the Democratic presidential frontrunner accused the Republican presumptive presidential nominee of "scamming" the American people after he got embroiled in a fresh 'Trump University' controversy.

"He (Trump) is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University. It's important that we recognise what he has done, because that's usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do," Clinton said at an election rally in New Jersey.

"Today, we're learning about another scam: the so-called Trump University. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud," she alleged.

"And his own employees testified - I want you to hear this - his own employees testified that Trump University - you can't make this up - that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people," she said.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said.

In documents released this week from one of the three pending lawsuits against Trump University, former employees have described the now-defunct business as a "fraudulent scheme" and "total lie" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated". Read more.