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Exclusive: China has made unprecedented proposals as trade talks continue with the United States. “If you looked at the texts a month ago compared to today, we have moved forward in all areas,” said one of four senior U.S. administration officials who spoke to Reuters. “We aren’t yet where we want to be,” they added. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arrive in Beijing today for a new round of talks.

A Michigan family highlights divide over Mueller report ahead of Trump visit. Diana Jones, who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest, thinks Trump is a “criminal, an animal, a racist and an embarrassment.” She is angry with his anti-immigration stance, efforts to ban transgender people from the military, and reversal of several Obama-era regulations intended to protect the environment. On the other side of the divide is her father, who owns two hats with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, predicts that Trump will “go down in history as one of the greats.” Martin Jones, 64, said “he didn’t win because the Russians helped him, he won because he came here to Michigan and Wisconsin and spoke to working people.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved six secret authorizations by companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia, according to a copy of a document seen by Reuters. Perry’s approvals, known as Part 810 authorizations, allow companies to do preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of any deal but not ship equipment that would go into a plant, a source with knowledge of the agreements said on condition of anonymity.

President Trump calls for House intelligence panel chairman Adam Schiff to resign after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not establish collusion between the 2016 election campaign and Russia. Trump’s Republican Party have intensified its counter-attack after the conclusion of Mueller’s probe, which was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on Friday.

The former head coach of women’s soccer at Yale University is set to admit he took bribes to help the children of wealthy parents get into the Ivy League school, becoming the third person to plead guilty to a role in the largest U.S. college admissions scandal.

World

Members of the Russian military have arrived in Venezuela but will not take part in military operations, Venezuela’s military attache in Moscow was cited as saying by Interfax news agency. A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry subsequently said Russia had sent a team of specialists to Venezuela to discuss military cooperation at the request of the government in Caracas.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially launched his party’s general election campaign. “Our vision is of a new India that will be in tune with its glorious past,” Modi said to roars of approval at a rally in India’s most populous state. The general election, the world’s biggest democratic exercise with about 900 million eligible voters, will be held in phases beginning on April 11 and ending on May 19.

The corruption trial of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will start next week after a delay of nearly two months, his lawyer told Reuters. He faces years in prison if convicted on a total of 42 criminal charges, most of them linked to a multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.

.@Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 472 days. Follow updates on the case: https://reut.rs/2FFdu05

8:07 AM - 28 Mar 2019

Brexit

The Brexit deadlock continues. Last night, British lawmakers voted ‘no’ to all eight proposals put forward as alternative options for Britain’s exit from the European Union. One of the proposals called for a confirmatory public vote to approve a deal: it was defeated 295 votes to 268.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she would quit if parliament supports her deal, which has been voted against twice already. To succeed at passing herdeal, May must win over many of the 75 Conservatives who opposed it before. So far, 14 have changed their position, including brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Others, including the Northern Irish party that props up May’s government, have said they will not support it. When, or even if, another vote on May’s deal - called a ‘meaningful vote’ - will happen is unclear.

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