Trump fires national security chief Bolton
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired his National Security Advisor John Bolton, saying he "disagreed strongly" with many of his suggestions.
Announcing Bolton's sacking on twitter, Trump said he will name a new national security advisor next week.
Appointed in April 2018, Bolton is the third national security adviser to leave Trump's side, following in the footsteps of Michael Flynn and H R McMaster.
"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore.... I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning," Trump tweeted.
"I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week," he added.
The tweet came just one hour after the White House press office said Bolton was scheduled to appear at a Tuesday press briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Minutes after Trump tweeted, Bolton came out with his own response, contradicting the president's version of events. "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow'," Bolton tweeted.
A leading foreign policy hawk, Bolton was widely known to have pressed Trump for a harder line on North Korea and Iran. He had also advocated a tougher approach on Russia and Afghanistan.
A disagreement between Trump and Bolton over the president's decision to host a now-cancelled meeting with leaders of the Taliban at Camp David reportedly appeared to be the last straw.
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Rupee falls 5 paise to 90.22 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee weakened by 5 paise to 90.22 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, amid a strengthening American currency, higher crude oil prices and incessant outflow of foreign funds.
An unprecedented geopolitical concern and global trade uncertainties have accelerated the dollar demand worldwide, adding strength to the greenback and putting pressure on the Indian currency, analysts said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.24 and gained slightly to trade at 90.22 against the greenback in early deals, registering a loss of 5 paise from its previous closing level.
On Monday, the rupee ended 1 paisa higher at 90.17 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.11 per cent higher at 98.73.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.28 per cent higher at USD 64.05 per barrel in futures trade.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 3,638.40 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex rose 125.96 points or 0.15 per cent to 84,004.13, while the Nifty advanced 47.25 points or 0.18 per cent to 25,837.50.
Analysts attributed the buying trend in equities to the positive cues triggered by strong domestic macroeconomic numbers.
According to government data released on Monday, India's retail inflation rose to a three-month high of 1.33 per cent in December, mainly due to higher prices of food items, but remained below the Reserve Bank of India's lower tolerance level.
Also, the latest data from the Income Tax Department showed the government's net direct tax collection grew about 8.82 per cent to over Rs 18.38 lakh crore in the current fiscal till January 11 due to slower refunds and better corporate tax mop-up.
Net corporate tax collection grew 12.4 per cent to over Rs 8.63 lakh crore, and taxes from non-corporates, including individuals, rose 6.39 per cent to about Rs 9.30 lakh crore.
