20 Feb 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that trade talks with China are complex but are "going very well" and again indicated the March 1 deadline for raising tariffs could be extended.

Officials on Tuesday resumed the high-stakes negotiations aimed at ending a damaging tariff war between the economic superpowers.

JERUSALEM; 20 Feb 2019; AA: Israeli forces Tuesday evening attacked Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, leaving many of them wounded, while arresting others, according to eyewitnesses.

The Israeli attack took place near the Al-Rahma gate of the flashpoint mosque, the eyewitnesses added, without specifying the number of soldiers.

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin says in a state-of-the-nation address that Russia needs to focus on raising living standards.

Speaking on Wednesday before lawmakers and top officials, Putin said the government will increase social payments to support young families. He promised tax breaks, lower mortgage rates and housing subsidies for families with several children.

He said that the tax burden on developers will be eased to encourage them to expand housing construction.

ANKARA; 20 Feb 2019; AA: Turkey’s president said Tuesday that the country would not be able to shoulder a new potential migration wave on its own.

Speaking in Istanbul at the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process on Migration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said building higher walls with barbed wire was no way to prevent irregular migration.

19 Feb 2019; AFP: Senator Bernie Sanders launched a second bid for the White House on Tuesday, taking direct aim at Donald Trump in an announcement that called the incumbent a "racist" and a "pathological liar."

Sanders, 77, joins an already crowded field of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump in 2020.

HELSINKI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Six European liberal democratic prime ministers declared in Helsinki on Tuesday that their parties are the "counter force to populism".

They also called for deepening of the EU single market and continued policies for competitiveness and sustainable growth.

The meeting convened by Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila brought together Helsinki Charles Michel of Belgium, Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark, Juri Ratas of Estonia, Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and Marjan Sarec of Slovenia.

BRUSSELS, Feb 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British Prime Minister Theresa May makes another trip to Brussels on Wednesday, hoping European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker may prove more yielding than of late to salvage her Brexit deal.

With Britain set to jolt out of the world’s biggest trading bloc in 37 days unless May can either persuade the British parliament or the European Union to budge, officials were cautious on the chances of a breakthrough.

MARINE MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTER, Calif. (AP) — Hunkered down behind a wall of snow, two U.S. Marines melt slush to make drinking water after spending the night digging out a defensive position high in the Sierra Nevada. Their laminated targeting map is wedged into the ice just below the machine gun.

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — As emergencies go, it has a catchy tune. Faced with a Nigerian election that could spiral into violence, some in the popular film industry known as Kannywood gathered this week to shoot an urgent music video appealing for peace.

On an impromptu set outside the northern city of Kano, young women bickered between takes but at “Rolling!” smiled and swiveled in unison as male dancers sashayed by. While a drone camera buzzed overhead, a singer gestured and lip-synced a plea for Africa’s largest democracy to keep its cool.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan reports its exports tumbled 8.4 percent in January from a year earlier, as slowing Chinese growth pushed its monthly trade deficit to the highest level in nearly five years.

Exports to all of Asia dropped 13 percent year-on-year, largely due to the 17 percent plunge in shipments to China, where growth recently has fallen to its slowest pace in three decades.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that he would prevail over a multistate lawsuit challenging his emergency declaration to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he expected to do “very well” against the suit, adding that he had an “absolute right” to make the declaration.

“I think in the end we’re going to be very successful with the lawsuit,” Trump said. “I actually think we might do very well, even in the 9th Circuit, because it’s an open and closed case.”

MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- A 10-day state of emergency imposed on the Arctic Novaya Zemlya Archipelago in Russia over an invasion of polar bears has been lifted, the press office of the governor of the Arkhangelsk Region said Tuesday.

"The situation has stabilized and the state of emergency has been lifted," it said in a statement.