CNN news 2010-11-16 加文本

cnn news 2010-11-16

Right smack in the middle of November with the Thanksgiving break right around the corner, cnn Student News is bringing you the latest from your world.

President Obama is back in Washington after a ten-day trip to Asia, his longest trip overseas since he became president. It wrapped up over the weekend in Japan, where he attended APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This is a group of 21 member countries, from Australia to Canada -- from China to Mexico to the US -- and their mission is to improve economies and help the Asia-Pacific region to become more prosperous. No surprise, they talked about how the world economy is still hurting from the recession. And they acknowledged that it's still hard to say whether things are improving, with so much uncertainty in its members' economies. APEC nations did agree to work toward increased trade, though. And during the meeting, President Obama talked about some other concerns as well. This soundbite you're about to hear, came after a meeting he had with Russian leaders.

"We spoke about a range of security issues. I reiterated my commitment to get the START Treaty done during the lame duck session and I communicated to Congress that it is a top priority."

Okay, you heard the president mention two things there: the start treaty and Congress. Here's the deal on start: it's an agreement between the US and Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons they have. Because it's a treaty, it has to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, and tha is one of the things that'll be brought up in Congress' lame duck session, which starts today and ends in December. Another task for lawmakers: What to do about tax cuts that date back to President George W. Bush. Do they keep them in place for everybody, meaning taxes don't go up but neither does government revenue? Or do they let the cuts expire, as they're scheduled to do. Meaning taxes do go up, but the government takes in more money? Or do lawmakers compromise, raising taxes only on wealthier Americans? You're going to hear more about these issues as 2010 winds down.