[00:59.34]President Obama has described a raft of government spending reductions as ‘dumb and arbitrary cuts to things people depend on.’
[01:06.76] The cuts are due to start taking effect later today
[01:09.25]after his latest talks with Congressional Republicans on reducing the deficit broke up without any sign of a deal.
[01:15.15]Mark Mardell reports from Washington.
[01:17.58]The meeting at the White House lasted less than an hour and solved nothing.
[01:21.60]It was largely theater with the president determined to blame this latest crisis on Republicans who control the House of Representatives.
[01:28.20]These automatic cuts were designed two years ago to be so harsh that the politicians will be forced to do a deal but they are as far apart as ever.
[01:37.29]The president said the pain of the 85 billion dollars worth of cuts wouldn’t be felt right away,
[01:42.17] it will be a slow grind costing 750,000 jobs, damaging growth and making the economy weaker.
[01:49.05]The leading Republican in Congress John Boehner said further tax increases were not the way to address the deficit.
[01:55.16]The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has described as objectionable a comment made by the Turkish prime minister about Zionism.
[02:03.29]Recep Tayyip Erdogan had described Zionism as a crime against humanity which Mr. Kerry said complicated the task of making peace in the Middle East.