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☆ G7 leaders reckon with Ukraine, haunted by Hiroshima nuclear legacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HIROSHIMA, Japan, May 19 (Reuters) - Leaders of the world's advanced democracies start their Group of Seven (G7) summit on Friday in Hiroshima with a sombre remembrance of the costs of war as they grapple with the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow has said it is ready to use its nuclear arsenal to defend its "territorial integrity" if necessary. As part of the efforts, each of the G7 members will be unveiling new sanctions, according to the U.S. official. G7 finance leaders warned in Japan last weekend of mounting economic uncertainty, in a subdued end to a meeting overshadowed in part by concerns about the U.S. debt stalemate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to address the G7 leaders, though he may do so by video rather than in person.

☆ US Senator Feinstein still suffering complications from shingles, her office says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Costas Pitas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who returned to Washington last week after a months-long absence due to shingles, is continuing to suffer from a medical complication known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Feinstein had also previously suffered encephalitis, her office said, after the New York Times reported on medical conditions that had not been publicly disclosed. Ramsay Hunt Syndrome affects the facial nerve and can cause partial facial paralysis or weakness. First elected to the Senate in 1992, Feinstein had been sidelined since February as she recovered from shingles. "I'm back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis," Feinstein said in a statement provided earlier on Thursday to the New York Times.

☆ El Salvador forces surround town in north after police killing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The officer was killed while on patrol in Nueva Concepcion, some 42 miles (67 km) northwest of the capital on Tuesday in an attack by alleged gang members, security authorities said. El Salvador has suspended constitutional rights in a so-called state of exception that allows police to swiftly arrest and jail suspected gang members while suspending their right to a lawyer and court approval of preliminary detention. Human rights groups say some innocent people have been caught up in the policy, including at least dozens who died in custody. Bukele's government has previously launched similar surges of security forces in urban areas considered highly dangerous in an attempt to stop drug trafficking and the movement of gang members. Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Sarah Morland Editing by Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Boris Titov, head of the Russian delegation of the Cuban-Russian Business Committee, told a forum of Russian entrepreneurs in Havana that Cuba had decisively opened the door to Russian investment. "They are giving us preferential treatment," Titov told the packed forum in Havana´s Hotel Nacional. "In Soviet times there was a direct port and maritime link," Titov told the forum. Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba´s minister of foreign commerce told reporters on the sidelines of the forum that the economic ties between Russia and Cuba would only grow stronger. Bilateral trade between Cuba and Russia reached $450 million in 2022, three times that of 2021, according to Sergei Baldin, Russia´s trade representative in Cuba.

☆ Kentucky Republicans to choose challenger to Democratic Governor Beshear
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 16 (Reuters) - Republican voters in Kentucky were casting ballots on Tuesday to choose their party's challenger to Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, setting up one of the most closely watched elections of the year. The winner will face Beshear, who enjoys high approval ratings despite being a Democrat in a strongly Republican state, in the November general election. Trump won Kentucky in the 2020 election against Democrat Joe Biden by more than 25 percentage points. While Cameron has Trump's official endorsement, other candidates have sought to claim the mantle of Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement. One Republican challenger, Stephen Knipper, has echoed Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and endorsed conspiracy theories about voting machines.

☆ Biden's approval rating at 40%, Americans concerned about immigration: Reuters/Ipsos poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Jason Lange | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval was at 40% in recent days, close to the lowest level of his presidency, with Americans unhappy about his handling of immigration and inflation, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 54% of respondents - including 77% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats - were against raising the number of immigrants allowed into the country every year. read moreThe president is seeking re-election next year and immigration is primed to be an important issue in the contest. Fifty-four percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were opposed to raising the debt ceiling, including 59% of respondents who don't have a college degree. The Reuters/Ipsos poll gathered responses from 1,022 U.S. adults, using a nationally representative sample.

☆ Dianne Feinstein returning to U.S. Senate after health-related absence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Richard Cowan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, will return to Washington on Tuesday after a months-long absence due to illness, her spokesman said, restoring Democrats' 51-49 majority to full strength. The trailblazing lawmaker had been sidelined since February as she recovered from a bout of shingles, which had led to calls from some fellow Democrats to step aside and allow someone else to take her place. “I’m glad that my friend Dianne is back in the Senate and ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a written statement. Democrats' worries were further heightened as lawmakers have been spending 2023 arguing over raising the nation's borrowing authority. Feinstein could provide crucial support for whatever debt limit bill comes before the Senate that would avert a first-ever default on U.S. debt.

Those concerns intensified in February after U.N. inspectors revealed their discovery of uranium particles of 83.7% purity at an Iran nuclear facility built deep underground to protect it from air strikes. Western officials fear a nuclear-armed Iran could threaten Israel, Gulf Arab oil producers, and spark a regional arms race. A senior Iranian nuclear official said Tehran would not take the revival of U.N. sanctions lying down. But Western officials and analysts say that Iran's production of 90% uranium would demand a significant response. 'FACE A CRISIS AT SOME POINT'While Western officials want to leave the door open for diplomacy, tensions with Russia and China make that harder.

☆ New Yorkers to protest chokehold killing on subway, demand criminal charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Julia Harte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The examiner's homicide finding alone does not imply intent or culpability, which are issues that prosecutors will consider in deciding whether to bring criminal charges. The 24-year-old former Marine, who was white, was questioned by police and released on Monday, local media said. A video of the incident that has circulated on social media showed an unidentified passenger applying a chokehold to a man identified as Neely on the floor of a subway train for more than three minutes. Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes neighborhoods in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, said Neely was murdered and called for his killer's arrest. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago and Julia Harte in New York Editing by Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ WHO dismisses lead COVID origins investigator for sexual misconduct
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In a response to Reuters, Ben Embarek said he contested the accusation of harassment and was challenging the sanction. "Peter Ben Embarek was dismissed last year following findings of sexual misconduct against him that were substantiated by investigations, and corresponding disciplinary process," said WHO spokesperson Marcia Poole. Ben Embarek said that a single incident in 2017 "was settled immediately in a friendly way." "I am not aware of any other complaints and no other complaints have ever been brought to my attention," Ben Embarek said in a digital message. The agency said that people are more willing to come forward about sexual misconduct and that it is taking action where allegations are substantiated.

☆ Factbox: U.S. debt ceiling standoff: Platinum coins, the 14th Amendment could be paths out
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

14TH AMENDMENTSection Four of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted after the 1861-1865 Civil War, states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned." Some experts have suggested that Biden could invoke this amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own if Congress does not act. BYPASS REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIPDemocrats and rank-and-file Republican allies in the House could bypass McCarthy and force a vote on a "clean" debt ceiling increase, free of spending cuts or other conditions. GET RID OF ITCongress could vote to abolish the debt ceiling entirely, which would eliminate the need to vote on the issue periodically but also erode Congress's authority on fiscal matters. Attempts to abolish the debt ceiling have gotten no traction in Congress in recent years.

☆ Saudi Arabia, Iran to reopen embassies 'within days'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, April 28 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and Iran will reopen embassies in each other's capitals "within days," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday in a sign of warming relations after the two countries closed their missions seven years ago. "During the last phone call between the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia on Eid al-Fitr, we agreed to work in the next coming days on the reopening of the Iranian and Saudi embassies in Tehran and Riyadh," Amirabdollahian said, according to an official Arabic translation. Their relationship started deteriorating in 2015 following the intervention of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the Yemen war, after the Iran-aligned Houthi movement toppled the Saudi-backed government and seized control of the capital Sanaa. The Iranian foreign minister confirmed President Ebrahim Raisi would visit Syria in "the near future" without providing details. The visit would be the first by an Iranian president to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since war broke out in Syria in 2011.

☆ China 'police station' case shows U.S. ramping up use of foreign agent laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The Justice Department last year charged at least 25 people with violating or conspiring to violate the law. That was the highest number since at least 2003, according to a Reuters review of Justice Department statements and court records. He added that his office uses the foreign agent statute and other tools to combat the trend. A RARELY TESTED STATUTEWhile once mainly used against traditional espionage, Section 951 cases brought in recent years have targeted "influence operations" and harassment of U.S.-based dissidents. After the acquittal, Justice Department official Jay Bratt told a conference the department would "continue to bring hard cases."

REUTERS/Leah MillisWASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Incumbent President Joe Biden entered the 2024 election race on Tuesday with something he didn't have two-and-a-half years ago: a record in the White House. Critics also say that increased federal spending under Biden, including $750 million on climate change and tax breaks, also drove inflation higher. Biden may have worse cards in 2024, with unemployment likely to rise as growth slows, interest rates remaining high and inflation holding above pre-pandemic levels. Biden also dismissed the sentences of thousands of people with federal offenses for simple marijuana possession, a disproportionately non-white group. The Biden administration also has faced scrutiny over its handling of record numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

When Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, he had more hope that the party would concentrate on economic issues, his business associate said. Four political sources also told Reuters that Thiel is taking a step back from U.S. politics. In 2012, Thiel backed libertarian lawmaker Ron Paul, and in 2016 he donated some $1.25 million to the campaign efforts of Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination. In the 2022 election cycle, however, Thiel emerged as a potential Republican kingmaker, contributing more than $35 million to 16 federal-level Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The business associate said he was not aware of any special proviso for former employees.

☆ Explainer: How did the battle between Ron DeSantis and Disney escalate?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) sued Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, asking a federal court to overturn state efforts to exert greater control over the Walt Disney World theme parks. DeSantis responded by urging the legislature to abolish a special district that gave Disney virtual autonomy over the development of its theme parks in central Florida. The Florida State legislature created the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 to promote the development of Walt Disney World on a 38.5-square miles of land. HOW DO VOTERS FEEL ABOUT THE DESANTIS VS. DISNEY BATTLE? Forty-four percent of Republican respondents in an April Reuters/Ipsos poll said they had a more favorable view of DeSantis because of the fight with Disney.

☆ Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson formally announces White House bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Tim Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Former Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson formally launched his 2024 presidential bid on Wednesday, in a speech that portrayed himself as a more moderate alternative to party frontrunner Donald Trump. Unlike all the other declared and potential Republican White House candidates, who rallied behind Trump after the indictment, Hutchinson said at the time that Trump should pull out of the race. In his formal announcement speech, Hutchinson did not name Trump, but appeared to break with him on foreign policy by decrying the isolationist approach Trump took to international issues when president. "Isolationism only leads to weakness and weakness leads to war," Hutchinson said. Moderation is a tough sell in Republican primary battles, which attract mostly conservative voters.

If he wins, he will face off against Biden again in the November 2024 election. The poll showed that a majority of registered voters don't want either Biden or Trump to run again. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, April 25, 2023. Biden ran a mostly virtual campaign to defeat Trump in the 2020 election as COVID raged. After losing to Biden in 2020, Trump refused to concede defeat, falsely claiming that there had been widespread electoral fraud.

☆ Republican hopefuls woo evangelicals in Iowa, vow to restrict abortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

CLIVE, Iowa, April 22 (Reuters) - Donald Trump and other Republican presidential hopefuls called for restricting abortion at an event for evangelicals in Iowa on Saturday, courting the key conservative voting bloc in the state set to hold the party's first nominating contest in early 2024. Roughly 1,000 people attended the annual presidential forum organized by the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, a conservative nonprofit. Iowa is slated to hold the first-in-the-nation Republican caucus in early 2024. Strong evangelical support early on in the nominating process could help give a challenger a chance to strike a blow against Trump. Trump won 76% of the white evangelical vote in 2020, down from 80% in 2016, according to Edison Research exit polls.

☆ Republican hopefuls to court evangelical vote in Iowa
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

CLIVE, Iowa, April 22 (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopefuls will make their pitch to evangelical voters in Iowa on Saturday, the first major event for candidates to court the key conservative voting bloc in a state set to hold the party's first nominating contest in early 2024. It will be headlined by former Vice President Mike Pence, a devout evangelical who may soon launch a presidential bid, and U.S. Iowa is slated to hold the first-in-the-nation Republican caucus in early 2024. Strong evangelical support early on in the nominating process could help give a challenger a chance to strike a blow against Trump, who won three-fourths of the white evangelical vote nationally in 2020. Trump won 76% of the white evangelical vote in 2020, down from 80% in 2016, according to Edison Research exit polls.

[1/2] Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the 2023 NHGOP Amos Tuck Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., April 14, 2023. Seemingly entrenched in culture wars, Florida governor DeSantis risks being overshadowed by Trump's fundraising, improving polling numbers and endorsements by lawmakers, anti-Trump donors say. Other polls of Republicans alone show Trump has surged into a commanding lead over DeSantis in recent weeks. History shows that early endorsements by elected party officials give candidates momentum and can be predictive of who wins a presidential nomination. These culture war appeals to Trump's Republican base so far do not appear to be working.

☆ DeSantis signs bill to lower bar on death sentence in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tyler Clifford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Three jurors voted against a death sentence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, leaving Cruz to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence," he said in a statement. Florida prosecutors trying capital felony cases would need to convince a supermajority, or two-thirds, of a 12-member jury panel that someone who is convicted deserves the death penalty. It would have no effect on the requirement for a jury's unanimous vote to convict a defendant. Florida joins Alabama as the only states where a unanimous jury decision is not required, the Death Penalty Information Center noted.

☆ Factbox: What's in Republican McCarthy's debt-limit spending cut package
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

At that point, Congress would have to address the issue again, as the 2024 presidential campaign heats up. Those caps would effectively serve as spending cuts, as they would not keep up with projected inflation and population growth. Congress agreed to similar spending caps in 2011 during another debt-ceiling standoff, though it often did not adhere to them in the following years. CLAW BACK UNSPENT COVID-19 FUNDSThe plan would cancel the remaining pots of money from the $5.2 trillion Congress approved between 2020 and 2022 to fight COVID-19. According to the White House, the remaining money amounted to less than $80 billion in January and is likely lower now.

☆ Factbox: What's in Republican McCarthy's debt-limit spending cut package?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SPENDING RESTRAINTSThe plan would cut a wide swath of government spending to last year's levels, a decrease of about 9%. It is not clear how the spending caps would affect specific government operations, from air traffic control to housing to the military. The caps would reduce spending in real terms as they would not keep up with projected inflation and population growth. CLAW BACK UNSPENT COVID-19 FUNDSThe plan would cancel the remaining funds from the $5.2 trillion Congress approved between 2020 and 2022 to fight COVID-19. TIGHTEN WORK REQUIREMENTSThe plan would stiffen work requirements for participants in some antipoverty programs.

☆ House Republicans chart new strategy to pressure Biden, Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Any proposal Republicans introduce would need to be negotiated with Biden's Democrats, who control the Senate, before it could become law. The White House, which is leading the Democrats' approach to the debt ceiling, has dismissed the Republican proposals as unrealistic. That would set the stage for another debt ceiling debate in the closing months of the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden and McCarthy met at the White House in February to discuss the standoff, but they have not held further talks as the administration has called on House Republicans to release a budget proposal. Some Republicans also favor the clean debt ceiling increase that Biden has demanded.

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