Political news

• Obama praises Labor Secretary Perez, who's weighing DNC bid

  16-12-2016 23:54
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama weighed in on the race to head the Democratic National Committee on Friday, praising Labor Secretary Tom Perez as "tireless, wicked smart" and "extraordinary."
  
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• VW agrees to pay $200 million into U.S. pollution reduction fund

  16-12-2016 23:53
  By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG has agreed to pay more than $200 million (£160 million) into a fund created to cut diesel pollution, part of its agreement over about 80,000 3.0-liter diesel vehicles that emitted more than the U.S. legal limit, a person briefed on the settlement told Reuters. The agreement is expected to be announced as early as Monday, and is in addition to $2.7 billion that VW previously agreed to pay to offset emissions from about 475,000 2.0-lit
  
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• Praxair, Linde close to finalising merger terms: sources

  16-12-2016 23:49
  Praxair Inc and Linde AG , the industrial gas companies that agreed earlier this month to revive merger talks, are close to finalising the terms of the potential deal, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The move comes after Danbury, Connecticut-based Praxair provided new assurances to Munich, Germany-based Linde over corporate governance and jobs, the sources said. Its previous bid to create a $65 billion (£52 billion) industrial gas giant failed in September amid disagreement
  
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• Obama signs bill for Flint water, Calif. drought

  16-12-2016 23:42
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday authorizing water projects across the country, including $170 million to address lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and $558 million to provide relief to drought-stricken California.
  
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• Exclusive - Televisa affiliate surfaces in widening FIFA bribery probe

  16-12-2016 23:34
  By Mica Rosenberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - An unnamed company described in a sweeping probe of corruption in football's world governing body FIFA matches the description of a close affiliate of Grupo Televisa, the largest broadcaster in Latin America, according to a Reuters review of U.S. and Swiss government documents. In court papers filed on Tuesday, U.S. prosecutors said an affiliate of a major broadcasting company headquartered in Latin America helped to pay millions of dollars in bribes to obt
  
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• Obama defends U.S. approach toward war in Syria

  16-12-2016 23:31
  By Roberta Rampton and Julia Harte WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday defended the U.S. approach toward the civil war in Syria, saying he understood the desire for action to end the conflict but it would have been impossible to do "on the cheap" without a full U.S. military intervention. "Unless we were all in and willing to take over Syria, we were going to have problems," Obama told a news conference, noting that it would have required "putting large numbers of U.S. troops
  
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• Democrats eye confirmation fight over Trump's Treasury pick

  16-12-2016 23:31
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are eyeing the Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Trump's Treasury secretary pick selection as a prime opportunity to chip away at the Republican's populist appeal with working-class voters and begin rebuilding their own party's economic message.
  
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• Obama signs bill to review civil rights-era killings

  16-12-2016 23:26
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Racially motivated, civil rights-era killings that are now cold cases will get fresh looks under legislation signed by President Barack Obama.
  
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• Obama points finger at Putin for cyber attacks on U.S. election

  16-12-2016 23:26
  By Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday strongly suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally oversaw the computer hacks of Democratic Party emails that American intelligence officials say were aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump win the Nov. 8 election. At a pre-Christmas press conference, Obama leveled a fierce attack against Russia, calling it a smaller and weaker country than the United States that "does not produce an
  
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• Q of the Week: Who's Your Favorite Political Character?

  16-12-2016 23:25
  This week, we asked readers of the Politics & Politics Daily to share their favorite characters from political movies and TV. Here are some of our favorite responses:
  
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• Obama says change in U.S. policy towards Taiwan would have consequences with China

  16-12-2016 23:24
  By Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday it was fine for President-elect Donald Trump to review Washington's "one-China" policy towards Taiwan, but he cautioned that a shift could lead to significant consequences in the U.S. relationship with Beijing. "For China, the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket," Obama said at a news conference. "The idea of one China is at the heart of their conception as a nation and so if yo
  
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• Have I Got News For You Replaces Nicky Morgan With £1,000 Leather Handbag And Mocks Her Over Trousergate

  16-12-2016 23:20
  
  Nicky Morgan has been skewered on Have I Got News For You, after she pulled out of appearing at short notice amid her ‘Trousergate’ row with Theresa May.
  The ex-Education Secretary was due to be the guest on Paul Merton’s team on Friday’s show, hosted by Gary Lineker, but said “unforeseen circumstances” meant she could not take part.
  By apparent coincidence, Morgan had become embroiled in a row with the prime minister. She criticised the May for wearing £
  
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• Have I Got News For You Replaces Nicky Morgan With £1,000 Leather Handbag Amid Trousergate

  16-12-2016 23:20
  
  Nicky Morgan has been skewered on Have I Got News For You, after she pulled out of appearing at short notice amid her ‘Trousergate’ row with Theresa May.
  The ex-Education Secretary was due to be the guest on Paul Merton’s team on Friday’s show, hosted by Gary Lineker, but said “unforeseen circumstances” meant she could not take part.
  By apparent coincidence, Morgan had become embroiled in a row with the prime minister. She criticised the May for wearing £
  
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• Dollar's post-Fed rally pauses, U.S. stocks end lower

  16-12-2016 23:16
  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar and U.S. stocks dipped on Friday, taking a breather following this week's big moves after the Federal Reserve signalled a faster pace of U.S. interest rate increases next year. U.S. Treasury debt yields inched higher, continuing a weeks-long trend. News that a Chinese warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by a U.S. oceanographic vessel in the South China Sea sparked some worries about geopolitical tensions and added to some of th
  
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• British Airways says cabin crew to strike over Christmas

  16-12-2016 23:16
  (Reuters) - British Airways said on Friday it was "appalled" by trade union Unite's decision to call a strike involving one of its five cabin crew fleets on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Dec. 26). Unite said in a statement earlier on Wednesday that thousands of British Airways cabin crew had voted in favour of strike action in a pay dispute. In a statement, the airline said Unite's "calculated and heartless action is completely unnecessary" and that it would plan to ensure that all customers cou
  
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• First lady: White House needs 'grown-up' in times of crisis

  16-12-2016 23:06
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama says the White House needs a "grown-up" and the nation will come to appreciate President Barack Obama.
  
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• China seizes U.S. underwater drone in South China Sea

  16-12-2016 23:00
  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by a U.S. oceanographic vessel in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday. The drone was taken on Thursday, the first seizure of its kind in recent memory, about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch was about to retrieve the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), offici
  
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• APNewsBreak: Two-star general demoted after affair

  16-12-2016 22:53
  WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army major general has been stripped of his stars and forced out of the military after a 30-year military career because of a long extramarital affair and "swinger" lifestyle.
  
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• Trump builds team of bosses to shake up Washington

  16-12-2016 22:51
  By James Oliphant and Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With more than 20 nominees now selected, Donald Trump’s cabinet appears much like the president-elect himself: mostly older, white males, many of them wealthy, who see themselves as risk-takers and deal-makers and prize action over deliberation. Trump, who says Washington is "broken" and controlled by special interests, has largely eschewed technocrats with long government experience. Trump's roster of agency heads and advisers
  
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• U.S. indicts three Romanians over $4 million cyber fraud

  16-12-2016 22:48
  Three Romanian nationals have been extradited to the United States to face charges that they operated a cyber fraud scheme in which they infected at least 60,000 computers and stole at least $4 million, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday. Bogdan Nicolescu, 34, Tiberiu Danet, 31, and Radu Miclaus, 34, were charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Cleveland with charges including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The trio were extradited to the
  
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• Protests, looting break out in Venezuela amid cash chaos

  16-12-2016 22:48
  By Anggy Polanco and Maria Ramirez EL PINAL/CIUDAD GUAYANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Protests and looting broke out in parts of Venezuela on Friday due to a lack of cash after the socialist government suddenly pulled the nation's largest banknote from circulation in the midst of a brutal economic crisis. Waving the now-worthless 100-bolivar bills, pockets of demonstrators blocked roads, demanded that stores accept the cash and cursed President Nicolas Maduro, witnesses said. Last weekend, Maduro ga
  
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• With Rogue One , the Star Wars Franchise Gets Even More Feminist

  16-12-2016 22:33
  
  Mild spoilers ahead. In May of 1977, in New York magazine, John Simon reviewed the new George Lucas film, Star Wars. Simon was not a fan. “It is all trite characters and paltry verbiage,” the critic wrote of the much-hyped film, “handled adequately by Harrison Ford as a blockade-running starship pilot, uninspiredly by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker (Luke for George Lucas, the author-director; Skywalker for his Icarus complex), and wretchedly by Carrie Fisher, who is not even app
  
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• Exclusive - Foreign banks in Britain pay fraction of tax rate

  16-12-2016 22:33
  By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - Some of the biggest foreign investment and commercial banks operating in Britain paid an average tax rate of just 6 percent on the billions of dollars of profits they made in the country last year, a Reuters analysis of regulatory filings shows. Seven of the biggest international banks operating in London - Europe's main investment banking centre - have published profit and tax data ahead of a year-end deadline stipulated by EU law. Five of them, all U.S. banks,
  
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• Obama urges Trump to take foreign election impact seriously

  16-12-2016 22:29
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama suggested strongly on Friday that Russia's Vladimir Putin knew about the email hackings that roiled the U.S. presidential race, and he urged his successor, Republican Donald Trump, to back a bipartisan investigation into the matter.
  
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• Track of the Day: ‘Daughter’ by Loudon Wainwright III

  16-12-2016 22:20
  Another reader builds on a note from Barbara in which she runs through a bunch of covers of songs written by Kate McGarrigle, whose husband is Loudon Wainwright III:
  
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• The Latest: Obama silent on need to brief electors on Russia

  16-12-2016 22:18
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Barack Obama's year-end news conference (all times EST):
  
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• US offers $25 million reward for info leading to al-Baghdadi

  16-12-2016 22:17
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has more than doubled its offer of a reward to $25 million for information leading to the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliph.
  
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• Kuwait summons Iran's ambassador over detention of four nationals

  16-12-2016 22:14
  (Reuters) - Kuwait's foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to demand the release of four Kuwaiti nationals detained in the western Ahvaz region of Iran, it said in a statement published by state news agency KUNA on Friday. Kuwait joined other Gulf states in pulling its ambassador out from Tehran last year, rallying behind regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia after the kingdom's embassy in Tehran was torched by protesters.
  
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• Southampton need some luck up front - Ward-Prowse

  16-12-2016 22:12
  By bloom SOUTHAMPTON, England - By Claire Bloomfield Southampton need luck on their side if they are going to improve their goal-scoring fortunes, according to midfielder James Ward-Prowse. The Saints are a creditable ninth in the Premier League but have netted just 14 times in 16 games, the joint second lowest haul in the division. "I think the strikers need to keep making the runs, keep getting into the box," said England under-21 captain Ward-Prowse ahead of Sunday's match at local rivals Bou
  
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• England’s elderly care breaking down in Oldham

  16-12-2016 21:53 via ft.com
  Council tax rises not enough to offset severe cuts to budgets and ageing population
  
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• Omnicom, Publicis get U.S. Justice Department subpoenas over video production practices

  16-12-2016 21:52
  Subsidiaries for advertising companies Omnicom Group Inc and Publicis Groupe SA were subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice, both companies said on Friday. The Justice Department's antitrust division has been investigating whether ad agencies had rigged bids to favour in-house production units. Both Omnicom and Publicis said they received the subpoenas on Wednesday.
  
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• Trump moves to cancel deals in Azerbaijan, Georgia

  16-12-2016 21:50
  NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump Organization has canceled a licensing deal for a hotel in Azerbaijan and is taking steps to do the same for a project in neighboring Georgia, part of a string of recent efforts by the president-elect to extricate his business from thorny relationships five weeks before he takes office.
  
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• Dispute holds up evacuation from 'hell' of Aleppo

  16-12-2016 21:41
  By Laila Bassam, Lisa Barrington and John Davison ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The evacuation of the last opposition-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo was suspended on Friday after pro-government militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi'ite villages being besieged by rebel fighters. The second day of the operation to take fighters and civilians out of Aleppo's rebel enclave ground to a halt amid recriminations from all sides after a morning that had s
  
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• A Japan-Russia step toward reconciliation

  16-12-2016 21:41
  A good example was a recent summit between Japan and Russia. At a Dec. 15-16 meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to take steps that might someday help resolve a 71-year dispute over a string of islands.
  
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• Obama defends U.S. approach towards war in Syria

  16-12-2016 21:40
  President Barack Obama on Friday defended the U.S. approach towards the civil war in Syria, saying he understood the desire for action to end the conflict but it would have been impossible to do "on the cheap" without a full U.S. military intervention.
  
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• Martin Rowson on the world's response to Aleppo – cartoon

  16-12-2016 21:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• RHI scandal: McGuinness calls on NI first minister to step aside

  16-12-2016 21:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  NI's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness calls for Arlene Foster to "stand aside" as first minister during an investigation into a controversial heating initiative.
  
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• Obama says Russian U.S. election tampering ended after warning to Putin

  16-12-2016 21:17
  U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that once he confronted Russian leader Vladimir Putin in September about Moscow's efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election, he saw no further evidence of Russian tampering. Obama told a news conference he spoke to Putin about U.S. concerns during the G20 summit in China in September, telling him to "cut it out" and warning of consequences if it continued. Obama said he has had similar conversations in the past with Chinese leader Xi Jinping a
  
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• FBI backs CIA assessment on Russian motives in U.S. hacking - officials

  16-12-2016 21:13
  The FBI backs the CIA's view that Russia intervened to help Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential election, two senior government officials told Reuters on Friday. The FBI, CIA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence now all agree that Russia was behind computer hacks into U.S. political institutions during the election, officials have said. The FBI had originally declined to endorse the CIA's conclusion that Russia intervened specifically to help Trump.
  
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• Obama says world 'united in horror' at bloodshed in Aleppo by Assad, allies

  16-12-2016 21:06
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday the world is "united in horror" at the fighting in Syria's Aleppo and that President Bashar al-Assad and his allies were responsible for atrocities including reported massacres of civilians. "Responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone: with the Assad regime and its allies Russia and Iran. And this blood and these atrocities are on their hands," Obama said at a White House news conference. (Reporting by Roberta Rampt
  
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• Official: FBI backs CIA conclusion on Russian hacking motive

  16-12-2016 20:51
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is supporting the CIA's conclusion that Russia interfered in the presidential election with the goal of supporting Republican candidate Donald Trump.
  
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• The Latest: Judge upholds Electoral College mandate in Calif

  16-12-2016 20:47
  
  SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local):
  
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• Dollar's post-Fed rally pauses, U.S. stocks ease

  16-12-2016 20:44
  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar and U.S. stocks dipped on Friday, taking a breather after this week's big moves after the Federal Reserve signaled a faster pace of U.S. interest rate increases next year. U.S. Treasury debt yields inched higher, continuing a weeks-long trend. "We took direction from the Fed, but over the next couple of weeks we'll see some more cleaning up of positions heading into the year-end," said Tom Simons, money market economist at Jefferies &
  
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• U.N. chief urges Israeli lawmakers to reconsider settlement bill

  16-12-2016 20:38
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Outgoing United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Israeli lawmakers to reconsider a bill to legalize Israeli settlement homes on private Palestinian land as Arab states mull putting forward a Security Council resolution on settlements. The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war.
  
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• Riot closes four wings of Birmingham prison

  16-12-2016 20:38 via ft.com
  Disturbance at G4S-run Winson Green raises pressure over crisis in jail system
  
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• Oil rises on Goldman forecast, signs producers complying with cuts

  16-12-2016 20:36
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose on Friday, edging closer to new 17-month highs, after Goldman Sachs boosted its price forecast for 2017 and producers showed signs of adhering to a global deal to reduce output. "We're up today because Goldman Sachs bumped up its oil estimates and the Russians said their oil companies would reduce output," said Phil Davis, managing partner of venture capital fund PSW Investments in Woodland Park, New Jersey. Russia said on Friday that all of the co
  
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• Nicky Morgan replaced by designer handbag on Have I Got News For You

  16-12-2016 20:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Former education secretary had pulled out of BBC panel show after row with Downing Street over cost of Theresa May’s trousersNicky Morgan was represented by a designer handbag on Have I Got News For You, after deciding to pull out days after it emerged she had fallen out with Downing Street over the cost of the prime minister’s trousers. Related: Theresa May sidesteps question about £995 leather trousersContinue reading...
  
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• Israel's Netanyahu urges settlers set for eviction to go quietly

  16-12-2016 20:32
  By Ori Lewis JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday urged settlers set for eviction from an outpost in the occupied West Bank next week to leave quietly without resisting security forces. Netanyahu has backed a bill, condemned by Western powers and the United Nations, that would legalise Israeli settlement homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. In the five decades since Israel captured the West Bank, it has built about 120 formal settlements in the te
  
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• Baggage handlers to strike in run-up to Christmas

  16-12-2016 20:31 via ft.com
  Workers for Swissport ground-services company angry at below-inflation pay deal
  
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• Trump's pick for Israel envoy signals break on US policy

  16-12-2016 20:28
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's selection of a hard-line pro-Israel advocate as his U.S. ambassador to the Jewish state could signal the end of decades of American support for the establishment of an independent Palestine.
  
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