Political news

• The Latest: Sessions defends award from think tank

  10-01-2017 23:58
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Senate confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's selection for attorney general (all times EST):
  
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• North Dakota man charged with threatening Democratic senator

  10-01-2017 23:50
  
  FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a North Dakota man with making threats against the state's Democratic senator, Heidi Heitkamp.
  
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• Kerry to make final globe-trotting trip as top US diplomat

  10-01-2017 23:37
  WASHINGTON (AP) — John Kerry, the most traveled secretary of state in U.S. history, will make a final round-the-world trip before he steps down next week.
  
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• Loeb retakes Dakar lead from compatriot Peterhansel

  10-01-2017 23:24
  (Reuters) - Sebastien Loeb won the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally and recaptured the lead from Peugeot team mate Stephane Peterhansel on Tuesday as the Frenchmen led the field back into Argentina from Bolivia. Peterhansel, who led by one minute 57 seconds overnight, ended the day one minute 38 seconds behind the nine times world rally champion, who won his third stage of this year's event.
  
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• U.S. lawmakers want Russia sanctions over hacking, Ukraine, Syria

  10-01-2017 23:15
  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican and Democratic senators said Tuesday they want to slap a wide range of sanctions on Russia over its cyber activities and actions in Syria and Ukraine, and force President Donald Trump to formally waive them if he has objections. Ten senators - Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse and Rob Portman and Democrats Ben Cardin, Robert Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen, Amy Klobuchar and Richard Durbin - introduced the legisla
  
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• Inauguration planner says event features 1 celebrity: Trump

  10-01-2017 23:12
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will take the traditional ride from the White House to the Capitol with his predecessor before his inauguration next week, but he will break from some of the day's other customs, trading traditional celebrity appearances for the "soft sensuality" of the historic event.
  
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• Fellaini helps United to 2-0 win over Hull in Cup semi

  10-01-2017 23:12
  (Reuters) - Manchester United planted one foot in the League Cup final after a late Marouane Fellaini header gave them a 2-0 win over Hull City in the first leg of their last four clash on Tuesday. Juan Mata put United ahead early in the second half of what had looked like being a frustrating night for Jose Mourinho's side, who spurned several chances to put the tie to bed. Paul Pogba rattled the post with a free kick and a string of other opportunities went begging as Hull dug in before Fellain
  
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• McConnell outlines environmental wish-list for Trump action

  10-01-2017 23:02
  The top Republican in the Senate outlined a series of actions he hopes President-elect Donald Trump will take to overturn environmental regulations imposed by President Barack Obama, including a rule to ...
  
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• Kerry to attend Middle East peace conference on January 15 in Paris

  10-01-2017 23:00
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will attend a Middle East peace conference organised by France and to be held in Paris on Jan. 15, his spokesman said on Tuesday. The conference is aimed at determining whether Israelis and Palestinians could be brought back to negotiations and revive moribund peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the conference proposal. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati, editing by G Crosse)
  
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• French presidential candidate Fillon to propose immigration quotas

  10-01-2017 22:57
  French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon, who is favourite to win this year's election, will lay out on Wednesday his proposals to cut immigration to a "strict minimum" through the use of quotas, an aide said on Tuesday. Fillon, who is seen beating far-right leader Marine Le Pen if they meet in a runoff in May in the presidential election, will also urge the European Union to tighten its asylum and immigration policy to counter threats from Islamist militants. Fillon will annou
  
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• U.S. stocks end mixed as markets await Trump press conference

  10-01-2017 22:56
  By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks end Tuesday mixed, while the dollar falls against the yen on investor caution ahead of a news conference by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday. European stock markets, which had opened broadly lower , closed the day on a firmer note, while Wall Street shares closed mixed, but with the Nasdaq Composite reaching an intra-day record peak. Oil prices were lower on the day but off their weakest levels of the previous session whe
  
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• Trump asks skeptic to probe vaccine safety, alarming doctors

  10-01-2017 22:55
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is reviving long debunked attempts to link vaccines to autism, asking a vocal skeptic to chair a commission on vaccination safety — a move that alarmed child health experts.
  
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• Oil slides 2 percent on strong dollar, doubts of OPEC output cuts

  10-01-2017 22:54
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 2 percent on Tuesday to the lowest in nearly a month, extending the previous session's sell-off as the U.S. dollar strengthened and doubts mounted over whether producing countries would implement a deal to cut output. Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) appear to be reducing production, but it was unclear whether other big producers will follow suit. Iraq, OPEC's No. 2 producer
  
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• Ruling Fidesz party wants Soros-funded NGOs 'swept out' of Hungary

  10-01-2017 22:53
  Any civil society group with funding from billionaire George Soros should be "swept out" of Hungary, a vice chairman of the ruling Fidesz party said on Tuesday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been criticised at home and abroad for his crackdown on NGOs, which started in 2014, involved dozens of organisations, and lasted for more than a year. Orban has said civil society groups receive foreign money to "organise refugee streams and boost migration".
  
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• Sessions says he'd defy Trump as attorney general if needed

  10-01-2017 22:46
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions fervently rejected "damnably false" accusations of past racist comments Tuesday as he challenged Democratic concerns about the civil rights commitment he would bring as Donald Trump's attorney general. He vowed at his confirmation hearing to stay independent from the White House and stand up to Trump when necessary.
  
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• Canada's Freeland, Russia critic, named foreign minister

  10-01-2017 22:42
  By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland was appointed Canada's foreign affairs minister on Tuesday as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet, putting a Russia critic on the front lines of working with the incoming U.S. Trump administration. The change is part of a wider shuffle of Trudeau's inner circle as he tries to position Canada for a new relationship with its largest trading partner and demote underperformers in his 14-month-old Liberal government
  
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• Trump pushes GOP leaders for fast action on health care

  10-01-2017 22:41
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump pushed Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law and follow up with a replacement. Speaker Paul Ryan, after talking with Trump, announced that the House would aim to take both steps "concurrently."
  
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• That Detroit light on urban revival

  10-01-2017 22:40
  The once-radiant city of Detroit, which declared bankruptcy only three years ago, held a little-noticed ceremony last month. City and state officials – both Democrats and Republicans – gathered to turn on the last stretch of 65,000 new streetlights. For years, more than 40 percent of Detroit’s neighborhoods were in the dark at night, a result of decades of decline and neglect.
  
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• Airbus gets leasing boost as it tots up new orders

  10-01-2017 22:38
  By Tim Hepher and Brenda Goh PARIS/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Airbus won a $3.8 billion (£3.1 billion) order from U.S leasing company Aviation Capital Group and industry sources said it may land another $4 billion in new business from the leasing arm of China's Bank of Communications . The trades emerged on the eve of an annual news conference at which Airbus will reveal whether it accumulated the 278 orders needed to maintain a lead over rival Boeing and replenish its own order book, by keeping
  
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• Trump's future national security adviser stresses continuity

  10-01-2017 22:35
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's future national security adviser said Tuesday he would press on with President Barack Obama's changes to the National Security Council, suggesting no wholesale fix is in store for the body of foreign policy professionals who often provide the last word before the commander in chief's decisions.
  
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• Volkswagen confirms $4.3 billion U.S. settlement over diesel emissions

  10-01-2017 22:26
  By David Shepardson and Andreas Cremer DETROIT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG confirmed on Tuesday it has negotiated a $4.3 billion (£3.5 billion) draft settlement with U.S. regulators to resolve its diesel emissions troubles and plans to plead guilty to criminal misconduct. Volkswagen said with the addition of the fine, its diesel costs will exceed the nearly 18.2 billion euros (£15.8 billion) it has set aside to handle the problem. VW also said it will face oversight by an indepe
  
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• Correction: Pence Needle Exchanges story

  10-01-2017 22:22
  
  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — In a story Jan. 5 about an Indiana proposal that would allow local officials to establish needle exchange programs, The Associated Press, relying on outdated information on a state-run needle exchange website, reported erroneously that three of the state's counties have active programs. The Indiana State Department of Health says seven counties have active programs and two others have state approval to start them.
  
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• The Latest: Homeland Security nominee wins early praise

  10-01-2017 22:18
  
  The Latest on activities in Congress (all times EST): 4:15 p.m. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to run the Department of Homeland Security is winning early praise in his confirmation hearing Tuesday. ...
  
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• Judge: Woman can't sue Trump over tweet calling her 'dummy'

  10-01-2017 22:17
  NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump can keep his Twitter insults flying.
  
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• International trade department appoints US specialist

  10-01-2017 22:16 via ft.com
  Antonia Romeo, official in charge of UK-US trade relations, named permanent secretary
  
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• Senators join forces on legislation to punish Russia

  10-01-2017 22:11
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans and Democrats joined forces Tuesday to directly challenge President-elect Donald Trump over Russia's interference in U.S. elections and for ongoing aggression in other parts of the world.
  
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• Alstom beats GE in dispute over $800 million train signal contract

  10-01-2017 22:11
  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday said Alstom SA may ask an independent accounting firm to resolve a dispute over the French company's $800 million (£657 million) purchase of General Electric Co's train-signalling business, and rejected GE's bid for arbitration. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said the "plain language" of the November 2014 sales contract justified letting Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu handle the matter first, rather than arbitrators
  
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• World Bank sees higher 2017 global growth, uncertainty over U.S. policy

  10-01-2017 22:06
  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Tuesday said global growth would accelerate slightly as recovering oil and commodity prices ease pressures on emerging-market commodity exporters and painful recessions in Brazil and Russia come to an end. In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, the multilateral lender said it expected 2017 real gross domestic product growth to rebound to 2.7 percent from a post-financial crisis low of 2.3 percent last year. Growth in advanced econ
  
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• Exclusive - Regulators criticise banks over Uber loan: sources

  10-01-2017 21:56
  Federal regulators criticized several Wall Street banks over the handling of a $1.15 billion loan they helped arrange for Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] this past summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Led by Morgan Stanley , the banks helped the ride-sharing network tap the leveraged loan market in July for the first time, persuading institutional investors to focus on its lofty valuation and established markets rather than its losses in countries such as China and India. Th
  
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• Book sales suspended for Trump aide accused of plagiarism

  10-01-2017 21:54
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The publisher of Monica Crowley's "What the (Bleep) Just Happened?" said Tuesday it is halting sales of the book, pending the "opportunity" for the aide to President-elect Donald Trump to revise her text.
  
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• Corbyn’s problem is that Britain has already voted for radical change | Rafael Behr

  10-01-2017 21:52 via theguardian.com
  
  The Labour leader channels public anger on pay, but still a coherent message on Brexit eludes himWhen Theresa May surveys the political obstacles ahead of her, the figure of Jeremy Corbyn does not loom large. A prime minister only has time to worry about a limited number of hazards and withdrawal from the European Union brings a unique hierarchy of problems. The Labour party ranks well below Tory backbenchers, continental diplomacy, the supreme court and a Europhile civil service. Were it not fo
  
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• Exclusive: Regulators criticize banks over Uber loan - sources

  10-01-2017 21:50
  Federal regulators criticized several Wall Street banks over the handling of a $1.15 billion loan they helped arrange for Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] this past summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Led by Morgan Stanley , the banks helped the ride-sharing network tap the leveraged loan market in July for the first time, persuading institutional investors to focus on its lofty valuation and established markets rather than its losses in countries such as China and India. Th
  
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• EU privacy proposal could dent Facebook, Gmail ad revenue

  10-01-2017 21:49
  By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Online messaging services such as WhatsApp , iMessage and Gmail will face tougher rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive on Tuesday which could hurt companies reliant on advertising. The web companies would have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations and get their consent before tracking them online to serve them personalised ads. For example, email services such as Gmail and
  
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• Everton agree fee for United's Schneiderlin - reports

  10-01-2017 21:48
  (Reuters) - Manchester United have agreed to sell midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin to Everton for a fee of 22 million pounds, British media reported on Tuesday. The 27-year-old France international was signed from Southampton for 25 million pounds in 2015, but has become a peripheral figure under United manager Jose Mourinho, making only eight appearances this season. Sky Sports reported that the fee could rise to 24 million pounds with add-ons.
  
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• Foreign Office accused of breaking ministerial code over Saudi weapons assurances

  10-01-2017 21:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Emails show it took 23 days for ministers to admit error in assurances that UK weapons were not used in breach of international humanitarian law in YemenThe Foreign Office has been accused of breaking the ministerial code by taking nearly a month to correct false assurances that Saudi Arabia did not breach international humanitarian law (IHL) when it used British weapons in Yemen. Internal government emails show ministers were told they had misled parliament by stating in four written answers th
  
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• The Latest: Sessions says grabbing a woman is sexual assault

  10-01-2017 21:43
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Senate confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's selection for attorney general (all times EST):
  
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• Drawing of pig in police uniform restored to Capitol display

  10-01-2017 21:41
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — A high school student's painting of Ferguson, Missouri, with the image of a pig in a police uniform aiming a gun at a protester is back on the wall on Capitol Hill.
  
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• Steve Bell on Jeremy Corbyn's maximum wage proposal – cartoon

  10-01-2017 21:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• Lawsuits over Trump business threaten to tie up presidency

  10-01-2017 21:27
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — As a businessman, Donald Trump has kept the courts busy. That's hardly likely to change when he enters the Oval Office, creating an unusual and potentially serious problem for a sitting president.
  
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• Ivory Coast's Ouattara names close ally as new vice-president

  10-01-2017 21:25
  By Joe Bavier ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday named a close collaborator and former prime minister Daniel Kablan Duncan as vice-president, a new post created under a constitution approved by referendum late last year. The 73-year-old resigned as prime minister on Monday and will be replaced by Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a stalwart of Ouattara's RDR party, who had been serving as one of his senior advisers in the role of secretary-general of the presidency. The
  
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• Obama says Israeli settlements making two-state solution impossible

  10-01-2017 21:23
  U.S. President Barack Obama, in an interview aired on Israeli television on Tuesday, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu policy backing settlements in occupied territory is making a future Palestinian state impossible. "Bibi says that he believes in the two-state solution and yet his actions consistently have shown that if he is getting pressured to approve more settlements he will do so regardless of what he says about the importance of the two-state solution," Obama said, referring to Netan
  
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• U.S. companies have new business risk - being labelled 'anti-American' by Trump

  10-01-2017 21:15
  By Lauren Hirsch and Mike Stone NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. companies are reviewing potential mergers while others are rethinking job cuts or looking at their manufacturing operations in China for fear of being cast as "anti-American" by President-elect Donald Trump, according to Wall Street bankers, company executives and crisis management consultants. Having seen some of America's largest companies, including General Motors Co , Lockheed Martin Corp and United Technologies Corp ,
  
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• Trump choice for attorney general opposed law banning waterboarding

  10-01-2017 21:12
  By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's candidate for attorney general said on Tuesday he was against banning Muslims from entering the country and would enforce a 2015 law that outlawed waterboarding terrorism suspects, even though he had opposed the law. During the 2016 election campaign Trump said waterboarding, which simulates drowning and is widely regarded as torture, was an effective technique and vowed to bring it back and make it "a hell of a
  
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• Homeland Security pick cites securing border as top priority

  10-01-2017 21:08
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security says closing the border to the "illegal movement of people and things" will be his top priority if confirmed.
  
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• Myanmar's Suu Kyi sends envoy to Bangladesh as Rohingya crisis deepens

  10-01-2017 21:03
  By Wa Lone and Serajul Quadir YANGON/DHAKA (Reuters) - A special envoy of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi will begin top-level talks in Bangladesh on Wednesday, as the United Nations said the Rohingya crisis prompted 65,000 people to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh in the past three months. Kyaw Tin, Myanmar's deputy minister of foreign affairs, will make a three-day visit to the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, in a rare diplomatic foray to tackle the biggest challenge facing Nobel Peace laureate Su
  
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• The Guardian view on Corbyn and pay: close that gap | Editorial

  10-01-2017 20:59 via theguardian.com
  
  However clumsy his manner, the Labour leader is right: pay at the top is an outrageAs the saying goes, he had one job. When Jeremy Corbyn appeared on the TV and radio on Tuesday morning, he was supposed to focus on his upcoming speech on immigration in the wake of Britain leaving the EU. That was the subject on which his aides had briefed journalists, and which newspapers and social media were already talking about. Except when the Labour leader did come face to face with the formidable John Hum
  
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• No evidence Trump campaign or RNC 'successfully hacked' - FBI director

  10-01-2017 20:38
  The FBI has no evidence that Russia successfully hacked President-elect Donald Trump's campaign or the Republican National Committee (RNC), Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Tuesday. Testifying before Congress for the first time since Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8, Comey declined to answer a question about whether the FBI was investigating the possibility of links between Trump associates and Russia.
  
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• IRS to delay tax refunds for millions of low-income families

  10-01-2017 20:38
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is delaying tax refunds for more than 40 million low-income families this year as the agency steps up efforts to fight identity theft and fraud.
  
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• Beckham put MLS on fast track to respectability

  10-01-2017 20:38
  David Beckham sent shockwaves around the world when he signed with Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, giving Major League Soccer a level of legitimacy and visibility that otherwise may have taken decades to reach before the ink on his contract was barely dry. Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of Beckham's coming to America, a deal that made the former England captain the poster boy for a new era of MLS and transformed the Galaxy into one of the planet's most recognizable football brands. With Beckha
  
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• The Latest: RFK Jr. to chair commission on vaccine safety

  10-01-2017 20:37
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):
  
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