US

Scientists' evidence for man-made global warming hits 'gold standard'
2019-02-25 18:33:18 UTC
OSLO (Reuters) - Evidence for man-made global warming has reached a “gold standard” level of certainty, adding pressure for cuts in greenhouse gases to limit rising temperatures, scientists said on Monday. “Humanity cannot afford to ignore such clear signals,” the U.S.-led team wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change of satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the past 40 years. They said confidence that human activities were raising the heat at the Earth’s surface had reached a “five-sigma” level, a statistical gauge meaning there is only a one-in-a-million chance that the signal would appear if there was no warming. ...
Buffett rebukes Trump for taking credit for US economic growth
2019-02-23 19:58:52 UTC
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Saturday appeared to fault U.S. President Donald Trump for taking too much credit for the nation’s economic growth, while acknowledging that market conditions are making it tough for his Berkshire Hathaway Inc to find more big companies to buy. Buffett lamented these states of affairs in his widely read annual letter to Berkshire shareholders. Accompanying the letter was more bad news, that sinking stock prices and a big writedown for the company’s Kraft Heinz Co investment fueled a $25.39 billion fourth-quarter net loss, and caused Berkshire to post its lowest annual profit since 2001. But many of ...
Democrats pursue subpoenas on US migrant family separation policy
2019-02-23 19:35:34 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In what is likely to be their first public use of subpoena power since taking over the U.S. House of Representatives in January, Democrats were set to vote on Tuesday on subpoenaing documents on the Trump administration’s migrant family separation policy. If approved, the subpoenas by the House Oversight Committee would show Democrats beginning to invoke the investigative clout they obtained when voters in November handed them majority control of the House and took it away from Republicans. Democrats are initiating a series of investigations of President Donald Trump, his personal finances and business interest...
North Carolina: New election in undecided US House race
2019-02-21 22:04:16 UTC
(Reuters) - North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday unanimously ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of last November’s vote. The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris requested a new vote, telling the panel that evidence of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the election. In the televised hearing, board members said “corruption” and the “absolute mess with the absentee ballots” had cast doubt on the fairness of the contest and voters deserved a fresh election. Harris’ request for a ne...
Putin says Russia ready to place new nuclear missile near US territory
2019-02-21 21:52:11 UTC
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is militarily ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis if the United States wanted one and threatened to place hypersonic nuclear missiles on ships or submarines near U.S. territorial waters. The Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in 1962 when Moscow responded to a U.S. missile deployment in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba, sparking a standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. More than five decades on, tensions are rising again over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, as a landmark Cold ...
Sanders to Ask Why Drug, Once Free, Now Costs $375k
2019-02-04 16:47:41 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Catalyst Pharmaceuticals on Monday asking it to justify its decision to charge $375,000 annually for a medication that for years has been available to patients for free. The drug, Firdapse, is used to treat Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS), a rare neuromuscular disorder, according to the letter, made available to Reuters by the senator’s office. The disorder affects about one in 100,000 people in the United States. The government is intensifying its scrutiny of the pharmaceutical industry and rising prescription drug prices, a top voter concern and a priority...
U.S. President: 'I Never Worked For Russia'
2019-01-14 22:43:31 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he never worked for Russia, his first direct denial after a media report that the FBI in 2017 investigated whether he acted against U.S. interests. Trump also disputed a Washington Post report that he had concealed details about his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and confiscated his interpreter’s notes. Congressional Democrats raised the possibility of subpoenaing the translator. The New York Times reported on Friday that the FBI opened the investigation after Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey raised concerns that the president posed a threat t...
Jimmy Carter: The US Is An “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”
2019-01-08 00:53:49 UTC
Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the <a href="http://www.thomhartmann.com/">Thom Hartmann Program</a> that the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.”Carter was responding to a question from Hartmann about recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign financing like Citizens United.T...
US Utility Company PG&E Explores Filing for Bankruptcy
2019-01-06 03:42:30 UTC
(Reuters) - California utility company PG&E Corp (PCG.N) is exploring filing some or all of its business for bankruptcy protection as it faces billions of dollars in liabilities related to fatal wildfires in 2018 and 2017, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The company is considering the move as a contingency, in part because it could soon take a significant financial charge for the fourth quarter of 2018 related to liabilities from the blazes, the sources said. A bankruptcy filing is not certain, the sources said. The company could receive financial help through legislation that would let it pass on to customers costs a...
Pelosi Plans New Legislation to Reopen Parts of US Government
2019-01-06 03:12:02 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would pass new legislation to try to reopen parts of the government next week after talks between the Trump administration and Democratic negotiators on Saturday failed to end a two-week partial government shutdown. President Donald Trump is demanding $5.6 billion to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico but Democrats in control of the House of Representatives this week passed a bill to reopen the government without providing additional funding for the wall. Trump says he will not sign the bill until he gets the money for the wall. After a meeting aimed...
GM To Cut 14,700 Jobs In Ohio, Michigan, Maryland And Ontario
2018-11-26 18:36:11 UTC
DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce in the face of a declining market for traditional gas-powered sedans, shifting more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles. The announcement is the biggest North America restructuring for the U.S. No. 1 carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago. Its shares rose 7.6 percent to $38.66. GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants: Lordstown, Ohio; Hamtramck, Michigan; and Oshawa, Ontario. It will also stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet...
Catastrophic Effects of Climate Change
2018-11-25 02:46:14 UTC
(Reuters) - Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Friday that the White House called inaccurate. The congressionally mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and departments, outlined the projected impact of global warming on every corner of American society in a dire warning that is at odds with the Trump administration’s pro-fossil-fuels agenda. “With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic secto...
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema wins Arizona US Senate seat
2018-11-13 02:13:52 UTC
PHOENIX (AP) — Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat Monday in a race that was among the most closely watched in the nation, beating Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the battle to replace GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. The three-term congresswoman won after a slow vote count that dragged on for nearly a week after voters went to the polls on Nov. 6. She becomes Arizona’s first Democratic U.S. senator since 1994. Her win cemented Arizona as a swing state after years of Republican dominance. Sinema portrayed herself as a moderate who works across the aisle to get things done. McSally, a former Air Force pilot who embrac...
Democrats Warn Against Mueller Probe Interference
2018-11-08 00:15:59 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ouster of Attorney General Jeff Sessions by President Donald Trump on Wednesday drew immediate criticism from Democrats who warned Trump against moving to squash a probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The probe, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller under the supervision of the Justice Department, has clouded the Trump presidency. The president had long complained about Sessions recusing himself from supervising Mueller. The removal of the top U.S. law enforcement officer raised questions among Democrats concerned about the acting replacement Trump named for Sessions and what mo...
Democratic Victory Signifies Breaking Point in Time of Trump's Nationalism
2018-11-07 05:14:29 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats were gaining significant ground in the battle for House control Tuesday night, while Republicans held their Senate majority as voters rendered a mixed verdict in the first nationwide election of Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency. The results allowed both parties to claim partial victory, but highlighted an extraordinary realignment of U.S. voters by race, sex and education. Republicans maintained their strength in conservative, rural states, while Democrats made inroads across America’s suburbs. With control of Congress, statehouses and the president’s agenda at stake, some of the nation’s top elections ...
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Easily Won Re-Election
2018-11-07 01:46:30 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Votes were being counted across half the country Tuesday evening as the energy and outrage of the Democratic resistance faced off against the brute strength of President Donald Trump’s GOP in a fight for control of Congress and statehouses across the nation. Fundraising, polls and history were not on the president’s side. But two years after an election that proved polls and prognosticators wrong, an air of uncertainty — and stormy weather across parts of the country — clouded the outcome of high-stakes elections from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between. Sens. Bernie Sanders of ...
President Obama: If We Don't Vote, Then This Democracy Doesn't Work
2018-11-05 04:05:15 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — No longer reluctant to speak out, former President Barack Obama delivered a closing argument for Democrats that seeks a firm check on President Donald Trump’s policies in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Obama and Trump offered competing visions for the country in a split screen of campaigning on Sunday, seeking to galvanize voter turnout in the fight to control Congress and governors’ mansions. Obama rallied Democrats in Gary, Indiana, on behalf of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who faces a stiff challenge from Republican businessman Mike Braun. Later in the day, the former president campaigned in h...
Obama Calls Out the Far-Right Trump's GOP
2018-11-05 04:03:21 UTC
INDIANAPOLIS/MIAMI (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday against rhetoric he said was meant to sow fear as he campaigned in support of Democratic candidates while President Donald Trump hammered a hardline anti-immigration message to energize Republicans. In a packed day of campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections, Trump continued a blitz of rallies urging voters to keep his Republican Party in control of Congress, while Democrats appeared to notch a win in their efforts to halt the spread of misinformation online. Twitter Inc said it had deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts post...
Hateful U.S. Politics Target Minorities and Immigrants
2018-11-02 17:57:53 UTC
Last week, several top Democrats were targeted by pipe bombs, two black Americans were killed in what appeared to be a racially-motivated murder, and a terror attack against Jewish Americans in their place of worship that left 11 people dead. Are American growing more violent? Are they regressing into something akin to what we saw in the 1960s, an era marked by assassinations, civil unrest, and political chaos? Has the cocktail of guns, polarization, and alienation made mass shootings a permanent feature of American life? Read the responses of seven experts below: <blockquote><hr class='grey-line'><h4>Joanne Freeman, author of <a ...
Democrats more energized ahead of midterms
2018-11-01 01:27:30 UTC
The entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey, who offered crucial support to President Barack Obama during his 2008 rise, will campaign Thursday for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is attempting to become the nation’s first black female governor. Obama plans to campaign Friday for Abrams in Atlanta and in Miami to boost Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor. On Sunday, the former president will be in Gary, Indiana, for Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is among the most endangered Senate Democrats, and in his hometown of Chicago for J.B. Pritzker, who is the favorite in Illi...
Hate Crimes in Trump Era
2018-10-29 01:42:06 UTC
The 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, the suspected mad bomber who sent possible explosive devices to Democrat leaders attended repeated campaign rallies for Donald Trump and embraced a range of virulent right-wing fringe causes. He’s a true believer in Trump, according to his social media pages. In another crime, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue expressed hatred of Jews during the rampage and told officers afterward that Jews were committing genocide and that he wanted them all to die, according to charging documents. Trump delivered these lines after the attack: "There must be no tolerance for anti-Semitism in Amer...
Obama rallies Democrats in Wisconsin, says GOP and Trump “making stuff up”
2018-10-28 19:49:22 UTC
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump’s tenure in office in a fiery speech that took aim at him and other Republicans for “making stuff up.” The speech was one of Obama’s sharpest and most direct takedowns of Trump’s presidency, although the former president was careful to never mention Trump by name Friday. Obama cited a recent Trump comment that he would pass a tax cut before the November election. Obama then told the crowd in a Milwaukee high school gymnasium that “Congress isn’t even in session. He just makes it up.” Obama’s visit in Milwaukee was to urge people to vote for Wisconsin’...
A "MAGA" Terrorist Identified As Mail Bomb Suspect
2018-10-26 21:17:34 UTC
The 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, the suspected mad bomber who sent possible explosive devices to Democrat leaders attended repeated campaign rallies for Donald Trump and embraced a range of virulent right-wing fringe causes. He’s a true believer in Trump, according to his Facebook Page. The Brooklyn born suspect was arrested at an auto parts store in the nearby city of Plantation. Court records show Sayoc has a history of arrests for theft, illegal possession of steroids and a 2002 charge of making a bomb threat. When he filed for bankruptcy in 2012, he recently lived with his mother. <blockquote><img alt="A_%22maga%22_terrorist_id...
U.S. judge in Trump Foundation case rebuffs political bias defense
2018-10-25 19:15:39 UTC
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge said on Thursday that she would not entertain arguments that political bias was at the heart of a case alleging the president unlawfully used his charity to help his 2016 campaign and to benefit his businesses. “I don’t want to get involved with that,” New York Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla said at a hearing that focused on a motion submitted by President Donald Trump’s lawyers in August asking the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds the lawsuit was politically motivated and arguing Trump and his children did not break any laws. Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing b...
FBI investigating 10 suspicious packages
2018-10-25 19:15:53 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — The mail-bomb scare widened Thursday as law enforcement officials seized three more suspicious packages — two addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and one to actor Robert De Niro — and said they were similar to crude pipe bombs sent to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and CNN. None of the devices exploded, and no one was injured. But the packages, sent to prominent Democrats critical of President Donald Trump, heightened nationwide tensions and fears two weeks before major congressional midterm elections. <blockquote><img alt="Fbi_investigating_10_suspicious_packages" src="/system/images/22293/or...