Top News

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...
Britain Will Be Worse Off In Any Scenario Outside The EU: Brexit
2018-11-28 20:47:57 UTC
LONDON (AFP) — Britain will be economically worse off in any scenario outside the EU, the government said Wednesday, as the Bank of England warned that a no-deal Brexit would trigger a financial crisis. The government's plans for post-Brexit ties with the European Union would still cost the economy around 3.9 percent of gross domestic product over 15 years, a government report found. Finance minister Philip Hammond said the departure deal agreed Sunday between Britain and the EU was the optimum way to minimise the cost of leaving the bloc. The report comes as Prime Minister Theresa May took the divorce deal to a sceptical Scotland...
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...
Coast of annexed Crimea: Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships
2018-11-26 00:41:03 UTC
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea on Sunday after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors, a move that risks igniting a dangerous new crisis between the two countries. Russia’s FSB security service said early on Monday its border patrol boats had seized the Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea and used weapons to force them to stop, Russian news agencies reported. The FSB said it had been forced to act because the ships — two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat. — had illegally entered its territorial waters, attempted illegal ac...
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...
Finland's President to Trump: We Don't Rake Forests
2018-11-19 23:34:38 UTC
During a visit to wildfires-hit California, the US president had said Finland routinely raked its forests to foil fires. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto responded, saying he was not sure where Trump got the idea. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was left raking his memory to figure out where US President Donald Trump got the idea that raking is part of his Finland's routine to avoid forest fires. Niinisto told Finland's Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that he and Trump had discussed California wildfires during their brief meeting in Paris on November 11. <img alt="Finland's_president_to_trump-_we_don't_rake_forests" src="/system...
Germany Halts Arms Sales, Bans 18 Saudis
2018-11-19 23:31:54 UTC
BERLIN — Germany is halting previously approved arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The government says it is also banning 18 Saudi citizens suspected of being involved in Jamal Khashoggi's death from entering Europe's Schengen zone. Germany has triggered proceedings to ban 18 Saudi citizens allegedly involved in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi from entering Europe's border-free Schengen zone, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday. "We still have more questions than answers in the Khashoggi case," Maas said on the sidelines of a European Union meeting in Brussels, adding that he had discussed the decision wi...
France to Trump: Common Decency Would Have Been Appropriate
2018-11-14 23:04:40 UTC
PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday told Donald Trump that France was the United States’ ally and not a vassal state after the U.S. president attacked him in a series of tweets that demonstrated how much their relationship had soured. Although Macron’s response was restrained, his government spokesman showed Trump’s criticism had struck a chord. When asked earlier about Trump’s tweets, French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said they were posted on the day France was mourning the anniversary of militant attacks in Paris. “Yesterday was November 13, we were marking the murder of 130 of our people,” Grive...
Angela Merkel Lays Out Germany's Vision For Europe
2018-11-13 18:45:01 UTC
Strasbourg/ France — The German chancellor has addressed MEPs in Strasbourg, laying out Germany's vision for the future of Europe. Seven months ahead of EU parliamentary elections, she gave her personal assessment of where the bloc stands. As the clock winds down on her final term as chancellor, Angela Merkel began by looking back on the EU's achievements and highlighting Europe's diversity, which was also its strength, she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Merkel warned that Europe's values were under attack and she highlighted the principle of European solidarity: "We are experiencing that it is more and more d...
Scientists show how toxoplasmosis parasite hides away in the brain
2018-11-13 17:21:30 UTC
<h3>Scientists have shown how the toxoplasmosis parasite hides away in the brain, altering synapses and potentially causing depression, schizophrenia and autism.</h3> Mice infected with toxoplasmosis parasites behave strangely: They lose their natural fear of cats. Presented with the smell of cat urine, they even seem attracted to the deadly predator, scientists have found. Toxoplasmosis is caused by the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii, a unicellular parasite that occurs worldwide. It affects birds and mammals, including humans. However, it can reproduce only in the digestive system of a cat. <strong>From cat poo to car crashes</strong...
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...
France, Germany Mark 100 Years Since End of World War I
2018-11-10 18:13:56 UTC
The leaders of Germany and France on Saturday made a pilgrimage to the spot where an armistice was signed a century ago to end World War I. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron took part in a memorial ceremony at the Compiegne forest, 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of Paris. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, an initial agreement to end four years of one of the world's deadliest conflicts was signed by the Allies and Germany in a train carriage in a nearby forest clearing, from where the two leaders on Saturday held a symbolic repeat signing ceremony. Merkel and Macron then watc...
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...
Angela Merkel Ally Urges New Era in German Politics
2018-11-07 19:51:09 UTC
The battle to be the next leader of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats is heating up. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the candidate considered closest to the chancellor personally and politically, has now made her case. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the woman many consider the natural successor to Angela Merkel both in leadership style and political agenda, has set out why she should be the next head of Germany's embattled conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Wednesday's press conference in Berlin was a home game for the CDU general secretary, who staged it in the office representing Saarland, the small southwestern st...
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...
Brexit Pulls UK and Ireland Apart, Undermines Relationship
2018-11-05 04:16:25 UTC
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement which ended thirty years of violence in Northern Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday. “Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement and is fraying the relationship between Britain and Ireland,” he told Irish state broadcaster RTE. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit has been one of the major sticking points in Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union in March next year. “Anything that pulls the communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement, and anything that pulls Britain and...
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 ...
Parkinson's may get its start not in brain but in appendix
2018-10-31 21:29:40 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have found a new clue that Parkinson’s disease may get its start not in the brain but in the gut — maybe in the appendix. People who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of getting the tremor-inducing brain disease decades later, researchers reported Wednesday. Why? A peek at surgically removed appendix tissue shows this tiny organ, often considered useless, seems to be a storage depot for an abnormal protein — one that, if it somehow makes its way into the brain, becomes a hallmark of Parkinson’s. The big surprise, according to studies published in the journal Science Translationa...
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...
Angela Merkel offering to step down as CDU head
2018-10-30 18:58:10 UTC
BERLIN (AP) — Angela Merkel set off Monday on what could be a three-year countdown to the end of her leadership of Germany, a stint that has made her the European Union’s longest-serving leader and a key figure in facing the continent’s many crises. Merkel announced that she will give up the leadership of her conservative Christian Democratic Union in December and won’t stand for a fifth term as chancellor — signaling the beginning of the end at the helm for the woman many had labeled the “leader of the free world.” That’s a title she herself objected to, saying leadership is never up to one person or country. But she has been a stal...
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’...