World
9th December
Wall Street Week Ahead: Tariff deadline keeps focus on trade as 2019 draws to close
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The stock market looks set to end 2019 the way it began the year — highly sensitive to headlines from President Donald Trump’s global trade war. Stocks pulled back from record...
8th December
Indian rape victim dies in hospital after being set ablaze
UNNAO, India (Reuters) – A 23-year-old rape victim set on fire by a gang of men, which included her alleged rapists, has died in a New Delhi hospital, prompting protests from opposition leaders who blamed the ruling party for failing to check incidents of violence against women. The woman was on her way to board...
Ericsson to pay over $1 billion to resolve U.S. corruption probes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Swedish mobile telecoms company Ericsson (ERICb.ST) has agreed to pay over $1 billion to resolve probes into corruption, including the bribing of government officials, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday. The bribery took place over many years in countries including China, Vietnam and Djibouti, the department said. The total charges...
Rocket hits Iraqi cleric’s home following deadly Baghdad attack
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A rocket fired from a drone targeted the home of populist Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday, lawmakers from his Saeroon party said, following one of the capital’s bloodiest nights in recent weeks. The drone attack, which caused little damage and left no casualties, followed a deadly attack by armed men near...
Knife-edge? UK’s Johnson ahead but polls suggest majority might be tough
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is heading into Britain’s election next week with a lead in opinion polls, but some of the surveys also suggest that his chance of winning a parliamentary majority could be too close to call. Four opinion polls published on Saturday put the lead of Johnson’s Conservative Party over...
In East Hartford, a new effort to help workers left behind
EAST HARTFORD, Conn (Reuters) – For the first time in a while, Diomedes Dilone is earning enough money that he can afford to take the weekends off. Until February, Dilone was waking up at 3 a.m. to drive for Uber, but the money wasn’t enough to cover his bills. The Navy veteran and married father...
Trump takes aim at trickle-down toilets, faucets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday he has directed his environmental regulators to find answers to what he said is a big problem – water-conserving showers, faucets and toilets. “We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms,” Trump told a meeting of...
Iran deal limps on as Europeans delay sanctions blow
VIENNA (Reuters) – European powers demanded at talks on Friday that Iran stop violating their nuclear deal, but stopped short of triggering a mechanism that could renew U.N. sanctions and kill the 2015 accord, officials said. The meeting came amid heightened friction between Iran and the West. Tehran has rolled back its commitments under the...
Trump will make final call on China tariffs, likes direction of talks: Kudlow
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday that a Dec. 15 deadline is still in place to impose a new round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese consumer goods, but President Donald Trump likes where trade talks with China are going. With about a week to go before the deadline...
Wall Street climbs on solid jobs data, trade hopes
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street ended solidly higher on Friday as a strong jobs report and optimism about U.S.-China trade negotiations ahead of an upcoming deadline helped stoke investor risk appetite. All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground, hovering within 1% of record highs set last week. But as a tumultuous week of...
U.S. military has enough capability in Middle East for now: Esper
SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday he believed the U.S. military had sufficient capability in the Middle East for now to deter conflict, dismissing a media report that a major troop increase was under consideration amid tension with Iran. Esper, speaking to a small group of reporters, did...
California congressman Duncan Hunter announces resignation after corruption plea
(Reuters) – U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter will resign from Congress following his guilty plea to a federal charge of conspiring to misuse campaign funds, he said on Friday. Hunter’s announcement that he would step down came days after the leading California lawmaker, a former U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran, entered his guilty plea in federal...
7th December
White House tells Democrats it will not participate in Trump impeachment hearing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Friday it would refuse to take part in hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives set for next week that will consider what articles of impeachment to bring against President Donald Trump. In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, White House counsel Pat Cipollone called...
Trump asks Supreme Court to stop banks from disclosing his financial data
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, fighting to keep details of his finances secret, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to prevent records held by Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) from being handed over to Democratic-led congressional panels. Trump’s lawyers asked the high court to put a hold a...
Wall Street climbs on solid jobs data, trade hopes
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street ended solidly higher on Friday as a strong jobs report and optimism about U.S.-China trade negotiations ahead of an upcoming deadline helped stoke investor risk appetite. All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground, hovering within 1% of record highs set last week. But as a tumultuous week of...
A barrier to climate change up in smoke
FIRE is not natural in the Amazon. Virgin rainforest, no matter how fierce the sun, is too wet to catch alight. If the forest burns it is almost always because of humans. In August, around the peak of the so-called “queimadas” as the burning season here is known, the number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon...
In East Hartford, a new effort to help workers left behind
EAST HARTFORD, Conn (Reuters) – For the first time in a while, Diomedes Dilone is earning enough money that he can afford to take the weekends off. Until February, Dilone was waking up at 3 a.m. to drive for Uber, but the money wasn’t enough to cover his bills. The Navy veteran and married father...
Saudi airman in U.S. for training suspected in deadly shooting at Florida Navy base
(Reuters) – A member of the Saudi Air Force visiting the United States for military training was the suspect in a shooting that killed four people and injured eight at a U.S. Navy base in Florida on Friday, the state governor and other officials said. The shooter was killed by sheriff’s deputies responding to the...
Boeing says 737 MAX approval delays could hit production
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Significant additional regulatory requirements or delays in returning Boeing Co’s 737 MAX to commercial service could cause it to cut or temporarily halt production of the aircraft, it said in an Oct. 18 letter released on Thursday. In its letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Boeing said it does not...
Watchdog report faults EPA efforts to eliminate pollution rules for some trucks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration failed to do a cost-benefit analysis to assess air quality or take into account the impact on children’s health when it sought to eliminate pollution limits on heavy-duty trucks with rebuilt engines, according to a report from an EPA watchdog on Thursday. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector...
China drafts new rules to control rural plastic pollution
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China will tighten regulations on the use of plastic film by farmers to boost crop yields, which has become a major source of soil contamination throughout northern and western regions, according to a draft policy document published on Friday. The new rules, which have been opened to the public for consultation, will...
Oil drops as market awaits ratification of OPEC+ supply cut
TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil slipped in early Asian trade on Friday, with U.S. crude moving further away from a two-month high after OPEC agreed to increase output curbs in early 2020 but failed to promise further steps after March. Brent futures <LCOc1> were down 21 cents, or 0.3%, at $63.18 by 0258 GMT. West Texas...
Hong Kong police chief calls for peace ahead of big protest march
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s police chief has urged citizens to demonstrate peacefully ahead of what is expected to be a large-scale pro-democracy march on Sunday, an event planned amid a lull in violence in the Chinese-ruled city. Police on Thursday gave a rare green light to the demonstration, organised by the Civil Human...
Indian police shoot dead four men suspected of raping vet
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian police shot dead four men on Friday who were suspected of raping and killing a vet in the Hyderabad last week, a local police official told Reuters. The men had been in police custody. The men were shot at around 3:30 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) near the scene of the crime,...
Japan firms brace for economic contraction after Olympics, seek more stimulus – Reuters poll
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese firms are overwhelmingly expecting the economy to contract after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics following growth in the run-up to the event, prompting a call for fresh fiscal stimulus to support a fragile economy, a Reuters poll showed. Growth in the world’s third-largest economy has slowed to a crawl in the last...
French strike against Macron reforms enters day two
PARIS (Reuters) – A strike that crippled public transport and closed schools across France entered a second day on Friday, with trade unions saying they planned to keep going until President Emmanuel Macron backs down from a planned reform of pensions. The strike pits Macron, a 41-year-old former investment banker who came to power in...
The Lady and The Hague: Myanmar leader Suu Kyi courts home audience
YANGON (Reuters) – The last time Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi travelled to western Europe, she was feted as the freshly elected civilian ruler of a fledgling democracy who had brought an end to half a century of military dictatorship. When the Nobel peace prize laureate returns next week, her first trip to the...
6th December
R. Kelly faces new bribery charge in Brooklyn criminal case
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Thursday unveiled a new criminal charge against singer R. Kelly, accusing him of arranging to bribe an official as part of a scheme to recruit underage girls for sex. The 52-year-old R&B singer, known for such hits as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Bump N’...
U.S. Navy investigators search for motive in Pearl Harbor shooting rampage
(Reuters) – U.S. Navy investigators on Thursday were trying to determine what prompted a sailor to shoot three civilians working at the historic Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them, before taking his own life with the same gun. A Navy spokeswoman said no further information was available on the incident and...
Uber says it received over 3,000 reports of sexual assault in U.S. in 2018
(Reuters) – Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday said it had received more than 3,000 reports of sexual assault, including rape, related to its trips in the United States in 2018, at a time when it operated roughly 1.3 billion rides. Uber said https://www.uber-assets.com/image/upload/v1575580686/Documents/Safety/UberUSSafetyReport_201718_FullReport.pdf the 2018 figures represented a 16% drop in the rate...
