Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Video Edible bandages for bears' burnt paws December's Thomas Fire left these two bears barely able to walk due to severe burns on their paws. So, a team from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and veterinarians from UC Davis crafted innovative - and edible - bandages to help them heal.

In her first public appearance since James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, began his book tour, Hillary Clinton made only a glancing reference to him in a speech on Sunday night and instead focused most of her attacks on President Trump, once again likening him to authoritarians.Mrs. Clinton gave the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at PEN America’s World Voices Festival in New York City. She spoke at length about threats to journalists around the world before turning her attention to domestic matters. She criticized Mr. Trump, not so subtly comparing him to authoritarian leaders who had suppressed journalism in their countries.“Today, we have a president who seems to reject the role of a free press in our democracy,” she said. “Although obsessed with his own press coverage, he evaluates it based not on whether it provides knowledge or understanding, but solely on whether the daily coverage helps him and hurts his opponents.”After listing more examples of Mr. Trump’s attacks on the news media, Mrs. Clinton said, “Now given his track record, is it any surprise that, according to the latest round of revelations, he joked about throwing reporters in jail to make them ‘talk’?”She was referring to the newly declassified memos that Mr. Comey kept, recounting his private conversations with Mr. Trump.ImageThe writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie asked Mrs. Clinton if she had fought back enough during the presidential campaign. Mrs. Clinton conceded that she had not.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York TimesAccording to those notes, Mr. Comey and Mr. Trump agreed that those who leaked classified information should be aggressively prosecuted. Mr. Comey said he was in favor of “putting a head on a pike as a message.”Mr. Trump, according to Mr. Comey’s telling, suggested that reporters who publish the leaks should be jailed, adding: “They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk.”Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump have exchanged barbs since he entered the White House. She has repeatedly questioned his fitness for office, and Mr. Trump has frequently called her “Crooked Hillary” in posts on Twitter.After her remarks, which were at the Cooper Union, Mrs. Clinton participated in an onstage interview with the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. During the conversation, Mrs. Clinton revisited her election loss at great length. When Ms. Adichie asked if Mrs. Clinton had fought back enough during the campaign, the former Democratic nominee conceded that she had not.“I was really struggling with it, and I concluded — as I was, I think, expecting myself to — ‘O.K., you just have to be calm and in control because ultimately, what the country wants is somebody who is not going to be blowing up in the Oval Office,’” Mrs. Clinton said.She went on: “They want somebody who is going to be able to deal with the problems. Well, you know that did not work out so well.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

NEW YORK, 2018 - U.S. stocks joined a broad decline in global equity markets on Monday as traders turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week and amid continuing concerns about the threat of a global trade war. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas JacksonAt the same time, shares of Facebook Inc (FB.O) shed nearly 7 percent after reports that a political consultancy that worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign gained inappropriate access to data on 50 million of the social network’s users. That decline dragged other technology stocks, which have led the market higher over the last two years. “If they start to decay, then it may leave investors wondering what’s left to become the new leader to resume the bulls’ advance,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell as much as 425 during the session and ended won 335.60 points, or 1.35 percent, at 24,610.91. The S&P 500 .SPX index lost 39.09 points, or 1.42 percent, to 2,712.92 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite .IXIC index dropped 155.07 points, or 1.8 percent, to 7,334.24. MSCI’s main 47-country world stock index fell 1.1 percent in afternoon trading after European stocks dipped and benchmark U.S. indexes declined. Global equities are on their worst run since November. The drop in European and U.S. indexes came as central banks appeared to be preparing for more rate hikes. A Reuters report that the European Central Bank expects a rate hike by mid-2019 started helping the euro recover from a difficult morning against the dollar. Wall Street is looking toward the Fed’s two-day policy meeting, which concludes on Wednesday, with 104 analysts polled by Reuters expecting the central bank will raise rates 25 basis points to a range of 1.50 percent to 1.75 percent. Yields in benchmark 10-year Treasuries held steady, reflecting investor rate hike expectations. After the meeting, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a his first press conference as the central bank’s new chief. Analysts at JPMorgan see a risk the Fed might not only add one more rate rise for this year but for 2019 as well. “The worst case is the ‘18 and ‘19 dots both move up - the Fed is currently guiding to five hikes in ‘18 and ‘19 combined, but under this scenario that would shift to seven hikes,” they warned in a note to clients. “Stocks would probably tolerate one net dot increase over ‘18 and ‘19, but a bump in both years could create problems.” The dollar index .DXY fell 0.4 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.39 percent to $1.2335 Any nod to four hikes would normally be considered as bullish for the U.S. dollar, yet the currency has shown scant overall correlation to interest rates in recent months. Dealers cite concerns about the U.S. budget and current account deficits, chaos in the White House, better growth in overseas markets, particularly Europe, and the risk of a U.S.-led trade war. FILE PHOTO: The seal for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is on display in Washington, DC, U.S., June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File PhotoFears of a global trade war triggered by Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports cast a cloud over a two-day G20 meeting in Buenos Aires this week. The prospect of higher U.S. interest rates weighed on non-yielding gold XAU=, which touched its lowest in more than two weeks but turned positive in later trade, up 0.3 percent at $1,317.49 per ounce by 1:33 p.m. EST (1733 GMT). Oil prices eased after ending last week with a solid bounce. U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 0.5 percent to settle at $62.06 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 settled at $66.05, down 0.24 percent on the day. Reporting by David Randall; Editing by David Gregorio and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Reuters) - Search-and-rescue teams combed through gutted homes across California’s celebrated wine country on Monday, looking for the charred bodies of those killed in the state’s deadliest wildfires, as survivors slowly began returning home. At least 41 people have been confirmed dead in the week of fires. With 88 people still unaccounted for in Sonoma County alone, local officials said they expected the death toll to rise. “I would expect to find some of the missing in their burned-out homes,” Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano told reporters at a Monday morning news briefing, standing in front of maps and charts of the 14 still-burning blazes. The sheriff said he believed many others had survived the fast-moving flames. Most of the 1,863 people so far listed in missing-persons reports have turned up safe, including many evacuees who failed to alert authorities after fleeing their homes. Hopes for victims known to have been in the direct path of the flames will dwindle as each day passes, Giordano said. The 41 confirmed fatalities make the fires California’s deadliest on record, surpassing the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles. The driver of a private water tender died in Napa County in a vehicle rollover on Monday, officials said. Tens of thousands of people who fled the flames in hard-hit Sonoma County and elsewhere were allowed to return home, with about 40,000 still displaced. At least 5,700 homes and businesses have been destroyed by the wildfires that erupted a week ago and consumed an area larger than that of New York City. Entire neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa were reduced to ashes. About 11,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters were battling the flames, which have consumed more than 213,000 acres (86,200 hectares). Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, was hopeful the blazes would be contained by Friday. An American flag stands in front of a home destroyed after a wildfire tore through Santa Rosa, California, U.S., October 15, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart Firefighters gained control of two of the deadliest fires in wine country’s Napa and Sonoma counties. The Tubbs fire was 70 percent contained and the Atlas fire 68 percent contained, Cal Fire said. Half of the Redwood Valley fire was extinguished by Monday. “The weather has improved from the high, dry winds we experienced last week, but there’s still winds and high temperatures at high elevations,” said Cal Fire spokeswoman Amy Head. “Even if the winds don’t pick up, it’s really steep country and we could have some issues with embers flying across lines. We’re not out of the woods yet.” Mendocino County authorities said power company PG&E would send low-flying planes to check lines and re-establish power. Richard Vignole, 65, returned to his family’s home in Santa Rosa, which also serves as headquarters for his appliance repair business, and found it destroyed. The backyard pool, a center of activity at their social gatherings, was a black muck. The toll as he walked into what was once the doorway added up: A totaled Harley-Davidson Super Glide, a molten fire safe with its contents smoked away and fire-stained pottery collected by his wife over the years. The beige garage doors had become pink and yellow. A slab of granite outside had warped. “That’s how hot it was,” he said. “It’s a complete and utter loss.” His wife, Debbie Vignole, had not arrived yet to see the damage on Monday. “You probably don’t want to be here for that,” he said. Slideshow (11 Images)About 50 search-and-rescue personnel backed by National Guard troops were going over tens of thousands of blackened charred acres in Sonoma County for bodies, sheriff’s spokeswoman Misti Harris said. Crews checked the wreckage of the Journey’s End mobile home park in Santa Rosa for the remains of two people missing after the blaze. Reporting by Paresh Dave in Santa Rosa, Calif; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Scott Malone and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CHICAGO/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday rolled out a new iPad and classroom software aimed at grabbing more of the U.S. education market, but did not cut the price of its entry-level tablet despite schools flocking to laptops costing a third less. Apple is looking to reassert dominance in U.S. schools, where inexpensive laptops running software from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp now top iPad by sales, offering a cheap way to get to cloud-based productivity tools. The new iPad has a more powerful computing chip and an extensive set of new, free software for teachers to manage students and schoolwork. But the unchanged starting price of $299 for students and $329 for the general public, without a keyboard or case, compares with less than $200 for some Windows and Google Chrome models. Apple shares were down 1.4 percent to $170.26 after the event, slightly better than the NASDAQ Composite, which was down 1.6 percent in midday trading. Some analysts had believed Apple might cut prices, but the company stuck with its more traditional approach of packing more features into a device. Despite the new software, Apple faces a tough battle in the educational market given the popularity of Google and Microsoft’s productivity suites, said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. Google’s G Suite fueled Chromebook sales because it was seen as easy to use to manage assignments. “Most teachers don’t look past G Suite for education,” she said. Apple, as part of its response, on Tuesday announced improvements in its iWork suite at an event in Chicago, where school bells and announcements over a public address system directed press and more than 300 teachers into an auditorium at Lane Tech College Prep High School. The event came during a spring buying season when many schools are making purchasing decisions for the upcoming school year. “We’ve been at this for 40 years and we care deeply about education,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said at the event. Apple's Vice-President of iOS, iPad and iPhone Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, speaks at an education-focused event at Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 27, 2018. REUTERS/John GressApple executives said the new iPad works with its pencil accessory and features an upgraded A10 Fusion chip, the same CPU that powers the iPhone 7. It is available immediately. The Apple Pencil remains priced at $99 for the public and $89 for schools, though Lenovo will release a device called Crayon for $49, the first third-party stylus to work with the iPad. Apple made up just 17 percent of the K-12 U.S. educational market in the third quarter, according to data from Futuresource Consulting. Meanwhile 60 percent of mobile computing shipments to schools ran Google’s Chrome and 22 percent had Windows. Chromebooks sold by Dell Technologies Inc cost as little as $189. Microsoft last year introduced an education-focused laptop from Lenovo Group Ltd running Windows 10 S for a similar price. Acer Inc announced a tablet that runs Chrome OS for $329 on Monday that comes with a built-in stylus. Apple in recent years made changes to its operating system so that more than one student can log into an iPad, and to its software to let teachers better manage students. On Tuesday it updated iWork - which includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software - to allow students to take handwritten notes more easily, along with adding more free storage on its iCloud service. Apple also released a new app called Schoolwork to help teachers create assignments and track student progress. Google has a similar app for managing student profiles, but analysts highlighted Apple’s Schoolwork app as unique in helping teachers manage assignments and progress. The previously iPad-focused Classroom teacher administration app would start working on Mac computers in June, Apple said. In the fall Apple will roll out “Everyone Can Create” lessons on video, photography, music, and drawing, joining existing “Everyone Can Code” guides for computer programming skills. Slideshow (12 Images)The new courses highlight features that some low-priced laptops do not have, such as a camera and microphone. “If you look at it as a Chromebook competitor, it’s expensive. But if you look at it and say, I can do music with GarageBand, I can take pictures or use it as a video camera and now I can do (augmented reality) ... it appeals to teachers and schools that want to push the envelope on education,” Milanesi said. Sales of iPads made up just 8.3 percent of Apple’s $229.2 billion total revenue last year, compared with the nearly 62 percent of sales generated by iPhones. Reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Peter HendersonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

There’s renewed interest in the UFO phenomenon and it’s coming from an unexpected source: the United States Congress.The Senate Armed Services Committee is looking into a 2004 incident where US Navy pilots flying with the USS Nimitz strike group encountered, chased and filmed fast-moving unidentified objects. Reliable sources say at least two of the military pilots involved have already been interviewed, and a radar operator was subsequently invited to get in touch.In parallel, the House Armed Services Committee is taking an interest. Records from April show the committee received a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) briefing on the Pentagon’s UFO project, the cryptically-named AATIP. We know so little about AATIP that there’s even dispute over whether the acronym stands for Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. The very existence of the project caused a sensation, because until the New York Times broke the story in December 2017, the US government claimed it had not investigated UFOs since the 1960s when sightings were looked at in a study called Project Blue Book.As noted in the Guardian recently, data from two civilian UFO research organisations show that the number of reported sightings has fallen in recent years. However, there’s no single, global focal point for reports (the Ministry of Defence stopped investigating UFOs in 2009) and statistics will never tell the full story. It would be better if the phenomenon were assessed and judged not on numbers alone, but by focusing on cases where we have compelling evidence: independently submitted reports from pilots on different flights; visual sightings corroborated by radar; photos and videos regarded as genuinely intriguing by intelligence community imagery analysts. Irrespective of the methodology we use to assess the phenomenon, how can we do so in an even-handed way when the subject has so much pop culture baggage?A first step in reframing the debate might be changing the language. The term “UFO” has become as obsolete and baggage-laden as the now largely-defunct “flying saucer”. Both are widely, but wrongly, regarded as being synonymous with “extraterrestrial spacecraft”, when self-evidently all the phrase should mean is something in the sky that the observer cannot identify. When the question “do you believe in UFOs?” is misinterpreted as “do you think we’re being visited by aliens?” then we clearly have a problem.We addressed this in the MoD in the 1990s by replacing “UFO” with “UAP”, for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. It got us increased funding and made a few senior officials take the matter more seriously, because they felt we were looking at a science problem, not a science fiction mystery.Years later, in 2011, I was one of the briefers at a private gathering in Washington DC, chaired by Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff John Podesta, who has a longstanding interest in the issue. It was reminiscent of an episode of The X-Files and there was even a former CIA director sitting at the back, playing no part in the discussion, but silently taking notes. I briefed attendees on the MoD’s use of the term “UAP” and the message clearly hit home.During Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, for which Podesta was the campaign chair, she occasionally discussed UAPs and in one interview on the Jimmy Kimmel show she corrected the host for using the term “UFO”. We have yet to learn what Donald Trump thinks about UAPs, but his enthusiasm for a Space Force has certainly created a few conspiracy theories.When it comes to UAPs, truth really is stranger than fiction. It turns out that AATIP was largely the brainchild of the then Senate majority leader Harry Reid, and that much of the work was contracted out to Bigelow Aerospace, run by former budget hotel magnate (and believer in extraterrestrial visitation) Robert Bigelow. A 2009 letter from Harry Reid about AATIP reads like science fiction in places.Now, some of the people formerly involved with the project – including the DIA official who ran it, Luis Elizondo – have joined a Public Benefit Corporation called To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, fronted by Tom DeLonge, the former vocalist/guitarist and founder of pop punk band Blink-182. Their mission statement talks about creating a consortium “to explore exotic science and technologies … that can change the world”.If current US Congressional interest evolves into formal hearings, either specifically on AATIP, or on UAPs more generally, I hope they can get past debates about terminology, and avoid getting bogged down in statistical analyses. I have made clear my willingness to testify on the basis that my experience with the MoD might be relevant.Focusing on the quality of reports and not simply the quantity should result in a far more meaningful assessment of the phenomenon. Irrespective of the outcome, these might turn out to be the most fascinating Congressional hearings in history.• Nick Pope worked at the Ministry of Defence for 21 years. From 1991 to 1994 he was posted to a division where his duties included investigating UAP sightings to determine whether they had any defence significance. Topics Space UFOs comment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a challenge by three conservation groups to the authority of President Donald Trump’s administration to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a victory for Trump who has made the wall a centerpiece of his hardline immigration policies. U.S. President Donald Trump attends a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa GonzalezThe justices’ declined to hear the groups’ appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California rejecting their claims that the administration had pursued border wall projects without complying with applicable environmental laws. The groups are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Defenders of Wildlife. Their lawsuits said construction operations would harm plants, rare wildlife habitats, threatened coastal birds like the snowy plover and California gnatcatcher, and other species such as fairy shrimp and the Quino checkerspot butterfly. Brian Segee, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said he was disappointed that the court would not hear the case. “Trump has abused his power to wreak havoc along the border to score political points,” Segee said. “He’s illegally sweeping aside bedrock environmental and public-health laws. We’ll continue to fight Trump’s dangerous wall in the courts and in Congress.” Trump has clashed with U.S. lawmakers, particularly Democrats, over his plans for an extensive and costly border wall that he has called necessary to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Congress, controlled by the president’s fellow Republicans, has not yet provided him the amount of money he wants. The president has threatened a government shutdown unless lawmakers provide $5 billion in funding. On Saturday, Trump said congressional leaders sought a two-week extension of funding ahead of a Dec. 7 deadline to fully fund the U.S. government and that he would probably agree to it. Mexico has rejected Trump’s demand that it pay for the wall. Illegal immigration was a central theme of Trump’s presidential bid, and he repeatedly invoked the issue ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections as a caravan of migrants from Central America made their way toward the United States. Trump deployed 5,800 U.S. troops to the border. The three conservation groups sued last year in San Diego after the Department of Homeland Security authorized projects to replace existing border fencing at two sites in southern California, as well as the construction of prototype border walls. The dispute centers on a 1996 law aimed at countering illegal immigration that gave the federal government the authority to build border barriers and preempt legal requirements such as environmental rules. That law also limited the kinds of legal challenges that could be mounted. The groups argued that Trump’s wall projects did not fall under that law, and that the measure was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to unelected Cabinet officials to avoid laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in February ruled that the administration had not exceeded its powers. The groups appealed the judge’s decision to the Supreme Court. The groups have said that giving the federal government unfettered power to waive applicable laws and limit judicial oversight is ripe for abuse. With such power, the plaintiffs argued, officials could theoretically give contracts to political cronies to build walls with no safety standards using child migrant labor, and “kill bald eagles in the process.” The Trump administration urged the justices not to take up the appeal. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department on Monday declined to comment. Trump criticized Curiel in 2016 in a different case, a lawsuit accusing his now-defunct Trump University of fraud. Trump, while running for president, accused Curiel of being biased against him because of the Indiana-born judge’s Mexican heritage. Reporting by Andrew Chung; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party expelled the former chief of Interpol on Wednesday, accusing him of abusing his power to finance an extravagant lifestyle and committing “serious” violations of the law.The disappearance of the former Interpol chief, Meng Hongwei, during a trip to China last fall drew global attention and highlighted the perils of being on the wrong side of China’s opaque, highly politicized legal system.The Chinese authorities later said he had been placed under investigation, but the move damaged China’s reputation and raised doubts about President Xi Jinping’s efforts to expand China’s global presence.Mr. Meng, 65, the first Chinese citizen to lead Interpol, has not been heard from since.The harsh punishment of Mr. Meng is probably an effort by Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader since Mao, to signal that political loyalty is paramount, experts said.“This shows they’re much more insecure about their own domestic issues than sometimes we think,” said Julian G. Ku, a Hofstra University professor who studies China’s relationship with international law.The announcement — a rare official update on Mr. Meng since his disappearance in October — came as Mr. Xi was back in Beijing after concluding a visit this week to France, where he met with President Emmanuel Macron.Mr. Meng’s wife, Grace Meng, had appealed to Mr. Macron in recent days to raise her husband’s case with Mr. Xi and to demand answers about his whereabouts, according to Agence France-Presse.Since coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi has led a wide-ranging campaign against corruption and perceived political disloyalty that has ensnared thousands of people, including many high-profile officials.The party’s anticorruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said in a statement Wednesday that Mr. Meng had abused his power for personal gain. It said that he “recklessly squandered state capital and property to satisfy his family’s extravagant lifestyle.” The agency accused Mr. Meng of routinely ignoring decisions by top party leaders.“His family tradition is corrupted,” the statement said. “His view on power is twisted.”Ms. Meng, the former official’s wife, has said that she has not heard from her husband since late September, when he sent a phone message with an emoji of a knife as he left on a trip to China, which she interpreted as a sign of danger. Ms. Meng is seeking asylum in France.In the statement on Wednesday, the anticorruption agency also accused Mr. Meng of encouraging his wife to use his power and prestige for personal benefit.Mr. Meng, a former vice minister of security who was appointed to lead Interpol in 2016, will now probably face a trial on corruption charges.Jude Blanchette, a political analyst who is a senior adviser and China head at Crumpton Group, said Mr. Xi’s anticorruption drive would very likely become a permanent part of China’s political system. The campaign has given Mr. Xi a way to sideline political enemies while also going after venal officials at all levels of government.“We’re now glimpsing how the Chinese Communist Party’s internal political culture often clashes with global norms and institutions,” Mr. Blanchette said.

The White House said on Wednesday that Donald Trump would nominate Kirstjen Nielsen to serve as his next secretary of homeland security. She is currently the White House principal deputy chief of staff. Nielsen formerly served as John Kelly’s deputy when he held the post of Trump’s first homeland security secretary. She moved with Kelly to the White House when Trump tapped him as chief of staff in July, following a tumultuous period of staff infighting that spilled into public view with a series of high-profile departures.The White House said Nielsen, who worked for the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) under George W Bush, had “extensive professional experience in the areas of homeland security policy and strategy, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure and emergency management”.Inside the White House, Kelly and Nielsen have sought to transform a chaotic West Wing into a more disciplined environment, pitting them at times against other senior aides competing for influence. Under their stewardship, according to one report, policy and planning meetings have been restricted to “principals only”, one of several moves designed to better control the flow of information to Trump and who has the president’s ear.While that approach has earned its detractors in the White House, aides said Nielsen was known for a no-nonsense approach to the job that will probably serve her well in the Senate confirmation process.But even as her nomination is not expected to be contentious, Nielsen will inherit a portfolio at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is certain to attract tough questions from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Many Senate Democrats expressed disappointment in Kelly for lining up behind some of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, such as his crackdown on undocumented people and so-called “sanctuary cities” and the travel ban on refugees and certain Muslim-majority countries.It will be Nielsen’s task to shepherd the DHS as it oversees the phasing out of Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, which enabled hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children to come out of the shadows and legally work and study without fear of deportation. The DHS is also poised to implement Trump’s new travel ban, which revised the list of restricted countries and goes into effect on 18 October. One of Nielsen’s most formidable challenges will arguably pertain to the investigation into Russian interference in the US election, which Trump has continued to blast as “fake news” despite the intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow took extensive measures to sway the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.The DHS is not only responsible for protecting against future such threats from foreign governments, but also said earlier this year it had evidence of attempts by Russia to breach election systems in 21 states. Last month, at least two of those states accused the agency of giving them bad information about Russian hacking.Critics of the Trump administration were bracing for a more extreme pick to head the department responsible for fulfilling some of Trump’s core campaign promises. Among those who had been rumored as possible replacements were the former Milwaukee County sheriff David A Clarke Jr and the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach, both known for harboring far-right views on immigration. Kobach caused a stir during the transition period when he arrived to a meeting with Trump, potentially for the DHS role that went to Kelly, holding a proposal for a Muslim registry. Topics Trump administration US politics news

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that two Canadian nationals detained in China are suspected of engaging in activities endangering national security, and that both cases are under investigation. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters the legitimate rights and interests of the two Canadians had been safeguarded. Canadian businessman Michael Spavor, as well as former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who works for the International Crisis Group, were detained this week. Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman plans to discuss Syria, the Qatar blockade and oil production with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Russia, according to people familiar with the matter, as energy cooperation deepens political ties between the two former foes.In the first-ever Russia visit by a Saudi monarch, King Salman is expected to give his support for new cease-fires and “de-escalation zones” in Syria, where Riyadh and Moscow have been on opposing sides, the people said....

Marathon began its outreach to the Trump administration early, asking to meet with Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency soon after he became its administrator in early 2017. Marathon had been a top donor to Mr. Pruitt in Oklahoma, a state where oil is so prominent that a well stands on the grounds of the capitol building. “Our CEO, Gary Heminger, would be very glad for an opportunity to visit with the Administrator,” a Marathon lobbyist wrote in an email to Mr. Trump’s transition team on May 8, 2017. “I believe this would be a constructive dialogue.” The E.P.A. helps oversee fuel economy rules along with the Transportation Department.Mr. Pruitt was scheduled to meet with the Marathon chief at least twice — once in June 2017 as part of a meeting with the board of a powerful fuel-industry group, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and again in September for a more private talk, according to emails and schedules released in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club.A Marathon spokesman, Chuck Rice, said Mr. Heminger did not discuss auto-efficiency rollbacks with Mr. Pruitt. An E.P.A. official did not respond to a question about whether the auto rules were discussed.Marathon then turned its focus to Congress, hiring the firm Ogilvy Government Relations to lobby legislators in Washington on fuel-economy standards, according to Ogilvy’s disclosure forms. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.Over the summer, Marathon representatives also approached legislators about an industry talking-points letter, according to six people familiar with that effort. The file properties of a Microsoft Word version of one letter, provided by a Congressional delegation, show that it was last edited by a Marathon lobbyist, Michael J. Birsic, on June 11, 2018. Mr. Rice of Marathon said the company did not write the letter, and the company declined to say who did. It did not offer an explanation for Mr. Birsic’s digital fingerprint on the document file.

A Dutch court has rejected the request of a self-styled “positivity guru” to shave 20 years off his age, in a case that drew worldwide attention.Last month Emile Ratelband asked the court in Arnhem to formally change his date of birth to make him 49. He said his official age did not reflect his emotional state and it was causing him to struggle to find work and love.He claimed he did not feel 69 and said his request was consistent with other forms of personal transformation gaining acceptance around the world, such as the right to change name or gender.In a written ruling on Monday, the court said Dutch law assigned rights and obligations based on age “such as the right to vote and the duty to attend school. If Mr Ratelband’s request was allowed, those age requirements would become meaningless.”In a press statement, the court said: “Mr Ratelband is at liberty to feel 20 years younger than his real age and to act accordingly. But amending his date of birth would cause 20 years of records to vanish from the register of births, deaths, marriages and registered partnerships. This would have a variety of undesirable legal and societal implications.”The court said it acknowledged “a trend in society for people to feel fit and healthy for longer, but did not regard that as a valid argument for amending a person’s date of birth”.It said Ratelband failed to convince the court that he suffered from age discrimination, adding that “there are other alternatives available for challenging age discrimination, rather than amending a person’s date of birth”.Ratelband was undeterred by the court’s rejection and vowed to appeal. “This is great!” he said. “The rejection of {the] court is great … because they give all kinds of angles where we can connect when we go in appeal.”He said he was the first of “thousands of people who want to change their age”. Topics Netherlands Europe news

Brazilian police have detained Cesare Battisti, an Italian writer and former leftwing guerrilla who was convicted of murder in his home country and has been on the run for decades.Battisti was apparently trying to leave Brazil after Italy reportedly asked Brazil’s government to revoke his asylum status and extradite him to serve his prison sentence. He was stopped by highway police as he was about to cross the border in a Bolivian taxi and was held for possession of a “significant” quantity of undeclared foreign currency, the federal police said in a statement. Battisti faced life in prison in Italy, where he was convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s, when he belonged to a guerrilla group called Armed Proletarians for Communism. After escaping prison in 1981, he spent about 30 years on the run in Mexico and France. Battisti moved to Brazil in 2004, living in secret before being arrested in Rio de Janeiro in 2007. After four years in confinement, Battisti was released in 2011 and given permanent residency in Brazil.According to the respected O Globo daily’s website, Italy asked Brazil’s government last week to reconsider the decision not to extradite Battisti, who was granted refugee status by the former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva on his last day in office in 2010.The incident prompted a vicious diplomatic row between the two countries. “Brazilian authorities believe Battisti was trying to take refuge in Bolivia,” the report said, adding that he was attempting to take out about $5,000 and 2,000 euros.Battisti’s lawyer, Igor Sant’Anna, told Reuters that he had sought a habeas corpus injunction last week due to the risk that president Michel Temer’s government could agree to Italy’s request. Topics Brazil Italy Americas Europe news

LUÍS EDUARDO, Brazil/BOONE, Iowa (Reuters) - The Bella Vita luxury condominium tower rises 20 stories over the boomtown of Luís Eduardo Magalhães in northeastern Brazil. Its private movie theater and helipad are symbols of how far this dusty farming community has come since it was founded just 18 years ago. Local soybean producers shell out upwards of a half-million U.S. dollars to live in the complex. Nearby farm equipment sellers, car dealerships and construction supply stores are bustling too. Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 miles to the north in Boone, Iowa, farmers are hunkering down. At a recent agriculture trade show here, Iowa corn and soybean grower Steve Sheppard reflected the cautious mood. “I’m not buying any machinery, I’m not spending any money,” Sheppard said. Two countries. Same business. Two very different fates. The reason: China. A growing trade war between the United States and China is re-ordering the global grains business. In response to Trump administration tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing this year imposed levies on U.S. agricultural products. Among them was a 25 percent tariff on soybeans, the single most valuable U.S. farm export. U.S. growers sold $12 billion worth to China last year alone. The fallout has been quick. China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans, has scaled back purchases of U.S. grain to feed its massive hog herd. It is turning instead to Brazil, which has ridden the wave of Chinese demand for two decades to become a global agricultural powerhouse. Brazilian soybean exports to the Asian country jumped 22 percent by value between January and September, compared to the same period a year ago. Brazilian producers are not only selling more grain, their soy is fetching $2.83 more per bushel than beans from the United States, up from a premium of just $0.60 a year ago, thanks to stepped up Chinese purchases. Prices for U.S. soybeans, meanwhile, recently sunk to decade lows that farmers say are below the cost of production. The slump has made the agricultural sector a drag on an otherwise healthy U.S. economy. The Trump administration said in July it would spend up to $12 billion in taxpayer funds to help U.S. farmers offset trade-related losses, although the aid package could shrink. Many American farmers, overwhelmingly conservative voters who helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency, are standing by their man. They believe he will eventually negotiate a better trade deal with China, whose appetite for soybeans is so vast that it cannot completely wean itself off U.S. grain. But for the time being, Trump trade policies are handing precious market share, money and momentum to Brazil, the United States’ most formidable agricultural competitor. Some fear the lost ground will be hard to reclaim. “Bad news on tariffs in the U.S. is good news for them,” Robert Crain, general manager for the Americas for equipment dealer AGCO Corp (AGCO.N), said about Brazilian farmers in an interview at the Iowa show. (For a graphic on the diverging fortunes of farmers in the United States and Brazil, see: tmsnrt.rs/2CAOKWr) Like their U.S. counterparts, Brazil’s farmers produce much more grain than is needed at home. Foreign customers are responsible for the country’s agricultural boom. Nearly 80 percent of Brazil’s soy exports now head to China. The city of Luís Eduardo Magalhães is a testament to the importance of this international trade. Located in the state of Bahia, with farms stretching in every direction, the formerly unincorporated rural area in less than two decades has swelled to 85,000 people. That is bigger than Sioux City, Iowa’s fourth-largest city. Machines work collecting cotton at the Guarani Farm of the Catelan family, in Roda Velha district near Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Bahia state, Brazil September 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo MoraesMajor employers in Luís Eduardo, as most locals call the city, include fertilizer factories, seed producers and processors of soy and cotton. The area “relies 100 percent on agriculture,” said Carminha Maria Missio, a farmer and president of the local growers union. While Brazil’s overall economy is stuck in a ditch, the nation’s farm sector rolled to 13 percent growth last year. The John Deere dealership in Luís Eduardo saw its sales rise 15 percent in 2017 and is expecting double-digit growth again this year, managing partner Chico Flores Oliveira said. The local real estate market is surging too. Another new luxury condo tower is slated to open next year. Single-family homes are sprouting throughout the city. Prices for prime farmland are up 37 percent since 2012, according to consultancy Informa Economics IEG FNP. Brazil’s total soy area is expected to expand to a record 36.28 million hectares this season due to robust Chinese demand, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. Farmers here also are bullish on this month’s presidential election in Brazil. Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who is leading in the polls, favors rolling back fines for farmers who deforest illegally or break other environmental laws. Like Trump, Bolsonaro, is wary of China. But producers here trust him not to blow it on trade. “Rural producers support Bolsonaro emphatically,” said Congresswoman Tereza Cristina, head of the powerful agriculture voting bloc in Brazil’s Congress. “We have access to him...and I am certain that he is smart and sensible.” U.S. FARM BELT PINCHED The outlook is much gloomier in Iowa, the long-established heart of U.S. agriculture. It is the nation’s top corn-producing state and the No. 2 producer of soybeans. But its access to some global markets has suffered under Trump. The president walked away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would have opened valuable markets such as Japan to more American ag products. His renegotiation of the NAFTA accord had Mexico, the largest importer of U.S. corn, exploring other suppliers, including Brazil. Now the Chinese are pulling back. Boone lays smack in the state’s center, surrounded by miles of row crops, hogs and poultry. Farmland values here fell 12 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to Iowa State University. Worries about the U.S.-China trade war loomed over the recent Farm Progress show, which comes to town every other year. Equipment dealer Lee Randall jotted down prices at an auction of used tractors and implements at the show. Prices have dropped on trade tensions and low crop prices, he said, shaking his head as a green and yellow Deere & Co (DE.N) combine sold for $118,000 and another fetched $82,000. “Five years ago you could have added 30 percent to every one of these pieces,” said Randall, whose business, Randall Brothers, is based in Ohio. Nearby, Brett Begemann, chief operating officer for Bayer Crop Science (BAYGn.DE) said farmers were likewise scrutinizing purchases of seeds and chemicals. The trade dispute is making it difficult for Bayer to predict 2019 earnings for its agriculture unit. A two-hour drive north of Boone in Algona, Iowa, a town of about 5,500 people, farm doldrums are crimping business at the local Deere and Harley-Davidson Inc (HOG.N) dealerships, the operators said. “Ultimately this area lives and dies by the farmer,” said Jim Wilcox, an owner of the Harley store. Farmers’ woes are showing up on bank balance sheets as well. The proportion of the region’s agricultural loans reported as having repayment problems was up in the second quarter, reaching mid-year levels not seen since 2002, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Rodney Jensen, who farms near Algona, regrets not making deals to sell soybeans from his autumn harvest when prices were higher. Like many, he is storing his crop, waiting for better times. Slideshow (29 Images)He worries China will not buy as much U.S. soy as it used to, even if the two nations patch things up. “It’s been pretty pessimistic around here,” Jensen said. Reporting by Jake Spring in Luis Eduardo Magalhães; and Tom Polansek in Boone, Iowa; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Marla DickersonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SAO PAULO/LONDON (Reuters) - Brazil’s epic “Car Wash” corruption investigation has taken down presidents and elite businessmen, and led to the largest corporate leniency deal ever signed. FILE PHOTO: Protesters display a banner and posters in front of the venue of commodities trader Glencore's annual shareholder meeting in Zug, Switzerland May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannBut graft allegations lodged by prosecutors last week against four of the world’s largest oil trading companies - Vitol SA [VITOLV.UL], Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL], Glencore PLC and Mercuria Energy Group - have opened an explosive new phase in the long-running probe. Federal prosecutors allege the European multinationals and some smaller players collectively paid at least $31 million in bribes over a six-year period to employees at Brazil’s state-led oil company Petrobras to sell them oil at sweetheart prices. They said the firms’ top brass had “total and unequivocal” knowledge that they were fleecing Petrobras and that the illicit activity may still be ongoing. More than 600 pages of legal documents reviewed by Reuters portray what prosecutors describe as a bustling criminal enterprise fueled by creativity, competition and greed. Authorities say the trading companies often used freelance middlemen in an effort to cover their tracks, allowing these businessmen to negotiate deals and pay off Petrobras collaborators using bank accounts in several countries. Emails obtained by investigators show intermediaries hustling to profit from their connections, authorities said. Some shared spreadsheets divvying up to the last cent their cut of the spoils from deals they allegedly sealed with crooked Petrobras employees. Prosecutors said the messages also show that rings of middlemen knew about one another and battled fiercely for the favor of the big oil-trading firms. Some discussed their attempts to woo top executives with promises of delivering more shady trades and fatter profits than rivals. One intermediary griped that Vitol was “not at all sentimental” and would choose whomever could secure them the biggest returns. “Now you are the flavor of the month, next month there is a new flavor,” the middleman lamented in the email. Brazilian authorities last week searched the Rio de Janeiro-area offices of Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore as well as other entities they allege participated in the scheme. Police said they could not locate a physical office in Brazil for Mercuria. No charges have been filed. Mercuria has denied wrongdoing. Mercuria, Vitol and Glencore said they would cooperate with the Brazilian investigation, while Trafigura said it was reviewing the allegations. Trafigura, Mercuria and Vitol said they have zero-tolerance policies for bribery and corruption. Glencore said it takes ethics and compliance seriously. Petrobras said it was cooperating with authorities and viewed itself as a victim of the alleged corruption. Eight people have been arrested, including two employees of Petrobras whom the oil firm has since fired because of “strong evidence against them that they were involved in irregularities,” the company said in a written statement. Interpol alerts have been issued for three other suspects who are outside Brazil, including a Petrobras trader based in Houston. None have been arrested. The European firms - Vitol is based in London, the three others in Switzerland - are powerhouses in commodities trading. They have investments in strategic energy and commodity infrastructure around the world, including in Brazil. Together they control about 10 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption and have revenues larger than Argentina’s gross domestic product. Brazilian federal Judge Gabriela Hardt, as part of her legal order authorizing last week’s arrests and search warrants, wrote “there is proof” the companies and their affiliates “paid commissions to intermediaries for the buying and selling of combustibles from Petrobras, to the benefit of the companies and to the detriment of the state-run company.” The stakes are high for the trading firms. The probe could jeopardize their current and future business in Brazil, an increasingly important global oil producer. A Vitol-led consortium has a $1.5 billion deal pending to purchase Petrobras’ stake in prized Nigerian oilfields. The new developments also signal that Brazil’s landmark Car Wash probe may be far from over. Launched in 2014 to investigate contracting graft at Petrobras, the law-enforcement juggernaut has already toppled scores of powerful figures, including the former presidents of Brazil and Peru. Brazil’s Odebrecht SA[ODBES.UL], Latin America’s largest construction firm, in 2016 cut a deal with prosecutors to pay at least $3.5 billion for its role in a massive bribes-for-contracts ring. Foreign firms are now in the crosshairs, said prosecutor Athayde Ribeiro Costa, who is heading the latest phase of the probe. “All foreign companies that have done business with Petrobras in the past 15 years should carry out some rigorous internal investigations, to have confidence that they are not exposed to Car Wash,” Costa told Reuters. He said several foreign oil companies had already approached Brazilian prosecutors to “sound them out” about leniency deals. Costa would not disclose names of the firms. Some of Brazil’s political class have maneuvered to wind down a probe that has consumed the country and paralyzed key sectors of the economy. But President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office on Jan. 1, is under pressure from the public to keep going. He has chosen Sergio Moro, a crusading judge who led Car Wash, to be Brazil’s next Justice Minister. “Car Wash will continue its brutal transformation of Brazil’s corporate culture,” said Carlos Melo, a political scientist with Insper, a leading Brazilian business school. “It is not going to stop.” Costa said the supply and refining units at Petrobras where the alleged corruption took place were ripe for chicanery. Traders in the company’s far-flung offices could make large purchases or sales without approval from Petrobras executives, he said. Because the alleged graft involved tweaking mere cents on liters, Costa said it was easy to hide from any oversight, with the potential for huge illicit gains given the large volumes of product involved. Brazilian authorities allege that Petrobras employees participating in the scheme bought oil from the traders at prices above the going market rate, and also sold them Petrobras oil products and storage leases at below-market rates, hurting the state-run firm’s bottom line, authorities said. Prosecutors say Trafigura, Vitol, Glencore and Mercuria used middlemen as well as their own representatives to execute the corrupt deals with Petrobras insiders. Authorities allege the illicit funds moved through U.S. and European banks, among others. A pivotal figure, Brazilian authorities allege, was Swedish-national Bo Hans Wilhelm Ljungberg, an independent oil broker who operated out of Rio de Janeiro. They say he was a key agent who secured business for Vitol and other firms by funneling bribes to Petrobras traders, in particular to one in Houston. Vitol’s first business relationship with Ljungberg dates back to the 1990s when it bought one of his companies; more recently, he acted as an agent, Vitol said. An Interpol alert has been issued for Ljungberg, who prosecutors said returned to Sweden. He did not reply to messages sent to his email address included in court documents, nor to messages sent to social media accounts. Prosecutors allege Vitol paid just over $5 million to offshore trading entities that Ljungberg co-owned called Encom Trading SA and Celixore AB to secure deals with Petrobras between 2011 and 2014. Prosecutors showed Reuters copies of bank transfers from those firms’ accounts. Judge Hardt’s ruling said that one of Vitol’s top executives, Mike Loya, head of the firm in the United States, was “fully aware” that Ljungberg was securing Vitol’s business through bribes, based on email evidence indicating the executive had spoken with the Swede about the alleged scheme. Loya did not respond to requests for comment sent to his email and via social media. As for Trafigura, prosecutors say the company used its own executives to bribe Petrobras employees. Judge Hardt’s order alleges that Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, a former Trafigura top executive, and Marcio Pinto Magalhaes, a local country representative, funneled bribes to Petrobras employees between mid-2009 and September 2014. Lawyers for Ferraz and Magalhaes did not respond to requests for comment. Slideshow (4 Images)Ferraz is already serving a 10-year sentence in Brazil for bribing a former Petrobras refinery manager on behalf of his own company, Decal do Brasil. He was arrested in late 2016 and resigned from Trafigura. Prosecutors allege that Magalhaes also engaged in bribery for other companies, including Glencore’s fully-owned subsidiary Chemoil. Apart from payments via Magalhaes, Glencore subsidiaries paid $4 million to other middlemen who allegedly bribed Petrobras officials, the judge’s ruling said. Prosecutors say that they know the least about Mercuria’s dealings with Petrobras. They said they have identified suspicious trades sealed between the company’s representatives in Brazil and middlemen to broker allegedly illicit deals. Reporting by Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo and Julia Payne in London; Editing by Marla DickersonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence fell from more than a 17-year high in March amid stock market volatility, but households remained upbeat about labor market conditions, which could help to support consumer spending. FILE PHOTO - Holiday shoppers look at store windows at Henri Bendel store on 5th Avenue in New York November 23, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo The Conference Board said on Tuesday its consumer confidence index dropped 2.3 points to a reading of 127.7 this month from a slightly downwardly revised 130.0 in February, which was the highest level since November 2000. The index was previously reported at 130.8 in February. “The stock market has been volatile and consumers don’t like market volatility. The pullback in confidence is not a concern for the economic outlook this year,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “Still, we wonder if the decline in confidence means that the economy may have seen its best days already for this cycle.” U.S. stocks have been under pressure over the past two months as worries about inflation led some investors to speculate that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates more aggressively than currently anticipated. Wall Street has also been roiled by the threat of a global trade war after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum targeting up to $60 billion in Chinese goods with tariffs over what his administration says is misappropriation of U.S. intellectual property. The S&P 500 index has dropped about 2 percent so far in March, coming on the heels of a decline of nearly 4 percent in February and putting stocks on pace for their worst two-month performance since the December 2015-January 2016 period. Stocks were trading higher on Tuesday as fears of a trade war between the United States and China eased. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. Prices of U.S. Treasuries climbed as fund managers bought bonds to rebalance their portfolios for the end of the quarter in advance of more government debt supply. The Conference Board survey’s so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents’ views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, increased to 25.0 in March, the strongest reading since May 2001, from 24.0 in February. That measure, which closely correlates to the unemployment rate in the Labor Department’s employment report, suggests that labor market slack continues to shrink. “This report combined with the March jobless claims data points to another 200,000-plus reading on payrolls in March, which we judge would push the unemployment rate down to 4.0 percent from 4.1 percent,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. The economy added 313,000 jobs in February. Labor market tightness has left economists optimistic that wage growth will soon pick up. That, together with lower income taxes, are expected to spur consumer spending in the coming quarters. Retail sales have declined for three straight months, leading economists to expect a slowdown in consumer spending in the first quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew at a robust 3.8 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter. FILE PHOTO: Clusters of newly built multi-unit town homes and apartments are shown in San Marcos, California January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Rising house prices could also boost consumer spending. A separate report on Tuesday showed the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas increased 6.4 percent in the 12 months to January after rising 6.3 percent in December. Higher house prices are bolstering household wealth. But the house price inflation is being driven by an acute shortage of homes available for sale, which is hurting the housing market. “If we continue to see a steady stream of buyers and owners remain largely uninterested in selling, we can expect prices to continue to rise,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Paul SimaoOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States on Thursday it would target U.S.-backed militias in Syria if Russian troops again came under fire, as the United States disclosed an unusual face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Russian generals meant to avoid such clashes. A fighter from Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) sits in a military tank in Raqqa, Syria September 16, 2017. REUTERS/ Rodi SaidThe Russian warning underscored growing tensions over Syria between Moscow and Washington. While both oppose Islamic State (IS), they are engaged, via proxies, in a race for strategic influence and potential resources in the form of oilfields in eastern Syria’s Deir al-Zor province. The Russian Defence Ministry said the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had taken up positions on the eastern banks of the Euphrates with U.S. special forces, and twice had opened fire with mortars and artillery on Syrian troops who were working alongside Russian special forces. “A representative of the U.S. military command in Al Udeid (the U.S. operations center in Qatar) was told in no uncertain terms that any attempts to open fire from areas where SDF fighters are located would be quickly shut down,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. “Fire points in those areas will be immediately suppressed with all military means.” In a sign of the high stakes as both forces come in increasing proximity, U.S. and Russian generals held a face-to-face meeting this week in an effort to avoid accidental clashes, U.S. military officials said on Thursday. “They had a face-to-face discussion, laid down maps and graphics,” said Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, adding it appeared to be the first meeting of its kind. Dillon, addressing a Pentagon briefing, disclosed few details, including who participated in the meeting or its precise location. A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the participants included both U.S. and Russian generals. The Russian Defence Ministry this week accused U.S. spies of initiating a jihadi offensive against government-held parts of northwest Syria on Tuesday. The ministry, in a Wednesday evening statement, said 29 Russian military policemen had been surrounded by jihadis as a result and that Russia had been forced to break them out in a special operation backed by air power. “According to our information, U.S. intelligence services initiated the offensive to halt the successful advance of government troops to the east of Deir al-Zor,” said Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi. The Syrian army, backed by Russian war planes, has captured about 100 km (62 miles) of the west bank of the Euphrates this month, reaching the Raqqa provincial border on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Syrian troops also crossed to the eastern side of the river on Monday where the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting with the U.S.-led coalition, has been advancing. The convergence of the rival offensives has increased tensions in Deir al-Zor. Fighters from Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand near destroyed Uwais al-Qarni shrine in Raqqa, Syria September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said The U.S.-backed militias said on Saturday they had come under attack from Russian jets and Syrian government forces, something Moscow denied. On Monday, the SDF warned against any further Syrian army advances on the eastern riverbank, and Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that the waters of the Euphrates had risen as soon as the Syrian army began crossing it, suggesting this could only have happened if upstream dams held by the U.S.-backed opposition had been opened. (Corrects conversion of 100 km to miles in paragraph 13.) Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Phil Stewart in Washington; editing by Gareth Jones, Hugh Lawson and Tom BrownOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Before he was frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, Jair Bolsonaro tried his hand at film-making.The picture? A 26-minute polemic posted on YouTube called Venezuela: An Alert for Brazil.The plot? A dastardly communist conspiracy to seize control of Latin America’s largest democracy and turn it into a Bolivarian inferno of savagery and destitution.“IS BRAZIL FREE FROM BECOMING THE VENEZUELA OF TOMORROW?” the far-right populist tweeted alongside a link to his politically charged flick, produced in partnership with his politician son Eduardo Bolsonaro.Jair Bolsonaro’s push for power has been turbocharged by a duo of contemporary Brazilian bugbears: fear of an intensifying murder crisis that last year claimed nearly 64,000 lives and fury at extreme levels of corruption.But a third, increasingly dominant, theme has also emerged in his fight for the presidency: the crisis in Venezuela and Bolsonaro’s oft-repeated allegation that his Workers’ party (PT) opponent, Fernando Haddad, will inflict similar pain on Brazil.Hardly an interview or public declaration now goes by without Bolsonaro name-dropping Brazil’s crisis-stricken South American neighbour.In his first comments since Sunday’s emphatic first-round win, Bolsonaro warned only two paths were now available to Brazilian voters – his path of prosperity, freedom and godliness or Haddad’s: “The path of Venezuela.”The next morning another of Bolsonaro’s sons, Carlos, echoed the message on Instagram. “Together let’s stop Brazil becoming a Cuba or a Venezuela,” he wrote.Harold Trinkunas, a Stanford University Latin America expert, said Venezuela’s problems, which has caused the most severe migration crisis in modern Latin American history, had become “a really powerful tool for Bolsonaro to attack the PT and Haddad”.Similar claims were used against Colombia’s defeated leftwing presidential hopeful Gustavo Petro, who was routinely – and inaccurately – described as an agent of “castrochavismo”.Bolsonaro’s charge was fanciful, said Trinkunas. “When the PT was in government, under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil certainly didn’t take the path that Venezuela took.”“In fact, I think for Brazilians the threat Bolsonaro poses to institutions is a little more Chávez-like than that posed by Haddad. Bolsonaro [who has repeatedly praised dictatorships] is the one who has made anti-institutional statements during his career, rather than Haddad.”The former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a well-known critic of the PT and Lula, has also called Bolsonaro’s claims “an exaggeration”.But Bolsonaro’s vast fanbase seems to be convinced by it, with supporters up and down the country repeating theories of the supposed red peril posed by the PT.“They want to transform our flag into a red flag – the flag of communism!” declared Cleuzenir Barbosa, a member of Bolsonaro’s party in Minas Gerais state, warning that moral decay and “severe communism” lurked behind the PT’s “beautiful and serene words”. “Worse, I would say, than that of Venezuela or Fidel Castro!”Paulo Henrique Villas Boas, a Pernambuco-based bolsonarista, agreed: “They support dictators like Fidel Castro! Like Maduro! Hugo Chávez! Dictatorships in Africa! Hamas!”Critics say the PT – which enjoyed close ties to Chávez’s government under Lula – has failed to neutralize such attacks by sufficiently distancing itself from the increasingly authoritarian regime of his successor, Nicolás Maduro.Some of those seen as being furthest to the party’s left have even publicly backed Maduro. Last year – in what one commentator denounced as “the most shameful page in the PT’s history” – the party president, Gleisi Hoffmann, voiced support for his socialist party as it resisted “a violent rightwing offensive”.Maurício Santoro, an international relations expert from Rio de Janeiro’s State University, called the PT’s relutance to question Maduro “a big mistake” that brought Haddad “a series of problems and no benefits”.In a recent interview with the Guardian, Haddad conceded that Venezuela’s “democratic environment” had been “compromised” but stopped short of criticising Maduro.On Wednesday, he again dodged a question about whether he considered Venezuela a democracy or a dictatorship, admitting only that its situation was “dramatic”.“Brazil’s role is that of a leader in this continent. We don’t need to take sides. We don’t need to declare war on any of our neighbours,” Haddad told foreign correspondents in São Paulo, pointing to the PT’s commitment to “the principle of non-intervention”.“[The answer] isn’t more bullets, more military bases, more war … The continent needs more cooperation.”Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister under Lula, was similarly cautious. “Venezuela is in a complex situation, it has a lot of inequality, it might have committed mistakes,” he told the Guardian.But Amorim called claims his party wanted Brazil to follow Caracas an invention of the “radical right”: “To imagine that Brazil will be influenced by Venezuela is a fantasy … It is a myth, it is a lie.”Mônica Valente, the PT’s international relations secretary, accused Bolsonaro of trying to polarize the election by “caricaturing” Haddad’s campaign: “You can’t characterise the candidacy of Fernando Haddad as extreme left.”That, though, is exactly what Bolsonaro’s campaign is doing – with energy and with success.Between them, Eduardo and Jair Bolsonaro have sent more than 50 Venezuela-themed tweets this year, most flagging up the supposed socialist threat to Brazil.His father returned to the theme on Tuesday morning in his latest Bolivarian-themed broadcast, accusing the Brazilian leftist of being “in love with Venezuela”. “It’s us against them. It’s Brazil against the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes,” Bolsonaro declared.The tactic appears to be catching on: on Wednesday, another rightwing populist warned of the “suffering, misery and decay” that leftwingers planned to inflict.In a rare editorial for USA Today, Donald Trump wrote that “the new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela”. The assertion drew scorn from political opponents and Latin America experts, with a Washington Post fact check noting drily: “We are unaware of any Democratic leader that has pointed to Venezuela as an economic model.” Topics Jair Bolsonaro Brazil Venezuela features

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former consigliere, has compared China to 1930s Germany, warning the country could go down the same dark path if the US fails to challenge its rise.“A hundred years from now, this is what they’ll remember — what we did to confront China on its rise to world domination,” Bannon told the New York Times.“China right now is Germany in 1930,” he said. “It’s on the cusp. It could go one way or the other. The younger generation is so patriotic, almost ultranationalistic.”Donald Trump’s former senior White House aide is preparing to kick off a global anti-China crusade and the former White House chief strategist has called himself a “street fighter”, setting his sights on his next opponent: China. Bannon is convinced the US and China are destined for open conflict and has lambasted the country on everything from trade to intellectual property to North Korea ahead of speech in Hong Kong on Tuesday.“China’s model for the past 25 years, it’s based on investment and exports,” he said. “Who financed that? The American working class and middle class. You can’t understand Brexit or the 2016 events unless you understand that China exported their deflation, they exported their excess capacity.”“It’s not sustainable,” Bannon added. “The reordering of the economic relationship is the central issue that has to be addressed, and only the US can address it.”Bannon left his position at the White House last month and said he would be “going to war for Trump against his opponents”. During his short tenure at Trump’s side, Bannon wielded significant influence on immigration and tax reform efforts by pulling the president to the right, and he will now seek to shape policy on China.He has returned to leading Breitbart news, a far right website popular among many Trump supporters.Bannon will be speaking at a conference hosted by CLSA, a unit of Citic Securities, China’s largest state-owned brokerage, and his speech will focus on “American economic nationalism and the populist revolt and Asia,” according to a CLSA spokeswoman. “He’s the man of the moment.”“Donald Trump, for 30 years, has singled out China as the biggest single problem we have on the world stage,” Bannon said in an interview on CBS just days before his Hong Kong speech.“I want China to stop appropriating our technology. China is, through forced technology transfer and through stealing our technology, but really forced technology transfer, is cutting out the beating heart of American innovation.“We’re not at economic war with China, China is at economic war with us.”He admonished officials in George W Bush’s administration for their trade policies, accusing them of being weak.Bannon will now take his fight to Chinese soil, speaking to a room filled with investors who owe much of their fortunes to China’s economic rise. Past speakers at the conference include Bill Clinton, Al Gore and George Clooney.Bannon also echoed Trump on US strategy in reining in North Korea’s nuclear program, saying China was the key in dealing with the isolated state.“If you’re a great power, how come you can’t control the Frankenstein monster you created in North Korea?” he asked in the interview with the New York Times.“The solution to Korea runs through Beijing and we have to engage Beijing,” Bannon said in the CBS interview. “[North Korea] is a client state of China.”Bannon said the US should consider “doubling down” on efforts to pressure China to act through a host of measures including sanctions, restricting access to US capital markets and penalising Chinese financial institutions. “We have tremendous leverage to force China,” he said. Bannon previously lived in Shanghai where he ran an online gaming company, but returned to the US in 2008. He has long been convinced the US is headed for a major confrontation with China. “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years,” he said in March 2016 on a Breitbart podcast. “There’s no doubt about that. Bannon was reportedly encouraged when Trump, before he was sworn into office, spoke directly with Taiwan’s president on the phone, infuriating China. China considers the self-ruled island a breakaway province, and Trump later bowed to pressure from son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling Chinese President Xi Jinping the US would honour the “One China” principle. Topics Steve Bannon Trump administration Donald Trump Hong Kong China Asia Pacific news