Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Democrats scrap bank reporting requirement from U.S. spending package

By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. banks will not be required to report additional information about certain accounts to the Internal Revenue Service after Democrats removed the proposal from a sweeping government spending package.

The exclusion of the provision, originally sought by some Democratic lawmakers as a way to identify people underreporting income on their taxes, marks a major victory for banks and credit unions that had vigorously opposed the provision.

U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled the framework for a $1.75 trillion economic and climate change plan on Thursday, his latest attempt to unify Democrats in Congress behind a comprehensive bill pursuing many of his top policy priorities.

Earlier versions of the package, which reached as high as $3 trillion in new investments, also included language requiring banks to report to the IRS any bank accounts that had $600 in money in or out every year. That proposal was not included in the framework outlined by the White House on Thursday.

Proponents, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, argued that the information would make it easier for tax collectors to identify accounts that experienced significantly higher activity than reported on taxes, and also raise large amounts of revenue to help pay for the new spending proposals.

The banking industry, calling the provision onerous and intrusive, launched an all-out lobbying battle against it. Democrats attempted to temper the provision by raising the reporting threshold to $10,000, but intense industry opposition, alongside concerns from moderate Democrats, helped push it out of the revamped package.

“The last thing Americans want right now is the government snooping on their accounts,” said Jim Nussle, head of the Credit Union National Association. “Safeguarding consumer privacy and data security is a key part of promoting financial well-being for all, and it’s encouraging that Congress recognizes this credit union priority.”

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Will Dunham)

EU election observers begin work ahead of Venezuela regional, local vote

By Vivian Sequera

CARACAS (Reuters) – European Union election observers began their mission in Venezuela on Thursday, as campaigning kicked off for regional elections next month which are set to include opposition candidates.

It is the first time in 15 years the EU has sent observers to Venezuela.

Opposition parties are participating in the Nov. 21 contest after boycotting presidential and parliamentary elections in 2018 and 2020 respectively, votes where they have alleged President Nicolas Maduro and his party notched illegitimate wins.

“The opposition is going to participate in these elections (…) we want to hear from everyone,” mission chief Isabel Santos told reporters before observers set out from capital Caracas to cities around the country.

More than 3,000 positions – including governors, mayors and municipal councilors – are up for grabs next month, according to Venezuela’s elections authority. Some 21 million voters are eligible to participate.

A total of 44 EU observers have arrived in Venezuela so far. They will work in 22 of the country’s 23 states, Santos said, adding no personnel will be sent to the Amazonas state due to transport difficulties and the coronavirus pandemic.

The observers will release a preliminary report two days after the vote, with the final report expected to take two months, said Santos, a member of the European Parliament from Portugal.

Observers will remain deployed across the country until Nov. 29.

The Carter Center, a U.S.-based advocacy group, also plans to send four international electoral experts to Venezuela in early November, it said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Sandra Maler)

American Airlines CEO says onboard violent incidents must stop

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker on Thursday sounded the alarm about disruptive and violent incidents onboard U.S. airplanes after a flight attendant was physically assaulted, prompting a flight diversion.

“This type of behavior has to stop,” Parker said in a video posted on Instagram. “American Airlines will not tolerate airport or inflight misconduct of any kind.”

American said a New York to Santa Ana, California, flight on Wednesday diverted to Denver after a passenger assaulted a flight attendant.

U.S. airlines have reported a record number of violent incidents this year and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pledged a “zero tolerance” approach.

Parker called the latest incident “one of the worst displays of unruly behavior we’ve ever witnessed.”

A passenger on the flight told CBS Los Angeles that the flight attendant had blood splattered on her mask after she had been punched. The passenger was arrested when the plane made its unplanned stop in Denver.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden said he instructed the Justice Department to “deal” with the rising number of violent incidents onboard planes.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson imposed the zero-tolerance order on passenger disturbances aboard airplanes after supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump were disruptive on flights around the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. He has said the zero-tolerance order will last until least mid-January.

Through Monday, there have been 4,941 reports of unruly passenger incidents, including 3,580 related to pandemic face covering regulations.

The FAA has initiated enforcement actions in 216 cases, issuing more than $1 million in proposed fines.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland at a hearing on Wednesday that flight attendants were facing thousands of confrontations over wearing masks on aircraft. “This has to be taken seriously. These assaults in the so-called name of liberty are unacceptable,” Durbin said.

In June, a group representing major U.S. airlines such as American, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines as well as aviation unions asked Garland to prosecute violent air passengers.

A union representing Southwest Airlines workers said in May that a flight attendant “was seriously assaulted, resulting in injuries to the face and a loss of two teeth.”

Delta in September called on other U.S. airlines to share lists of passengers who have been banned during the COVID-19 pandemic for disruptive behavior to help deter the rising number of incidents. Delta said since the pandemic began it has put more than 1,600 people on its “no fly” list.

Parker said the passenger who assaulted the flight attendant would be banned from the airline.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S. moves to expand offshore wind beyond the Northeast

(Reuters) – The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled fresh steps toward building offshore wind farms in waters off the coasts of Massachusetts, the Carolinas and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The announcement is the government’s latest in an aggressive push to expand the nascent ocean industry to every U.S. coastline in a bid to wean the power sector off fossil fuels and address climate change.

To date, most U.S. development of offshore wind has taken place in the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Northeastern states. But the administration is eager to site projects in other areas, including the Southern Atlantic and West coasts.

In a statement, the Department of the Interior said it would propose an offshore wind auction in a 127,865-acre area off the coast of the Carolinas. The area could be divided into three leases and has the potential for enough energy to power more than half a million homes.

The public will be able to comment on the proposal for 60 days. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of Interior, could finalize a sale early next year.

The agency also said it would invite the public to weigh in on the potential for wind energy development in a 30 million-acre area of the Gulf of Mexico. The area stretches from just west of the Mississippi River to the Texas-Mexico border.

The move is an early-stage effort to consider offshore wind in the Gulf, which is home to the nation’s biggest offshore oil and gas drilling industry. Before deciding on whether to lease in the Gulf, BOEM would have to conduct an environmental review and seek input from the public and a government task force set up to consider offshore wind in the region.

Finally, the administration said it would kick off an environmental review for a project off the coast of Massachusetts, Mayflower Wind. The wind farm will have up to 147 turbines with the potential to power 800,000 homes.

Mayflower Wind is a joint venture between Shell New Energies U.S. LLC and Ocean Winds, a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Canada defends pandemic policy on asylum-seekers while letting more enter through exemptions

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian government is trying to quash a legal challenge to its policy of turning back asylum-seekers entering the country between border crossings, saying the group bringing it lacks standing, even as it has granted a growing number of exemptions to the policy.

The parties were in court on Thursday arguing over who should be able to bring a case in the public interest.

Since March 2020, Canada has turned back at least 544 asylum-seekers trying to cross from the United States between ports of entry, government figures show.

The government says its policy is justified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the exemptions it has granted prove recourse is available.

Refugee lawyers said that these exemptions are inadequate, as at least one asylum-seeker was deported from the United States after receiving an exemption, and belie the policy’s justification.

“Refugee travel is not discretionary,” said Maureen Silcoff, a refugee lawyer and past president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, which earlier this year challenged the policy.

The government argues that the association lacks legal standing and its challenge should be struck.

The association is neither the intended beneficiary nor the target of the rule and “has no real stake or genuine interest in the outcome of this litigation,” the government said in a court filing. It said asylum-seekers who have been turned back should bring the case.

Refugee lawyers said those asylum-seekers, some of whom end up in U.S. immigration detention, are poorly placed to challenge the policy.

Starting in July, Canada increased the number of National Interest Exemptions it issued to asylum-seekers who had been turned back, enabling them to enter Canada and file refugee claims.

Between March 2020 and July 2021, Canada had granted just eight such exemptions. By Oct. 14, that number had risen to 159 exemptions, according to documents filed in court.

Canada’s immigration ministry did not respond to questions about the criteria for these exemptions.

Canada has a Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States under which asylum-seekers who present at a land border crossing are turned back. It has been challenged twice but upheld most recently this spring.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S. agency ramps up fines for travelers failing to wear masks

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Thursday it has recently ramped up proposed fines for travelers failing to wear masks at airports and in other transit modes.

The TSA said it has proposed $85,990 fines for 190 mask violators through Monday after more than 5,000 reported incidents since February 2 and issued warnings to more than 2,200.

On Monday, two U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives disclosed had issued just $2,350 in total fines to 10 passengers through mid-September, despite thousands of reports of airport travelers failing to comply.

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson and Bonnie Watson Coleman, who chairs the House transportation subcommittee, said despite 4,102 reports of mask-related incidents TSA had issued just 10 fines through Sept. 13.

“We urge you to implement these enhanced penalties to curb the rising number of mask-related disruptive passenger incidents,” the lawmakers wrote.

The TSA said Thursday it has “taken steps to make enforcement and compliance more meaningful, including by increasing the penalties, reducing the processing time from receipt of incident reports to the issuance of enforcement actions and frequent and routine interaction with air carriers to improve incident reporting.”

The agency also said almost 200 people have faced criminal penalties. TSA Administrator David Pekoske in July said since the start of the pandemic there have been over 85 physical assaults on TSA officers.

In August, the TSA extended mask requirements on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address COVID-19 risks.

The requirements, first imposed in early February, have been the source of some friction, especially aboard U.S. airlines, where some travelers have refused to wear masks.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which has instituted a “zero tolerance” enforcement effort on unruly passengers, through Monday has received 4,941 unruly passenger reports – including 3,580 mask-related incidents.

Last month, the TSA said it was doubling penalties for violating the transportation mask mandate: $500-$1000 for first offenders and $1000-$3000 for second offenders.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Sudanese army faces widening opposition to coup as nightly protests pick up

KHARTOUM (Reuters) -The Sudanese army faces widening opposition to this week’s coup with the U.N. Security Council on Thursday urging the restoration of the civilian-led transitional government and activists in Sudan mobilizing for protests this weekend.

The takeover, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Monday against a civilian government, has brought thousands of people on to the streets to reject a return of military rule and demand a transition towards civilian rule be put back on track.

Witnesses told Reuters they saw security forces use live and rubber bullets against protesters in Bahri, across the river from the capital, Khartoum, as nightly protests began to pick up.

The Security Council expressed serious concern about the takeover and urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint and engage in dialogue without pre-conditions.

In a statement, agreed by consensus, the 15-member body also called for the immediate release of all those who have been detained by the military.

The coup brought an end to a shaky transitional set-up intended to lead to elections in 2023 by sharing power between civilians and the military following the fall of Omar al-Bashir, whom the army deposed after a popular uprising two years ago.

It has been met with broad condemnation from Western governments including the United States which threw diplomatic and financial weight behind the transition and has frozen aid since the coup.

In a statement posted on Facebook overnight, ministries and agencies of Sudan’s most populous state, Khartoum, which includes the capital and twin city Omdurman, said they would not step aside or hand over their duties.

They declared a general strike, joining unions in sectors such as healthcare and aviation, although they said they would continue to supply flour, cooking gas and emergency medical care.

The main market, banks and filling stations in Khartoum were still closed on Thursday. Hospitals were providing only emergency services. Smaller shops were open, but there were long queues for bread.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted overnight that he had spoken by phone to Foreign Minister Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi.

Blinken said he condemned the arrest of civilian leaders in Sudan and discussed with Mahdi “how the U.S. can best support the Sudanese people’s call for a return to civilian-led transition to democracy”.

A U.N. official urged Burhan to start a dialogue with ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and offered to facilitate a political settlement.

A statement issued by the office of U.N. special representative to Sudan Volker Perthes did not say how Burhan had responded to the offer made at a meeting on Wednesday.

Perthes urged Burhan to deescalate the situation.

Hamdok, initially held at Burhan’s residence, was allowed to return home under guard on Tuesday. A source close to him said he remains committed to a civilian democratic transition and the goals of the revolt that toppled Bashir.

BURHAN IGNORED WARNINGS

The toll of people killed in clashes with security forces since Monday climbed to eight, with a 22-year-old man dying of gunshot wounds, a medical source said. Opponents fear the army-led authorities could deploy more force.

The source close to Hamdok said the prime minister had called for the military to avoid violence against protesters.

Opponents of the coup have been handing out fliers calling for a “march of millions” on Saturday against military rule, falling back on old methods of mobilization with the authorities restricting the use of internet and phones.

The protest is being called under the slogan “Leave!” used in the protests that brought down Bashir.

Since the anti-Bashir uprising, protests have been organized through neighborhood committees that can mobilize locally without access to the internet or to major roads closed by security forces.

Sudan has been in the midst of a deep economic crisis with record inflation and shortages of basic goods, which only recently showed signs of possible improvement helped by aid that major Western donors say will end unless the coup is reversed.

More than half the population is living in poverty and child malnutrition stands at 38%, according to the United Nations.

Burhan’s move reasserted the army’s dominant role in Sudan since independence in 1956, after weeks of mounting tension between the military and civilians in the transitional government over issues including whether to hand Bashir and others over to The Hague where they are wanted for war crimes.

Burhan has said he acted to stop the country slipping into civil war and has promised elections in July 2023.

Western envoys had warned Burhan that assistance, including a now frozen $700 million in U.S. aid and $2 billion from the World Bank, would cease if he took power. Sources said he ignored those warnings under pressure from inside the military and with a “green light” from Russia.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum and Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Graff and Nick Macfie)

Russia using gas to bully Moldova, says EU

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union’s top diplomat said on Thursday that Moscow was using natural gas to bully Moldova, as the prime minister of the ex-Soviet republic said the country could not afford the prices Russia was now offering.

Moldova’s gas contract with Russia’s Gazprom expired at the end of September. Moldova’s pro-EU Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita told Reuters that Gazprom was not offering the new government the traditional annual rollover of a previous, 30-year contract, but instead a three-fold price increase.

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied the Russian company was using gas talks to try to extract political concessions, but EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rejected that argument.

“In global terms the price increases around the world are not a consequence of weaponization of the gas supply, but in the case of Moldova, yes it is,” Borrell told a news conference alongside Gavrilita in Brussels.

He did not offer any detailed evidence of Russian pressure. Gavrilita said in an interview with Reuters that Gazprom had increased its long-standing price for Moldova to $790 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, from around $250.

“The price increase for Moldova is just extraordinarily stark. It has increased threefold and is set to increase fourfold if we buy everything on the spot market. The country cannot afford this politically, economically or socially,” Gavrilita said.

Moldova is governed by the pro-Western government of President Maia Sandu who defeated Moscow-backed Igor Dodon in an election last November. The country was one of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics and has been at the center of a political tug of influence between Russia and the West since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Gavrilita said Moldovan officials continued talks with Gazprom in St. Petersburg and that she took it as a good sign that they were continuing, but it was still unclear if there would be a deal.

She said the country was looking at swaps, contracts without prepayment conditions and long-term contracts from other sources. The country bought gas from EU countries for the first time this month.

EU HOPES, BUT NOT NATO

Asked if Moldova could live without a long-term Gazprom contract, she said: “I want to underline here that no European country is buying its whole supply on the spot (market).”

Gazprom has said it will suspend gas exports to Moldova, which borders Romania and Ukraine, if it is not paid for previous supplies.

The EU this week said it would give Moldova 60 million euros ($70 million) by the end of the year to deal with the crisis, after Moldova declared a state of emergency.

Gavrilita, who said supplies had fallen so low that pressure in Moldovan pipelines went below a critical level, will use the money to help poor Moldovans unable to pay higher energy prices.

After less than 100 days in office, the Sandu government is looking to end years of endemic corruption and is “looking for a European style of development,” Gavrilita said. “In the long term, yes, we do see Moldova as part of the EU,” she said, adding that the country was not seeking to join NATO.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Jan Harvey and Susan Fenton)

U.S. settles suits over 2015 massacre at historic South Carolina church

By Tyler Clifford

(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday said it settled civil cases brought by survivors and families of victims of a massacre in 2015, in which nine Black people were killed at a historic South Carolina church.

The agreement settles more than a dozen claims that blamed the FBI for failing to prevent a gun from being sold to Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who said he wanted to start a “race war” when he opened fire inside the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.

Five survivors will receive $5 million, while the families of those killed in the shooting will each receive between $6 million and $7.5 million, according to a news release.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

Families and survivors argued in lawsuits that the FBI’s background check system did not flag that Roof was banned from having a firearm before he purchased a handgun that was used in the mass shooting.

In December 2016, a jury found Roof guilty of 33 federal charges for the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, whose congregation dates back two centuries. The same jury sentenced him to death in January 2017.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)

U.S. economy slows sharply in third quarter; weekly jobless claims at new 19-month low

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in more than a year in the third quarter as COVID-19 infections flared up, further straining global supply chains and causing shortages of goods like automobiles that almost stifled consumer spending.

Gross domestic product increased at a 2.0% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance GDP estimate on Thursday. That was slowest since the second quarter of 2020, when the economy suffered a historic contraction in the wake of stringent mandatory measures to contain the first wave of coronavirus cases.

The economy grew at a 6.7% rate in the second quarter. The Delta variant of the coronavirus worsened labor shortages at factories, mines and ports, gumming up the supply chain. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 2.7% rate last quarter.

Strong inflation, fueled by the economy-wide shortages and pandemic relief money from the government over the course of the public health crisis, cut into growth. Ebbing fiscal stimulus and Hurricane Ida, which devastated U.S. offshore energy production in late August, also weighed on the economy.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew at a 1.6% rate after a robust 12% growth pace in the April-June quarter. Though automobiles accounted for a chunk of the stagnation, the Delta variant also curbed spending on services like air travel and dining out.

But there are signs that economic activity picked up as the turbulent quarter ended. The summer wave of COVID-19 infections has subsided, with cases declining significantly in recent weeks. Vaccinations have also picked up. The improving public health situation helped to lift consumer confidence this month.

Fewer Americans are filing new claims for unemployment benefits. That improving trend in labor market conditions was confirmed by a separate report from the Labor Department on Thursday showing initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 last week, the lowest level since mid-March 2020.

It was the third straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 290,000 applications in the latest week.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)