Tag Archives: Government

Trump administration sends conflicting signals on Russia sanctions

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (L) arrives with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) to attend a joint press conference held by U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Yeganeh Torbati

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump grudgingly accepted new congressional sanctions on Russia, the top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, remarks in contrast with those of Vice President Mike Pence, who said the bill showed Trump and Congress speaking “with a unified voice.”

The U.S. Congress voted last week by overwhelming margins for sanctions to punish the Russian government over interference in the 2016 presidential election, annexation of Crimea and other perceived violations of international norms.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that he and Trump did not believe the new sanctions would “be helpful to our efforts” on diplomacy with Russia.

Trump has been clear that he wants to improve relations with Russia, a desire that has been hamstrung by findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered to help the Republican against Democrat Hillary Clinton. U.S. congressional panels and a special counsel are investigating. Moscow denies any meddling and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign.

Tillerson, who did business in Russia when he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has said repeatedly that the world’s two major nuclear powers cannot have such a bad relationship.

“The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did, neither the President nor I were very happy about that,” Tillerson said. “We were clear that we didn’t think it was going to be helpful to our efforts, but that’s the decision they made, they made it in a very overwhelming way. I think the president accepts that.”

Tillerson stopped short of saying definitively that Trump would sign the sanctions, saying only that “all indications are he will sign that bill.”

Vice President Mike Pence, at a press conference in Georgia with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, said unequivocally that “President Trump will sign the Russia sanctions bill soon.”

Pence acknowledged that the administration objected to earlier versions of the sanctions bill because it did not grant enough flexibility to the administration, but said it “improved significantly” in later versions.

“And let me say that in signing the sanction, our President and our Congress are speaking with a unified voice,” Pence said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday the sanctions bill was under review and would be signed.

“There’s nothing holding him back,” Sanders said at a news briefing. Trump has until Aug. 9 to sign the bill, or veto it, or it will automatically become law.

In retaliation for the sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia must reduce its staff by 755 people. Russia is also seizing two properties near Moscow used by American diplomats.

Tillerson said Putin probably believes his response was a symmetrical action to Washington seizing two Russian properties in the United States and expelling 35 diplomats last December.

“Of course it makes our lives more difficult,” he said.

Tillerson said he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would meet in Manila on the margins of next weekend’s meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and Patricia Zengerle; editing by Grant McCool)

U.S. senators to introduce bill to secure ‘internet of things’

A man takes part in a hacking contest during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

By Dustin Volz

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday plans to introduce legislation seeking to address vulnerabilities in computing devices embedded in everyday objects – known in the tech industry as the “internet of things” – which experts have long warned poses a threat to global cyber security.

The new bill would require vendors that provide internet-connected equipment to the U.S. government to ensure their products are patchable and conform to industry security standards. It would also prohibit vendors from supplying devices that have unchangeable passwords or possess known security vulnerabilities.

Republicans Cory Gardner and Steve Daines and Democrats Mark Warner and Ron Wyden are sponsoring the legislation, which was drafted with input from technology experts at the Atlantic Council and Harvard University. A Senate aide who helped write the bill said that companion legislation in the House was expected soon.

“We’re trying to take the lightest touch possible,” Warner told Reuters in an interview. He added that the legislation was intended to remedy an “obvious market failure” that has left device manufacturers with little incentive to build with security in mind.

The legislation would allow federal agencies to ask the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for permission to buy some non-compliant devices if other controls, such as network segmentation, are in place.

It would also expand legal protections for cyber researchers working in “good faith” to hack equipment to find vulnerabilities so manufacturers can patch previously unknown flaws.

Security researchers have long said that the ballooning array of online devices including cars, household appliances, speakers and medical equipment are not adequately protected from hackers who might attempt to steal personal information or launch sophisticated cyber attacks.

Between 20 billion and 30 billion devices are expected to be connected to the internet by 2020, researchers estimate, with a large percentage of them insecure.

Though security for the internet of things has been a known problem for years, some manufacturers say they are not well equipped to produce cyber secure devices.

Hundreds of thousands of insecure webcams, digital records and other everyday devices were hijacked last October to support a major attack on internet infrastructure that temporarily knocked some web services offline, including Twitter, PayPal and Spotify.

The new legislation includes “reasonable security recommendations” that would be important to improve protection of federal government networks, said Ray O’Farrell, chief technology officer at cloud computing firm VMware.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Bill Rigby)

Senate Democrats offer Republicans help on tax reform – with conditions

The United States Capitol is seen prior to an all night round of health care votes on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein -The United States Capitol is seen prior to an all night round of health care votes on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein -

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats offered to work with Republicans on a bipartisan tax reform package on Tuesday but only if it does not cut taxes for the wealthy, add to the federal deficit or allow Republicans to enact legislation on their own.

The conditional offer may not attract immediate response from Republicans. But it adds to growing signs of interest in bipartisan cooperation since the collapse of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate last week.

In an Aug 1 letter to President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in the Senate, 45 lawmakers led by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a bipartisan effort would raise wages for workers, grow jobs, promote investment and modernize the tax system for U.S. businesses.

“We are writing to express our interest in working with you on bipartisan tax reform,” said the letter, which then cited “prerequisites” for Democratic participation that Republicans would likely find hard to swallow.

Trump, along with Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives, has called for major tax cuts for businesses and individuals, saying that lower tax rates would drive the economy and grow jobs.

Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, told Reuters on Monday that bipartisanship may be necessary to ensure that tax reform succeeds but blamed Democrats for slowing down the legislative process.

In Tuesday’s letter, Democrats said bipartisan tax reform should offer no relief for the wealthy, citing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s assertion last November that there would be no absolute tax cut for the upper class.

“We hope you agree. Tax reform cannot be a cover story for delivering tax cuts to the wealthiest,” the Democrats said.

The Democrats also demanded that Republicans abandon their strategy of passing tax legislation in the Senate with a simple majority under a parliamentary procedure called reconciliation.

Republicans control the Senate by a slim 52-48 margin and say they need reconciliation to avoid a Democratic filibuster. They were unable to pass healthcare legislation last week, even with a simple majority.

Democrats also said they would not support deficit-financed tax cuts, which some Republicans view as a viable option.

Forty-three Senate Democrats and two independents signed the letter. Absent were the names of three Democrats facing reelection next year: Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Trump fires communications director Scaramucci in new White House upheaval

FILE PHOTO: New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, flanked by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, speaks at the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. July 21, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

By Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump ousted recently hired White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci on Monday over an obscene tirade, sources familiar with the decision said, in the latest staff upheaval for the six-month-old administration.

The move, coming just 10 days after the Republican president named Scaramucci to the post, took place on the first day of work for Trump’s new chief of staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, who sources said was seeking to impose order on a White House riven with factions and backbiting.

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser.

A Republican close to Trump said the president fretted on the weekend over what to do about Scaramucci, calling his advisers to ask their opinion, all of whom told him the tough-talking aide had to go.

Trump was annoyed about Scaramucci’s lewd comments to The New Yorker magazine published last Thursday and at how the abrasive New York financier appeared to inflate the strength of their friendship, since he had started the 2016 presidential election cycle as a fundraiser for two Trump rivals, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush.

Trump decided it was time to cut him loose, the source said.

Kelly, who also wanted him removed, summoned Scaramucci to Kelly’s office on Monday morning and fired him on the spot, the official said. It was one of Kelly’s first acts as chief of staff.

“A great day at the White House!” Trump tweeted on Monday evening.

The departure of Scaramucci followed one of the rockiest weeks of Trump’s presidency in which a major Republican effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system failed in Congress and both his spokesman and previous chief of staff left their jobs as White House infighting burst into the open.

Scaramucci’s comments to The New Yorker included a profanity-laced attack against then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

“The president certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

In a change from previous procedure at the Trump White House, all staff will now report to Kelly, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Sanders said.

A Republican official close to the White House said Kelly had been given wide authority to impose order on the unruly Trump White House.

“Things will run with regular order,” the official said, adding that even the president’s daughter and her husband, who both have senior roles at the White House, are “not above the law.”

At a dinner on Saturday night at Trump’s hotel near the White House, Trump told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to expect some staff changes, the official said. Kelly attended the dinner as well.

INNER CIRCLE

Tensions in Trump’s inner circle erupted last week when Scaramucci assailed Priebus and Bannon, two of the West Wing’s most senior figures. He accused Priebus of leaking information to the media. Priebus later resigned.

Trump appeared on Monday with Kelly in the Oval Office and in a Cabinet meeting where he predicted the new chief of staff would do a “spectacular job.” He praised Kelly for his tenure overseeing border security issues at the Department of Homeland Security.

“With a very controversial situation, there’s been very little controversy, which is really amazing by itself,” Trump said.

Republicans fear that staff chaos at the White House could derail any attempt to revive efforts to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law and a plan to overhaul the U.S. tax system.

The U.S. dollar hit a more than 2-1/2-year low against the euro on Monday on month-end portfolio adjustments and uncertainty over the U.S. political outlook after Scaramucci’s departure.

Aside from domestic challenges, Trump is weighing how to respond to North Korea’s latest missile test – a sore point between Washington and Beijing. Trump has been critical of China, North Korea’s closest ally, saying it should do more to rein in Pyongyang.

He is also dealing with several investigations into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and has been frustrated that the probes are also looking into potential collusion by his campaign. Moscow rejects the charge it tried to swing the election in Trump’s favor, and Trump denies his campaign had anything to do with such interference.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball; Writing by Alistair Bell and Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Venezuela security agents seize opposition leaders from homes: family

Venezuela security agents seize opposition leaders from homes: family

By Corina Pons

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan security officials seized two opposition leaders from their homes in overnight raids, their families said on Tuesday, after they urged protests against a new legislative superbody widely denounced as anti-democratic.

Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were both under house arrest, the former for his role in leading street protests against President Nicolas Maduro in 2014 and the latter on charges of plotting a coup.

“12:27 in the morning: the moment when the dictatorship kidnaps Leopoldo at my house,” Lopez’s wife Lilian Tintori wrote on Twitter.

She posted a link to a video that appeared to show Lopez being led into a vehicle emblazoned with the word Sebin, Venezuela’s intelligence agency.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Lopez and Ledezma are both former mayors in Caracas, and high-profile critics of Maduro.

They had called on Venezuelans to join protests over Sunday’s election of the constituent assembly, which supersedes an opposition-controlled congress that a pro-Maduro Supreme Court had already stripped of its powers.

At least 10 people were killed in unrest during the vote, which was boycotted by the opposition and criticized around the world as an assault on democratic freedoms.

“They have kidnapped @leopoldolopez because he simply would not break under the pressures and false promises of the regime,” wrote Freddy Guevara, a legislator from Lopez’s Popular Will party.

Vanessa Ledezma said she held Maduro responsible for what happened to her father.

“The Sebin just took him,” she wrote on Twitter, posting a video of intelligence agents taking Ledezma, who was dressed in pyjamas.

He was granted house arrest in 2015 after being imprisoned on charges of leading a coup against Maduro.

Lopez was granted house arrest in July following three years in prison for his role in anti-government street protests in 2014. His release was considered a major breakthrough in the country’s political standoff.

Lopez’s lawyer, Juan Gutierrez, wrote on Twitter that “there is no legal justification to revoke the house arrest measure.”

(Writing by Brian Ellsworth; editing by John Stonestreet)

Trump replaces chief of staff Priebus with retired General Kelly

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters about the departure of his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus as he arrives aboard Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S. July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump replaced his beleaguered White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, after only six months on the job on Friday, installing retired General John Kelly in his place in a major shake-up of his top team.

Trump announced the move in a tweet a day after his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, accused Priebus of leaking information to reporters in a profanity-laced tirade.

Kelly, 67, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, is currently secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and will assume the chief of staff post on Monday. He was hired with the goal of bringing more discipline to the White House, a senior White House official said.

Trump issued his decision just as he landed aboard Air Force One after a visit to Long Island and hours after Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare failed in the Senate.

Priebus was on the plane with the Republican president and made no comment. Reporters had noticed no sign of stress from Priebus during the day.Priebus told CNN he had been talking to Trump for some time about exiting the White House, and is the latest in a long line of officials to leave or not take a job at the White House.

“The president has a right to hit a reset button. I think it’s time to hit the reset button,” Priebus said in a televised interview from the White House. “He intuitively determined that it was time to do something different, and I think he’s right.”

Trump had lost confidence in Priebus, privately questioning his competence after major legislative items failed to pass the U.S. Congress, a Trump confidant said.

A source close to Priebus said the former Republican National Committee chairman turned in his resignation on Thursday night, after Scaramucci’s rant against him was published by the New Yorker magazine.

A senior White House official said Trump had informed Priebus two weeks ago that he would be replacing him and that the move had no connection to Scaramucci, whose hiring a week ago prompted Sean Spicer, a Priebus ally, to abruptly resign as press secretary.

After frequent conversations with Kelly, Trump recently warmed up to the idea of naming Kelly chief of staff to more effectively manage personnel and offered it to him earlier this week, a senior White House official said.

KELLY ‘A STAR’

Carrying an umbrella, Trump approached reporters as he stepped off Air Force One, with rain storming down.

“Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job. General Kelly has been a star, done an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. He’s a great, great American. Reince is a good man,” Trump said.

Priebus’ 189-day tenure was the shortest in modern history for a White House chief of staff. He had hoped to stay on at least a year but struggled to manage his unpredictable boss and was unable to get a handle on conflicting factions in the White House who have frequently squabbled.

In a statement, Priebus said it had been one of the great honors of his life to serve Trump and the country.

“I will continue to serve as a strong supporter of the president’s agenda and policies. I can’t think of a better person than General John Kelly to succeed me and I wish him God’s blessings and great success,” he said.

Trump loyalists had chafed at Priebus, feeling he had installed his RNC allies at the White House and overlooked the people close to Trump who helped get him elected president in November.

But Priebus allies felt he was an important link to establishment Republicans in Washington as the capital attempted to adjust to the anti-establishment style of the president.

“He has served the president and the American people capably and passionately,” House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said of his close friend in a statement. “He has achieved so much, and he has done it all with class. I could not be more proud to call Reince a dear friend.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said she did not think Priebus’ exit would affect the White House’s relationship with the Republican Party.

“I think we’ve still got a good relationship. We’re going to continue working with the party and doing what we came here to do,” she said.

Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke will become the acting chief of the department on Monday, DHS said in a statement.

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, is among those being considered for Homeland Security secretary, a DHS official said.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Kansas governor tapped as religious ambassador reflects on legacy

FILE PHOTO: Republican Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

By Timothy Mclaughlin

(Reuters) – Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on Thursday shrugged off the political backlash and budget woes stirred by his aggressive tax-cutting policies at home as he looked forward to a new role as the Trump administration’s chief defender of global religious tolerance.

The two-term Republican addressed both topics at a news conference in Topeka a day after the White House announced that he would soon be nominated as U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, a State Department post.

Brownback, who previously represented his home state in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, was a sponsor of the 1998 law that created the diplomatic post he now aspires to fill.

“International religious freedom is going the wrong way. It’s getting worse around the world, not better,” Brownback told reporters. “It affects all faiths, it affects all religions.”

One of Brownback’s most notable forays into the realm of faith as governor came in 2015, when he issued an executive order to protect the religious convictions of clergy as Kansas began to comply with the landmark ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage.

His gubernatorial legacy, however, has been largely defined by 2012 legislation he championed to roll back tax rates to help stimulate Kansas’ economy.

The deep cuts shrank state coffers and caused Kansas to miss revenue targets, turning the state into a cautionary tale of fiscal mismanagement.

“It’s amazed me, too, that a tax cut done in a Midwestern state in 2012 has been the dominant tax discussion in America the last five years,” Brownback said on Thursday. He mostly defended his tax strategy, though conceded some resulting spending cuts could have been carried out “more artfully.”

More than a dozen conservative allies in the state legislature lost their seats in the November election in what was seen as a political repudiation of Brownback’s fiscal policies.

Earlier this year, both chambers of the Republican-controlled legislature voted to raise taxes and overrode Brownback’s attempt to veto that measure.

Republican state Representative Melissa Rooker, in a separate interview with Reuters, called Brownback’s tax policy “an unmitigated disaster.”

Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer, a physician who previously served in the legislature, would succeed Brownback if he resigned to assume the diplomatic post. It was unclear how soon Brownback might move to Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, his standing at home is low. Brownback ranks as the second-least popular governor in the United States, with a 66 percent disapproval rating, according to the nonpartisan political research company Morning Consult.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago)

Senate poised for healthcare showdown

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, accompanied by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), speaks with reporters following the successful vote to open debate on a health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

By Amanda Becker and Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans begin their final push on Thursday to unravel Obamacare, seeking to wrap up their seven-year offensive against former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law that extended insurance coverage to millions.

Republicans leaders hope a pared-down “skinny” bill that repeals several key Obamacare provisions can gain enough support to pass after several attempts at broader legislation failed to win approval earlier this week.

The skinny bill’s details will be released at some point on Thursday, before the Senate embarks on a marathon voting session that could extend into Friday morning. The legislation is expected to eliminate mandates requiring individuals and employers to obtain or provide health insurance, and abolish a tax on medical device manufacturers.

The effort comes after a chaotic two-month push by Senate Republicans to pass their version of legislation that made it out of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in May.

Members of the party, including President Donald Trump, campaigned on a pledge to repeal and replace what they say is a failing law that allows the government to intrude in people’s healthcare decisions.

Republicans were optimistic about the skinny bill’s chances of receiving at least 50 votes in the Senate where they hold a 52-48 majority.

Senator John Cornyn, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the bill, once approved, would go to a special negotiating committee of lawmakers from both chambers that would reconcile the House and Senate versions into a single piece of legislation.

Republican leaders had tapped a group to craft legislation largely behind closed doors, exposing rifts within the party. While conservatives said the group’s proposals did not go far enough, moderates said they could not support measures estimated to deprive tens of millions of health insurance.

The Senate voted 55-45 on Wednesday against a simple repeal of Obamacare, which would have provided a two-year delay so Congress could work out a replacement. Seven Republicans opposed the bill. On Tuesday, senators rejected the repeal-and-replace plan Republicans had been working on since May.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can lose only two Republican votes to pass healthcare legislation. Even then, he would have to call on Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote as head of the Senate. Democrats are united in opposition.

GOVERNORS SEEK INVOLVEMENT

A bipartisan group of 10 governors urged senators in a letter on Wednesday to start over and use a drafting process that includes governors from both parties. Governors of Nevada, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Colorado were among those who signed the letter, all of whose states have Republican senators.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan research agency, estimated on Wednesday that a combination of provisions that might go into the skinny bill would lead to 16 million people losing their health coverage by 2026.

It had earlier estimated that the two other bills rejected by the Senate this week would have led to 22 million to 32 million people losing their health insurance by 2026.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer criticized Republican leaders for crafting a “yet-to-be-disclosed final bill” in secret.

“We don’t know if skinny repeal is going to be their final bill, but if it is, the CBO says it would cause costs to go up, and millions to lose insurance,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Richard Cowan and David Morgan; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Kid Rock may run for Senate, says voter registration ‘critical cause’

FILE PHOTO: 2017 CMT Music Awards Show - Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., 07/06/2017 - Kid Rock presents the Video of the Year award. REUTERS/Harrison McClary/File Photo

(Note: Strong language in paragraph 5)

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, said on Thursday that he will decide over the next few weeks on whether to run for the U.S. Senate and in the meantime will work on the “critical cause” of registering voters.

The singer-songwriter said in a statement that he plans to create a non-profit organization to promote voter registration so he can raise money for the cause and get people registered to vote at his shows as he explores his possible candidacy in 2018.

“The one thing I’ve seen over and over is that although people are unhappy with the government, too few are even registered to vote or do anything about it,” he said.

Rock said he will discuss his political plans at a press conference in about six weeks.

“If I decide to throw my hat in the ring for U.S. Senate, believe me … it’s game on mthr*****,” he said in the statement.

Earlier this month, Rock drew attention on Twitter and his Facebook page to a “Kid Rock ’18 for U.S. Senate” website, stoking speculation that the 46-year-old Michigan native was considering a run next year.

“I was beyond overwhelmed with the response I received from community leaders, D.C. pundits, and blue-collar folks that are just simply tired of the extreme left and right bull****,” he said.

Born Robert James Ritchie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album “Devil Without a Cause” sold some 14 million copies. He gained additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s.

The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported that Rock’s name surfaced as a possible candidate earlier this month during a state Republican Party convention in Michigan, which Trump carried in the 2016 presidential race, though no official decisions were announced.

Rock presumably would seek to challenge Michigan’s Democratic incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2018.

According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the Republican nomination in 2016 but switched to Trump when the former reality-TV star became the party’s nominee.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Eyeing Deir al-Zor, Syrian army advances on Islamic State town

FILE PHOTO - Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stand on their military vehicle in northern Deir al-Zor province ahead of an offensive against Islamic State militants, Syria February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian government forces are nearing the last major town held by Islamic State (IS) in Homs province, part of their multi-pronged advance toward the jihadist group’s strongholds in the east of the country, a military source said on Thursday.

The source said combat operations would accelerate toward the town of al-Sukhna, some 50 km (30 miles) from the administrative frontier of Deir al-Zor province, where IS has redeployed many fighters after losing ground in Syria and Iraq.

“Capturing al-Sukhna means opening the door and path for forces to move to Deir al-Zor directly,” the source told Reuters, adding that the military had captured positions 8 km (5 miles) southwest of the town on Wednesday evening.

Islamic State is losing ground fast in Syria to separate campaigns waged by the Russian-backed Syrian government on the one hand, and to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces and their allies on the other.

Government forces, backed by the Russian air force and Iran-backed militias, have also been advancing against IS in Hama province and in southern areas of Raqqa province.

U.S.-led operations against IS are currently focused on taking Raqqa city.

Government forces have been approaching al-Sukhna gradually since capturing the ancient city of Palmyra, some 50 km away, in March.

“It is natural that combat operations escalate in this direction and take on a stronger and faster nature,” the source said, adding that Islamic State had concentrated forces in al-Sukhna.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government forces were being supported in the attack by Russian air strikes and allied militias, and had moved to within 5 km of al-Sukhna.

Deir al-Zor province, which borders Iraq to the east, is almost entirely under Islamic State control. The Syrian government has held on to a pocket of territory in the provincial capital of Deir al-Zor city, and at nearby air base.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Catherine Evans)