Ford to cut North America, Asia salaried workers by 10 percent: source

Ford Motor Co plans to shrink its salaried workforce in North America and Asia by about 10 percent as it works to boost profits and its sliding stock price, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Monday.
A person briefed on the plan said Ford plans to offer generous early retirement incentives to reduce its salaried headcount by Oct. 1, but does not plan cuts to its hourly workforce or its production.
The move could put the U.S. automaker on a collision course with President Donald Trump, who has made boosting auto employment a top priority. Ford has about 30,000 salaried workers in the United States.
The cuts are part of a previously announced plan to slash costs by $3 billion, the person said, as U.S. new vehicles auto sales have shown signs of decline after seven years of consecutive growth since the end of the Great Recession.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening that Ford plans to cut 10 percent of its 200,000-person global workforce, but the person briefed on the plan disputed that figure. The source requested anonymity in order to be able to discuss the matter freely.
Ford declined to comment on any job cuts but said it remains focused on its core strategies to “drive profitable growth”.
“Reducing costs and becoming as lean and efficient as possible also remain part of that work,” it said in a statement. “We have not announced any new people efficiency actions, nor do we comment on speculation.”
Ford plans to emphasize the voluntary nature of the staff reductions. Ford said April 27 when it reported first-quarter earnings that it planned to cut $3 billion in costs.
“We are continuing our intense focus on cost and the reason for that is not only mindful of the current environment that we’re in, but also I think preparing us even more for a downturn scenario,” Chief Executive Mark Fields told analysts in a conference call at that time.
JOBS JOBS JOBS
During his election campaign President Trump was highly critical of the auto industry’s use of Mexican plants to produce vehicles for the U.S. market.
Since taking office, Trump has regularly focused on creating jobs in sectors like the automotive industry, though he has released few concrete plans to do so.
Following criticism from Trump, in January Ford scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion car factory in Mexico and instead added 700 jobs in Michigan.
In March, Ford said it would invest $1.2 billion in three Michigan facilities and create 130 jobs in projects largely in line with a previous agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
Trump pounced on that announcement before Ford could release its plans.
“Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants,” Trump posted on Twitter. “Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!”

Happy Mother's Day

U.S. Justice Department orders tougher criminal punishments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration called for tougher charges and longer prison time for criminals in a move to return to strict enforcement of federal sentencing rules, according to a memo the U.S. Department of Justice released on Friday.
In a two-page note to federal prosecutors, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed course from the previous Obama administration and told the nation’s 94 U.S. attorneys to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”
The move is in line with tough campaign rhetoric against criminals by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who had also pledged to support police and law enforcement.
“This is a key part of President Trump’s promise to keep America safe,” Sessions said in remarks at the Justice Department.
Under former president Barack Obama, a Democrat, the Justice Department had sought to reduce mandatory-minimum sentences to reduce jail time for low-level drug crimes and ease overcrowding at federal U.S. prisons.
Obama’s then-attorney general Eric Holder advised prosecutors to avoid pursuing the toughest charges in certain cases, such as more minor drug offenses, that would have triggered mandatory sentencing under laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s.
In recent years, there has been growing bipartisan interest among some in Congress, U.S. states and the courts to reevaluate lengthy prison terms and instead focus on alternatives to reducing criminal behavior.
Sessions’ memo, dated on Wednesday, rescinds the Obama-era policy, saying federal prosecutors must now get approval from a supervisor if they want to bring charges or seek sentences that are milder than the strictest options available in a case.
“These reversals will be both substantively and financially ruinous, setting the Department back on a track to again spending one third of its budget on incarcerating people, rather than preventing, detecting, or investigating crime” Holder said of Sessions’s decision in a statement on Friday.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a longtime opponent of bipartisan sentencing reform efforts in Congress, called it a “common sense” way to reduce drugs and crime.
But other Republicans rejected that claim, saying drug use should be treated medically and that the department’s policy shift would only deepen the nation’s racial divide.
“Mandatory minimum sentences have unfairly and disproportionately incarcerated too many minorities for too long,” Senator Rand Paul said.
PRISON POPULATIONS LIKELY TO RISE
Holly Harris, head of the bipartisan sentencing reform organization U.S. Justice Action Network, said reform efforts have taken hold even in deep-red conservative states where Republicans dominate.
“It’s frustrating that Washington is not looking to the states as the laboratories of democracy,” she said.
Twenty-three U.S. states since 2007 have changed their sentencing laws to reserve prison space for the most serious or repeat offenders, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
The federal change is also likely to increase the number of people in the United States who are sentenced to U.S. prison.
“Reversing (Holder’s) directive will exacerbate prison overcrowding, increase spending and jeopardize the safety of staff and prisoners,” said Marc Mauer, who leads The Sentencing Project, a national criminal justice research and advocacy group.
The number of sentenced prisoners in federal custody fell slightly during Obama’s time in office, reversing a decades-old trend of growth.
Federal inmates represent a sliver of the overall U.S. prison population of more than 1.5 million, according to Justice Department statistics.
On Friday, Sessions said the change was necessary to combat rising drug use and crime, particularly in cities.
Several law enforcement leaders said the new policy would not mitigate the nation’s growing opioid epidemic, which Trump has pledged to make a top priority.
“Decades of experience shows we cannot arrest and incarcerate our way out of America’s drug problem. Instead, we must direct resources to treatment and to specifically combating violent crime,” said Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney in Utah.

President Trump on Saturday urged graduates of Liberty University to “never give up” and find the courage to challenge the establishment and critics, much like he has done in Washington.
"In my short time in Washington, I've seen firsthand how the system is broken," he said. "A small group of failed voices, who think they know everything … want to tell everybody else how to live,” Trump said in his commencement speech at the Christian school, in Lynchburg, Va.
“But you aren't going to let other people tell you what to believe, especially when you know that you're right. … We don't need a lecture from Washington on how to lead our lives."
Trump, a businessman and first-time elected official, made three previous visits to Liberty but none likely as important as his January 2016 trip in which he asked and received the support of evangelical Christians.
Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty's president, helped Trump win an overwhelming 80 percent of the white evangelical vote, in his 2016 White House victory.
"Nothing worth doing ever, ever, ever came easy," Trump said Saturday, in his first college commencement speech as president. "Following your convictions means you must be willing to face criticism from those who lack the same courage to do what is right. And they know what is right, but they don't have the courage or the guts or the stamina to take it and to do it."
Newly elected U.S. presidents often give their first commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame, the country's best-known Roman Catholic school.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did so during their first year in office. But this year, Vice President Mike Pence will speak at Notre Dame's graduation, becoming the first vice president to do so.
Notre Dame spokesman Paul Browne declined to say whether Trump had been invited to the May 21 ceremony, saying it was against school policy to reveal who had turned down offers.
Trump's remarks in Virginia marked his first extended public appearance since he fired James Comey as FBI director on Tuesday.
The president on Saturday didn't talk about Comey. And he has largely stayed out of public view since Tuesday, when he removed the head of the agency investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election, along with possible ties between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.
Aboard Air Force One, en route to Liberty, Trump said he could appoint a new FBI director by Friday, before departing on his first overseas presidential trip.
Several candidates were interview Saturday at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Whoever is appointed would have to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate.
A recent Pew Research Center survey marking Trump's first 100 days in office, a milestone reached on April 29, found three-quarters of white evangelicals approved of his performance as president while just 39 percent of the general public held the same view.
“I’m thrilled to be back at Liberty University,” said Trump, who repeatedly thanked the stadium-filled crowd for helping him get elected. “Boy did you come out and vote.”
Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump's appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, along with Trump's choice of socially conservative Cabinet members and other officials, such as Charmaine Yoest, a prominent anti-abortion activist named to the Department of Health and Human Services.
But they had a mixed response to an executive order on religious liberty that Trump signed last week. He directed the IRS to ease up on enforcing an already rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.
He also promised "regulatory relief" for those who object on religious grounds to the birth control coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act health law. Yet the order did not address one of the most pressing demands from religious conservatives: broad exemptions from recognizing same-sex marriage.
Still, Falwell, who endorsed Trump in January 2016 just before that year's Iowa caucuses, praised Trump's actions on issues that concern Christian conservatives.
"I really don't think any other president has done more for evangelicals and the faith community in four months than President Trump has," Falwell said.
Falwell became a key surrogate and validator for the thrice-married Trump during the campaign, frequently traveling with Trump on the candidate's plane and appearing at events. Falwell often compared Trump to his later father, the conservative televangelist Jerry Falwell, and argued that while Trump wasn't the most religious candidate in the race, he was the man the country needed.
"The more that a broken system tells you that you're wrong, the more certain you must be that you must keep pushing ahead," added Trump, who often complains about being underestimated during the presidential campaign.

White House: North Korea has been 'flagrant menace for far too long'

The White House responded to the latest North Korean ballistic missile launch late Saturday, saying that the rogue regime has been a “flagrant menace for far too long.”
The statement added that President Trump “cannot imagine that Russia is pleased” with North Korea’s latest test because the missile landed close to Russia soil. The statement pointed out that the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.
The White House said the U.S. maintains its "ironclad commitment" to stand with its allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea, and added that the latest "provocation" should serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against the North.
The Pentagon confirmed that North Korea launched some type of ballistic missile at around 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time. It was launched near Kusung and landed in the Sea of Japan.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported the missile traveled about 435 miles.
The launch is the first in two weeks since the last attempt to fire a missile ended in a failure just minutes into flight.
The isolated regime attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic missiles four consecutive times in the past two months but has conducted a variety of missile testing since the beginning of last year at fast pace.
Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a "major, major conflict" with the North was possible, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs.
The launch is the first since a new liberal president took office in South Korea on Wednesday, saying dialog as well as pressure must be used to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and stop the North's weapons pursuit.

North Korea fires missile days after new South Korea leader pledges dialogue

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons program, days after a new leader in its old rival South Korea came to power pledging to engage it in dialogue.
The U.S. Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile”. Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type.
The missile flew 700 km (430 miles) and reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km (1,245 miles), according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital, Pyongyang.
North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed not to let that happen.
An intercontinental ballistic missile is considered to have a range of more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles).
Experts said the altitude the missile tested on Sunday reached meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it traveled.
But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000 km (2,500 miles), experts said.
Kim Dong-yub, of Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said he estimated a standard trajectory would give it a range of 6,000 km.
Japan said the missile flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea’s east coast and Japan. The North has consistently test-fired missiles in that direction.
“The launch may indeed represent a new missile with a long range,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, referring to the estimated altitude of more than 2,000 km. “It is definitely concerning.”
In Washington, the White House said Trump “cannot imagine Russia is pleased” with the test as the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.
“With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased,” it said.
The launch served as a call for all nations to implement stronger sanctions against North Korea, it added.
‘CLEAR VIOLATION’
Speaking in Beijing, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping had discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula, including the latest missile launch and expressed “mutual concerns” about growing tension.
Putin is in Beijing for a conference on a plan for a new Silk Road. Delegations from the United States, South Korea and North Korea are also there.
The launch, at 5:27 a.m. Seoul time (2027 GMT Saturday), came two weeks after North Korea fired a missile that disintegrated minutes into flight, marking its fourth consecutive failure since March.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday, held his first National Security Council in response to the launch, which he called a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions, his office said.
“The president said while South Korea remains open to the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, it is only possible when the North shows a change in attitude,” Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s press secretary, told a briefing.
Moon won Tuesday’s election on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea and has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances, arguing dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions.
China, the North’s sole main ally which nevertheless objects to its weapons programs, called for restraint and for no one to exacerbate tension.
“China opposes relevant launch activities by North Korea that are contrary to Security Council resolutions,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The launch will also complicate Moon’s efforts to mend ties with China that have been strained by a decision by South Korea’s former government to deploy a U.S. anti-missile defense system aimed at defending against North Korea, but which China sees as a threat to its security.
Moon told Chinese President Xi last week that it would be difficult to resolve the issue unless North Korea stopped being provocative.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said North Korea’s missile launches were a “grave threat to our country and a clear violation of UN resolutions”.
North Korea on Feb. 12, launched the Pukguksong-2 missile, an upgraded, extended-range version of its submarine-launched ballistic missile, from the same site.
South Korean and U.S. military officials said the February launch was a significant development as it successfully tested a solid-fuel engine from a mobile launcher. The missile flew about 500 km with an altitude of 550 km.
The North attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic missiles four times in the past two months but has conducted various tests since the beginning of last year at an unprecedented pace.
It also conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests last year.
Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in April that a “major, major conflict” with the North was possible but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome.
Trump has also said he would be “honored” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances.
On Saturday, a top North Korean diplomat said it was open to dialogue with the Trump administration under the right conditions.

pork barrel spending cartoons

GOP Document Outlines ‘Stealth’ Congressional Earmark Process

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb speaks during a Reuters Newsmaker event in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

May 12, 2017
Washington, DC – John Hines, OAN Senior Political Correspondent
The term “congressional earmark” refers to the longstanding practice in which Members of Congress allocate pork barrel spending for their own districts. House Speaker Paul Ryan has placed a moratorium on earmarks saying they lead to uncontrolled spending. But now there is new evidence that Congress may have a system for “stealth earmarks.”
“What I’ve found is a PowerPoint presentation that proves that both parties are still using the earmark process secretly just now calling it ‘earmarks.’ But the earmark process goes on,” claims Patrick Howley, Editor, Big League Politics.com. “In the article, I refer to it as ‘stealth earmarks,’ which I think is a good term that pretty much encapsulates it. This is a PowerPoint presentation delivered by Appropriations leadership to GOP Congressmen. So, it’s a pass word only on-line system where Congressmen can go in and make their submissions for the earmarks they want and in 80 or 90 percent of cases they get the pork barrel spending that they want,” the reporter explains.”
The Power Point presentation proves that both parties are still using the earmark process, says Howley, nevertheless, he says the document specifically discourages the term “earmark.”
“In fact they even have a chart here, where they go through the you know the system for how a bill becomes a law. And they have a little yellow box with an arrow going around the typical system and says this is how you get your earmarks into the bill. Don’t use the term ‘earmarks,’ they even tell the Members ‘do not use the term earmark’ and do not be germane in the language that you use with these submissions,”he states.
Indeed, the document instructs members not to use the term earmark, and, even though Bill Christian of Citizens Against Government Waste says he cannot confirm the legitimacy of the document, the practice–if true–is disturbing.
“I would say that it would be disturbing if such a secretive end run around the earmark moratorium did in fact exist. This betrayal of the elected representatives’ pledge to abandon the corruptive practice of earmarking would run completely counter to the ‘drain the swamp’ message of the 2016 elections,” says Christian.
Appropriations Committee spokesperson Jennifer Hing commented officially in an email: “The notion that this was an instruction on earmarks is a total fabrication. This was simply an educational document to explain the proper way for members and their constituents to have their voices heard in the federal funding process. In fact, the committee specifically warns against asking for earmarks in any way.”

Treasury unit to share records with Senate for Trump-Russia probe: WSJ

A unit of the U.S. Treasury Department that fights money laundering will provide financial records to an investigation by the Senate into possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump and his associates, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Senate Intelligence Committee asked for the records from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, late last month, the Journal cited the people as saying. (http://on.wsj.com/2qbNL7K)
One person said the records were needed to decide whether there was collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the 2016 campaign, the Journal said.
Representatives for FinCEN and Republican Senator Richard Burr, the intelligence committee chairman, declined to comment, the Journal said.
The Senate probe took on added significance after Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey earlier this week amid an agency investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible Moscow ties to the Trump presidential campaign. The House of Representatives intelligence panel is conducting a similar probe.

With a threat of ‘tapes,’ Trump tells ousted FBI chief not to talk to media

Donald Trump warned ousted FBI Director James Comey on Friday not to talk to the media, a highly unusual move that prompted fresh charges the president is trying to silence the man who led an investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s election campaign and Russia.
On Twitter, Trump appeared to suggest that if Comey gave his version of contacts between them, the administration might produce tapes of conversations, although it was not clear if such tapes exist. The veiled threat added to the storm over Trump’s abrupt firing of Comey on Tuesday.
Critics have assailed Trump for dismissing the FBI chief just as the agency is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, and possible Moscow ties to the Trump presidential campaign.
The New York Times reported the president asked Comey in January to pledge loyalty to him and that Comey refused to do so. Such a request would undermine the standing of the FBI chief as an independent law enforcer and further fueled charges that Trump has overstepped the norms of his office.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump said in a string of Twitter posts on Friday.
Trump told Fox News he did not ask Comey to pledge loyalty and only wants him to be honest. Trump said he would not talk about the existence of any tapes.
CNN said Comey is “not worried about any tapes” Trump may have, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, told MSNBC that Congress would want to look at the tapes, if they exist.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation probe and parallel congressional investigations have clouded Trump’s presidency since he took office on Jan. 20, threatening to overwhelm his policy priorities.
Democrats accuse the Republican president of trying to dent the FBI probe by firing Comey and have called for a special counsel to investigate the Russia issue.
INDEPENDENT PROBE?
The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard Durbin, went further on Friday and said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should appoint an independent special prosecutor to pursue possible criminal charges related to Comey’s firing, although he did not specify if he meant such charges should be against Trump.
But Rosenstein does not see the need at this time for a special prosecutor, CNN reported. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Trump told Fox News in an interview he did not think an independent probe was necessary.
In a statement, Durbin said that what he characterized as Trump’s admission that he fired Comey because of the Russia probe was “dangerously close to obstruction of justice.”
Durbin said Trump’s tweet on Friday “could be construed as threatening a witness in this investigation, which is another violation of federal law.”
Comey declined an invitation to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed meeting on Tuesday for scheduling reasons, said Warner’s spokesman. An official familiar with the matter told Reuters that Comey had agreed in principle to testify behind closed doors at some point.
As has happened on previous occasions since Trump took office, different versions rapidly circulated of an event – in this case phone conversations between Comey and Trump and a dinner they had at the White House.
The New York Times said Comey told associates he declined to make a pledge of loyalty to Trump when the president requested it while they dined just seven days after his inauguration. Comey instead told Trump he could count on his honesty, the Times said.
Trump says Comey had told him three times he was not under investigation in the Russia probe. He said in an interview on Thursday with NBC News that Comey gave him this assurance during the White House dinner and in two phone conversations. Trump said Comey wanted to have the dinner because he wanted to stay on in the job.
Comey has not publicly discussed any conversations he has had with Trump.
NEWS BRIEFINGS
Trump also hit back on Friday at media reports questioning the credibility of White House accounts of why Comey was fired, which have changed over the course of the week, and threatened an end to regular White House press briefings.
“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump said. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
Trump told Fox News he would decide in “the next couple of weeks” whether the briefings would continue.
The White House initially said Trump fired Comey on the recommendation of the top Justice Department officials: Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein. In the NBC interview on Thursday, Trump said he would have fired Comey regardless of any such recommendations.
The White House has said Comey’s firing was unrelated to the Russia probe. On Thursday, Trump told NBC he knew he ran the risk that by firing Comey he would “confuse people” and “lengthen out the investigation” into ties to Russia.
The president said he never pressured Comey into dropping the FBI investigation, and added that there was no “collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians.”
Trump told Fox News he was surprised by the fierce reaction of Democrats. “I thought that this would be a very popular thing, that I did, when I terminated Comey, because all of the Democrats couldn’t stand him,” Trump said.
Comey had angered Democrats over his handling of the probe of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Trump is considering 11 people to replace Comey, a White House official said. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Republican Senator John Cornyn, New York Appeals Court Judge Michael Garcia and former Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher will be interviewed on Saturday for the post, an administration official said.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign of interference in the election aimed at tilting the vote in Trump’s favor. Moscow has denied any such meddling.
As part of the Russia investigation, the Justice Department last month requested former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s banking records, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Seeking to bolster Trump’s case that he has had no concealed dealings with Russia, his lawyers said in a letter released by the White House on Friday that a review of Trump’s tax returns from the past 10 years showed no income from Russian sources outside of a few exceptions, and indicated he did not owe money to Russian lenders.

Major cyber attack hits companies, hospitals, schools worldwide

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – A global cyber attack leveraging hacking tools believed to have been developed by the U.S. National Security Agency has infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries, disrupting Britain’s health system and global shipper FedEx.
Cyber extortionists tricked victims into opening malicious malware attachments to spam emails that appeared to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files.
The ransomware encrypted data on the computers, demanding payments of $300 to $600 to restore access. Security researchers said they observed some victims paying via the digital currency bitcoin, though they did not know what percent had given in to the extortionists.
Researchers with security software maker Avast said they had observed 57,000 infections in 99 countries, with Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan the top targets.
Asian countries reported no major breaches on Saturday, but officials in the region were scrambling to check and the full extent of the damage may not be known for some time.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said some secondary schools and universities had been affected, without specifying how many or identifying them.
The most disruptive attacks were reported in Britain, where hospitals and clinics were forced to turn away patients after losing access to computers on Friday.
International shipper FedEx Corp said some of its Windows computers were also infected. “We are implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible,” it said in a statement.
FROM ARGENTINA TO SPAIN
Only a small number of U.S.-headquartered organizations were hit because the hackers appear to have begun the campaign by targeting organizations in Europe, said Vikram Thakur, research manager with security software maker Symantec.
By the time they turned their attention to the United States, spam filters had identified the new threat and flagged the ransomware-laden emails as malicious, Thakur added.
Infections of the worm appeared to have fallen off significantly after a security researcher bought a domain that the malware was connecting to, by chance undermining the malware’s effectiveness.
Making the domain active appears to have stunted the spread of the worm, Thakur said on Saturday.
“The numbers are extremely low and coming down fast,” he said, while cautioning that any change in the original code could lead the worm to flare up again.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said late on Friday it was aware of reports of the ransomware, was sharing information with domestic and foreign partners and was ready to lend technical support.
Telecommunications company Telefonica was among many targets in Spain, though it said the attack was limited to some computers on an internal network and had not affected clients or services. Portugal Telecom and Telefonica Argentina both said they were also targeted.
Private security firms identified the ransomware as a new variant of “WannaCry” that had the ability to automatically spread across large networks by exploiting a known bug in Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
The hackers, who have not come forward to claim responsibility or otherwise been identified, likely made it a “worm”, or self spreading malware, by exploiting a piece of NSA code known as “Eternal Blue” that was released last month by a group known as the Shadow Brokers, researchers with several private cyber security firms said.
“This is one of the largest global ransomware attacks the cyber community has ever seen,” said Rich Barger, director of threat research with Splunk, one of the firms that linked WannaCry to the NSA.
The Shadow Brokers released Eternal Blue as part of a trove of hacking tools that they said belonged to the U.S. spy agency.
Microsoft said it was pushing out automatic Windows updates to defend clients from WannaCry. It issued a patch on March 14 to protect them from Eternal Blue.
“Today our engineers added detection and protection against new malicious software known as Ransom:Win32.WannaCrypt,” Microsoft said in a statement on Friday, adding it was working with customers to provide additional assistance.
SENSITIVE TIMING
The spread of the ransomware capped a week of cyber turmoil in Europe that began the previous week when hackers posted a trove of campaign documents tied to French candidate Emmanuel Macron just before a run-off vote in which he was elected president of France.
On Wednesday, hackers disrupted the websites of several French media companies and aerospace giant Airbus.Also, the hack happened four weeks before a British general election in which national security and the management of the state-run National Health Service (NHS) are important issues.
Authorities in Britain have been braced for cyber attacks in the run-up to the vote, as happened during last year’s U.S. election and on the eve of the French vote.
But those attacks – blamed on Russia, which has repeatedly denied them – followed a different modus operandi involving penetrating the accounts of individuals and political organizations and then releasing hacked material online.
On Friday, Russia’s interior and emergencies ministries, as well as its biggest bank, Sberbank, said they were targeted. The interior ministry said on its website that about 1,000 computers had been infected but it had localized the virus.
The emergencies ministry told Russian news agencies it had repelled the cyber attacks while Sberbank said its cyber security systems had prevented viruses from entering its systems.
NEW BREED OF RANSOMWARE
Although cyber extortion cases have been rising for several years, they have to date affected small-to-mid sized organizations, disrupting services provided by hospitals, police departments, public transport systems and utilities in the United States and Europe.
“Seeing a large telco like Telefonica get hit is going to get everybody worried. Now ransomware is affecting larger companies with more sophisticated security operations,” said Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with cyber security firm Veracode.
The news is also likely to embolden extortionists when selecting targets, Chris Camacho, chief strategy officer with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, said.
In Spain, some big firms took pre-emptive steps to thwart ransomware attacks following a warning from the National Cryptology Center of “a massive ransomware attack”.
Iberdrola and Gas Natural, along with Vodafone’s unit in Spain, asked staff to turn off computers or cut off internet access in case they had been compromised, representatives from the firms said.
The attacks did not disrupt the provision of services or networks operations of the victims, the Spanish government said in a statement.

prepaid-card cartoons

U.S. consumer watchdog’s prepaid-card rule survives Congress challenge

A major challenge to the U.S. watchdog for consumer finances fizzled on Thursday, as Congress missed a deadline to repeal the agency’s new rule on prepaid cards.
Late last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a rule requiring greater disclosures and overdraft limits for the cards sold by companies such as Mastercard Inc. and Greendot and frequently used in place of paychecks.
The timing made the rule eligible for Congress to repeal it under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), but lawmakers only had until Thursday to kill the regulation by passing a disapproval resolution in both chambers with simple majorities.
Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia, one of the agency’s biggest critics, had introduced a resolution that he tried to speed through his chamber, but congressional aides and advocacy groups said he could not gather enough votes.
Perdue has repeatedly said the CFPB, created in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law to protect individuals against fraud, oversteps its authority. Earlier this week he said he intends to keep up pressure on the agency.
The resolution’s failure indicates that future regulations from the CFPB, reviled by many Republicans, may have shots at survival. The agency is led by Democrat Richard Cordray, was created by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and was originally conceived by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leader in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
The CFPB was expected to soon finalize restrictions on the fine print in contracts known as “mandatory arbitration clauses” that require consumers to give up their rights to class-action lawsuits as a condition of buying a service or product. But the rule’s fate has been caught in limbo. Congress is expected to kill it swiftly with a CRA resolution once it is official.
While the first half-dozen CRA resolutions flew easily through Congress, repealing a wide spectrum of Obama-era regulations, the final resolutions faced a tougher time. One limiting methane emissions from oil and gas production on public lands failed on Wednesday. All told, Congress killed 14 regulations since Feb. 1.
Lawmakers could still vote after this week to repeal rules that Obama finished in the last six months of his administration, but they will need super-majorities in each chamber, which is nearly impossible to achieve in the more closely divided Senate.

GOP Needs To Fight for Principles

While President Trump celebrated the AHCA passing in the House, Stephen Moore said the next top priorities, are passing his tax plan, passing his budget, and building the wall.
Stephen Moore, an economist from the Heritage Foundation, said the spending bill that passed  was a disappointment.
But Moore thinks President Trump made a calculated political move to not fight on the budget, because he wanted to get the healthcare act through.
But now, it’s time for conservatives and the Trump administration to fight for the priorities of the American people.
Moore said economic growth and putting Americans back to work is the key to solving the budget and poverty problem
But if the Democrats want to shutdown the government in opposition to Trump’s tax plan and the budget, then the blame is on them.
“It’s no great crisis if we have a short-term government shutdown. It only means that places like the Department of Education, the Department of Energy won’t show up to work for a couple of days, but if it is to fight over a major principle about our debt or about what are the functions of our government what should we be funding or what shouldn’t we be funding. If its about funding our national security to make our county is safe, then Republicans should stand up for principle they shouldn’t just go in fetal position over these budget fights,” Moore said.
Moore said he has never seen an opposition party like the Democratic Party, but despite this resistance, President Trump’s agenda is moving forward.

U.S. House tax committee sets first hearing on tax reform

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday set a May hearing on the potential impact of tax reform on U.S. economic growth, the first in what is expected to be a series of sessions as Congress edges toward tax reform legislation.
The Republican-controlled panel, which oversees tax policy in the House of Representatives, said in a statement that the hearing will take place on Thursday, May 18 at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) and focus on tax reform policies that Republicans see as most likely to spur economic growth and job creation. The statement did not identify witnesses for the hearing.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady has said he could introduce a tax reform bill sometime in June.

Kushner Cos says to skip China marketing push this weekend

The company owned by the family of senior White House aide Jared Kushner will skip roadshow events in China this weekend seeking money from local investors for a real estate project in exchange for a shot at U.S. immigrant visas, a company spokesman said.
Nicole Kushner Meyer, Jared’s sister, appeared at marketing events last weekend in Beijing and Shanghai in an effort to raise $150 million from Chinese investors through the controversial EB-5 visa-for-investment program.
According to marketing materials from one of the organizers of the roadshow, sales events for the project are scheduled in the southern cities of Shenzhen on Saturday and Guangzhou on Sunday.
“No one from Kushner Companies will be in China this weekend,” James Yolles, spokesman for the firm, said.
The company and KABR Group are raising money for a two-tower apartment complex in New Jersey called One Journal Square, marketing materials showed.
Kushner Companies earlier this week apologized for Meyer having mentioned Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, in discussing the project. The company said Meyer had done so only in an attempt to make clear that her brother was not involved.
“Kushner Companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms. Meyer’s intention,” it said.
In addition to Meyer, Laurent Morali, president of Kushner Companies, was included in marketing materials online for the China road show.
Jared Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes relations with China, sold his stake in Kushner Companies to a family trust early this year.
The EB-5 program allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect, buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects.
A member of the audience at the marketing event in Shanghai said Meyer spoke for about 10 minutes during last Sunday’s event and described her family’s humble roots.
According to the New York Times, in Beijing on Saturday she told the audience of about 100 people the project “means a lot to me and my entire family”.

Shopping at Walmart Cartoons

Exclusive: Aldi raises stakes in U.S. price war with Wal-Mart

A lady shops at Aldi, a retail grocery store chain in Wheaton, Illinois, U.S., April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Nandita Bose

WHEATON, Ill. (Reuters) – German grocery chain Aldi Inc is trying to beat the world’s biggest retailer at its own game: low prices.
Already with 1,600 U.S. stores, Aldi’s internal studies show its prices are 21 percent lower than its lowest-priced rivals, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc , according to Chief Executive Jason Hart. He plans to maintain that gap going forward.
His strategy, previously unreported, centers on adding more private-label goods, which are a retailer’s in-house brands, to win over price-sensitive customers, and a massive expansion to further disrupt a U.S. grocery sector that has seen 18 companies go bankrupt since 2014.
Hart’s plan calls for spending $1.6 billion to expand and remodel 1,300 U.S. stores, and open 400 new stores mainly in Florida, Texas and on both coasts by end of 2018. He also pledged Aldi will be willing to change prices more frequently to respond to rivals if needed.
“We are re-merchandising, remodeling, enhancing our product range and are focused on gaining volume so more customers start their shopping at Aldi and we are able to complete their shopping lists moreso than we have in the past,” said Hart, who added Aldi’s U.S. sales have doubled in five years.
Though it only accounts for only about 1.5 percent of the U.S. grocery market, Aldi is growing at 15 percent a year, whereas Wal-Mart currently controls about 22 percent of the market and its U.S. sales are estimated to grow about 2 percent this year, according to analysts.
Aldi’s growth potential has competitors taking notice. Reuters reported in February that Wal-Mart is running price tests in 11 states, pushing vendors to undercut Aldi and other rivals by 15 percent and is expected to spend about $6 billion to regain its title as the low-price leader. For a graphic, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2le6v0Y
Price wars are roiling the entire retail sector – from department stores to discount chains – but it is nowhere as intense as in the grocery sector. Beyond Wal-Mart’s move to match Aldi on price, German discount chain Lidl plans to open up to a 100 U.S. stores in a year, and Amazon.com Inc is aggressively testing out various brick-and-mortar grocery formats along with growing Amazon Fresh, its grocery delivery service. For a graphic, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2qRbNT9
“We have not seen anything like this in the grocery sector in the United States before,” said Scott Mushkin, managing director of Wolfe Research and a leading pricing analyst.
Such heated competition risks a dangerous race to the bottom that could result in more retailers shutting their doors.
“Given Aldi’s expansion, Lidl’s entry, Wal-Mart’s response and Amazon’s growing ambitions in this space, it is fair to expect a significant acceleration in the bankruptcy and liquidation cycle in this sector over the next few years,” said Burt Flickinger, managing director at retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group. For more on Wal-Mart’s stock performance vs Amazon, click [L1N1IC270]
GOAL: EVERYDAY LOW PRICING
Aldi, has a simple strategy to win more customers: everyday low pricing, according to Hart.
“We don’t confuse our customers with yo-yo discounts, sales, coupons and loyalty cards that require membership fees,” he said.
Four analysts and consultants contacted by Reuters confirmed Aldi now offers the lowest prices in private label consumer products in the states it operates, although they did say Wal-Mart is gaining ground in the states they are conducting price tests.
Depending on the product, Aldi’s prices are cheaper than most rivals’ private label items and even most branded items, analysts said. Hart said the 21 percent difference in price is calculated by monitoring competition on a basket of groceries.
Aldi counts on its no-frills shopping experience to help keep costs low, and limits much of its inventory to items that sell in huge volume. But its focus on offering far more private label items than branded products is central to allowing Aldi to adjust pricing whenever it chooses, Hart said.
Aldi and Wal-Mart do no break out the figures, but analysts including Mushkin and Flickinger say Aldi carries about 1,200 stock keeping units (SKUs) or type of products, 90 percent of which are private label. Wal-Mart stocks about 30,000-40,000 SKU’s of products similar to ones Aldi sells, and only 30 percent of that are private labels.
That different product mix can potentially make it more difficult for Wal-Mart to adjust prices because it often first needs buy-in from suppliers, and many times faces push back from packaged goods makers like Procter & Gamble , Unilever and even smaller brands. Such vendors fear steep discounting can erode the value of their brands, analysts said.
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined comment, saying the company would not comment on a competitor’s strategy. P&G and Unilever did not respond to Reuters requests seeking comment.
But the explosive growth in private label products is on the radar of Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon. Last month he told analysts that private label goods will play an even more important role as the widespread availability of branded products online will compress those products margins over time.
“Aldi is disrupting the sector the way Wal-Mart did when they started,” said Strategic Resource Group’s Flickinger.
STEPPING UP THE GAME
Aldi’s aggressive push to remodel its stores will allow it to add new private label merchandise in rapidly growing categories like fresh food.
“The remodels are aimed at increasing our volumes which means more purchasing power that will help us lower prices further,” said Scott Patton, Aldi’s vice president of corporate buying.
At a recent visit to an Aldi store in Wheaton, Illinois Reuters found newer-looking shelves, wider aisles and brighter lighting than a typical Aldi store. There was also a bigger assortment of fresh, organic, gluten-free products and antibiotic-free meats versus what it stocked earlier – categories Aldi said is growing the most rapidly at its stores.
For example, its Simply Nature range of private-label products grew 53 percent to $300 million in 2016 from a year ago.
Aldi has also opened stores close to Wal-Mart’s supercenters to benefit from its budget-conscious shoppers. Its total store count of 2,000 stores by the end of next year will be about 42 percent of Wal-Mart’s U.S. store base.

Bid to revoke Obama methane rule fails in surprise U.S. Senate vote

A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, in a file photo. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution to revoke an Obama-era rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to free the drilling industry from what he sees as excessive environmental regulation.
The Congressional Review Act resolution received just 49 votes after Republican leaders scrambled for weeks to secure the 51 needed to pass it. The resolution would have revoked the rule and prevented similar regulations from being introduced.
Getting the Trump administration to repeal the BLM rule had been a top priority of the oil and gas industry. Companies said it was unnecessary, would could cost them tens of thousands of dollars per well and hinder production.
But not all Republicans supported the measure, in part because it would have made regulating methane waste more difficult in the future.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona made a surprise vote against the resolution, joining fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine in opposition to torpedo it.
“While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar’,” McCain said in a statement.
He said the Interior Department should issue a new rule on to replace the existing one on methane leaks, which he called a public health and air quality issue.
The rule, finalized by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office, updated 30-year-old regulations that govern flaring, venting and natural gas leaks from oil and gas production. Obama’s administration said it would preserve up to 41 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas per year that is currently lost to leaks and flaring.
The American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups have said the methane rule is unnecessary because companies have made strides in reducing leaks on their own.
“The rule could impede U.S. energy production while reducing local and federal revenues,” said Erik Milito, API’s Upstream and Industry Operations Group Director.
Members of the Western Energy Alliance, which include Devon Energy , Whiting Petroleum and EOG Resources had also been strongly opposed to the rule.
Environmental groups hailed what they depicted as a rare victory for the environment after several regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration.
“In recent months, thousands of Americans asked the Senate to stand up for clean air and against the oil lobby, and their efforts were successful today,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society.
The Western Values Project estimated that if the rule had been rescinded, the U.S. Treasury would have lost out on $800 million in lost potential royalties from leaked or vented natural gas over the next decade.
Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works who supported the resolution to kill the rule, called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act unilaterally to revoke it.

Republican Senators McCain, Sasse oppose Trump’s U.S. trade representative pick

Republican U.S. Senators John McCain and Ben Sasse said on Wednesday they would vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, because of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Unfortunately, your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole,” McCain and Sasse said in a letter to Lighthizer.

Delay seen, again, on Trump growth agenda after Comey sacking

Not even a week after the Trump administration and Congress rekindled optimism that they could soon make progress on a pro-growth agenda including tax cuts, the unexpected firing of the head of the FBI late Tuesday presented investors with a fresh reason to second-guess their confidence in the “Trump trade.”
At the least, financial market participants viewed President Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of FBI Director James Comey as an unwelcome distraction, while some fretted it could tie Washington in knots for months, potentially postponing already-delayed reforms.
The takeaway for the stock markets: don’t bet on any quick legislation around trade, the budget, healthcare or infrastructure.
“There is nothing good out of this for markets,” said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co. “It will weigh on Trump’s ability to cut deals with Congress. It costs him negotiating leverage.”
Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at BMO Private Bank, said, “on a medium-term basis, it does undermine the administration’s power to get things done.”
Trump’s election last November unleashed a powerful upswing in U.S. stock markets on the premise that he would cut taxes and regulation and usher through a major infrastructure spending package. The benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> has gained 12 percent since Election Day, while shares of tech stocks and smaller companies have performed even better.
Nagging concerns about Trump’s ability to get things done, along with some anxiety about stretched equity valuations, have combined to cap the rally, and stocks have done little since early March.
Around midday Wednesday, the S&P was near unchanged, as were other market benchmarks.
The administration recovered some credibility last week when the House of Representatives voted to repeal major portions of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act after failing to do so a month earlier. The simple achievement of advancing the healthcare bill to the Senate had been seen by investors as a signal that enacting tax cuts was doable, the big question was just how soon – this year or next.
“There’s a tremendous amount of hope baked into the market that Trump is going to be able to act, particularly on tax reform,” said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Edward Perkin, Chief Equity Investment Officer at Eaton Vance, said if the date to pass tax “is pushed out it’s not so much a problem, but if people question if it will ever happen, then that’s a problem.”
The degree to which this further alienates Democrats on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate, was another concern given how narrow support has been so far for Trump’s agenda.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democratic lawmaker from California, was not optimistic that tensions between the parties would ease anytime soon.
“I had been hopeful that we could have a line of activity that’s going to bring a very divided country together,” Feinstein told Reuters Wednesday. “The problem out there is that people are so divided.”
Should the Comey episode weaken Trump’s bargaining ability with lawmakers, it may actually act as a catalyst for a tax bill, just one that might resemble congressional Republicans’ version more than Trump’s.
“An ongoing special investigation or shift in the balance of power could actually make Trump more eager to sign off” on the previously existing congressional tax plan, analysts at NatWest Markets said.
Of course, some had already adopted the view that Trump’s promised reforms were a distant hope, at best.
“Investors are realizing that the fiscal policy agenda is being pushed out farther on the horizon,” Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors .

FBI Director Comey Cartoons

U.S. Republican Graham curious on Trump business deals

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he wants to know more about President Donald Trump’s business dealings in relation to Russia, but that congressional investigations may have to avoid the matter if they conflict with an FBI probe.
Graham asked former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Monday whether he had concerns about Russian ties to Trump’s business interests. Clapper said he could not comment because the issue could be a subject of an ongoing investigation.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Graham intended to look into Trump’s business ties to see if any connections exist between Russia and the Trump campaign or the president’s associates.
The White House said it would welcome any fact-finding by Graham and the subcommittee, which he chairs, saying the president has no business ties to Russia.
“He has no business in Russia; he has no connections to Russia,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “So he welcomes that.”
Spicer added that Trump had directed a law firm to send Graham a certified letter stating as much.
While Graham expressed interest in finding out whether Trump’s business interests had any Russia ties, he said the subcommittee may have to “steer clear” of the issue if it conflicts with the FBI’s probe of Russia and the Trump campaign.
He clarified later that he had not taken any new actions.
“This is nothing new here,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “I’m not a prosecutor. But if you ask me if I want to know if there are any Trump business ties to Russia that are inappropriate, the answer would be ‘yes.'”
Graham told CNN it would be helpful to see Trump’s tax records but that it was too soon to say whether he would be willing to subpoena them, the network said.

Senate votes to confirm Gottlieb as head of FDA

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a conservative health policy expert and venture capitalist, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Gottlieb, a physician and former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration, is seen as competent and knowledgeable. But critics worry about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Gottlieb has agreed to divest his holdings in about two-dozen healthcare stocks.

Flynn associates subpoenaed in Russia probe: CNN

Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas seeking business records from people who worked with former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn when he was a private citizen, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, CNN said the subpoenas were issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia. They targeted people who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was pushed out of his job as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, it reported.
Flynn later joined the Trump campaign but was fired as the White House national security adviser by President Donald Trump in February after he failed to tell the truth about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department does not comment on the existence of ongoing investigations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into allegations Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Trump, as well as possible links to the Trump campaign.
Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. election and the Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.
Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, saying he had lost confidence in Comey over his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Flynn, a retired general, has emerged as a central figure in the Russian probes.
Investigators have been looking into whether Flynn properly disclosed payments from clients with links to foreign governments, including Russia and Turkey, CNN said.

Trump fires FBI Director Comey, setting off U.S. political storm

Hillary Henchman?

U.S. President Donald Trump ignited a political firestorm on Tuesday by firing FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome.
The Republican president said he fired Comey, the top U.S. law enforcement official, over his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The move stunned Washington and raised suspicions among Democrats and others that the White House was trying to blunt the FBI probe involving Russia.
Some Democrats compared Trump’s move to the “Saturday Night Massacre” of 1973, in which President Richard Nixon fired an independent special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
White House officials denied allegations that there was any political motive in the move by Trump, who took office on Jan. 20.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke to Trump and told him he was “making a very big mistake” in firing Comey, adding the president did not “really answer” in response.
An independent investigation into Moscow’s role in the election “is now the only way to go to restore the American people’s faith,” Schumer said.
Though many Democrats have criticized Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe, they said they were troubled by the timing of Trump’s firing of him.
Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is overseeing its own investigation into Russian interference during the election, said in a statement he was also troubled by the timing of Comey’s termination.
“His dismissal, I believe, is a loss for the Bureau and the nation,” Burr said.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election, with the aim of helping Trump.
CNN reported on Tuesday night that federal prosecutors had issued grand jury subpoenas to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, seeking business records, as part of the probe into Russian interference in the election.
Trump’s firing of Comey came a day after former acting Attorney General Sally Yates told a Senate panel that she had informed the White House on Jan. 26 that Flynn was at risk of blackmail by Moscow because he had been untruthful about his discussions with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. Trump fired Flynn 18 days later.
Russia has repeatedly denied any meddling in the election and the Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.
RESTORING ‘PUBLIC TRUST’
Trump, in a letter to Comey released by the White House, said: “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”
The president told Comey in the letter that he accepted the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he could no longer provide effective leadership. Comey’s term was to run through September 2023. He was appointed director by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2013.
Sessions advised Trump’s campaign before being picked by the president to lead the Justice Department. Sessions had recused himself from involvement in the Russia investigation, after he misstated his own 2016 contacts with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, became acting FBI director. The White House said the search for a new permanent director would begin immediately.
Pushing back against critics of the move, White House officials said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a career prosecutor who took office on April 25, assessed the situation at the FBI and concluded that Comey had lost his confidence.
Rosenstein sent his recommendation to Sessions, who concurred and they forwarded their recommendation to Trump, who accepted it on Tuesday, they said.
The White House released a memo in which Rosenstein wrote: “I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.”
Rosenstein cited several former Justice Department officials’ comments criticizing Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation, including his public statements.
But one of those he cited, Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general under President H.W. Bush, questioned the purported reasons for the firing. Reached by Reuters, Ayer said in an email that the administration’s explanation was “a sham.”
Comey was traveling in Los Angeles when the news broke that he had been fired.
In an odd twist, a White House official said the letter firing him was delivered to the FBI by Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime armed personal bodyguard who is now director of Oval Office Operations at the White House.
Trump, in the letter, said: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.”
EMAIL CONTROVERSY
Comey, 56, had been the target of criticism from many quarters for his handling of a probe involving Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state under Obama. As recently as Tuesday, the FBI clarified remarks that Comey made on the matter last week.
Trump had originally criticized the FBI director for not pursuing criminal charges against Clinton last July, but later lavished praise on him.
Comey had said in July the Clinton email case should be closed without prosecution, but then declared – 11 days before the Nov. 8 election – that he had reopened the investigation because of a discovery of a new trove of Clinton-related emails.
Clinton and other Democrats say they believe Comey’s decision help cost her the election.
The firing came as a shock to FBI staff, nearly all of whom had confidence in Comey despite the controversy surrounding his handling of the Clinton email situation, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said there was concern among agents that the firing was a political act related to the Russian investigation.
Other current and former U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials questioned the White House explanation for Comey’s firing.
“Trump praised him for the work on the email investigation, so that’s not it,” said Austin Berglas, a former FBI supervisory agent on hacking cases. “I think he realized the extent of the Russia investigation under way and moved him out. To me, that’s the only logical explanation right now.”
Trump’s dismissal of Comey does not mean the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election will be disrupted or end – career FBI staffers can continue the probe even as the search for a new FBI director begins, legal experts said.
Republican Representative Justin Amash wrote on Twitter that he and his staff were reviewing the possibility of drafting legislation to create an independent commission to look into the Russian campaign meddling.
Legislation related to the appointment of a special prosecutor or independent counsel has lapsed. But Justice Department regulations provide for the appointment of a special counsel, which is selected by the attorney general, or acting attorney general in the case of recusal, the experts said.