By Jacqueline Thomsen (Reuters) – Former U.S. appeals court judge and prominent conservative J. Michael Luttig on Wednesday said he believes U.S. Supreme Court justices should “be bound by higher standards of conduct” than lower-ranked federal judges, adding to calls for tighter high court ethics rules. “It’s the titular head of the judicial branch of…
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden suggested on Wednesday that he could defeat Donald Trump again in a 2024 rematch, and warned the former Republican president was a threat to the country. One day after launching his re-election bid, Biden marked the occasion not on the campaign trail but…
By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday urged a U.S. appeals court to overrule a conservative Texas-based judge’s order that would essentially ban the abortion pill mifepristone by suspending the drug’s federal regulatory approval in a legal challenge by abortion opponents. The U.S. Justice Department, in a filing to the New Orleans-based…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If U.S. President Joe Biden were to be presented with Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s spending and debt bill, he would veto it, the White House said on Tuesday. McCarthy floated a plan last week that would pair $4.5 trillion in spending cuts with a $1.5 trillion increase in the…
By Tim Reid (Reuters) – Former Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson formally launched his 2024 presidential bid on Wednesday, in a speech that portrayed himself as a more moderate alternative to party frontrunner Donald Trump. Hutchinson, 72, who’s bid is considered a long-shot, had already broken with Trump this year after the Republican former president’s…
By Davide Barbuscia CHICAGO (Reuters) -A U.S. default is highly unlikely, but negotiations around the debt ceiling are expected to be protracted, Daniel Ivascyn, chief investment officer at U.S. bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO), said on Wednesday. Speaking at a Morningstar investment conference in Chicago, Ivascyn said prolonged uncertainty around the U.S. debt…
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The United States gave JPMorgan permission to process payments for agricultural exports via the Russian Agricultural Bank, but the arrangement was no substitute for reconnecting the bank to the SWIFT system, two Russian sources told Reuters. Access to the SWIFT payment system for the Russian Agricultural Bank is one of Moscow’s main demands…
By Ted Hesson and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration is devising a strategy for the possible arrival of tens of thousands more migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border after the anticipated end of COVID-19 restrictions next month, scrambling to find holding centers, speed deportations and increase processing of refugees abroad. The administration is…
By Lizbeth Diaz TAPACHULA (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants, detained for months in southern Mexico, formed a new caravan in protest on Sunday to head for the capital to speed up their applications for U.S. asylum. The migrants, mostly Venezuelans, started their march north early in Tapachula, the city bordering Guatemala whose detention centers have…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday said a Republican budget cut proposal would shut down 375 federally-staffed and contract-run air traffic control towers around the country and result in 7,500 fewer rail safety inspection days. Overall, it said the Republican plan, which would sharply reduce budget spending in exchange for…
