Tag Archives: United States

Exclusive: U.S. asks nations to provide more traveler data or face sanctions

Staff demonstrate the flow of passengers as they queue to X-ray shoes, mobile phone and bags at the security gates at Cointrin airport in Geneva, Switzerland, November 24, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

By Arshad Mohammed and Mica Rosenberg

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department will require all nations to provide extensive data to help it vet visa applicants and determine whether a traveler poses a terrorist threat, according to a cable obtained by Reuters.

Countries that fail to comply with the new protocols or take steps to do so within 50 days could face travel sanctions.

The cable, sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts on Wednesday, is a summary of a worldwide review of vetting procedures that was required under U.S. President Donald Trump’s revised March 6 executive order that temporarily banned U.S. travel by most citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries.

The memo lays out a series of standards the United States will require of other countries, including that they issue, or have active plans to issue, electronic passports and regularly report lost and stolen passports to INTERPOL.

It also directs nations to provide “any other identity information” requested by Washington for U.S. visa applicants, including biometric or biographic details.

The cable sets out requirements for countries to provide data on individuals it knows or has grounds to believe are terrorists as well as criminal record information.

Further, countries are asked not to block the transfer of information about U.S.-bound travelers to the U.S. government and not to designate people for travel watchlists based solely on their political or religious beliefs.

“This is the first time that the U.S. Government is setting standards for the information that is required from all countries specifically in support of immigration and traveler vetting,” the cable said.

The cable can be read here: (http://reut.rs/2untHTl).

The new requirements are the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration says it is taking to better protect the United States from terrorist attack.

However, former officials said much of the information sought is routinely shared between countries, including examples of passports and additional details about particular travelers that may present security concerns.

Some U.S. allies may worry about privacy protections if Washington is seen as seeking information beyond what is already shared, said John Sandweg, a former senior Homeland Security Department official now with the firm Frontier Solutions.

“I don’t think you can ignore the political aspects of the unpopularity of the current administration. That puts political pressure to stand up to the administration,” he said.

The cable lays out risk factors the U.S. government will consider when evaluating a country. Some of these are controversial and could be difficult for countries to prove to U.S. satisfaction, including ensuring “that they are not and do not have the potential to become a terrorist safe haven.”

Countries are also expected to agree to take back citizens ordered removed from the United States.

If they do not provide the information requested, or come up with an adequate plan to, countries could end up on a list to be submitted to Trump for possible sanction, including barring “categories” of their citizens from entering the United States.

The real worries for countries may not come until the results of this review are known, said Leon Rodriguez, the former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“Once they start making decisions I think that is where there is going to be a lot of anxiety,” he said, saying delays in visa processing for nations that do not pose much of a threat could start to hurt “ordinary business and personal travel.”

The most controversial of Trump’s immigration-related moves are two executive orders, challenged in federal court, which impose a temporary ban on travel to the United States for most citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

While the orders were initially blocked from being enforced, the Supreme Court on June 26 allowed the ban to go into effect for people from the six nations with no strong ties to the United States.

The cable requires countries to act quickly, but stressed that the United States would work with foreign nations to assess if they meet the standards and, if not, to come up with a plan to help them do so.

The cable asks that U.S. diplomats “underscore that while it is not our goal to impose a ban on immigration benefits, including visas, for citizens of any country, these standards are designed to mitigate risk, and failure to make progress could lead to security measures by the USG, including a presidential proclamation that would prohibit the entry of certain categories of foreign nationals of non-compliant countries.”

The cable says the U.S. government has made a preliminary determination that some countries do not meet the new standards and that others are “at risk” of not meeting them. It does not name these, listing them in a separate, classified cable.

The State Department declined comment on the cable, saying it would not discuss internal communications.

“The U.S. government’s national security screening and vetting procedures for visitors are constantly reviewed and refined to improve security and more effectively identify individuals who could pose a threat to the United States,” said a U.S. State Department official on condition of anonymity.

(Additional reporting by Julia Ainsley and Andrew Chung; Editing by Sue Horton, Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio)

Weak U.S. inflation, retail sales data dim rate hike prospects

FILE PHOTO - Prices are seen on replica Statues of Liberty figures in a shop window in New York City, November 14, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in June and retail sales fell for a second straight month, pointing to tame inflation and soft domestic demand that diminished prospects of a third interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve this year.

Still, the economy likely regained speed in the second quarter after a sluggish performance at the start of the year. Other data on Friday showed industrial production picked up in June, driven by a surge in oil and gas drilling.

“Today’s reports imply that the Fed will go very slowly normalizing rates, but it also means that businesses will have to really hustle to find ways to keep earnings growing strongly,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.

The Labor Department said the unchanged reading in its Consumer Price Index came as the cost of gasoline and mobile phone services declined further. The CPI dropped 0.1 percent in May and the lack of a rebound in June could trouble Fed officials who have largely viewed the recent moderation in price pressures as transitory.

Policymakers are confronted with benign inflation and a tight labor market as they weigh a third rate hike and announcing plans to start reducing the central bank’s $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

In the 12 months through June, the CPI increased 1.6 percent – the smallest gain since October 2016 – after rising 1.9 percent in May. The year-on-year CPI has been retreating since February, when it hit 2.7 percent, which was the biggest increase in five years.

The so-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy costs, edged up 0.1 percent in June, rising by the same margin for three straight months. The core CPI increased 1.7 percent year-on-year after a similar gain in May.

The Fed has a 2 percent inflation target and tracks a measure which is currently at 1.4 percent.

Financial markets were pricing in a 47 percent chance of a 25 basis point rate hike in December, down from 55 percent before the data, according to CME Group’s FedWatch program.

As a result, the dollar fell, briefly touching a 10-month low against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. government bonds rose and stocks on Wall Street edged higher.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers on Wednesday that the recent cool-off in inflation was partly the result of “a few unusual reductions in certain categories of prices” that would eventually drop out of the calculation.

“We expect a little more cautious language from Fed officials on the inflation outlook going forward,” said Michael Hanson, chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

BROAD WEAKNESS

In June, gasoline prices fell 2.8 percent, decreasing for a second straight month. Food prices were unchanged after rising for five consecutive months. The cost of cellular phone services fell 0.8 percent, extending their decline amid price competition among service providers.

There were also decreases in airline fares and prices for apparel, household furnishings, new motor vehicles, and used cars and trucks. But rental costs rose, with owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence increasing 0.3 percent after advancing 0.2 percent in May.

Americans also paid more for hospital visits and prescription medication, as well as motor vehicle insurance.

Low prices are hurting retailers. A second report from the Commerce Department showed retail sales fell 0.2 percent last month, weighed down by declines in receipts at service stations, clothing stores and supermarkets.

Sales at restaurants and bars, as well as at sporting goods and hobby stores fell. May’s retail sales were revised to show a 0.1 percent dip instead of the previously reported 0.3 percent drop. Retail sales rose 2.8 percent year-on-year in June.

Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales slipped 0.1 percent last month after being unchanged in May. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.

Despite two straight months of decreasing retail sales, consumer spending likely gained steam in the second quarter after a helping to restrict economic growth to a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter. However, that could negatively impact third-quarter GDP.

“The weak trajectory of consumer spending at the end of second quarter adds some challenges to the third-quarter consumption outlook, which reinforces our view that growth will step down modestly in the current quarter,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

That was supported by a third report showing a measure of consumer sentiment fell to a reading of 93.1 in early July from 95.1 in June. It has declined from a high of 98.5 in January.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve lowered its second-quarter growth estimate by two-tenths of a percentage point to a 2.4 percent rate following the inflation and retail sales data.

Still, growth in the second quarter likely got a lift from the industrial sector of the economy.

In a fourth report on Friday, the Fed said industrial production increased 0.4 percent in June amid robust gains in oil and gas drilling after nudging up 0.1 percent in May.

Industrial production increased at a 4.7 percent rate in the second quarter.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)

North Korea may have more nuclear bomb material than thought: U.S. think tank

A satellite image of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant in North Korea by Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North released on July 14, 2017. “Includes material Pleiades © CNES 2017 Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image, all rights reserved.” Courtesy Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North/Handout via REUTERS

By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thermal images of North Korea’s main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project, was based on satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June, amid rising international concerns over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The think tank said images of the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate operation of centrifuges that could be used to increase North Korea’s stock of enriched uranium, its other source of bomb fuel.

There were signs too of at least short-term activity at North Korea’s Experimental Light Water Reactor that could be cause for concern, 38 North said.

The images of the radiochemical laboratory showed there had been at least two reprocessing cycles not previously known aimed at producing “an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile,” something that would worry U.S. officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world’s top security threats.

It was unclear if the thermal activity detected at the uranium plant was the result of centrifuge operations or maintenance.

It said the thermal patterns at the plant’s isotope/tritium production facility suggested it was not operational and was therefore not producing tritium, an essential isotope used in boosted yield and hydrogen weapons.

North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested five nuclear bombs. Officials and experts say it could test a sixth at any time, despite U.S.-led international efforts to curb its program.

Pyongyang said its penultimate test in January 2016 was of a hydrogen bomb, something experts have treated with skepticism.

North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and last week tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said could hit all of Alaska and parts of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Frustrated that China, North Korea’s main trading partner, has not done more to rein in Pyongyang, the Trump administration could impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other companies doing business with Pyongyang within weeks, two senior U.S. officials told Reuters this week.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been seeking to overcome resistance from China and Russia to a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing stiffer international sanctions on Pyongyang.

Experts at 38 North estimated in April that North Korea could have as many as 20 nuclear bombs and could produce one more each month.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Iran blames Trump for instability, rejects ‘rogue’ label

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the death anniversary of the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran, Iran, June 4, 2017. TIMA via REUTERS

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran on Saturday blamed what it called Donald Trump’s “arbitrary and conflicting policies” for global security threats, rejecting the U.S. president’s description of Tehran as a rogue state.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.

“(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region,” said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

President Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from “rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them”.

Senior Iranian officials have blamed U.S-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month’s assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state.

While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday that the president was “very likely” to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Hot, dry conditions may stoke wildfires in U.S. West, forecasters warn

A hand drawn sign shows thanks to fire fighters heading out to tackle the Whittier fire near Santa Barbara, California, U.S. July 13, 2017. Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) – Crews battling dozens of wildfires across parts of the parched U.S. West will face tinderbox conditions that could stoke more blazes on Friday and through the weekend, forecasters said.

Red flag warnings were issued for northern California, southern Oregon, northeastern Utah and northern Montana. Forecasters expect temperatures to reach above 90 degrees Fahrenheit 32 degrees Celsius) and winds to gust 50 miles (80 km) per hour in parts of the region, the National Weather Service said in advisories.

“Very dry and unstable conditions will support extreme fire behavior and rapid rates of spread,” the service said.

On Thursday evening, crews were battling 43 large fires that were out of control across the U.S. West, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.

The hot, dry forecast comes after firefighters made gains in California on several blazes, including the so-called Wall Fire, which had damaged or destroyed 44 homes in Butte County and more than 60 other structures.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for about 4,000 people as firefighters have cut containment lines around 85 percent of the blaze, according to the Cal Fire website.

Flames have charred more than twice as much land mass in California so far in 2017 than a year earlier, according to a Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Lawyer for U.S. Army sergeant accused of terrorism suggests entrapment

A photograph with a redacted date, and entered into federal court as an exhibit to support the government's motion to keep U.S. Army Sergeant Ikaika Erik Kang in detention without bond, shows what is described as Kang holding the Islamic State Flag after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Kang is charged with trying to provide material support to Islamic State extremists. the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii/Handout via REUTERS

By Hunter Haskins

HONOLULU (Reuters) – The lawyer for a U.S. Army sergeant charged in Hawaii with trying to provide material support to Islamic State extremists said on Thursday his client suffers from mental illness that FBI agents exploited in a “sting” operation leading to his arrest.

Questions about Ikaika Erik Kang’s state of mind and the possibility of entrapment were raised by defense lawyer Birney Bervar in remarks to reporters after his client was ordered to remain in jail without bond.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield in Honolulu ruled after a brief hearing that Kang, 34, posed a flight risk and a danger to the public if released pending further proceedings. The defense did not object to his continued incarceration.

Bervar said after the ruling he told his client: “You’re going to stay in for now, and we’re going to get you evaluated and see what’s going on.”

He said he believed Kang was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or some other mental problem that the Army failed to address properly after Kang returned from deployments to Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2014.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, Kang was reprimanded several times dating back to 2011 for threatening fellow service members and expressing extremist views while on duty.

The Army referred the matter to the FBI in 2016.

Kang soon became the target of what the FBI described in its affidavit as an elaborate sting operation employing several undercover agents and other “confidential human sources” who posed as Islamic State operatives and sympathizers.

“It looks to me like they’ve exploited his mental illness and thrown gasoline on the fire of his mental illness to get him to commit a crime that they could arrest him for,” Bervar said.

Asked if he was suggesting a case of entrapment, Bervar said: “It sounds pretty close to that, doesn’t it?”

Bervar said he would seek a “full mental health evaluation” for his client.

The government, in support of its motion to keep Kang detained without bond, entered several photographs said to show Kang demonstrating military combat tactics.

Two other images purport to show him kissing and then holding to his forehead a folded flag of Islamic State, also known as ISIS, the militant organization that had seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. He is shown in a third photo holding up an unfurled ISIS flag.

Kang, an air traffic control specialist with extensive military training in hand-to-hand combat, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday following a year-long undercover investigation.

The FBI said he swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made training videos for the extremist group and purchased a drone aircraft intended to help ISIS fighters in the Middle East evade enemy tanks in battle.

Kang is also accused of trying to furnish ISIS with classified and other sensitive military documents that would have assisted the group in its combat tactics.

(Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in LOS ANGELES; Editing by Paul Tait)

Man confesses to killing four in Pennsylvania: attorney

Bucks County District Attorney's Office photos show L-R, top row: Dean Finocchiaro, 18, and Tom Meo, 21, L-R bottom row: Jimi Patrick, 19, and Mark Sturgis, 22 as authorities say they are searching for the four missing men in Bucks County, about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. on July 11, 2017. Courtesy Bucks County District Attorney's Office/Handout via REUTERS

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A 20-year-old man has confessed to killing four men who were missing for days and burying their bodies at a sprawling Bucks County, Pennsylvania, farm owned by his family, his attorney said on Thursday.

Cosmo Dinardo’s attorney, Paul Lang, said Dinardo made his confession to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub and told investigators where the bodies were buried in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.

Video aired by KYW-TV showed the handcuffed Dinardo emerging from a meeting with authorities and telling reporters “I’m sorry” when asked what he had to say to the families of the men.

“He confessed to his participation or commission in the murders of the four young men. In exchange for that confession, Mr. Dinardo was promised by the district attorney that he will spare his life by not invoking the death penalty,” Lang told reporters in Doylestown, where the district attorney’s office is located.

Weintraub has not commented on any confession, but his office posted a message on Twitter that included a video of Lang’s comments to reporters.

Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, has been missing since last Wednesday and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, and Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township, and Finocchiaro of Middletown Township have been missing since Friday.

Dinardo was arrested on Wednesday and charged with stealing and trying to sell a car owned by one of the men. Police found Meo’s Nissan Maxima on the farm early on Sunday morning and discovered the car’s title, unsigned by Meo, along with his insulin kit for diabetes.

Weintraub said at a news conference on Wednesday, “I feel that we bought ourselves a little bit of time in charging Mr. Dinardo with the stolen car case today,” and he referenced that Dinardo’s bail had been set at $5 million.

Dinardo had been arrested on Monday at his home for owning a gun he was not allowed to possess because he had previously been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, prosecutors said. He was released after his father posted a bond.

Cadaver dogs found 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro’s body on Wednesday along with remains of other people not yet identified in a 12-foot-deep (3.7-meter) common grave on the 90-acre (36.4 hectare) farm in Solebury, Pennsylvania.

“This was a homicide. Make no doubt about it,” Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at an overnight news conference. He did not say how Finocchiaro died.

Weintraub has said there were indications that some or all of the men knew one another and investigators were working to confirm the extent of any connections.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s office wrote in a Twitter message that Weintraub would hold a press conference at 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) on Friday.

Investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued to look for the bodies on the farm Thursday evening, local media reported.

(This story has been refiled to remove extra words from second paragraph)

(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Toni Reinhold)

U.S. farm lobby turns up heat on Trump team as NAFTA talks near

FILE PHOTO - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer speaks during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, U.S. on May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With talks to renegotiate the NAFTA trade pact just weeks away, U.S. farm groups and lawmakers from rural states are intensifying lobbying of President Donald Trump’s administration with one central message: leave farming out of it.

Trump blames the North American Free Trade Agreement – the “worst trade deal ever” in his words – for millions of lost manufacturing jobs and promises to tilt it in America’s favor.

But for U.S. farmers the 23-year old pact secures access to stable, lucrative markets in Mexico and Canada that now account for over a quarter of U.S. farm exports. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2tNMtlc)

Now they fear this access could become a bargaining chip in efforts to get a better deal for U.S. manufacturers.

“Perhaps some other sectors of our economy are given better terms and in exchange for that agriculture tariffs would be reintroduced,” said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation in Denver, Colorado.

Another concern is that the mere uncertainty of open-ended trade talks could drive Mexico to alternative suppliers of grains, dairy products, beef and pork.

Mexico became even more crucial after Trump’s pullout from a vast Pacific Rim trade pact negotiated under Barack Obama dashed farmers’ hopes of free access to more markets.

Next week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is due to outline the administration’s goals for the NAFTA talks to Congress and the farm lobby has turned up the heat in the past weeks to ensure that its interests will make Lighthizer’s list.

Operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade, more than 130 commodity groups and agribusiness giants since Trump’s inauguration have been bombarding the new administration with phone calls and letters, public comments to USTR and face-to-face meetings with top officials who have Trump’s ear.

“Our first ask is to do no harm,” said Cassandra Kuball, the head of the umbrella group.

Lobbyists said that Lighthizer, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have been receptive, but the wild card is how Trump ultimately will come down on the talks. They also wonder what concessions Mexico will seek from Washington in the talks due to start in mid-August.

Among the groups involved are the American Soybean Association, Corn Refiners Association and National Grain and Feed Association and firms such as Land O’Lakes, Inc., Tyson Foods<TSN.N>, Inc., Louis Dreyfus Company North America, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and others.

For example, U.S. cotton producers, marketers and shippers in mid-June warned the Trump administration that any weakening of NAFTA “would threaten the health of the U.S. industry and the jobs of the 125,000 Americans employed by it.”

QUADRUPLING EXPORTS

Annual U.S. farm exports to Mexico have grown from about $4 billion in 1994, when NAFTA began, to an estimated $18.5 billion this year. With Canada included, that number is forecast to reach $40 billion, quadrupling under NAFTA.

Republican lawmakers from rural states that have backed Trump in the 2016 election have sought to leverage their political clout to press farmers’ case at a time when they struggle with low crop prices.

Pat Roberts, Republican senator from Kansas, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he used an unexpected invitation for a private White House meeting with Trump to plug in agriculture’s cause in NAFTA and beyond.

“He (Trump) wanted to know what was happening in farmland,” Roberts said. “I told him we went through a very rough patch and if we did not have a strong, robust, predictable trade policy, it’s going to make life much more difficult in farm country,” Roberts said of the 45-minute meeting in late June.

In May, 18 Republican senators, mainly from pro-Trump farming states, wrote the administration about the “tremendous growth” in U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada as a result of NAFTA.

“Efforts to abandon the agreement or impose unnecessary restrictions on trade with our North American partners will have devastating economic consequences,” they warned.

Trump’s pledges to crack down on immigration and calls for a wall along the border with Mexico also vex farm state lawmakers.

“What I really need is a good, solid immigration system,” South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds said. Given his state’s low unemployment rate of just around 2.8 percent, farmers and ranchers need better access to legal foreign labor, he said.

STORM OVER SUNNY SLOPE

Agriculture Secretary Perdue got a taste of farmers’ angst when met cattle ranchers in Nebraska on May 20. The event was held shortly after Washington agreed with China to resume beef exports, but some 60 ranchers who gathered at U.S. Senator Deb Fischer’s Sunny Slope Ranch quickly turned to NAFTA.

“If the president wants to renegotiate that agreement with our neighbors and partners in Mexico and Canada please leave the ag portion of that discussion out,” said Pete McClymont, executive vice president of Nebraska Cattlemen, summarizing the discussion.

While lobbying in Washington, some Republican lawmakers have also met with Mexico’s ambassador and U.S. farming representatives traveled south to assure their partners unsettled by Trump’s “America First” mantra.

“The common comment is: ‘why are you here? The problem is not with us. The problem is in Washington. Why are you talking to us?'” said Tom Sleight, president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council. “The new normal is that feed buyers, millers, grain buyers are actively looking at alternative sources,” he said.

It will take months to find out how effective the lobbying was. Meantime, some are willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

Daryl Haack, a corn and soybean farmer from Primghar in northwest Iowa, like others fears retaliation from either Canada or Mexico, but is optimistic it will not come to that.

“I think President Trump is a negotiator,” he said. “I think he runs bluffs. A lot of negotiators will do that.”

(Reporting By Richard Cowan, Additional reporting by Mark Weinraub, Karl Plume and Theopolis Waters in Chicago; Editing by Caren Bohan and Tomasz Janowski)

Russia to decide next week on retaliation against U.S. over compound seizures

Killenworth, an estate built in 1913 for George du Pont Pratt and purchased by the former Soviet Union in the 1950's, is seen in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, U.S., on December 30, 2016. REUTERS/Rashid Umar Abbasi

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will next week take a decision about if and how it will retaliate against the United States over the seizure of its diplomatic compounds on U.S. soil, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The outgoing Obama administration expelled 35 suspected Russian spies late last year and seized two diplomatic compounds over what it said was the hacking of U.S. political groups during the 2016 presidential election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate immediately, saying he would wait to see what the new administration of Donald Trump would do.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told a news briefing on Friday that “time was running out” for the problem to be resolved.

She said Moscow’s course of action would depend on the outcome of a meeting in Washington on July 17 between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

Russia expected U.S. officials to set out proposals aimed at resolving the issue at that meeting, she added.

One possible retaliatory measure would be to reduce staff levels at the U.S. embassy in Moscow to those of the Russian embassy in Washington, she said.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Tillerson leaves Gulf after making proposals to end crisis

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud meets with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

DOHA (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar on Thursday after a tour of Gulf Arab countries aimed at easing the worst regional dispute in years, saying he made proposals that would help in resolving the month-long crisis.

Tillerson met Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to discuss Doha’s feud with four Arab states that cut ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it funds extremist groups and is allying with their arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies this.

“Well I think it was helpful for me to be here and actually talk to them about a way forward, first to listen and get a sense of how serious the situation is, how emotional some of these issues are,” Tillerson told reporters after leaving Doha.

“But we tabled some documents with both sides while we were here which lays out some ways that we might move this forward,” he added.

Tillerson had been flying between the two sides and Kuwait, which has been acting as the mediator between the feuding Gulf countries, in the last two days in an effort to ease a crisis that put the whole region on edge.

On Thursday he flew back to Doha where he met Qatari rulers for the second time in two days. He also met with Kuwaiti and Saudi officials.

Tillerson said he was not a direct mediator but supporting the emir of Kuwait’s role in building bridges to end the crisis.

“In my view there’s a changed sense of willingness to at least be open to talking to one another and that was not the case before I came,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain accused Qatar of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that has been the greatest challenge to Arab autocrats. The Brotherhood was a major player in the Arab spring revolts across the Middle East and North Africa.

Qatar hosts some of the movement’s prominent figures, including the spiritual leader and Egypt-born Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

“As to the Muslim Brotherhood, we’ve had sticking points with these parties ourselves, the U.S., in terms of how we view the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities,” Tillerson said. “And there’s a difference of view among these parties over the Muslim Brotherhood, and again in many ways it’s not much different than the differences we have.”

On Wednesday, Tillerson left the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah after talks with ministers from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, the four countries which have imposed travel and commercial sanctions on Qatar.

He earlier signed a U.S.-Qatari accord on terrorism financing in an effort to help ease the crisis, but Qatar’s opponents said it fell short of allaying their concerns.

“No wavering on the 13 demands” the headline of the Abu Dhabi government-linked al-Ittihad newspaper read on Thursday, referring to a list of demands the Arab states had put to Qatar.

(Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Sylvia Westall; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Leslie Adler)