Reuters: Trump to Focus Counter-Extremism Program Solely on Islam [Say] Sources

By Julia Edwards Ainsley, Dustin Volz and Kristina Cooke:

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

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The Obama administration sought to foster relationships with community groups to engage them in the counterterrorism effort. In 2016, Congress appropriated $10 million in grants for CVE efforts and DHS awarded the first round of grants on Jan. 13, a week before Trump was inaugurated.

Among those approved were local governments, city police departments, universities and non-profit organizations. In addition to organizations dedicated to combating Islamic State's recruitment in the United States, grants also went to Life After Hate, which rehabilitates former neo-Nazis and other domestic extremists.

The Full Story (February 2, 2017)

Reuters: U.S. Military Probing More Possible Civilian Deaths in Yemen Raid

By Ayesha Rascoe:

The U.S. military said on Wednesday it was looking into whether more civilians were killed in a raid on al Qaeda in Yemen on the weekend, in the first operation authorized by President Donald Trump as commander in chief.

U.S. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was killed in the raid on a branch of al Qaeda, also known as AQAP, in al Bayda province, which the Pentagon said also killed 14 militants. However, medics at the scene said about 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that an investigating team had "concluded regrettably that civilian non-combatants were likely killed" during Sunday's raid. It said children may have been among the casualties.

Central Command said its assessment "seeks to determine if there were any still-undetected civilian casualties in the ferocious firefight."

The Full Story (February 2, 2017)

Reuters: Trump Administration Tells EPA to Cut Climate Page From Website [Say] Sources

By Valerie Volcovici:

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama's climate change initiatives.

The employees were notified by EPA officials on Tuesday that the administration had instructed EPA's communications team to remove the website's climate change page, which contains links to scientific global warming research, as well as detailed data on emissions. The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said.

"If the website goes dark, years of work we have done on climate change will disappear," one of the EPA staffers told Reuters, who added some employees were scrambling to save some of the information housed on the website, or convince the Trump administration to preserve parts of it.

The sources asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

A Trump administration official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The order comes as Trump's administration has moved to curb the flow of information from several government agencies who oversee environmental issues since last week, in actions that appeared designed to tighten control and discourage dissenting views.

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)

Reuters: Trump Expected to Order Temporary Ban on Refugees

By Julia Edwards Ainsley:

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders starting on Wednesday that include a temporary ban on most refugees and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries, say congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.

Trump, who tweeted that a "big day" was planned on national security on Wednesday, is expected to ban for several months the entry of refugees into the United States, except for religious minorities escaping persecution, until more aggressive vetting is in place.

Another order will block visas being issued to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.

In his tweet late on Tuesday, Trump said: "Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!"

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)

Reuters: Trump Hits Back at Meryl Streep, Calls Actress 'Overrated'

By Reuters:

Streep had turned an acceptance speech at Sunday's Golden Globe awards into a blistering attack on Trump. "This instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life," she said.

Streep and much of Hollywood supported Trump's rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, in the November election.

Trump, a Republican, wrote on Twitter: "Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes.

"She is a Hillary flunky who lost big."

The tweet was Trump's second public response to the Streep speech. Early on Monday, he said in a telephone interview with the New York Times: "People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter's disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing."

Streep was referring to a 2015 incident at a South Carolina rally where Trump flailed his arms and slurred in his speech in apparent ridicule of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a physical disability.

The Full Story (January 9, 2017)

Reuters: Trump Defends Decision to Settle Trump University Lawsuits

By Reuters Staff:

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has said over 5,000 students across the country were defrauded out of about $40 million, so Trump‘s settlement of $25 million was around 60 percent of these estimated damages.

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In announcing the settlement, Schneiderman said the deal followed repeated refusals by Trump“to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university.”

In a statement, Schneiderman called the settlement a “stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”

Students had claimed they were they were lured by false promises into paying up to $35,000 to learn Trump‘s real estate investing secrets from his hand-picked instructors. Trump‘s lawyers denied this.

The deal covers three lawsuits relating to Trump University: two class actions suits in California and a New York case brought by Schneiderman. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego must still approved the settlement.

The Full Story (November 20, 2016)

[Special] Reuters: North Korea Says Trump Isn't Screwy at All, a Wise Choice for President

By Jack Kim:

North Korea has backed presumptive U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump, with a propaganda website praising him as "a prescient presidential candidate" who can liberate Americans living under daily fear of nuclear attack by the North.

A column carried on Tuesday by DPRK Today, one of the reclusive and dynastic state's mouthpieces, described Trump as a "wise politician" and the right choice for U.S. voters in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

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DPRK Today also said Trump's suggestion that the United States should pull its troops from South Korea until Seoul pays more was the way to achieve Korean unification.

"It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," said the column, written by a China-based Korean scholar identified as Han Yong Muk.

The Full Story (June 2, 2016)

Reuters: Brazil Prosecutor Investigates Funds' Investment in Trump Hotel Rio

By Anthony Boadle and Stephen Eisenhammer:

A Brazilian prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into investments made by two state pension funds in a luxury Rio de Janeiro hotel that is part of the Trump franchise, according to a court filing reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.

The 130 million reais ($40 million) investment by the two small funds in the hotel's developer "required investigation" due to its size, structure and high level of risk, Anselmo Lopes, a federal prosecutor in Brasilia, said in the document dated Oct. 21 that opened the inquiry.


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The Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro, a beachfront property with 170 rooms near where the Olympic Park was located, is managed by the real estate company of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, although no money from the Trump Organization was invested in the project.

Prosecutor Lopes last week also said the Trump Organization may have benefited "suspiciously" from a massive redevelopment of Rio de Janeiro's port, where it plans to build a series of office towers. Lopes provided no proof of his suspicions, and did not elaborate on what he meant.

The Full Story (November 2, 2016)