Tag Archives: United States

U.S. drops sanctions on former Iranian officials, step called routine

By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States said on Thursday it had removed sanctions on three former Iranian officials and two companies that previously traded Iranian petrochemicals, a step one U.S. official called routine but that could show U.S. readiness to ease sanctions when justified.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the U.S. official said that the moves by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were unrelated to efforts to revive Iranian and U.S. compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“Today, OFAC and the Department of State are also lifting sanctions on three former Government of Iran officials, and two companies formerly involved in the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of Iranian petrochemical products,” the Treasury said in a statement.

It said the delisting reflected “a verified change in behavior or status” of those sanctioned and “demonstrate the U.S. government’s commitment to lifting sanctions in the event of (such) a change.”

A Treasury spokesperson said the three individuals had established “that they are no longer in their positions within entities affiliated with the Government of Iran,” adding there was no reason to maintain sanctions on them.

The oil market briefly plunged after being spooked by media reports suggesting sanctions were lifted on Iranian oil officials, showing the potential impact of additional Iranian barrels if a deal is struck and sanctions lifted. [O/R]

U.S. and Iranian officials are expected to begin their sixth round of indirect talks in Vienna this weekend about how both sides might resume compliance with the nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Under the deal, Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain fissile material for atomic weapons in return for relief from U.S., EU and U.N. sanctions.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, arguing it gave Tehran too much sanctions relief for too few nuclear restrictions, and reimposed sanctions that slashed Iran’s oil exports.

Iran retaliated about a year later by violating the limits on its nuclear program.

U.S. President Joe Biden hopes to negotiate a mutual return to compliance, a task that requires defining the nuclear limits Iran will accept, the U.S. sanctions to be removed, and how to sequence these.

Asked about the talks, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters: “We’ve made progress, but, and you’ve heard this before; challenges do remain, and big issues do continue to divide the sides.”

The Treasury statement did not name the three former Iranian officials or the two companies dropped from its sanctions lists.

However, on its website, OFAC said it removed three men from one of its sanctions lists: Ahmad Ghalebani, a managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company; Farzad Bazargan, a managing director of Hong Kong Intertrade Company, and Mohammad Moinie, a commercial director of Naftiran Intertrade Company Sarl.

OFAC said it removed some sanctions on Sea Charming Shipping Company Limited and on Aoxing Ship Management Shanghai Limited.

“This is just a decision by Treasury in the normal course of business – nothing to do with JCPOA,” said the U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, describing it as the “regular process of delisting when (the) facts so dictate.”

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Writing by Arshad MohammedEditing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)

Moderna files for U.S. authorization to use its COVID-19 vaccine in teens

(Reuters) – Moderna Inc said on Thursday it has filed for U.S. authorization to use its COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents aged 12 through 17, potentially offering healthcare providers and pediatricians an easier-to-store shot ahead of the return-to-school season in the fall.

The company is the second drugmaker to seek regulatory nod for use of its vaccine in the age group, as the U.S. tries to vaccinate more young people.

Vaccinating children has been considered key to achieving “herd immunity” and while they mostly develop only mild COVID-19 symptoms or no symptoms, younger people still remain at risk of becoming seriously ill, and can spread the virus.

Moderna’s vaccine is already being used in the United States, the European Union and Canada for anyone over 18. The drugmaker said it has also submitted applications to European and Canadian regulators seeking authorization for the shot’s use in adolescents.

Last month, Moderna’s two-shot vaccine was shown to be effective in adolescents aged 12-17 and showed no new or major safety problems in a clinical trial which evaluated the vaccine in 3,732 teenagers.

The U.S. has already authorized Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12.

More than 7 million teens have received at least one dose of the vaccine in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Shounak Dasgupta)

EU, U.S. to end steel tariffs, urge progress into COVID origins, summit draft says

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union and the United States are set to commit at a summit in Brussels next week to ending their transatlantic trade disputes, and to call for progress on a new study into the origins of COVID-19, according to a draft communique.

The seven-page draft, seen by Reuters, aims to show concrete results of the “new dawn” hailed by EU leaders when U.S. President Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump in January.

The draft, which was discussed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday, commits to ending a long-running dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers before July 11, and to lifting steel tariffs imposed three years ago by December.

Despite pressure by U.S. steel industry groups to keep the “Section 232” national security tariffs imposed by Trump, the draft said: “We commit to work towards lifting before 1 December 2021 all additional/punitive tariffs on both sides linked to our steel and aluminum dispute.”

Biden will meet the European Union’s chief executive, Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel, who represents EU governments, and will also pledge to promote international cooperation to tackle global warming.

The EU and the United States are the world’s top trading powers, along with China, but Trump sought to sideline the EU.

After scotching a free-trade agreement with the EU, the Trump administration focused on shrinking a growing U.S. deficit in goods trade. Biden, however, sees the EU as an ally in promoting free trade, as well as fighting climate change and ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID ORIGINS

At the Brussels summit, both sides will agree to cooperate on China policy and also call for a new study into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the draft said.

“We call for progress on a transparent, evidence-based and expert-led WHO-convened phase 2 study on the origins of COVID-19, that is free from interference,” the draft said.

The two prevailing theories are that the virus jumped from animals, possibly bats, to humans, or that it escaped from a virology laboratory in Wuhan. Members of a WHO team that visited China this year to investigate COVID-19’s origin said they were not given access to all data, fueling the debate.

However, EU diplomats made it clear that the EU’s support to Biden on the virus origins is mostly symbolic.

“We, the EU, are not going to launch our own probe,” one EU diplomat said. “We are not anti-China”.

“The EU doesn’t have intelligence services, and we are not going to try to do this origins search through our member states agencies,” a second EU diplomat said. “The Americans can still talk to European services in member states, but we are not going to get involved.”

Despite the caveats, if agreed the joint stance on China will be a boost for the Biden administration, which seeks friends to stand up to Beijing but has said it will not force any ally to choose sides.

In a concession to the EU, the draft makes no mention of Biden’s proposals for vaccine patent waivers to boost global production. Instead it pledges to reduce U.S. export restrictions and promote voluntary transfer of technologies.

But the task of fully inoculating the world is expected to be a long one. The text says that the United States and the EU “aspire to vaccinate at least two-thirds of the world’s population by the end of 2022”. In other words, as many as 2.5 billion people in the world may not get a shot before 2023.

EU states have until now tried to maintain a strategic balance that avoids alienating either China or the United States.

But China’s military expansion, its claims to sovereignty in most of the South China Sea, and the mass detentions of Muslim Uyghurs in northwestern China have shifted the mood in Brussels.

“We intend to closely consult and cooperate on the full range of issues in the framework of our respective similar multi-faceted approaches to China, which include elements of cooperation, competition, and systemic rivalry,” the draft said.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Oil rises on expectation that Iranian supply won’t return soon

By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday after the top U.S. diplomat said that even if the United States were to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, hundreds of U.S. sanctions on Tehran would remain in place.

That could mean additional Iranian oil supply would not be re-introduced into the market soon.

“I would anticipate that even in the event of a return to compliance with the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), hundreds of sanctions will remain in place, including sanctions imposed by the Trump administration,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Brent crude rose 39 cents to $71.88 a barrel, a 0.6% gain. U.S. West Texas Intermediate oil rose 51 cents to $69.74 a barrel.

“Blinken is looking at the reality of the situation and saying even if we do get a deal, there’s a long way to go,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “All those people expecting a flood of oil are going to be disappointed.”

Barriers to the revival of Iran’s nuclear deal remain ahead of talks due to resume this week between Tehran and world powers, four diplomats, two Iranian officials and two analysts said.

In China, data showing China’s crude imports were down 14.6% in May on a yearly basis weighed on futures.

Crude prices have risen in recent weeks, with Brent up by nearly 40% this year and WTI gaining even more, amid expectations of demand returning as some countries succeed in vaccinating populations against COVID-19.

Restraint on supply by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies has also helped buttress prices.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories have been drawing down and were forecast to drop for a third straight week, analysts said in a poll ahead of industry data from the American Petroleum Institute at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT), followed by the government’s report on Wednesday.

“The fundamental environment on the oil market remains favorable: fuel demand is recovering strongly not only in the United States, but also in Europe following the (partial) lifting of restrictions,” Commerzbank said.

There are still questions about the demand recovery’s trajectory.

In Britain, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, there are now doubts that the country will lift all coronavirus-related restrictions as previously planned on June 21.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jason Neely)

Colonial Pipeline CEO tells Senate cyber defenses were compromised ahead of hack

By Stephanie Kelly and Jessica Resnick-Ault

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Colonial Pipeline Chief Executive Joseph Blount told a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that the company’s cyber defenses were in place, but were compromised ahead of an attack last month.

The hearing was convened to examine threats to critical infrastructure and the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack that shut the company’s major fuel conduits last month.

The hack, attributed by the FBI to a gang called DarkSide, caused a days-long shutdown that led to a spike in gasoline prices, panic buying and localized fuel shortages. It posed a major political headache for President Joe Biden as the U.S. economy was starting to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senators questioned whether Colonial was sufficiently prepared for a ransomware attack and the company’s timeline for responding to the attack. Some suggested Colonial had not sufficiently consulted with the U.S. government before paying the ransom against federal guidelines.

Colonial did not specifically have a plan for a ransomware attack, but did have an emergency response plan, Blount said. The company reached out to the FBI within hours of the cyber attack, he said.

“We take cybersecurity very seriously,” Blount said. Still, he said the attack occurred using a legacy VPN (Virtual Private Network) system that did not have multifactor authentication in place.

He said the system was protected with a complex password. “It wasn’t just Colonial123,” he said.

Blount said he made the decision to pay ransom, made the decision to keep the payment as confidential as possible because of concern for security.

“It was our understanding that the decision was solely ours to make about whether to pay the ransom,” he said.

However, he said even after getting the key, the company is still continuing to recover from the attack and is currently bringing back seven finance systems that have been offline since May 7, he said.

The Justice Department on Monday said it had recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline.

Colonial Pipeline previously had said it paid the hackers nearly $5 million to regain access. The value of the cryptocurrency bitcoin has dropped to below $35,000 in recent weeks after hitting a high of $63,000 in April.

Bitcoin seizures are rare, but authorities have stepped up their expertise in tracking the flow of digital money as ransomware has become a growing national security threat and put a further strain on relations between the United States and Russia, where many of the gangs are based.

(Reporting By Stephanie Kelly and Jessica Resnick-AultEditing by Marguerita Choy)

Giant drone sculpture menaces New York City, with intent

By Aleksandra Michalska

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A giant, white sculpture of a drone has appeared 25 feet (7.6 m) over Manhattan’s High Line park, unnerving New Yorkers – which was the creators’ intention.

Sam Durant, the artist behind the fiberglass “Untitled (drone),” said the work was designed to “remind the public that drones and surveillance are a tragic and pervasive presence in the daily lives of many living outside – and within – the United States.”

The white sculpture of the predator drone stands out against the blue summer skies, appearing to hover over 10th Avenue, and rotating on its pole when pushed by the wind.

“What we want to do with High Line Art is to bring to the public not just beautiful artworks, but also thought provoking artworks that can generate conversations,” said Cecilia Alemani, chief curator of High Line Art, which sponsored Durant’s work.

California resident Ariella Figueroa said the drone made her think about the future.

“It’s the same technology that we were using in Iraq and Afghanistan 10, 12 years ago that is now handheld and anyone can buy,” said Figueroa. “It’s a little intimidating, a little scary, especially here in New York City.”

(Reporting by Aleksandra Michalska, Writing by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Mali coup leader Goita sworn in as interim president and appoints PM

By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Assimi Goita, the Malian colonel who has overthrown two presidents in the past nine months, said he would oversee a transition toward democratic elections as he was sworn in as interim president on Monday.

Goita, a 38-year-old special forces commander, had already been declared president by the constitutional court last month after ousting Bah Ndaw, but was formally sworn in on Monday during a ceremony in the capital Bamako.

Within hours, he appointed opposition leader and former minister Choguel Maiga as prime minister, according to a decree read on state television.

It was not immediately clear to what extent Maiga’s appointment would satisfy calls from Mali’s neighbors and military allies like France and the United States for a civilian-led government.

Those countries, fearful the political upheaval could undermine a fight against Islamist insurgents across the Sahel region, have also been pressing to ensure elections go ahead next February as scheduled. Goita’s advisers have suggested those might be delayed.

“The situation offers us the opportunity to put the process of transition back in the direction desired by the people,” Goita, who had traded his camouflage fatigues for a dark gray officer’s uniform and a yellow sash, said at his inauguration.

He said he was committed to implementing “the actions necessary for the success of the transition, notably the organization of credible, fair and transparent elections that are held as scheduled.”

Goita was one of several colonels who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last August.

A transitional government that would oversee an 18-month transition to democratic elections was then put in place with Ndaw as president and Goita as his vice.

Goita last month ordered the arrests of both Ndaw and the prime minister for not informing him about the details of a cabinet reshuffle, which he alleged violated the transitional charter. Both later resigned while in custody.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the African Union last week suspended Mali from their organizations, although they declined to impose further sanctions. The World Bank said on Friday it had temporarily paused payments to the country.

Former colonial power France, which maintains more than 5,000 troops in Mali to combat Islamist militants, said it would temporarily suspend joint military operations with Malian troops but would continue to operate in the country separately.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Cooper Inveen and Aaron Ross; Editing by Edmund Blair and Angus MacSwan)

From lapsing job benefits to full stadiums, June could be U.S. recovery’s pivot

By Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen months after the pandemic triggered a national emergency, the final chapter of the U.S. economic recovery may begin this month, with rapid changes starting with the end of enhanced unemployment benefits in half the states and ending in the fall’s expected reopening of schools and universities.

Along the way, Major League Baseball stadiums are slated to return to full capacity, and the largest state economy, California, on June 15 will shed its final COVID-era restrictions and give bars, restaurants and other businesses a green light on the road to normal.

That same day in Washington, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to open debate about when and how to cut the economy loose from its crisis-fighting monetary policy and shift to managing what is hoped to be a long economic expansion.

The questions about just what the post-pandemic economy will look like are myriad: How many people will return to jobs? How many businesses will have survived or failed? How resilient will the country be when pandemic supports are withdrawn? The answers should start to come soon.

“The timing really is awesome,” Porchlight Brewing Co. general manager Tyson Herzog said of the just-in-time-for-summer end of California’s restrictions, which closed many restaurants for parts of last year and kept them under strict limits during the fight against the virus.

An $800 billion small business assistance program helped many firms survive, including Herzog’s. After a year of home-delivering beer in his 1999 Dodge Caravan he plans to hire more onsite staff and expand production amid already record sales.

Since coronavirus vaccines rolled out in December, forecasts have pointed to record-breaking numbers this year, including the fastest annual gross domestic product growth in nearly 40 years.

More than 60% of people 12 years and older are at least partially vaccinated. The rate of new infections and deaths has plummeted, while confidence, travel, and human socializing – and the commerce that accompanies all that – have risen steadily.

Still, the pieces have not yet clicked in unison.

Companies in May added 559,000 jobs, but the total number remains 7.6 million short of early 2020. About 3.6 million more people are unemployed, and the labor force is 3.5 million smaller.

Shortages of supplies, workers and raw materials have crimped the recovery with businesses curtailing hours, turning away customers, or delaying filling orders. The Fed’s most recent national economic snapshot referenced shortages 44 times, compared with 17 in January and three a year ago.

Economists expect that to ease. The pandemic put the economy into what some likened to an induced coma. Shaking off the stupor takes time, and is complicated by some of the programs used to cushion the economy’s sharp drop last spring.

Stimulus payments and low interest rates, for example, fueled a boom in home sales that spilled into home construction and lumber prices. Yet the costs for wood and some other commodities already have begun easing: lumber futures are down 24% from their peak, with copper and aluminum falling around 5%. Likewise, the splurge on automobiles, appliances and other goods will likely prove a one-time affair; even if demand remains strong, supply will likely catch up.

Workers sidelined by a variety of issues, from health concerns to lack of childcare, have been given latitude on when to return to work through expanded unemployment benefits that pay some more than their former jobs. That starts to wind down on June 12 when the first four states end the extra benefits launched last spring as one plank in a financial “bridge” to the other side of the pandemic.

In all, $5.2 trillion deployed across an array of programs helped make the coronavirus recession unique: Personal incomes actually rose even as unemployment hit 14.8% in April 2020.

With the money now largely spent, the programs one-by-one are being shuttered.

By July 10 half the states will have ended the extra unemployment benefits, and the program lapses nationwide on Sept. 4. The Payroll Protection Program of small business loans closed May 31.

There’s dispute over what role those and other programs play in decisions to work or not. But to the degree prices, wages and other factors have been distorted by the pandemic, the next few weeks should wring those distortions out.

June will inaugurate a “summer-boom with demand still strong and supply issues – on labor and capital – being resolved,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics. “There is evidence of supply bottlenecks slowly easing…On the labor front, reduced virus fear, reduced benefits, better childcare, will draw people back.”

And people seem primed to respond.

After a year of lockdown, public parks are again hosting crowds, sports stadiums are filling, and restaurants are booked to the limit.

California had among the first cases of COVID-19, imposed some of the stiffest restrictions, and will be among the last states to let it all go.

Damian Fagan, owner of the Almanac Taproom in Alameda, is getting ready. While he is adding up to six new employees to his current 12-person staff ahead of the June 15 reopening, he expects such a rush of business he plans to limit his hours for another few weeks “so we don’t have this tsunami of changes.”

“I don’t know how long this party will last,” he said. Eventually, “this massive excitement period dies down,” and business can get back to normal.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

Putin calls U.S. ransomware allegations an attempt to stir pre-summit trouble

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that suggestions the Russian state was linked to high profile ransomware attacks in the United States were absurd and an attempt to stir trouble ahead of his summit this month with U.S. President Joe Biden.

A hack of Brazilian meatpacker JBS’s facilities in the United States, reported this week, is the third such ransomware hack in the country since Biden took office in January.

JBS told the White House it originated from a criminal organization likely based in Russia.

The White House said on Wednesday that Biden, who is due to hold talks with Putin in Geneva on June 16, was expected to discuss the hacking attacks with the Russian leader to see what Moscow could do to prevent such cyber assaults.

U.S. officials have spoken of criminal gangs based in eastern Europe or Russia as the probable culprits. But Kremlin critics have pointed the finger at the Russian state itself, saying it must have had knowledge of the attacks and possibly even be directing them.

Putin, speaking on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum, told Russia’s state TV Channel One that the idea of Russian state involvement was absurd.

“It’s just nonsense, it’s funny,” said Putin. “It’s absurd to accuse Russia of this.”

He said he was encouraged however, by what he said were efforts by some people in the United States to question the substance of such allegations and try to work out what is really going on.

“Thank goodness there are people with common sense who are asking (themselves) this question and are putting the question to those who are trying to provoke a new conflict before our meeting with Biden,” said Putin.

Praising Biden as an experienced politician, Putin said he expected the Geneva summit to be held in a positive atmosphere, but did not anticipate any breakthroughs.

The meeting would be more about trying to chart a path to restore battered U.S.-Russia ties which are strained by everything from Russia’s jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to Ukraine to Syria, he said.

Earlier on Friday, Putin told the same economic forum that the United States was openly trying to hold back Russia’s development and accused Washington of wielding the dollar as a tool of economic and political competition.

“We have no disagreement with the United States. They only have one point of disagreement – they want to hold back our development, they talk about this publicly,” Putin told the forum.

“Everything else stems from this position,” he said.

Putin also questioned what he said was the harsh way U.S. authorities had dealt with some people detained during the storming of the Capitol in January by supporters of Donald Trump.

(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Osborn)

U.S. announces more than $266 million in new Afghanistan aid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With the U.S. troop withdrawal well under way, the United States on Friday announced more than $266 million in new humanitarian aid for Afghanistan as part of what it called an enduring U.S. commitment to the war-torn country.

The announcement comes amid unrelenting violence and a stalled peace process that are fueling fears that the departure of U.S.-led international forces is putting Afghanistan on a path to all-out civil war that could restore Taliban rule two decades after the Islamists were driven from power.

Officials of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who ordered an end to the 20-year U.S. troop presence by Sept. 11, have vowed to continue U.S. military and civilian aid to Kabul. But they warned it could be suspended if there is backtracking on progress made in human rights, especially those of women and girls.

“As the United States withdraws military forces from Afghanistan, our enduring commitment is clear. We remain engaged through our full diplomatic, economic, and assistance toolkit to support the peaceful, stable future the Afghan people want and deserve,” the State Department said in a statement.

The $266 million in new assistance brings to nearly $3.9 billion the total amount of such aid provided by the United States since 2002, the statement said.

The funds will help support some of the estimated 18 million Afghans in need, including more than 4.8 million who are internally displaced, 115,000 of whom have been driven from their homes by fighting this year alone, it said.

The funds, it continued, will go to providing shelter, job opportunities, basic healthcare, emergency food, water, sanitation, and hygienic services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also will support protection programs for “the most vulnerable Afghans,” including women and girls “facing particular risks, including gender-based violence,” it said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)