Harris Corp wins $1.7 billion U.S. defense contract: Pentagon

Here is the latest Political News from Reuters.

Harris Corp wins $1.7 billion U.S. defense contract: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Harris Corp was awarded a $1.7 billion firm-fixed-price, multi-year foreign military sales contract to supply Afghanistan with Harris radios, ancillaries, spare parts and services, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

U.S. congressional Republicans agree on $1.1 billion in new Zika funds
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed on Wednesday to $1.1 billion in new funding to fight the Zika virus, a key House Republican lawmaker said.

Former Ford national security adviser Scowcroft endorses Clinton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican former U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft on Wednesday said he is endorsing Democrat Hillary Clinton for president over Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton offers economic vision after blasting Trump’s
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that if the U.S. Congress does not act to close tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and corporations, she will ask the Treasury Department to take up the issue if she is elected to the White House.

Sanders: It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that while he does not think he will be the party’s nominee for the Nov. 8 election, he will likely speak at the Democratic National Convention in July, according to an interview with C-SPAN.

Florida lieutenant governor ends bid for Senate seat
(Reuters) – Florida’s Republican lieutenant governor, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, on Wednesday dropped his bid for a U.S. Senate seat shortly after Senator Marco Rubio said he would be entering the race.

Warren to campaign with Clinton in Ohio on Monday
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will campaign with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Ohio on Monday, Clinton’s campaign said.

House Democrats stage protest to demand gun control bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several dozen U.S. House Democrats pushing for action on gun control protested on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, chanting “no bill, no break!” and demanding that the chamber put off an upcoming recess until legislation is debated.

Trump to lash out at Clinton in speech focusing on ‘failed’ policies
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump planned to release a new barrage of criticism of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday in a speech targeting her long public life that promises to focus on two things: money and Bill Clinton.

Justice Department unveils ‘largest takedown ever’ to combat Medicare fraud
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that federal law enforcement officials have hit a milestone in 2016 by completing the “largest takedown ever” against defendants allegedly trying to defraud Medicare and other federal insurance programs.

Senator Rubio to seek re-election in Florida
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who dropped out of the presidential race in March, said on Wednesday he would seek re-election to the Senate, reversing a pledge not to run.

Trump to detour from campaign to visit Scotland golf properties
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facing slumping poll numbers and a shakeup of his team, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes a detour from the campaign trail this week to visit his golf resorts in Scotland.

House Speaker Ryan unveils Republican alternative to Obamacare
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled a Republican healthcare agenda on Wednesday that would repeal Obamacare but keep some of its more popular provisions.

Former California state senator pleads guilty to corruption charge
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former California Senator Ron Calderon pleaded guilty in a federal court on Tuesday to a single count of mail fraud, ending a public corruption case in which he admitted to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes, prosecutors said.

Kerry meets authors of dissenting cable on U.S. Syria policy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met on Tuesday with about 10 of the 51 State Department officials who last week wrote a cable disagreeing with U.S. policy toward Syria and arguing for “a more militarily assertive U.S. role.”

Trump announces new hires to expand campaign operations
(Reuters) – Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has hired several new staff members to expand his campaign for the November election, including Jim Murphy as national political director to focus on key battleground states, his campaign said on Tuesday.

Peru president-elect jokes about ending ties with U.S. if Trump wins
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said amid laughter on Tuesday that his government would sever ties with the United States if Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November.

Clinton’s lead over Trump narrows to nine points: Reuters/Ipsos
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead over Republican rival Donald Trump has slipped by about five percentage points since mid-June, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, bringing the race for the White House to within nine points.

New Jersey governor proposes flat rate for education funding
(Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday proposed overhauling the state’s education funding formula to provide all public school districts with a flat rate of $6,599 per student.

Senate prepares Puerto Rico debt debate amid Democrats’ concerns
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that amendments were necessary to a Puerto Rico debt bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said would be voted on by next week.

U.S. legal group lavishes praise on Obama Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The American Bar Association issued a glowing evaluation of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee on Tuesday, giving Merrick Garland its highest rating even as Senate Republicans stood firm in their blockade of his appointment.

Briton arrested at Trump rally ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly,’ father says
DORKING, England (Reuters) – A man charged with trying to attack Donald Trump with a policeman’s gun found it hard to cope with life but did not have political views and was never violent, his father told British media on Tuesday.

Warren, Kaine, Castro on Clinton running-mate short list: AP
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Julian Castro, the U.S. housing secretary, are on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s short list of vice presidential picks, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing Democratic sources.

Obama pick to lead U.S. military in Africa favors powers to strike Islamic State
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. military in Africa on Tuesday backed the idea of gaining greater power to strike Islamic State, including in Libya, which he described as the group’s Plan B as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria.

In economic speech, Clinton previews a ‘Trump recession’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton on Tuesday called her Republican rival Donald Trump a potential disaster for the economy, saying the “the king of debt” would cause a “Trump recession.”

Clinton to meet with House Democrats on Wednesday: Politico
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will meet with fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing Democratic sources.

Trump dismisses campaign fundraising deficit with Clinton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dismissed a huge fundraising gap with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, saying he could always tap into his personal wealth if he needed more cash for the campaign.

White House denounces senators as cowards on gun control
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House accused U.S. senators of sacrificing national security for their political ambitions on Tuesday, a day after four gun control measures failed to advance after the nation’s largest mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, last week.

‘Economikes’: the gatekeepers of Clinton’s economic policy
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton has no shortage of economic advisors. Scores of world-class experts pour ideas into her campaign on the policies she should champion in her bid for the White House.

Invoking Orlando, Senate Republicans set up vote to expand FBI spying
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote late on Monday to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to use a secretive surveillance order without a warrant to include email metadata and some browsing history information.

Trump doubles monthly campaign fundraising, lags Clinton
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s campaign raised $3.1 million from donors in May, more than doubling previous monthly hauls as he began soliciting donations to battle Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

In separate speeches Obama, Biden, Carter target Trump policies
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, his vice president and defense secretary took aim on Monday at policies of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump they said would alienate Muslims globally along with U.S. allies and neighbors.

American Muslims see Trump rhetoric fueling prejudice, hate incidents
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About three months ago, Sarah Ibrahim’s son came home from his fourth-grade class at a Maryland school with a disturbing question.

Senate rejects four gun-control measures after Orlando shooting
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Monday rejected four measures restricting guns after last week’s mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub, although lawmakers were still trying to forge a compromise that could keep firearms away from people on terrorism watch lists.

Obama takes turn as ‘America’s pitch man’ to help sell TPP trade deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama made a plug on Monday for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal to a group of 2,400 investors looking at locating business in the United States, saying the deal would help boost the global economy.