Trump tightens cuba sanctions

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that U. S. travelers won’t be allowed to bring home Cuban cigars and rum or stay in governmentowned hotels there under new measures designed to help financially cripple the island’s government. The action came as Trump is seeking to boost his appeal among CubanAmericans, a crucial Republicanleaning voting bloc in the state of Florida.

Trump made the announcement at the White House as he considers choosing a CubanAmerican woman from Florida to fill a vacancy on the U. S. Supreme Court.

Trump said the new Treasury Department sanctions will ensure that U. S. dollars do not fund the Cuban government. He has been taking steps over the past four years to reinstate an economic blockade of Cuba and reverse the strategy of restoring diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island, the policy pursued by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

GOP Senate report on Biden son alleges conflict of interest.

WASHINGTON » Two Republicanled Senate committees issued a politically charged report Wednesday alleging that the work Joe Biden’s son did in Ukraine constituted a conflict of interest for the Obama administration at a time when Biden was engaged in Ukraine policy as vice president. But the report also offered no support for President Donald Trump’s claim that the Democratic presidential nominee improperly pressed for the firing of the country’s top prosecutor to protect his son.

The report did not implicate Biden in wrongdoing, focusing instead on his son Hunter, who it said “cashed in” on his father’s position by joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company. The document says that work created conflict- of- interest concerns, including among two Obama administration officials but acknowledged that it ultimately was “not clear” what impact Hunter Biden’s paid board position had on policy with Ukraine.

Biden’s campaign immediately panned the report, released six weeks before the election, as an effort by an ally of Trump’s to damage his election opponent.

Hanford contractors agree to pay $ 58 million fine for fraud.

SPOKANE, WASH. » Two companies that do work at a former nuclear weapons production plant will pay fines of nearly $ 58 million for improperly billing the federal government for thousands of hours of work that were not performed.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday afternoon announced the settlement involving the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a Manhattan Project- era facility near Richland, Wash., that is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site.

The settlement was reached between Bechtel Corp. and AECOM Energy & Construction Inc., which for years have been constructing a giant nuclear waste treatment plant to clean up the Hanford site, which produced most of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

“It is stunning that, for nearly a decade, Bechtel and AECOM chose to line their corporate pockets by diverting important taxpayer funds from this critically essential effort,” Assistant

U. S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said.

India sees 83,000 new cases, but numbers falling.

NEW DELHI » India reported more than 83,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, showing some decline after reaching a record a week ago.

The country has confirmed more than 5.6 million cases. The health ministry also reported 1,085 new fatalities, raising the death toll to 90,020.

India is expected to become the world’s worst- hit country within weeks, surpassing the United States, where 6.9 million people have been infected.

But the past week has seen some improvement in India, with the numbers dropping after a record 97,894 new cases were reported Sept. 16.