Amazon Might Be Getting Into the Delivery Business - TIME Business

Amazon Might Be Getting Into the Delivery Business

Posted: 10 Feb 2018 01:12 PM PST

Amazon has already shown that it can rattle the retail, grocery and health insurance industries, and now it is doing the same in the delivery business.
The online retailer is reportedly planning a new service to pick up packages from businesses and deliver them to consumers.
The service, called “Shipping With Amazon,” is expected to start in Los Angeles in the coming weeks and roll out more broadly as soon as this year, according to The Wall Street Journal , which cited anonymous sources.
Amazon, which has been edging into the delivery business for some time, would not confirm the report — but didn’t deny it either.

“We’re always innovating and experimenting on behalf of customers and the businesses that sell and grow on Amazon to create faster lower-cost delivery choices,” said Amazon spokeswoman Kristen Kish.
Shares of delivery giants UPS and FedEx slipped Friday, but so did Amazon’s stock as analysts expressed caution about the difficulty of building a competitive delivery network.
Amazon’s interest in the delivery business has been percolating ever since many Amazon packages were delivered late around Christmas in 2013. Amazon has helped fuel the boom in online shopping, but all those millions of packages are straining the networks of UPS and FedEx. Amazon also uses the U.S. Postal Service and smaller delivery companies.
UPS had a rocky holiday season late last year, as it underestimated the crush of online shopping during so-called cyber week right after Thanksgiving. The Atlanta-based company plans to spend a chunk of its tax-cut savings to improve its network.
Meanwhile, Amazon has leased 40 airplanes, begun arranging ocean freight shipments from China to the U.S., and built up a corps of delivery drivers.
Executives at UPS and FedEx have downplayed the Amazon threat before, saying that it would take a massive investment over a long time to build an air and ground network to rival theirs.
There is little doubt, however, that Seattle-based Amazon has the means to build a bigger network. It had $178 billion in sales and $3 billion in profit last year and is sitting on more than $20 billion in cash.
An Amazon entry would “send shivers down the spines of the traditional delivery companies,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Saunders said the delivery companies are likely to lose business from Amazon — slowly at first, then more quickly as Amazon builds out its own operation. And if Amazon starts delivering to businesses, it may undercut the incumbents on rates, he said.
Analysts estimate that UPS gets up to 6 percent of revenue from Amazon deliveries compared to about 3 percent for FedEx. Several took a wait-and-see approach to the Amazon threat.
Deutsche Bank analysts wrote that “one pilot program, in one city, is being extrapolated as a clear and present risk to a global network” that delivers 33 million packages a day, more than 20 times Amazon’s estimated delivery volume. They were “highly skeptical” of much risk to UPS and FedEx.
Citi analyst Christian Weatherbee said Amazon hasn’t yet committed significant assets to a new delivery program.
“We don’t want to present the case that Amazon will never, or could never, compete directly with FedEx, UPS” and the post office, Weatherbee said, but there is no indication that the company has bought enough trucks and hired enough drivers to take on UPS and FedEx, which would be a “difficult task,” he said.
Amazon is likely to remain a major customer for UPS and FedEx for quite some time, complicating their relationship.
UBS Securities analyst Thomas Wadewitz said as “frenemy” Amazon expands on their turf, it could make sense for UPS and FedEx to significantly raise prices with Amazon, although there is no evidence to show they’ll do that.
Others think Amazon may be trying to talk down delivery rates and get better service. Stifel analyst David Ross said Amazon will grow its logistics business but won’t be able — and may not even want — to handle all of its own deliveries.
FedEx spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald said the Journal headline showed a “lack of basic understanding of the full scale of the global transportation industry.”
UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said in statement that the company “continues to support Amazon and many other customers,” and doesn’t comment about their business strategies or decisions on how they use UPS services. UPS declined to make an executive available for an interview.
Amazon’s muscle and influence beyond retailing have been very evident lately.
When Amazon, Warren Buffett and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase announced two weeks ago that they were forming a company to tackle employer health care costs, it triggered a sell-off in the shares of established health insurers.
This week Amazon launched two-hour grocery delivery for Prime members from Whole Foods, which it bought last summer for nearly $14 billion.
Amazon shares fell $10.90 to close at $1,339.60; United Parcel Service Inc. dropped $2.89, or 2.6 percent, to $106.39; and FedEx Corp. fell $3.95, or 1.7 percent, to $235.32.

U.S. Stocks Swing Back to Gains, Dow Up 330 on Turbulent Day - TIME Business

U.S. Stocks Swing Back to Gains, Dow Up 330 on Turbulent Day Posted: 09 Feb 2018 07:39 AM PST Wall Street capped a day of wild swings Friday with a late-afternoon rally that reversed steep early losses and sent the Dow Jones industrial average 330 points higher. Even with the rebound, this was the worst week for the market in about two years. Stocks struggled to stabilize much of the day as investors sent prices climbing, then slumping in unsteady trading a day after the market entered its first correction in two years. The up-and-down swings followed a drop of 10 percent from the latest record highs set by major U.S. indexes just two weeks ago. At midday, the market was on pace for its worst weekly decline since October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. The Dow briefly sank 500 points in afternoon trading after surging more than 349 points earlier in the day. The blue chip average suffered its second 1,000-point drop in a week on Thursday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark for many index funds, also wavered between gains and losses. As of Thursday, some $2.49 trillion in value had vanished from the index since its most recent peak on Jan. 26, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Equities have traded in a roller coaster fashion all week and today is no exception,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “There’s a fair amount of volatility in the market, and our belief is the volatility is leaving investors riddled with stress and uncertainty, which is likely to continue.” The S&P 500 rose 38.55 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,619.55. The Dow gained 330.44 points, or 1.4 percent, to 24,190.90. The Nasdaq composite added 97.33 points, or 1.4 percent, to 6,874.49. Technology companies accounted for most of the broad gains, outweighing losses in energy stocks, which slumped as U.S. crude prices declined, sending the price of oil below $60 a barrel for the first time this year. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.85 percent from 2.83 percent late Thursday. Some companies rose after reporting quarterly results and outlooks that beat Wall Street’s forecasts. Skechers USA climbed $2.88, or 7.5 percent, to $41.06. Chipmaker Nvidia added $14.56, or 6.7 percent, to $232.08. Expedia slumped after its latest earnings fell short of analysts’ expectations. The travel website’s 2018 outlook also disappointed investors. Its shares sank $19.03, or 15.5 percent, to $104. The turbulence in U.S. stock indexes followed a broad slide in global markets. In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 1.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 lost 1.4 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 1.1 percent. Asian markets fell more sharply. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.3 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 3.1 percent. U.S. stocks started to tumble last week after the Labor Department said workers’ wages grew at a fast rate in January. Investors worried that rising wages will hurt corporate profits and could signal an increase in inflation that could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a faster pace, putting a brake on the economy. On Wall Street, many companies that rose the most over the last year have borne the brunt of the selling. Facebook and Boeing have both fallen sharply. Financial analysts regard corrections as normal events but say the latest unusually abrupt plunge might have been triggered by a combination of events that rattled investors. Those include worries about a potential rise in U.S. inflation or interest rates and budget disputes in Washington. The market, currently in its second-longest bull run of all time, had not seen a correction for two years, an unusually long time. Many market watchers have been predicting a pullback, saying stock prices have become too expensive relative to company earnings. What many failed to predict, however, is the S&P 500’s blazing slide from a record high on Jan. 26 to a drop of 10 percent on Thursday. “The S&P 500 hasn’t moved into correction mode this quickly, ever,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research. It’s taken nine days to go from the January 26 peak to where we are today.” American employers are hiring at a healthy pace, with unemployment at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The housing industry is solid, and manufacturing is rebounding. Major economies around the world are growing in tandem for the first time since the Great Recession, and corporate profits are on the rise. That combination usually carries stocks higher. But stock prices have climbed faster than profits in recent years. Many investors justified that by pointing out that interest rates were low and few alternatives looked like better investments. Fast rising interest rates would make that argument much less persuasive.

US intelligence 'paid $100,000 to Russian who claimed to have compromising information on Trump but failed to provide it' - Independent

10/2/2018

US intelligence 'paid $100,000 to Russian who claimed to have compromising information on Trump but failed to provide it'

Contact claims to have video of US president in Moscow hotel room and codes to stolen hacking tools, report says

Judith Vonberg

The Russian claimed to have compromising material on US President Donald Trump AP

A Russian who offered US intelligence officials stolen cyberweapons and compromising material on Donald Trump took $100,000 (£72,000) but failed to provide any of the promised goods, according to a New York Times report.

The payment, delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September last year, was intended as the first instalment in a $1m deal, which has now been broken off, the paper said.

Several US intelligence officials told the newspaper they were most interested in retrieving National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools that were stolen in 2015 and had since been used to infect millions of computers around the world.

FBI 'assesses second Trump-Russia dossier'

The Russian claimed to have access to a computer code for the stolen cyberweapons as well as information that would link Mr Trump and his associates to Russia, according to the paper.

The video was first rumoured to exist in a dossier compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele and published last January, but its existence has never been verified.

According to the report, several US intelligence officials made clear that they did not want any Trump material from the individual, who was suspected of having “murky ties” to Russian intelligence and cybercriminals in Eastern Europe.

But after several months of coded messages and secret meetings between the Russian and an intermediary – an American businessman based in Germany – the contact produced a set of unverified and potentially fabricated documents about Mr Trump and others, and none of the hacking tools, the paper said.

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Some of the documents – obtained by The New York Times – seemed drawn mostly from news reports, rather than secret intelligence, the report said.

Responding to the story on Twitter, Mr Trump suggested he was unhappy with the actions of the intelligence agencies involved.

"I hope people are now seeing & understanding what is going on here," he wrote. "It is all now starting to come out - DRAIN THE SWAMP!"

The newspaper reported that the deal was broken off and the contact has now returned to Russia, having been warned not to return.

Neither the CIA nor the NSA could be reached for comment by The Independent.

According to the report, the seller involved in this case is one of several Russians who claim to have “kompromat” – compromising information – on Mr Trump.

Allegations of misconduct on both Russian and US sides have been rife since the presidential election campaign of 2016.

The US Congress and FBI are continuing to investigate contact between Russian officials and Mr Trump’s campaign team in a bid to identify if there was any collusion.

The New York Times report comes just two days after a US official said Russia targeted and “successfully penetrated” 21 states during the 2016 election.

The FBI is also said to be assessing a report compiled by political activist and former journalist Cody Shearer that independently sets out similar allegations to some of those made in Mr Steele’s dossier last year.

Pence says there is "no daylight" between U.S. and South Korea - CBS News

February 10, 2018, 3:29 PM

Pence says there is "no daylight" between U.S. and South Korea

Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday evening there is "no daylight" between the U.S. and South Korea, despite their different approaches to engagement with North Korea at the Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games. South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a luncheon earlier Saturday with the North Koreans, while Pence declined opportunities for contact with South Korea's neighbor to the north.

Moon provided Pence with a readout of the historic luncheon between the North and South. On the flight home from his Asian-Pacific trip flying somewhere over South Korea, Pence told reporters aboard Air Force Two that he appreciated Moon's transparency and perspective on North Korea, but reiterated that the U.S. and South Korea will "continue to stand strong and to work in a coordinated way to bring maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea."

"I leave here very confident that we are going to continue to do the things we know have to be done to continue to pressure North Korea to abandon their nuclear ambitions," Pence said.

Pence, Moon speak after Moon invited to visit North Korea

The task of Pence's trip, designed to distract the world's gaze from North and South Korea's Olympic unification, proved too difficult to execute as remarkable images of a smiling Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, standing alongside Moon at the Blue House emerged from the day and dominated the airwaves.

North Korea's nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam also partook in the historic luncheon with Moon. Asian media outlets quickly circulated photos of sprawling messages that Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam left in the Blue House's guest book.

"Working in unity on the way to unification," Kim Yong Nam wrote in the guest book. "Putting in real effort is our people's wish."

"The distance between Pyongyang and Seoul has become closer in our hearts," Kim Yo Jong wrote. "And I wish for a future of unification and prosperity."

Pence pushes South Korea for harder line, as Kim's sister gets lunch invite

Pence, meanwhile, had only one event on his schedule on Saturday: he appeared back at Pyeongchang to view the short-track speedskating event, along with second lady Karen Pence and the U.S. delegation. The other purpose for Pence's appearance was to see Moon for a final time, forging one more photo op of the two, in light of the events of the day.

Moon joined Pence at Pyeongchang's ice rink where they viewed the women's short-track speedskating together, and exchanged pleasantries and an embrace. Moon also greeted Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier, who was seated behind him. Otto Warmbier was arrested in North Korea and died last year after returning to the U.S.

Pence and Moon were expected to view men's short-track speedskating together prior to the women's event, as an American and a Korean were competing against each other, but Moon kept Pence waiting and missed the event entirely.

Following his stint with the American delegation at speedskating, Moon attended a hockey game with Kim Yong Nam -- the nominal North Korean head of state -- on Saturday night. A senior White House official confirmed that Moon told Pence he'd be attending the game with the North Korean delegation. Pence did not attend the hockey game.

A White House official described the South Korean president as hopeful that there would be "some talks and socializing" between Pence and the North Koreans over the course of the weekend. But Pence's time sidestepping the North Koreans at the Olympics was punctuated by awkward, stoic photos and no-shows. A senior White House official described Pence's tact as ignoring the North Koreans, but not avoiding them. Pence was "there to stand with Japan and South Korea," the official added when pressed on whether the vice president had intentionally dodged photo ops with Kim Yong Un's delegation.

"The policy of the U.S. is the denuclearization of North Korea," the official said of Pence's approach to the Kim regime." The pressure campaign is not only going to continue, it's going to intensify until they denuclearize and that all options are on the table. I assume they knew that message was coming. So the question is, when are they going to hear that?"

On Saturday morning, after the opening ceremony, Pence tweeted his agreement with former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who had said on Fox News that the positioning of North Korea near South Korea at the opening ceremony was a "propaganda charade" by North Korea.

"Well said, @AmbJohnBolton. The U.S will not allow the propaganda charade by the North Korean regime to go unchallenged on the world stage. The world can NOT turn a blind eye to the oppression & threats of the Kim regime."

@VP

Well said, @AmbJohnBolton. The U.S will not allow the propaganda charade by the North Korean regime to go unchallenged on the world stage. The world can NOT turn a blind eye to the oppression & threats of the Kim regime.

3:38 PM - Feb 10, 2018

North Korean media slammed Pence what they described as "snobbish" behavior.

"It's the first time Mike Pence has been accused of being a snob," a White House official said in response.

Diplomacy and politics aside, the vice president's appearance at the Olympics was also personal. Pence's father, Edward Pence, was a veteran of the Korean War — he won a Bronze Star for his military service in 1953. Pence said that spotted signs throughout Seoul and PyeongChang that said, "thank you for your father's services for our country" that made him "a little emotional."

"My dad served in combat in Korea and he really didn't talk about it very much, like most combat veterans, but I know that it was a defining time in his life," Pence told reporters aboard Air Force Two. "I take great pride in seeing the extraordinary prosperity of freedom in South Korea and to know that the people of South Korea know that the American soldier won that for them — that's why there is no daylight and there will be no daylight — because the core of the bond between South Korea and the U.S. was forged in war."

Spanish language White House website yet to materialise a year after Trump administration promised one - Independent

10/2/2018

Spanish language White House website yet to materialise a year after Trump administration promised one

Articles in the language spoken by one-in-five US residents were removed from official webpage when president took office

Tom Barnes

The Trump administration said a Spanish language White House website would launch at the end of 2017 Getty

The White House website has yet to produce any Spanish-language content a year into Donald Trump’s presidency, despite his administration's promises to the contrary.

Spanish articles were removed from the official site when Mr Trump took office in January 2017, in a departure of policy from the previous two administrations, which both published content in the language.

The US is now lagging behind Iran and even reclusive North Korea in terms of its Spanish language offerings, with both regimes providing official content for Spanish speakers.

A year ago, then-presidential press secretary Sean Spicer said content had been deleted because IT staff were “working overtime” to develop a new Spanish site.

'Pillar of the community' business owner deported after 39 years

In July, the White House director of media affairs, Helen Aguirre Ferre, said she expected a website in the language, which is spoken by one-in-five people in the US, to launch at the end of 2017.

However, Ms Aguirre Ferre has now declined to confirm whether the administration still has plans for a Spanish language website.

Javier Palomarez, president of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the absence of a White House webpage in Spanish “sends a very troubling message".

“There are over four million Hispanic-American entrepreneurs and businesspeople in this country, many of whom are receptive to the administration’s pro-business agenda,” Mr Palomarez said.

“If they made even a little effort to communicate and engage with the Latino community, perhaps they would win a few of them over.”

Latinos became the largest minority in the US during the presidency of George W Bush, when Spanish language content was added to the White House website for the first time.

The Obama White House also produced Spanish articles geared towards Latinos on topics such as immigration, health issues, banking and veterans’ affairs.

However, Mr Trump’s relationship with Latino voters has been damaged by several controversies since his entry into politics.

During his election campaign, he castigated Republican rival Jeb Bush for answering a reporter’s question in Spanish, saying he should “set the example” by speaking English in the US.

The President also turned off large portions of the Hispanic electorate with anti-immigration rhetoric, claiming many Mexican immigrants were “criminals” and “rapists.”

The Trump White House does keep a Spanish Twitter account, @LaCasaBlanca, but it has only issued 200 tweets since January 2017, compared with 3,200 from the English version over the same period.

Jim Rogers Says Next Bear Market Will Be Worst in His Life - Bloomberg

Jim Rogers Says Next Bear Market Will Be Worst in His Life

By

February 9, 2018, 12:37 PM GMT+11 Updated on February 9, 2018, 4:51 PM GMT+11

Veteran investor says that’s because of more debt in system

Rogers makes no claim to know the timing for his prediction

Jim Rogers says the next bear market will be the worst he’s seen.

Jim Rogers, 75, says the next bear market in stocks will be more catastrophic than any other market downturn that he’s lived through.

The veteran investor says that’s because even more debt has accumulated in the global economy since the financial crisis, especially in the U.S. While Rogers isn’t saying that stocks are poised to enter bear territory now -- or making any claim to know when they will -- he says he’s not surprised that U.S. equities resumed their selloff Thursday and he expects the rout to continue.

“When we have a bear market again, and we are going to have a bear market again, it will be the worst in our lifetime,” Rogers, the chairman of Rogers Holdings Inc., said in a phone interview. “Debt is everywhere, and it’s much, much higher now.”

The plunge in equity markets resumed Thursday, as the S&P 500 Index sank 3.8 percent, taking its rout since a Jan. 26 record past 10 percent and meeting the accepted definition of a correction. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points, while the losses continued in early Asian trading Friday as the Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped as much as 3.5 percent.

Bear Markets

Rogers has seen severe bear markets before. Even this century, the Dow plunged more than 50 percent during the financial crisis, from a peak in October 2007 through a low in March 2009. It sank 38 percent from its high during the IT bubble in 2000 through a low in 2002.

“Jim has been talking about severe corrections since I started in business over 30 years ago,” said Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. President Mike Evans, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker. “So I’m sure he’ll be right at some point.”

Rogers predicts the stock market will experience jitters until the Federal Reserve increases borrowing costs. That, he says, will be the point when stocks go up again. He said he’ll buy an agriculture index today, reiterating his view that prices of such commodities have been depressed for some time.

“I’m very bad in market timing,” Rogers said. “But maybe there will be continued sloppiness until March when they raise interest rates, and it looks like the market will rally.”

(A previous version of this story corrected the quote in the last paragraph to say "sloppiness.")

— With assistance by Sam Kim

Trump's chief of staff John Kelly faces calls to resign over handling of abuse allegations - Independent

11/2/2018

Trump's chief of staff John Kelly faces calls to resign over handling of abuse allegations

Mounting questions about when top official knew of claims against former White House aide Rob Porter

Jeremy B White San Francisco

Multiple elected officials have called for Donald Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, to resign amid a mounting backlash to the White House’s handling of domestic violence allegations against a top aide.

The former White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, resigned this week after it publicly emerged that multiple ex-wives had accused him of abuse. Mr Porter has called those accusations “outrageous” and “false”, saying in a statement: “I have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims, but I will not further engage publicly with a coordinated smear campaign.”

The Trump administration has faced amplifying questions about when officials became aware of the allegations against Mr Porter, with multiple reports that chief of staff John Kelly knew Mr Porter would be denied a permanent security clearance.

White House accused of covering up abuse claims against senior aide

White House admits it could have dealt better with Porter allegations

White House staff secretary resigns after abuse allegations

Amid evidence that senior officials kept Mr Porter on despite the allegations against him, calls for Mr Kelly to step aside began surfacing.

New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich said on Twitter that if the reports were true, "he should resign immediately".

Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said on Twitter: “Domestic violence is a serious issue & Chief of Staff John Kelly should resign for mishandling it.”

Mr Kelly has also faced condemnation for initially responding to the allegations against Mr Porter with a statement lauding him as a “man of true integrity and honour”, later releasing a follow-up statement saying he was “shocked” by the allegations against Mr Porter and saying “there is no place for domestic violence in our society”.

Tapped as chief of staff to help bring order to a White House riven by internal conflict and high turnover, Mr Kelly — a retired general — initially drew praise for helping to instil more stability.

But his remarks have also set off fresh controversy, including when he made a false accusation against a Congresswoman who had amplified a war widow’s criticism of Mr Trump and, earlier this week, when he said some immigrants were “too lazy to get off their asses” and apply for legal status.

John Kelly coached Trump to use the phrase "he knew what he was getting into" to bereaved widow

The President also helped fuel the outcry when he reacted to Mr Porter’s departure with mostly praise, saying the situation was “very sad” but that Mr Porter “did a very good job”.

“We hope he has a wonderful career,” Mr Trump said, adding that “you have to remember that he said very strongly yesterday that he’s innocent”.

Trump says Democratic memo on Russia is 'very political,' needs redactions - Reuters

FEBRUARY 11, 2018 / 2:25 AM / UPDATED 14 HOURS AGO

Trump says Democratic memo on Russia is 'very political,' needs redactions

Reuters Staff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A classified memo by congressional Democrats related to investigations of Russian influence in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is “very political and long” and must be “heavily redacted” before it could be released, President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Saturday.

The release of the memo was blocked by Trump on Friday, kicking off a new skirmish between Democrats and the White House. Written by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, is was intended to rebut a Republican document made public last week with Trump’s consent.

The memo by committee Republicans claimed bias against Trump by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department in the federal investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election.

The Intelligence Committee had voted unanimously on Monday to release the document drafted by the panel’s Democrats, contingent on the Republican president agreeing.

“The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency,” Trump tweeted. “Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!”

Trump’s decision to block the release of the memo infuriated Democrats, who said it showed a double standard on transparency on the part of the Republican president.

Representative Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Saturday that he will review redactions recommended by the FBI and Justice Department.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

“We hope this matter can be quickly resolved so the committee can return to its charge - fully investigating the Russian interference in our election and the role of the Trump campaign, and what steps need to be taken to protect against foreign interference in the next election, now only months away,” Schiff said.

He was referring to November’s U.S. elections in which all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 34 of 100 Senate seats are in play. Currently, Republicans hold majorities in both chambers. Democrats hope Trump’s low popularity in public opinion polls will help them win majorities, and some analysts give them a good chance.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, in a statement posted on Twitter, called on Democrats to accept the Justice Department’s recommendations and “make the appropriate technical changes and redactions” so that the memo can be declassified as soon as possible.

Trump on Feb. 2 allowed the release of the Republican document with no redactions, even though the Justice Department and FBI argued against making it public. The FBI expressed “grave concerns about material omissions of fact” in the Republic memo.

Democrats said it mischaracterized highly sensitive classified information and was intended to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

Trump repeatedly has denied any such collusion.

Late on Friday, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused Trump of “hypocrisy at its worst” in blocking, at least for now, release of the House Democrats’ memo.

”Any minor redactions should be made as quickly as possible and the memo should be released,” she said.

Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Writing by Richard Cowan; Editing by Bill Trott and DAvid Gregorio