Trump is zeroing in on his pick to head the US's top trade commission

• David Shepardson and Diane Bartz, Reuters

• 19h
• 330

Donald Trump. Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump's leading choice to run the Federal Trade Commission is a Washington lawyer who served at the agency as a top official under President George W. Bush, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

Joseph Simons, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP, is the leading choice to run the FTC over Acting FTC chairman Maureen Ohlhausen, who has been running the agency since January.

Bloomberg News reported the leading choice of Simons earlier on Wednesday. The timing of a formal presidential nomination is not clear.

Simons was head of the FTC's Bureau of Competition from June 2001 to August 2003 and has been involved in a number of major antitrust cases and acquisitions in private practice.

Ohlhausen previously headed the FTC's Office of Policy Planning. A veteran of the law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, Ohlhausen is expected to remain on the FTC as a commissioner, the source said.

The FTC, which has five commission seats, now has only Ohlhausen and Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, a Democrat. Two of the empty seats may go to Republicans, but the remaining seat must go either to a Democrat or an independent.

A leading candidate for another Republican slot is Noah Phillips, an aide to Senator John Cornyn, according to the person briefed on the matter.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Wednesday the administration has "no announcement at this time." Simons did not immediately return requests for comment. An FTC spokeswoman had no comment.

The FTC has two main missions. One is to fight scams and deceptive advertising and the other to review mergers to ensure they comply with antitrust law.

The FTC is currently reviewing Amazon.com Inc's proposed $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc .

The FTC sued Qualcomm Inc in January over allegations of anticompetitive behavior to maintain a monopoly on the chips that let cell phones connect to mobile data networks.

The FTC has sued to stop mergers deemed illegal, such as Staples' attempt to buy rival Office Depot. It is in the process of deciding if Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc will be allowed to merge with Rite Aid Corp to create the largest U.S. drugstore chain.

In June, fantasy sports companies FanDuel and DraftKings scrapped a plan to merge following an FTC legal challenge. (Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay and David Gregorio)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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North Korea again threatens nuclear strike near Guam, mocks Trump's 'fire and fury' threat

• Alex Lockie
 

• 17h
• 31,939
 

Kim Jong Un under the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile.KRT via AP Video

North Korea's army released a statement Wednesday repeating and specifying its threat to launch nuclear-capable missiles near Guam, the US territory in the Pacific that is home to massive US Air Force and Navy bases.

State media also responded directly to US President Donald Trump's threats, calling them "absolute nonsense" and saying "only absolute force can work on him."

North Korea says it is "seriously examining the plan for an enveloping strike at Guam through simultaneous fire of four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range strategic ballistic rockets in order to interdict the enemy forces on major military bases on Guam and to signal a crucial warning to the US," according to a translation of the statement on South Korea's Yonhap News.

The statement said the country would fire four missiles that would fly over Japan before crashing down in the waters 18 to 25 miles from Guam, a more specific threat than what the Hermit Kingdom had said Tuesday.

The statement said it would complete plans for the launch by mid-August, at which point they would be submitted to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

An attack like North Korea described in the statement would be incredibly risky, as the Hwasong-12 missile has been tested only once and has unpredictable performance and unreliable accuracy.

The US fields the world's most advanced missile-defense system in Guam, but a large salvo of missiles could overwhelm its defenses.

"We always maintain a high state of readiness and have the capabilities to counter any threat, to include those from North Korea," Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Business Insider recently.

The US military keeps a continuous presence of nuclear-capable bombers in Guam, which would make it an attractive target for a nuclear strike. North Korea specifically mentioned these bombers, "which get on the nerves of DPRK and threaten and blackmail it through their frequent visits to the sky above Korea," in its first threat Tuesday.

A B-52 Stratofortress from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron leading a formation of Japanese Air Self Defense Force F-2s from the 6th Squadron, US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 18th Aggressor Squadron, and a US Navy EA-6B Prowler from Electronic Attack Squadron 136 over Guam in 2009.US Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald

Both Trump and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned in recent days that North Korea's provocations could lead to the state's destruction.

Mattis stressed in a statement Wednesday that the US and South Korea combined had "the most precise, rehearsed, and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on earth."

On Tuesday, Trump said the US would respond to more North Korean threats with "fire and fury" unlike the world had ever seen. Trump boasted about the US nuclear arsenal Wednesday morning, but he tweeted that "hopefully we will never have to use" nuclear weapons.

SEE ALSO: CALM DOWN: We're not even close to nuclear war with North Korea

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