President John F. Kennedy in an undated photograph courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. REUTERS/JFK Presidential Library and Museum/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS.

 

Special report

 

Science Care reaps $27 million in annual revenue by recruiting body donors through hospices, funeral homes and online ads. And to ensure quality of body parts sold, it found inspiration in a legendary model of efficiency: McDonald's. Read Part Three of the series on the body broker industry. 

 

U.S.

 

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on a budget blueprint central to efforts by Republicans to enact big tax cuts, but the outlook was clouded by a rebellion by moderates within the party from high-tax states. 

 

A U.S. judge refused to block President Donald Trump’s decision to end subsidy payments to health insurers under Obamacare, handing Trump a victory against Democratic attorneys general who have regularly challenged the president’s policies in court.

 

More than half a century after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was struck down by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas, the United States is due to release the final files on the investigation into the killing that rattled a nation. 

 

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush apologized through a spokesman for what an actress described as a sexual assault but which Bush said was intended as a friendly pat and a joke to put her at ease during a picture-taking session. 

 

Business

 

The euro climbed for a third day and stocks slipped to a month low, as traders waited for formal confirmation from the European Central Bank that will take its biggest step yet in unwinding years of loose monetary policy. 

 

Elon Musk was fed up. The seats on Tesla’s new Model X SUV were a mess. How would Tesla ever pull off mass production of the upcoming Model 3, the car intended to catapult the niche automaker into the big leagues, if it could not deliver on something as fundamental as a seat? Musk made a decision: Tesla would build the seats itself. 

 

Viacom is trying a new tactic in its multi-front effort to win back younger U.S. viewers ditching expensive cable TV packages: seeking deals directly with mobile phone networks. 

 

Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is on track for next year and the national oil giant could be valued at more than $2 trillion, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman told Reuters in an interview. Read the exclusive.

 

Three women engineers have sued Uber for discrimination based on their gender and race, the latest blow to the ride-services company that is straining to overcome a year of controversies over its workplace culture.

 

Las Vegas Sands, the casino behemoth owned by U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson, said it plans to spend $1.1 billion on new projects in the world’s largest gambling hub, including building a London-themed attraction.

 

Breakingviews - Banks score hollow victory in class-action win 

 

Earnings

 

Twitter said it could turn its first ever profit in the fourth quarter, after making sweeping cuts in expenses the past few months and finding sources of revenue beyond the advertising that dominates social media. 

 

Dunkin’ Brands Group, the owner of the Dunkin’ Donuts chain, reported a surprise fall in comparable sales at its Baskin-Robbins restaurants, weighing on the company’s overall profit in the third quarter.

 

Hotel operator Hilton reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings for the third quarter amid booming business travel, leading the company to raise its full-year profit forecast for the third time this year. 

 

 

Umar, 64, a Muslim from the Tzotzil Maya ethnic group, adjusts his Islamic prayer cap, or "Kufi", as he poses for a photograph in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas state, Mexico, August 13, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

 

Reuters photographer Edgard Garrido explored Mexico's indigenous Muslims in the Maya heartland. 

 

World

 

The ruling Communist Party’s flagship newspaper provided more evidence that President Xi Jinping should be regarded as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after this week’s party congress. 

 

Reuters TV: Thailand puts on lavish funeral in a farewell to its late king.

 

Kenyan opposition supporters clashed with police and threw up burning barricades, seeking to derail an election rerun likely to return Uhuru Kenyatta as president of East Africa’s chief economic and political powerhouse. 

 

The number of deaths has risen to 47 from a blast at a fireworks factory on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta, with 46 injured, police spokesman Argo Yuwono told Metro Television. 

 

Israel is willing to resort to military action to ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, the intelligence minister said in Japan where he is seeking backing for Trump’s tougher line on Tehran. 

 

South Korea’s economy clocked its fastest growth in seven years last quarter, as global demand for the country’s electronics more than offset the impact of regional geopolitical strains on trade and boosted expectations for an imminent interest rate rise.

 

A Turkish court ordered the release on bail of eight human rights activists, including the director of the local branch of Amnesty International, pending a verdict in their trial on terrorism charges.

 

Commentary: After Islamic State

 

The near-total defeat of Islamic State is reshaping political and sectarian alliances in the Middle East, writes Maysam Behravesh. It's had a "sobering and unifying effect" on Sunni-Shi'ite relationships and prompted Iraq to try to distance itself from Iran while making "once-unthinkable" overtures to the Sunni Arab bloc led by Saudi Arabia. "Neither Riyadh nor Tehran can achieve sustainable hegemony in the region at the expense of the other," writes Behravesh. "It’s ironic that it may be the routing of extremist IS that serves as the catalyst to ease the bitter sectarian rifts that have divided them for so long." 

 

U.S. support for local forces was crucial in the capture of cities held by Islamic State, writes Peter Apps. But since the fall of Raqqa, the de facto IS capital in Syria, Washington's allies in the region are showing they "don't have much appetite for being dictated to by America." That leaves the Trump administration without a clear policy direction on the Middle East and less control and influence  over traditional friends and enemies -- "particularly at a time when they increasingly feel they can turn to alternatives such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia," says Apps.