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LAS VEGAS (AP) — David Copperfield insisted Tuesday he knew of no one being injured during more than 15 years of performing a signature vanishing act at the center of a lawsuit by a British tourist who claims he was seriously hurt in a fall during a Las Vegas performance.
Amid complaints from his lawyers about widespread media coverage, the world-famous illusionist returned to the witness stand, telling a Nevada jury about the trick that makes people seems to disappear on stage and reappear in the back of the theater.
At least 55,000 audience volunteers have taken part in the illusion over 17 years, according to Copperfield and show executive producer Chris Kenner, who testified last week.
In 60 to 90 seconds, stagehands with flashlights ushered randomly chosen participants past dark curtains, down passageways, around corners, outdoors, indoors and through an MGM Grand resort kitchen to re-enter the theater and “reappear” for the show finale, according to testimony.
Copperfield remains on stage the entire time.
Benedict Morelli, attorney for plaintiff Gavin Cox, has characterized the route as an obstacle course and the pace as dangerously fast for people who might not have appropriate footwear and are not told in advance what they will encounter.
Copperfield said he and stagehands assessed the capabilities of audience volunteers as they approached the stage, climbed stairs and seated themselves in a boxy 13-seat apparatus for the illusion. The trick is dubbed “The Thirteen,” for the number of seats.
The jury has been told that some volunteers were turned away.
Over the objections of Copperfield attorney Elaine Fresch, Morelli asked Copperfield if he thought the number of people not injured by the illusion over the years suggested it was safe.
“I’m not in the business of hurting people,” Copperfield said.
“The illusion must be safe because of how many people have done it without getting injured?” Morelli asked.
“Numbers are not a defense,” Copperfield said, adding he couldn’t remember hearing of anyone getting hurt.
Copperfield said he didn’t know Cox claimed to have been injured in November 2013 until he was sued the following year. He said he stopped performing the illusion a year later.
Cox alleges he fell after being hurried by stagehands through an alleyway coated with a powdery residue near a trailer-sized trash bin. The resident of Kent, England, claims lasting brain and bodily injuries from his fall have cost him more than $400,000 in medical care.
Fresch lost a bid Tuesday for a mistrial based on the amount of media coverage about the case, including interviews involving Morelli.
Clark County District Court Judge Mark Denton allowed testimony to resume after asking jurors if they saw news items about the case during a five-day break in the civil trial. Three said they turned off broadcasts when they encountered them.
Copperfield’s lawyers lost pretrial motions to close proceedings to the public to avoid giving away performance secrets.
A state appeals court ruled Friday that Denton can close the courtroom to the public for some testimony to protect tradecraft.
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This story corrects references to time doing trick to “more than 15 years,” instead of “nearly 20” years. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers say Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s security chief has been operating an outside consulting firm without proper approval from ethics officials.
EPA special agent Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta was tapped by Pruitt last year to lead his 20-member personal protective detail. He’s also the top executive at a Maryland-based security firm.
Perrotta got clearance in March 2013 for limited non-government consulting work but was required to get an updated approval if job duties changed. Perrotta got a significant promotion and pay raise last year.
The 2013 approval, which was in effect for a 5-year period that expired last month, also barred Perrotta from using his government position to advance his personal interests. One of Perrotta’s business associates won a 2017 contract to sweep Pruitt’s office for listening devices. |
Trump says North Korea wants meeting ‘as soon as possible,’ praises Kim Jong Un as ‘very open’ and ‘very honorable’ |
MOSCOW (AP) — The Tass news agency says that Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived at a Russian military air base in Syria.
Tass said that Putin’s plane landed at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, the heartland of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority. The visit marks Putin’s first trip to Syria and comes as Assad’s forces have retaken control over most of Syria under the Russian air cover.
The air base has served as the main foothold for the air campaign Russia has waged since September 2015 in support of Assad. |
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Authorities have not provided a crowd estimate for the Saturday rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville that descended into chaos. But two organizations that track hate groups and were monitoring the event said it was the largest white supremacist gathering in a decade or more.
An Associated Press reporter and photographer who were on the scene all day estimated the white nationalist group at about 500 and the counterprotesters at double that, based on in-person observations and photos, including some taken from just above street level.
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said she did not have a crowd estimate. A city spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the crowd size.
Southern Poverty Law Center spokeswoman Heidi Beirich told The Associated Press the next-biggest white supremacist rally her group knew of took place in 2002 in the nation’s capital and drew around 300 people.
Saturday was “a pretty big deal in this world,” she said.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement that the “gathering of extreme hate yesterday in Charlottesville is something we have not seen in at least a decade.”
Jason Kessler, the organizer of the rally, said he had no sense of how many people were present. |
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the resignation of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
Defense attorney Jim Martin says he’s happy “we’ve eliminated the issue” of the computer tampering charge against departing Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced Wednesday that she’s dropping that charge against Greitens. A special prosecutor is considering whether to refile an invasion of privacy charge against him. Martin says he thinks “we’ll resolve that soon” but would not elaborate.
Martin says “it’s now time to leave the governor alone and let him and his family heal.”
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11:20 a.m.
St. Louis’ top prosecutor is pushing back against Gov. Eric Greitens’ past statements that the charges she initially filed against him were part of a coordinated “witch hunt.”
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced Wednesday that she’s dropping the computer tampering charge against Greitens, who is resigning on Friday. A special prosecutor is weighing whether to refile another criminal charge against him.
Gardner says she made the agreement to dismiss the computer charge after conversations with Greitens’ attorneys. She says there was enough evidence to bring the charge but that if he were convicted, it’s unlikely Greitens would have served any jail time due to his status as a first-time offender.
As for Greitens allegations of a witch hunt, Gardner said she rejects his “shameful personal attacks” and “dangerous and false rhetoric about the criminal justice system and the rule of law.”
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11:05 a.m.
Missouri’s top legislative leaders are meeting with Lt. Gov. Mike Parson to plan the transition in power when Gov. Eric Greitens resigns.
Parson met Wednesday with House Speaker Todd Richardson, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard and Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe.
The lawmakers said they have invited Parson to deliver a speech to a joint session of the Legislature in the coming weeks.
Greitens announced Tuesday that he was resigning Friday instead of continuing to fight a criminal charge and potential impeachment proceedings over alleged sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations.
Among those meeting Wednesday with Parson was Sarah Steelman, Greitens’ administration commissioner. Parson also was receiving enhanced security that is supplied to incoming governors.
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10:40 a.m.
The prosecutor’s office in St. Louis will drop a felony charge of computer data tampering against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, now that the Republican governor has announced his resignation.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the decision Wednesday, a day after Greitens’ surprise announcement that he would step down effective Friday afternoon.
The charge, filed in April following an investigation by the Missouri attorney general’s office, accused Greitens of using a donor list from the veterans charity he founded, The Mission Continues, for his 2016 gubernatorial campaign.
Greitens also was indicted on felony invasion of privacy in February in St. Louis, stemming from an extramarital affair in 2015. The case was dismissed earlier this month and a special prosecutor in Jackson County is still considering whether to refile the charge.
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This story has been corrected to reflect the charity’s name as The Mission Continues.
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9 a.m.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is planning to explain the resolution of criminal charges against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.
Gardner’s news conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
She said Tuesday that her office has reached a “fair and just resolution” on charges of tampering with a computer against Greitens.
Greitens announced the same day that he is resigning as governor, effective Friday.
A felony indictment in February accused Greitens of taking an unauthorized and compromising photo of a St. Louis woman during an extramarital affair in 2015.
The charge was dropped earlier this month, but Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was appointed special prosecutor to consider whether to refile it.
Baker said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing.
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8:30 a.m.
On a dreary overcast day, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens stood in a light rain near the Governor’s Mansion and recounted his grueling training as a Navy SEAL officer to suggest he would never quit fighting allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations.
Less than two weeks later, Greitens announced Tuesday that he is quitting with his mission incomplete.
Greitens’ departure will become official at 5 p.m. Friday — marking a stunning political defeat for the 44-year-old, self-made warrior-philosopher who had aspirations of someday becoming president.
For those fellow Republicans who had strenuously urged his resignation, Greitens’ exit provides the divided party a chance to reunify at the start of a summer campaign season in which it’s seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. |
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge in New York ruled Wednesday against the makers of “Sesame Street” in a dispute with the distributor of the upcoming Melissa McCarthy movie, “The Happytime Murders.”
U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick ruled that distributor STX Productions can continue to use the tagline “No sesame. All street” in promoting the R-rated film, which features Muppet-like puppets in a comedic crime story.
Sesame Workshop sued last week, seeking to end the inclusion of the tagline in promotional materials ahead of the film’s Aug. 17 release. The company argued the public would be confused and think the movie was supported by “Sesame Street.”
The judge heard oral arguments before issuing his ruling. He said Sesame Workshop didn’t demonstrate that moviegoers were confused or that sponsors or parents were complaining.
“We fluffing love Sesame Street and we’re obviously very pleased that the ruling reinforced what STX’s intention was from the very beginning — to honor the heritage of The Jim Henson Company’s previous award-winning creations while drawing a clear distinction between any Muppets or Sesame Street characters and the new world Brian Henson and team created,” STX said in statement. |
A leading neo-Nazi website is losing its internet domain host after its publisher posted an article mocking the woman who was killed in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
GoDaddy tweeted late Sunday night that it has given The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider because the site has violated the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company’s terms of service.
GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race said the move was prompted by a post on the site about Heather Heyer, who was killed Saturday when a man plowed his car into a group of demonstrators in Charlottesville. The post called her “fat” and “childless” and said “most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness.”
“Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service,” Race said in an emailed statement.
Shortly after GoDaddy tweeted its decision, the site posted an article claiming it had been hacked and would be shut down. But one of The Daily Stormer’s contributors said that post was just a prank.
“We’re a convivial publication. We have a lot of fun with it,” said Andrew Auernheimer, a notorious hacker and internet troll who writes for the site.
Andrew Anglin, the website’s publisher and author of Sunday’s post about Heyer, said he couldn’t immediately comment Monday on GoDaddy’s move.
“I don’t have time to talk, we’re trying to regain control of the site,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
Auernheimer, known online as “weev,” said GoDaddy hadn’t contacted The Daily Stormer to explain its decision. He said the site has an alternate domain name that it can use if GoDaddy cancels its service.
“We’ll get it taken care of,” Auernheimer said. “If we need a new domain, we’ll get a new domain.”
GoDaddy isn’t The Daily Stormer’s host, which means the site’s content isn’t on the company’s servers, according to Race. “Only the domain is with GoDaddy,” Race added.
Anglin’s site takes its name from Der Stürmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. The site includes sections called “Jewish Problem” and “Race War.”
The Daily Stormer is infamous for orchestrating internet harassment campaigns carried out by its “Troll Army” of readers. Its targets have included prominent journalists, a Jewish woman who was running for a California congressional seat and Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist whom Anglin derided as a “Zionist Millionaire.”
In April, a Montana woman sued Anglin after her family became the target of another Daily Stormer trolling campaign. Tanya Gersh’s suit claims anonymous internet trolls bombarded Gersh’s family with hateful and threatening messages after Anglin published their personal information in a post accusing her and other Jewish residents of Whitefish, Montana, of engaging in an “extortion racket” against the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer
The Daily Stormer used a crowdfunding website, WeSearchr, to raise more than $152,000 in donations from nearly 2,000 contributors to help pay for Anglin’s legal expenses.
Other internet services have taken similar action against The Daily Stormer since Anglin founded it in 2013. In 2015, Anglin said PayPal had permanently banned him from using the service. And he complained in January that a Ukrainian advertising company had banned them, leaving an Australian electrician as the site’s only advertiser.
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Mairs reported from Philadelphia and Kunzelman reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — New week’s stunning solar eclipse in the United States will generate as much science as oohs and aahs.
From the discovery of helium to proving Einstein right, great science often comes out of eclipses.
NASA and others will monitor next Monday’s eclipse with an armada of satellites, airplanes, balloons and citizen-scientists looking up from the ground. Scientists will focus on the sun, but they will also examine what happens to Earth’s weather, to space weather, and to animals and plants on Earth as the moon totally blocks out the sun.
The moon’s shadow will sweep along a narrow path, from Oregon to South Carolina. |
I had the chance to talk to concert goers at Bar Louie during the JingleFest after party in Saint Charles, and it was clear people were still feeling pretty hype about the show. Sam and Angie came all the way from Grand Blanc, MI to make the show, Brittney got her new Walker Hayes album signed during the meet & greet, and Sarah was definitely best dressed for JingleFest 2017. Make sure you check all things JingleFest at the New Country 92.3 Facebook page including pics and videos to point yourself out in the crowd. The video above shows the entire New Country 92.3 team standing on stage Saturday night with LOCASH as they played to a sold out #JingleFest2017 crowd. – JT
@iamholleman |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — LeBron James had 25 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds to turn back a charge from Andrew Wiggins and help the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 116-108 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
Channing Frye had 21 points and 10 rebounds while starting for All-Star Kevin Love, who will miss at least the next six weeks after having surgery on his left knee. Kyre Irving scored 25 points for the Cavs and James sealed the victory with a stepback 3-pointer with two minutes to play.
Wiggins scored 41 points against the team that drafted him and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 26 for the Wolves, who finished a six-game homestand at 2-4. The Wolves allowed Cleveland to shoot 51 percent and hit 13 3s.
James tried to calm the Cavs on Tuesday morning when they found out they would be without Love for the stretch run in an Eastern Conference race that is suddenly tight with the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards right on their heels. He said that as long as he’s on the floor, the Cavs will always have a chance to win, and no one doubts him.
He took his time to get going, choosing to get others involved, including with a no-look pass through Wiggins’ legs to a diving Derrick Williams for a layup in the second quarter. He threw down two soaring dunks later in the third and added a Jordan-like reverse layup as part of a highlight-filled night.
The Cavs appeared to be pulling away when they opened a 14-point lead in the third quarter, but Wiggins exploded for 20 points in the period to make it a game. He hit a 3-pointer and beat the buzzer on a long 2 to tie it at 93 going into the fourth.
Wiggins was chosen by the Cavs No. 1 overall three years ago, but that was before James made his surprising return to Cleveland. The Cavs traded Wiggins to Minnesota for Love and Wiggins has always given them his best punch. He entered the night averaging 27.6 points per game against them, his highest scoring average against any team in the league.
The Wolves missed two open 3-pointers that would have tied the game in the final four minutes, but James hit his from deep and Williams got a steal and a layup to hold off the Wolves.
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: F Iman Shumpert played 25 minutes after missing the previous three games with a sprained left ankle. … Williams scored 13 points off the bench against the team that drafted him No. 2 overall. … Tristan Thompson had 14 points and 11 boards.
Timberwolves: SG Zach LaVine had surgery in Los Angeles on Tuesday to reconstruct the torn ACL in his left knee. He is expected to miss nine months while recovering. … Ricky Rubio had 16 assists and eight rebounds, but was just 2 for 8 from the field.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Cleveland heads back home to face Indiana on Wednesday for its final game before the All-Star break.
Timberwolves: Minnesota flies to Denver for a game Wednesday night in a key game for the Wolves against the Nuggets, who currently own the eighth seed in the West. |
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say a prominent billionaire businessman and four other suspects were taken into custody on a battery of charges, including money laundering, obstruction of justice and bribery.
The police say the suspects were arrested and questioned on Monday, following a joint investigation with Swiss and American authorities into forged documents and fictitious real estate deals abroad.
The police would not comment on the specifics of the current investigation, but confirmed that Beny Steinmetz was among those arrested.
Steinmetz, a Geneva-based diamond-mining magnate with an estimated worth of just over $1 billion according to Forbes, was arrested by Israeli authorities in December over allegations of bribing officials in the African country of Guinea to promote business interests there.
He spent two weeks under house arrest at that time. |
STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Napheesa Collier scored 23 points and top-seeded UConn beat in-state neighbor Quinnipiac 71-46 on Monday night to advance to a 25th straight Sweet 16.
Azura Stevens added 14 points and Kia Nurse chipped in with 13 for the Huskies (34-0), who found themselves in a much slower-paced game than their 140-52 first-round rout of Saint Francis (Pa.).
But Connecticut was not threatened in this one either. They opened with a 9-2 run and never trailed.
Jen Fay had 12 points to lead the ninth-seeded Bobcats (28-6), who saw their school-record 23-game winning streak snapped.
Quinnipiac got plenty of open looks, but hit just four of 24 shots from 3-point range, including just one of 12 from in the first half.
UConn shot 59 percent, held Quinnipiac to just 17 baskets on 56 shots (30 percent), and led 33-18 at halftime.
A pair of free throws by Stevens gave the Huskies their first 20-point lead late in the third quarter and it was 54-31 going into the fourth.
The Huskies were too big for the Bobcats, who had no player on the court over 6-foot tall.
They outrebounded Quinnipiac 33-21 and outscored them 28-14 in the paint.
It was just the second meeting between the two programs. The first, a 117-20 UConn win, came almost 20 years ago after Quinnipiac made the jump from Division II.
BIG PICTURE
Quinnipiac: Senior Carly Fabbri, the coach’s daughter, finishes her career with a 112-26 record and three trips to the NCAA Tournament, where teams she was on went 3-3. … This is the schools fourth trip to the tournament, all since 2015.
UConn: The win was the Huskies 115th in their NCAA Tournament history against 18 defeats. The 86.5 winning percentage is the best in the history of the NCAA Tournament… UConn’s current 34-game winning streak is the longest in the nation and 12th longest in NCAA history… UConn’s seniors will end their careers undefeated (79-0) in Connecticut, including 32-0 at Gampel Pavilion.
UP NEXT
UConn plays either fourth-seeded Georgia or fifth-seeded Duke on Saturday in Albany, New York. The Huskies have not played a game outside the state of Connecticut since their penultimate win of the regular season at SMU on Feb. 24. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pushing back on claims that President Donald Trump’s travel ban is soon set to expire.
The White House released a memorandum Wednesday declaring that the effective date of the president’s executive order banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries “is delayed or tolled” until all relevant court injunctions “are lifted or stayed.”
Some critics of the travel ban have said that the policy’s 90-day halt to visitors from Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Libya is due to expire in mid-June, even though the ban itself has never taken effect.
The memorandum instructs the secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of homeland security, and the director of national intelligence to implement the ban 72 hours after all applicable court injunctions are lifted or stayed. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices jumped in February as buyers compete fiercely over a dwindling number of properties for sale.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index released Tuesday jumped 6.3 percent in February from a year earlier, matching December’s increase. That jump was the largest in nearly three years.
Steady job gains and rising numbers of millennials moving out on their own has intensified the competition for homes. February’s price gain far outpaces average increases in wages or inflation.
Americans are becoming reluctant to sell their homes as mortgage rates rise, preferring to renovate instead. Others are holding onto their homes because they see few other options available. That’s kept supply tight: The number of homes for sale fell 7.2 percent in March from a year earlier to just 1.67 million.
Sales of existing homes ticked up in March but actually declined slightly from a year earlier as the housing shortage constrained sales.
Homebuyers are getting increasingly aggressive, snapping up homes an average of 30 days after they are listed in March, down from 34 days a year earlier.
“Competition is fierce, offer windows are short and tensions will inevitably run high for many buyers as the spring shopping season unfolds,” Svenja Gudell, chief economist at real estate data website Zillow, said.
There are signs that the supply crunch could ease later this year, as listings have picked up in recent months, only to be quickly sold. And developers are breaking ground on more homes, lifting single-family home construction 5.2 percent in March compared with a year earlier.
Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco remain the nation’s top real estate hot spots, with home prices jumping 12.7 percent in Seattle, 11.6 percent in Las Vegas and 10.1 percent in San Francisco.
Strong job gains in some cities, which hint at an influx of new residents, are pushing up home prices, Standard & Poor’s said. Seattle reported the biggest increase in employment, and had the largest home price gain. Chicago ranked 19th out of the 20 cities tracked in both home price increases and employment. Cleveland came in at 18th place in home prices and 20th in employment.
But in San Francisco and Los Angeles, home prices are rising much faster than their job gains would suggest, a sign that regulatory limits on homebuilding and limited land availability are pushing prices eve higher. |
DANVERS, Mass. (AP) — No, a live alligator was not lurking by the side of a Massachusetts highway this weekend: It was just a plastic toy.
The Salem News (http://bit.ly/2w3mn06 ) reports that police in Danvers got their first report of an alligator along Route 128 at around 8:40 a.m. Sunday. One person walked into a police station to report the alligator on the southbound side of the highway a couple of hours later.
The reports prompted a frenzy on Twitter.
Officers who went to investigate found a foot-and-a-half plastic toy discarded by the side of the road. They removed it.
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Information from: The Salem (Mass.) News, http://www.salemnews.com |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led Senate has voted to block an Obama-era regulation that would prevent an estimated 75,000 people with mental disorders from being able to purchase a firearm.
The 57 to 43 vote to revoke the regulation now sends the measure to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.
The Obama administration rule strengthened the federal background check system by requiring the Social Security Administration to include the names of beneficiaries with mental impairments who also have a third party to manage their benefits.
But critics say the rule was too broad and unfairly stigmatized the disabled. With a Republican ally in the White House, the GOP has moved aggressively to rescind several late Obama administration regulations. |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch bank ABN Amro says its underlying net profit, which strips out exceptional items, rose 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 333 million euros ($351 million).
The bank, which has been restructured and re-privatized following its bailout by the Dutch government in 2008 during the global financial crisis, said Wednesday that operating income for the fourth quarter rose 7 percent to 2.2 billion euros ($2.3 billion).
CEO Kees van Dijkhuizen says that in the last quarter the bank “achieved loan growth in all of our major loan books: we were the number one provider of new mortgages in the Netherlands for the second consecutive year.” |
UK police: Counterterrorism officers join investigation after 2 sickened by unknown substance near spy poisoning town |
NEW YORK (AP) — To the Trump administration, the recovered missile fragments were incontrovertible proof that Iran was illicitly arming Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Yet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif brushed it off Tuesday as little more than cheese puffs.
During a visit to New York, the Iranian diplomat accused U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley of displaying fabricated evidence that missiles lobbed by the Houthis at civilian areas in Saudi Arabia originated in Iran. Though Tehran supports the Shiite rebel group, it firmly denials giving them missiles. But Haley has invited journalists and U.N. Security Council diplomats to inspect missile parts recovered after strikes on Saudi Arabia, bearing what U.S. military officials said were Iranian markings and characteristics.
Zarif, in an Associated Press interview, said that one such logo was from the Standard Institute of Iran, which he said regulates consumer goods — not weapons.
“It’s a sign of quality,” Zarif said. “When people want to buy it, they look at whether it’s been tested by the Standard Institute of Iran that your cheese puffs are good, your cheese puffs will not give you a stomach ache.”
He laughed and added, “I mean, nobody will put the logo of the Standard Institute of Iran on a piece of missile.”
Zarif also pointed to a truck-size section of a missile that the U.S. said was recovered in Saudi Arabia and was transferred to a military base near Washington, where it was on display behind Haley for a photo-op. Zarif noted that the missile had been supposedly shot down in mid-air.
“I’m not saying Ambassador Haley is fabricating, but somebody is fabricating the evidence she is showing,” Zarif said.
Some of the fragments Haley presented, if authentic, would seem to implicate Iran’s military industry more directly, including some with the logo of Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group, an Iranian defense entity under U.S. sanctions. Haley said others had clear “Iranian missile fingerprints,” such as short-range ballistic missiles that lacked large stabilizers — a feature she said only Iran’s Qiam missiles have.
“Just imagine if this missile had been launched at Dulles Airport or JFK, or the airports in Paris, London or Berlin,” Haley told reporters late last year. “That’s what we’re talking about here.”
Tehran’s denials aside, there’s broad agreement among the United Nations, Western countries and the Persian Gulf’s Arab leaders that Iran has armed the Houthis with ballistic missiles, even though U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibit it. With U.S. support, a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen’s civil war has been bombing the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen.
Yet Iran’s opponents have struggled to provide foolproof evidence to back up their claims, creating an opening for Iran to deny. After Haley’s presentations at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, some national security experts raised questions, even drawing parallels to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech to the U.N. making the case for the Iraq War.
The fragments Haley presented were turned over to the U.S. by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — two of Iran’s fiercest critics — and U.S. military officials had trouble tracing the fragments’ chain of custody. Nor could they say when the weapons were transferred to the Houthis or in some cases precisely when they were launched. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. drove in two runs, Eduardo Rodriguez struck out six in six scoreless innings and the Boston Red Sox shut out the Washington Nationals 3-0 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep and send the preseason NL East favorites below .500.
The Nationals (42-43) have lost five in a row to fall below .500 this late in the season for the first time since being 60-61 on Aug. 21, 2015.
A throwing error by Adam Eaton on Bradley’s sacrifice fly caught in foul territory and a wild pitch by Ryan Madson (2-4) in the seventh inning contributed to Washington’s 17th loss in 22 games.
Bradley scored Eduardo Nunez twice, first on a sacrifice fly and then a double in the ninth. It’s just the second time all season Bradley had multiple RBIs in a game without hitting a home run.
Rodriguez (10-3) allowed just three hits and one walk to make the Red Sox the first team in the majors with a pair of 10-game winners, joining Rick Porcello. He surrendered two singles to Trea Turner and a bunt single to catcher Pedro Severino while striking out Bryce Harper and not allowing a runner past second base.
Getting to Madson in the seventh and getting some insurance off Kelvin Herrera in the ninth allowed Boston to improve to 22-6 this season in series finales.
Madson was the Nationals’ fourth pitcher after starter Erick Fedde left with an undisclosed injury one batter into the second inning and gave way to left-hander Matt Grace, who allowed just one hit and struck out four in four innings of relief. It was Grace’s longest major league relief appearance.
Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel picked up his 26th save in 28 chances.
JUAN OFF
Impressive Nationals rookie Juan Soto got most of the day off after starting 19 games in a row and playing in the completion of a suspended game. He lined out to second as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and stayed in to play left field.
“I had to get him off his feet for a little bit,” manager Davey Martinez said. “If we had 365 games, I’d love for him to play 365 games. But I understand the game and I’ve been around a long time to know that guys need a break.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: Manager Alex Cora said LHP Drew Pomeranz (biceps tendinitis) would most likely make a second rehab start early next week. … RHP Tyler Thornburg was activated from the disabled list after rehabbing from shoulder surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome last June.
Nationals: 1B Matt Adams was activated after missing 16 games with a broken left index finger. To clear room, LHP Tim Collins was designated for assignment. … C Matt Wieters (left hamstring strain) is doing some catching, but still hasn’t done enough running to be ready to return.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: After a day off, LHP Chris Sale (8-4, 2.41 ERA) brings a 15-inning scoreless streak into his Friday start at Kansas City, which is expected to start Jason Hammel (2-10, 5.56).
Nationals: RHP Jeremy Hellickson (2-1, 2.63) will look to last at least six innings to spare a heavily used bullpen when Washington faces RHP Pablo Lopez (1-0, 3.00) to open a four-game series against the Miami Marlins.
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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball |
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The dramatic final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are set to begin.
Forty-one spellers advanced to Thursday’s finals out of a field of 516 — by far the largest in the 93-year history of the competition. Scripps started a wild-card program this year that created a path to nationals for spellers who didn’t win their regional bees, and some of the finalists got to the bee that way.
The past 13 champions and 18 of the last 22 have been Indian-American, and that trend could easily continue. Most of the consensus favorites in this year’s bee have Indian heritage. |
Fluffy the Lost Ozark Mountain Bear is murderous and wants to eat Abby. Abby from St Louis wants to win a 4 pack of tickets to Holiday World! Will she be splashing in the sun, or will Fluffy be splashing in her bloooood???
Listen… |
SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s most powerful investigative authority has recommended that priests who fail to tell police about suspected child sexual abuse should face criminal charges, even when they learn of abuse through confession.
Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended in a report on Monday that all states and territories in Australia introduce legislation that would make it a criminal offense for people to fail to report child sexual abuse in an institutional setting. Clergy who find out about sexual abuse during a confidential religious confession would not be exempt from the law.
The royal commission is the nation’s highest form of inquiry. It has been investigating since 2013 how churches and other institutions responded to the sexual abuse of children in Australia over the last several decades. |
A look at what’s happening all around the majors today:
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WELCOME BACK
Rockies right-hander Chad Bettis will complete his comeback from chemotherapy for testicular cancer when he starts at Coors Field against Atlanta.
The 28-year-old Bettis finished his last round of treatment in May, two months after doctors discovered his testicular cancer had spread. He had surgery in November to remove the cancer, but it returned and he was forced to leave the team in March for chemotherapy.
The game will be Bettis’ first in the majors since Sept. 30. He went 14-8 for Colorado last year.
YOUR CALL
Cubs manager Joe Maddon starts his annual “American Legion Week,” a stretch of home games during which he allows his players to show up to Wrigley Field at their own discretion. It’s designed to give players rest before the key stretch run in September, and take them back to the time in their lives when they were in American Legion ball, where they might get to the field an hour or so before first pitch, suit up and play.
Part of the tradition, which Maddon started when he managed the Tampa Bay Rays, includes recognition of a local American Legion post and ordering beer sausages to eat after games. It’ll begin when the NL Central leaders host Cincinnati.
“The whole point is, you don’t have to be there all day to be able to play a major league baseball game successfully,” Maddon said. “I want them to show up later, I want them to come out and play just like they did when they were kids. Don’t overthink it, don’t overwork it, don’t over-video it, don’t over-data it. Just go play some baseball.”
ON THE MEND
Washington ace Stephen Strasburg begins his rehabilitation assignment when he starts for Class A Potomac in the Carolina League. He’s been on the disabled list since late July with right elbow nerve impingement. The All-Star is 10-3 in 20 starts for the NL East leaders.
FAMILIAR FOES
In another potential playoff preview, the Red Sox host the Indians to make up an Aug. 2 rainout. Cleveland swept Boston 3-0 during last year’s postseason, and the teams are currently on track to meet again in an AL Division Series this October. They’ve already squared off in the playoffs five times since 1999 — and the ties between these organizations run deep. Indians skipper Terry Francona guided Boston to two World Series titles (2004, 2007). Whenever he faces the Red Sox these days, he manages against one of his closest friends, John Farrell.
Boston has won the first two of seven regular-season matchups between the clubs, including one of the wildest and most exciting games of the year in their most recent meeting Aug. 1. This time, Trevor Bauer (10-8, 4.79 ERA) pitches for the Indians against Doug Fister (2-5, 5.03), who took a shutout into the eighth inning and beat Cleveland 6-2 at Fenway Park for his first win of the season July 31.
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
This year’s edition of the Subway Series begins with the first of two games at Yankee Stadium, followed by a pair at Citi Field. And even though the depleted Mets (53-62) have been selling off veterans since falling out of the pennant race, there’s this bit of drama as a backdrop: Executives on both sides have been sniping at each other in the New York media about recent trade talks between the teams. “I think there will be a ton of excitement in both stadiums,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “Obviously, they’re really important games for us. And I’m sure the Mets consider them really important for them, too, as it’s part of the rivalry.”
Girardi said his staff has talked about ex-Mets farmhand Luis Cessa (0-3) “probably” being recalled from the minors to start the opener in place of injured pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. Rafael Montero (1-8) gets the ball for the Mets.
O-DUBEL PLAY
Odubel Herrera has gotten as much notice for his bat flipping and baserunning blunders as he has for the 16-game hit streak he takes when Philadelphia plays at San Diego.
Herrera was involved in a bizarre play in Sunday’s home loss to the Mets when he mistakenly ran into a double play. He was booed the rest of his at-bats and fans yelled at him that he should go back to the minors. |
MIAMI (AP) — Ten members of the U.S. Senate have asked the State Department to pressure the Haitian government into closing an orphanage where several children being adopted by American families have been victims of alleged sexual abuse.
The letter said “multiple” children at the Foyer Notre Dame de la Nativite orphanage on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince tested positive for the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia and reported that they had been victims of abuse.
“While Haiti’s social services agency has had an ongoing investigation into the orphanage for more than a year, nothing has been done to stop the abuse,” said the Jan. 29 letter, addressed to Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan.
Orphanage Director Eveline Louis-Jacques said Friday that several children in her care had tested positive for chlamydia but said it hasn’t been confirmed that they contracted the infection while at the home and she vehemently denied any abuse has occurred there.
“The kids are very well treated,” Louis-Jacques said in an Associated Press interview. “They are not in an orphanage; they are in my house, with me.”
The orphanage was the site of tragedy during the devastating January 2010 earthquake when nearly 70 kids died there during the disaster. There are now 60 children, from ages 1 to 16. Louis-Jacques, a former bank executive, runs it with her husband of 42 years and a mostly female staff.
Andolphe Guillaume, an official with the social welfare agency, known by its initials in French as IBESR, referred questions about the situation to the executive director, who was not available Friday.
But Guillaume showed AP journalists a report from December showing that at least six of 33 children tested at the orphanage, known in Haiti as a “crèche,” had chlamydia and recommended that authorities continue to investigate the abuse allegations. He said officials were surprised because the home had a good reputation. “This crèche is one of the best in Haiti. We don’t know how this happened,” he said.
Louis-Jacques said the children could have contracted the infection at birth from their mothers but the report said the parents of only one of the children also tested positive.
The total number of children who have tested positive is not publicly known. The Senate letter does not provide details on the infections or the children it said also reported abuse.
In January 2017, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, an agency based in Santa Ana, California, sent an email to parents in the process of adopting that a girl recently brought to the U.S. from the Notre Dame had been diagnosed with chlamydia and that her doctor believed it had been contracted during the time the child was at the home.
The agency said in the email that it was pressing IBESR to conduct an immediate investigation and to have all children examined by an independent doctor.
Nightlight President Daniel Nehrbass said some children contracted the infection while they were in the care of the orphanage but it remains a possibility that the abuse did not occur on the premises. He said he and his staff have visited the home about 16 times in recent years and he will travel to Haiti next week to meet with the director and the U.S. Embassy to discuss the situation.
“There is abuse that is occurring and it has to be addressed,” Nehrbass said.
People in the midst of the adoption process, which can take more than two years, have been trying to get U.S. authorities to expedite the paperwork. Charlotte Gage or Richmond, Virginia, said she managed to get the two boys she and her husband are adopting out of the orphanage but are still in Haiti as they await the final documents they need to return home. She said she was stunned to learn of the alleged abuse.
“I felt my soul just get crushed,” Gage said. “It was just horrific to think about children being violated in that way.”
The Senate letter said the State Department should not only push Haiti to close the home and relocate the children but also expedite visas and passports for approved adoption cases.
A spokesman for Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, one of the 10 Republicans and Democrats who signed the letter, said they had not yet received a formal response. It was signed by senators from Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota and Virginia.
The State Department said in response to questions that the Embassy in Haiti is aware of the reports of abuse and is “providing all Consular services” without providing details. It added that it seeks to ensure that all international adoptions take place in the best interests of the child.
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Associated Press writer Evens Sanon contributed from Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
HONG KONG (AP) — The strange case of a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist who claimed mainland Chinese agents stapled his legs as a warning has taken another twist after police arrested him on suspicion of providing false information.
The Chinese-ruled city’s police force said they arrested Howard Lam early Tuesday.
Lam made waves last week with his eye-catching allegations, in which he claimed he was abducted and rendered unconscious by unknown men.
He said they warned him not to try sending a signed photo of soccer star Lionel Messi to the widow of late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. Then they stapled his legs with Xs because of his Christianity.
Police said they investigated but the results don’t match what Lam said in his report. |
MILAN (AP) — The storied La Scala opera house announced Wednesday that it will open the 2018-19 season with a new production of Verdi’s “Attila,” continuing the tradition of Italian opera, while introducing some novelty, including Woody Allen directing Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.”
General manager Alexander Pereira said he himself will appear in Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos,” in a speaking role that he has reprised elsewhere and that he quipped would be non-paying at La Scala.
Next year’s season will feature 15 operas, mostly Italian, including nine new productions and two productions making their La Scala debut.
“Attila” will be the second gala premiere dedicated to Verdi’s more youthful compositions, written when he was just 33 years old, following “Giovanna d’Arco” in 2015, said music director Riccardo Chailly, who will complete the trilogy in the future with Verdi’s “Macbeth.” The three were composed between 1845 and 1847.
Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov will sing the title role opposite soprano Saioa Hernandez as Odabella, singers that Chailly described as ideal for the parts.
Allen is expected to personally follow the direction of “Gianni Schicchi,” alongside Kathleen Smith Belcher, who restaged the 2008 production in Los Angeles in 2015-2016. Allen’s “Schicchi” will play alongside a new La Scala production of Antonio Salieri’s “Prima la Musica Poi le Parole.”
“Everyone loves (Allen’s) films, maybe we can do a small festival,” with a cinematic institute, Pereira said.
The two short operas are part of La Scala’s focus on bringing back Italian bel canto tradition, which next season also will include Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” or Cinderella, Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore,” conducted by Michele Gamba making his La Scala debut. As previously announced, Cecilia Bartoli will sing in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare,” part of a new three-year Baroque music program.
The symphonic season is comprised of eight concerts, including Chailly conducting two Mahler symphonies, the 5th and the 10th, while Zubin Mehta will conduct Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 next May.
Pereira noted that the opera house had increased tickets sales by 8 million euros from 2014-2018 thanks to the addition of dozens of performances in the traditionally quiet fall months. The new season also will include 35 performances for children, which Pereira said brings 50,000 children to the theater along with 10,000 parents “who we may have lost years ago but are returning to La Scala with their children.”
Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is chairman of La Scala’s board, praised the opera house for being on budget for the 13th straight year, saying “few big Italian theaters can say they have their accounts in order.”
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This story has been corrected to show that Alexander Pereira will perform in Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos,” not in “Die Tote Stadt” by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. |
CHICAGO (AP) — These sure are sweet times for Loyola-Chicago.
Two last-second shots — two prayers answered — vaulted the Ramblers to the Sweet 16 and placed them right in the national spotlight.
“Coach (Porter Moser) has been talking about how ‘You think this is good? Look around. You think this is good? Well, it’s gonna get even better,'” guard Ben Richardson said. “It’s just kind of been bought into that, like put it in the bag and move on.”
The Ramblers are moving on to face Nevada after two breathtaking victories, a run that has captivated college basketball and turned 98-year-old team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt into a celebrity.
They knocked off Miami on Dante Ingram’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the March Madness logo, then got the sweetest of all bounces on Clayton Custer’s jumper in the closing seconds to beat Tennessee in Dallas. On Monday, they were back home preparing for Nevada.
The Ramblers (30-5) will bring more wins than any other team in the program’s 100-year history into Thursday’s game in Atlanta, having surpassed their 1963 champions during this NCAA run.
No small accomplishment for a team that struggled for decades following a Sweet 16 loss to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in 1985. Loyola went 14 seasons without a winning record at one point. The first few years after Moser took over in 2011 weren’t so smooth, either.
They’ve gone from 7-23 with just one win in the Horizon League in his first season to capturing the Missouri Valley Championship, from small home crowds to their first sellout in 15 years, from obscurity to center stage. It’s quite a turnaround for the Jesuit school of about 16,000 along the lakefront on Chicago’s northern edge.
For guard Lucas Williamson, it’s been a nonstop flow of well-wishes and congratulations. Whether it’s from posts on social media, students coming up to him in the dorm or professors wishing the team well in classes, they keep pouring in.
“I love all the appreciation,” said Williamson, a Chicago product.
Even former President Barack Obama gave the Ramblers — and Sister Jean — a shoutout. He tweeted after the first-round win: “Congrats to @LoyolaChicago and Sister Jean for a last-second upset – I had faith in my pick!”
“I can’t even start to put into words the outreach that we’ve had across the country from so many people,” Moser said. “When you have a media market like Chicago … you can’t put into words (what it means to the school). I’m sure in the months ahead they’ll be put into a more detailed impact. But right now, it’s just fun for the university to have this kind of national recognition.”
And he’s not shying away from the attention.
“The media scrutiny, the spotlight, it’s great for them,” Moser said. “They’re mature enough to handle it. They’ve been handling it now for a month straight. I’m not that guy that’s gonna hold back and not enjoy this journey. They’re enjoying it. But they’re gonna absolutely … be locked in, ready to go.”
That means figuring out a way to beat a team that just pulled off quite a shocker.
Nevada wiped out a 22-point deficit in the final 11 minutes to match the second-biggest comeback in NCAA Tournament history and knock out Cincinnati. The Wolf Pack (28-7) are in the Sweet 16 for the second time. Otherwise, it would have been Ramblers against Bearcats in a matchup that sure would have sparked flashbacks to the ’63 title game. That year, Loyola beat two-time defending champion Cincinnati in a landmark moment for racial equality.
“Super, super, super talented offensive team,” Richardson said about Nevada. “You’ve gotta give credit to a team like that that fought back from a huge deficit. That’s just the kind of stuff that happens in March. You’ve always gotta be ready for a team to make a historic comeback. That’s a tribute to the way they play, they play super hard, they’re a really talented offensive team, and there’ll definitely be a lot of things we have to game plan for because they’re definitely a tough matchup.”
Something else that might concern Loyola: Sister Jean had them losing in the Sweet 16 in her bracket.
“Sister Jean, she’s been our biggest supporter,” Williamson said. “And she’s definitely gonna be our biggest supporter. But we’re gonna have to bust her bracket on this one.”
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More AP college basketball: https://collegebasketball.ap.org , https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 and https://www.podcastone.com/ap-sports-special-events |
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — As deliberations in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial continue into a fourth day Thursday, nerves are frayed, patience is shot and no one is certain when it will all end.
Some jurors appeared angry, the judge sounded exasperated and accuser Andrea Constand’s mother broke down in tears Wednesday.
The sequestered jury has been at it for more than 27 hours since getting the case Monday, pausing a half-dozen times to revisit key evidence, including Cosby’s decade-old admissions that he fondled Constand after giving her pills.
Judge Steven O’Neill seemed vexed at times as the court staff struggled to answer the jury’s requests. One batch of requested testimony hadn’t even been transcribed yet.
But when jurors asked to stop for the day Wednesday night, O’Neill was effusive with praise — encouraging their diligence as they weigh charges that could put the 79-year-old Cosby in prison for the rest of his life.
“This is an incredible jury that has just acted with incredible dignity and fidelity,” O’Neill said. “I don’t have any higher praise. You have taken your task so seriously.”
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each carries a maximum 10-year prison term, though the counts could be merged at sentencing if he is convicted.
The case has already helped demolish his nice-guy reputation as America’s Dad.
Cosby has wavered between stoic and smiling as he awaits his fate, but gave a brief thumbs-up as jurors listened to a court reporter reread his January 2005 police interview.
In it, he claimed Constand showed no ill effects from the 1 1/2 Benadryl pills he gave her to help her relax, and that she never objected to his behavior during the 2004 encounter at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Constand testified last week that she was paralyzed by the pills and unable to fight Cosby off. Her mother, Gianna Constand, pulled a cloth from her pocket to wipe away tears Wednesday as she listened to the testimony.
Cosby’s lawyers maintain Constand was a willing sexual partner.
Some jurors closed their eyes and tilted their heads down as they listened to the police interview. One slunk down in his seat, looking angry.
“Can you find 12 people who will agree? That’s the question,” said criminal lawyer Alan J. Tauber, who wasn’t involved in the case.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
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For more on Cosby, including trial updates, historical photos, videos and an audio series exploring the case, visit http://www.apnews.com/tag/CosbyonTrial. |
NEW YORK (AP) — Private lawyers seeking to represent Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in his U.S. drug-trafficking case failed to get assurances Monday that they’ll get paid, leaving the Mexican drug lord’s defense in limbo.
During a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told the lawyers that if they took the case, there was no guarantee that prosecutors wouldn’t later seize their fees if they could show that the money came from his estimated $14 billion in drug profits.
“I’m not going to pressure the government to create a carve-out for counsel fees,” Cogan said.
Guzman smiled and waved at family members as he was led into the courtroom, but he didn’t speak during the brief appearance.
Afterward, the lawyers told reporters that they still hope to find a way to represent Guzman. They said they were waiting for him to consult with his sister on Thursday — the first jail visit he’s had by family member since he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico in January.
“We are looking forward, desperately, to come into this case and fight for Joaquin Guzman. … The guy has a constitutional right to the best counsel he can get,” said one of the lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman.
Prosecutors have argued that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for his defense. But they also said in a letter to the court last week that the government will not “grant a blanket prospective assurance” that it won’t go after money spent on a private defense.
Michelle Gelernt, a public defender currently representing Guzman, called that position “hypocritical.”
Lichtman is known for successfully defended John “Junior” Gotti, son of the notorious organized crime family boss, at a 2005 trial. The younger Gotti walked free after an acquittal on a securities fraud count and a mistrial on more serious racketeering counts.
The lawyer said he has met with Guzman on a weekly basis, hoping to defend him at a trial in April.
“He is charming, funny, highly intelligent. I enjoyed getting to know him. … I don’t judge someone by what I read in the papers,” Lichtman told The Associated Press last week.
Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.
The defense has claimed that he’s being held in inhumane and overly restrictive conditions at a high-security jail in Manhattan known for housing alleged mobsters and terrorists.
The government has argued that his strict jail conditions are appropriate for someone who escaped from prison twice in Mexico, including once through a tunnel dug to the shower in his cell. Prosecutors said that even while he was behind bars in Mexico, Guzman used coded messages, bribes and other means to control his Sinaloa cartel and orchestrate his breakouts.
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AP reporter Claudia Torrens in New York contributed to this report. |
MOSCOW (AP) — The lack of a U.S. team caused a big viewership drop for World Cup telecasts.
The 48 group stage broadcasts on Fox and FS1 averaged 2,069,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down 42 percent from the 3.54 million average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC four years ago and down 15 percent from the 2,429,000 average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC eight years ago.
Excluding games involving the U.S. team in previous World Cups, the average declined 28 percent from the 2014 tournament in Brazil and was up 1 percent from the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
Most group-stage kickoff times this year were morning EDT, starting as early as 6 a.m., and the latest matches began at 2 p.m. Games in 2014 started mostly from noon to 4 p.m. EDT, while in 2010 games there were many matches at 10 a.m. and some as early as 7:30 a.m.
Twenty-six group-stage matches were aired on Fox, up from six on ABC in 2014 and four on ABC in 2010.
Ratings include only television viewers and not those who viewed digital streams.
Spanish-language coverage for Telemundo and Unimas, both part of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal Inc., averaged 1.96 million viewers, including digital streaming. That was down 26 percent from the 2.64 million average on Univision and Unimas four years ago and up 7 percent from the 1.84 million average for Univision’s networks in 2010.
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More AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/WorldCup |
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s largest city is reviewing the first application from a business seeking to be among the nation’s first legal marijuana clubs, a step that comes more than a year after voters approved a bring-your-own pot measure.
Dan Rowland, a spokesman for the Denver department that regulates marijuana businesses, said the city received the application from the Coffee Joint on Friday.
Co-owners Rita Tsalyuk and Kirill Merkulov plan to charge a $5 entry fee if they’re approved for the license. Customers could use edible pot products or vaporizing pens inside, and the shop would sell food, host events and provide free coffee or tea, she said.
Denver voters approved the clubs in a 2016 ballot measure, but it took nine months for the city to start accepting applications. Advocates have complained that state restrictions preventing pot use at any business with a liquor license and the city’s own rules unfairly limited potential locations for the clubs.
For instance, the city required pot clubs to be twice as far from schools and anywhere else children gather as liquor stores.
Customers buying marijuana products often ask where they are allowed to legally use it, and employees have few answers for tourists staying in hotels that ban marijuana use, Tsalyuk said.
Colorado law doesn’t address pot clubs. In some cities, they are tolerated, while others operate secretly.
Other states with legal marijuana are at a standstill for developing rules governing places to consume pot products, including Alaska, where state regulators have delayed discussion of rules for retail shops until spring.
It could be months before Denver residents and tourists would be allowed to legally vape or eat pot products at the Coffee Joint. The city said it has just started to review the application and a public hearing will probably be scheduled within two to three months.
In the meantime, Tsalyuk and Merkulov want to open their business before the end of the year as a traditional coffee shop. For their 1,850-square-foot space, they plan to convert a garage to a space for “vape and paint” events, open a smaller room for private events and put in comfortable furniture.
“We want to give a better name to the cannabis industry and be good for residents, too,” Tsalyuk said.
The proposal has the backing of a local neighborhood association, which submitted a letter of support to the city. Applicants have to show community support for their proposal as part of the licensing process.
Aubrey Lavizzo, a member of the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, said the club backers attended two of their meetings and invited members to tour the dispensary.
“They’ve shown us that they really want to be good neighbors,” said Lavizzo, a veterinarian who has had a clinic in the neighborhood for over 30 years.
Merkulov said they are aware of the national and global spotlight on the industry.
“It’s a new apex,” he said. “We hope to prove this can be managed well and be safe.”
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Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report. |
CHICAGO (AP) — Nikola Mirotic scored 24 points, Bobby Portis added a career-high 23 and the Chicago Bulls blew out Boston 108-85 on Monday night with Celtics star Kyrie Irving sidelined because of a bruised left quadriceps.
Owners of the NBA’s worst record, the Bulls built an 18-point lead in the second quarter against the Eastern Conference leaders. And when Boston cut it to 12 in the fourth, the Bulls simply pulled away for their third straight win.
Mirotic made his first start of the season with leading scorer Lauri Markkanen sidelined because of back spasms. The 6-foot-10 forward hit 9 of 14 shots and grabbed eight rebounds in his third appearance.
Portis shot 10 of 15 and nailed all three 3-pointers.
Before Monday night, Mirotic and Portis had only made headlines together this season for the wrong reasons. Mirotic missed the first 23 games with facial fractures he suffered in a fight at practice with Portis.
Al Horford scored 15 for Boston. Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier added 13 points apiece in the Celtics’ most lopsided loss of the season.
Boston got within 12 in the fourth quarter when Portis hit a jumper and Mirotic made a 3 to make it 90-73 with just under eight minutes left. The Bulls remained in control the rest of the way.
Mirotic came through with 16 points as Chicago grabbed a 56-42 halftime lead. Portis scored 15 in the first half.
The Bulls wiped out a four-point deficit and led 52-34 after a 24-2 run in the second quarter. Portis scored 10 during that stretch, nailing two 3s, and Mirotic finished it with a short hook.
TIP-INS
Celtics: Coach Brad Stevens said he doesn’t expect Irving to be out long, though he added: “Who knows with muscular injuries.” … Stevens also said doctors will re-evaluate F Marcus Morris’ ailing left knee on Tuesday. Morris sat out for the second straight night and the third time in four games. He also missed the first eight games of the season.
Bulls: Markkanen participated in the morning shootaround and got treatment afterward. But coach Fred Hoiberg said the prized rookie’s back continued to tighten.
UP NEXT
Celtics: Host Denver on Wednesday.
Bulls: Host Utah on Wednesday.
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More NBA basketball: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel held his baby son as he returned to his late-night son from a week off for the boy’s heart surgery.
Kimmel was crying from the first moment of his monologue Monday night as he pleaded with Congress to restore and improve children’s health coverage, a cause he has championed since his son Billy was born with a heart defect in April.
Billy needed one surgery just after his birth and had a follow-up operation last week.
Kimmel kept up his ardent advocacy Monday night, urging Congress to restore the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has been left unfunded and stuck in a political stalemate since September.
Kimmel said it’s “disgusting” that Congress is putting tax cuts for millionaires ahead of the lives of children. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s GOP and Democratic leaders can’t agree on much, but they both say they want to dedicate weeks to passing legislation to fund the government next year — and avoid the annual take-it-or-leave-it vote on a foot-tall, $1 trillion-plus catchall spending bill.
For now, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer are saying all the right things to try to revive the older, more deliberative ways of doing Senate business rather than bundling the 12 annual spending bills together.
Critics say it gives too much power to top leaders while rank and file lawmakers are shut out of secretive negotiations.
President Donald Trump is playing a role as well, promising that he won’t sign any more such “omnibus” appropriations bills. |
NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of protesters and heavy security were ready to greet President Donald Trump as he headed for his home in the city on Monday for the first time since his inauguration.
Demonstrators stood in pens that police erected across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan and lined nearby blocks of Fifth Avenue by early Monday evening, hours before his expected arrival. So did a far smaller crowd of Trump supporters.
Some protesters carried signs with such messages as “impeach” and “the White House is no place for white supremacy” as chants including “not my president” and “love, not hate — that’s what makes America great” rose above traffic noise. Nearby, an inflatable, rat-like caricature of Trump stood by The Plaza hotel.
The Rev. Jan Powell, a retired minister of the United Church of Christ, carried a sign that read “No justice, no peace” as she stood opposite Trump’s signature tower.
She said she was bothered by the Republican president’s response to the white supremacist rally that descended into violence Saturday in Virginia. But “what bothers me the most is when folks like Trump try to silence our First Amendment right to free speech, either with violence or ‘fake news’ or hate speech,” Powell said.
Still, she said, “I pray for him every day. We are both human beings.”
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Democrat, was among the protesters.
Meanwhile, about two dozen Trump fans were in a separate pen near The Plaza, chanting “God bless President Trump” and carrying American flags.
“Now is not the time for divisiveness,” read one of their signs.
With anti-Trump demonstrators penned across the sidewalk, both sides yelled at each other, “Go home!”
A block south of Trump Tower, police officers with bullhorns confronted protesters pressing against and straining the barricades, telling the demonstrators to step back.
Police had stationed sand-filled sanitation trucks as barriers around Trump’s signature skyscraper and layers of metal police barricades around the main entrance.
After Trump was elected president Nov. 8, security around the tower ramped up dramatically. Barricades and checkpoints were manned by scores of uniformed police officers. The security precautions have been lessened somewhat in Trump’s absence but still have inconvenienced residents and business owners in the highly trafficked area, home to stores such as Tiffany and Louis Vuitton.
Trump, a native New Yorker who cherishes his namesake high-rise, said Friday that he had stayed away because he realized the impact of the street closings and other aspects of a presidential visit.
“I would love to go to my home in Trump Tower, but it’s very, very disruptive to do,” he said.
Protester Gabby Parra, however, said she was demonstrating to show Trump “he’s not welcome here.”
“We need to let him know that New Yorkers and people from around here are not going to accept his blatant idiocy,” said Parra, a 17-year-old high school senior from Teaneck, New Jersey.
She said she feels the president dehumanizes minorities, noting that he launched his campaign by portraying Mexico as a source of rapists and murderers coming into the U.S. and that he initially failed to denounce white supremacists specifically after Saturday’s violence.
Trump, under pressure after initially condemning what he called an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” on Monday declared that “racism is evil” and described members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as “criminals and thugs.”
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shonda Rhimes, the creator of popular television series such as “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” has signed a deal to make new shows for Netflix.
The streaming service announced late Sunday that Rhimes’ Shondaland production company is moving to Netflix. Netflix wrote in a news release that Rhimes’ shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” ”Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” would continue to air on ABC.
Rhimes wrote in a statement that she was grateful to the network for giving her career a start, but she was looking forward to expanding her audience and “creative identity” with Netflix.
She wrote that she and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos had developed a plan for the next phase of Rhimes’ career. She said Netflix offered her and her team “limitless possibilities.” |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw pitched his way to freedom while earning his first win in 2 ½ months.
The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner won’t be facing any further restrictions in his next start after a solid outing in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
Five Dodgers homered including Max Muncy with a pair, and the team’s six homers were the most they’ve hit at home since also launching six on Sept. 9, 2013, against Arizona.
“You want to get guys back in the dugout as fast as possible the way they’re swinging the bats,” said Kershaw, who was limited by a pitch count in his last three outings.
Ivan Nova (4-6) became the first pitcher in Pirates history to give up five homers in a game. Pittsburgh has been outscored 25-4 in the first two games of the series.
“They’re horses over there. It’s a stacked team,” Pirates third baseman David Freese said. “They’ve just got really good approaches right now and they’re on time, all of them are on time.”
The Dodgers have 11 homers three days into July and 122 so far this season after slugging a major league-leading and franchise-record 55 in June.
“It’s pretty remarkable what we’re doing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “When I look at what we’ve accomplished offensively, we’re in some uncharted territory.”
Kershaw (2-4) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings of his third start since coming off the disabled list. The left-handed ace’s two strikeouts were against Nova and Kershaw didn’t walk anyone to earn his first victory since April 15 at Arizona. He had two losses and four straight no-decisions since.
“His velo is down a little bit but he’s still got that cutter and he works it. He’s just a guy that locates,” Freese said. “You can sense when he’s out there that he trusts every pitch he’s about to throw. That’s that makes him really good.”
Kershaw had not gone as late as July 3 with just one win since his rookie year in 2008 when he didn’t earn his second victory until Aug. 7.
“It’s kind of what we wanted,” Roberts said of Kershaw. “The fifth and sixth innings were probably the best for me. The ball came out well. We can feel confident going forward the reins are off.”
Joc Pederson and Muncy homered back-to-back for the second straight game.
Pederson sent Nova’s first pitch of the game over the right-field wall and Muncy followed with a shot to center field for a 2-0 lead.
“They have a really good lineup but we’ve got to be able to do a better job than that,” Nova said.
Muncy led off the third with his team-high 20th homer for a 3-1 lead. He reached 20 homers in 183 at-bats, making him the fastest Dodger to reach the mark, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Cody Bellinger set the record at 189 at-bats last year.
“I never thought I could hit this many home runs in such a short amount of time,” said Muncy, who has played in just 63 games this season.
Freese provided the lone bright spot for the Pirates, going 3 for 3 with a pair of RBI singles that twice cut the Dodgers’ lead to one run, and a solo homer off reliever Yimi Garcia.
Chris Taylor kept the slugfest going in the fourth with a two-run shot that made it 5-2. He went 3 for 4 with a strikeout and finished a single shy of hitting for the cycle.
“It seems to be contagious up and down the lineup, which makes it fun in the dugout,” Taylor said.
Yasmani Grandal led off the sixth with a homer and Taylor doubled to deep center field to chase Nova.
Nova gave up a season-high seven earned runs and nine hits, struck out three and walked two in five innings.
“It’s not fun to give up that many homers,” Nova said. “Sometimes you give up that many runs and you don’t feel that bad, but giving up five homers is too much.”
Nova’s replacement didn’t fare any better. Enrique Hernandez blasted a two-run homer on the first pitch from Dovydas Neverauskas, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 8-2.
Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp’s run of eight hits in eight consecutive at-bats ended when he struck out to end the first. One night after tying a career high with five hits, including a three-run homer, Kemp was hitless in four at-bats with two other strikeouts.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: RHP Joe Musgrove (right index finger infection) went on the DL retroactive to June 30. He was scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale.
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler was moved to the DL retroactive to June 29. He began a rehab assignment for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga.
UP NEXT
RHP Clay Holmes (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will replace Musgrove in the series finale on Wednesday. Dodgers LHP Rich Hill (1-3, 4.68) took a no-hitter into extra innings in Pittsburgh last August before allowing a walk-off solo homer in the 10th.
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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The two largest resort operators in Las Vegas would lose more than $10 million a day combined if housekeepers, cooks and others go on strike, a possibility starting Friday, the union representing thousands of casino workers said Wednesday.
The Culinary Union detailed how it thinks a one-month strike would impact MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, which operate more than half the properties that would be affected if 50,000 workers walk off the job. Workers last week voted to authorize a strike as disputes over workplace training, wages and other issues have kept the union and casino operators from agreeing on new contracts.
The union conceded that it is difficult to estimate how the strike at more than 30 casino-hotels would affect Las Vegas overall because the last citywide strike took place in 1984, when the city had 90,000 fewer hotel rooms and only about 12.8 million annual visitors. Last year, more than 42.2 million people visited.
But it says MGM and Caesars would see a 10 percent reduction in revenue because of the loss of group and independent travelers. A strike also could happen as fans head to Las Vegas for the Stanley Cup Final.
“Furthermore, one might assume a 10 percent worsening of operating margins due to the use of less experienced and less skilled replacements … to keep the doors open, rooms cleaned, food cooked, and cocktails served, not to mention other factors such as the disruptions to management staff’s regular work,” the union wrote.
Using the companies’ earnings reports for the first three months of the year, the union’s estimates show a one-month strike could reduce MGM’s earnings before interest, taxes and other items by more than $206 million and Caesars’ by over $113 million.
Contracts expire at midnight Thursday for bartenders, housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks and other kitchen workers at properties on the Las Vegas Strip and downtown Las Vegas, including Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Stratosphere, Treasure Island, The D and El Cortez.
Dealers are not part of the Culinary Union. Casino-resorts that would not be affected by the strike include Wynn Las Vegas, Encore, The Venetian and Palazzo.
MGM, which employees 24,000 of the workers, said it met with union negotiators Monday and has more talks scheduled this week. The company says it remains confident that it “can resolve the outstanding contract issues and come to an agreement that works for all sides.”
Caesars said it “expects to agree to a new 5-year contract with the Culinary Union on or about June 1 when the current contract expires.” About 12,000 of its workers are part of the negotiations for new five-year contracts.
The union said it is asking for training on new skills and job opportunities as the companies adopt technology that can displace workers. It also wants an independent study to analyze the workload of housekeepers and contract language that would protect workers if properties are sold.
“What is going to happen to my position?” said Fernando Fernandez, a guest runner at Caesars Palace. “I think they are going to be disappearing it, because robots are going to be available to deliver everything.”
He said he wants training to fix or program the robots that he believes could eventually replace him.
The union says it has asked MGM for average annual wage increases of 4 percent for each of the five years. A document says the company has countered with an approximate 2.7 percent increase.
Caesars workers are asking for an increase of 4.2 percent effective Friday, and annual increases of about 4 percent thereafter. Another document shows the company has offered an approximate 2.8 percent increase for each of the five years.
The average hourly wage of union workers is $23, including benefits such as premium-free health care, a pension and a 401(k) retirement savings plan and $25,000 down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
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Follow Regina Garcia Cano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/reginagarciakNO |
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. envoy to Syria says negotiating a political transition for the war-torn country will be the sole item on the agenda for upcoming talks between the government and opposition in Geneva.
Staffan De Mistura emphatically rejected any change to the agenda, saying it would open a “Pandora’s box” of stalling and time-wasting.
“Geneva will not be about the procedure, but about the future,” he told reporters in joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, in Rome.
The envoy said the agenda is fixed in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254, which mandates a new form of governance for Syria, a new constitution, and new elections. The resolution was adopted unanimously by the Security Council in 2015.
The Syrian government has previously rejected such formulations, complicating efforts aimed at ending the conflict. The government holds the upper hand in Syria more than a year after a sweeping Russian intervention turned the tide of the nearly six-year war in its favor.
The envoy urged the opposition to present a unified front at Geneva, in order to deprive the government of the “alibi” that it doesn’t know who the opposition is.
The Geneva talks, slated for Feb. 23, are expected to bring together representatives from President Bashar Assad’s government with exiled opposition figures and rebels fighting inside Syria.
But some of Syria’s rebels say they won’t begin negotiating a political settlement with the government until measures are taken to bolster a flagging cease-fire and address urgent humanitarian concerns.
Mohammad Alloush, a rebel leader who is representing the opposition at talks this week in Kazakhstan, said he will insist on discussing the Dec. 30 cease-fire. The talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, are intended to pave the way for next week’s revival of the Geneva process, which has been on hold since last April.
The Kazakhstan talks are brokered by Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in the war and have taken the lead with peace efforts since December. The Syrian government delegation met with the Russian delegation in Astana on Wednesday, Syrian state TV reported.
Russia and Iran, close allies of President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, previously pledged to enforce the cease-fire, but both sides have alleged repeated violations. A round of talks in Astana last month ended inconclusively.
The rebels say they are awaiting a reply from Russia to a list of requests concerning the observation and enforcement of the cease-fire.
“The paper we presented on 23 January is the basis for talks today,” Alloush told the AP by phone on his way to Astana.
The Kazakhstan talks were supposed to begin Wednesday but were postponed by one day. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry did not give a reason for the delay. The Geneva talks are scheduled for Feb. 23.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry meanwhile rejected a Human Rights Watch report accusing government forces of mounting at least eight chemical attacks using chlorine gas on opposition-held residential areas during the final months in last year’s battle for the northern city of Aleppo. The report was published on Monday.
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Associated Press cameraman Gianfranco Stara in Rome and AP writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed to this report. |
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia company that owns Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters golf tournament on Monday asked a judge to stop a golf memorabilia company from auctioning off a Masters champion’s green jacket and other items it says were never supposed to have left the club’s grounds.
Augusta National Inc. filed the federal lawsuit against Florida-based Green Jacket Auctions Inc. seeking to stop the company from selling a champion’s green jacket and two member green jackets, as well as silverware and a belt buckle bearing Augusta National’s map and flag logo.
The champion’s green jacket is awarded each year to the winner of the Masters tournament, “and is, probably, the most coveted award in the golfing world,” the lawsuit says.
The jacket may not be removed from the Augusta National grounds except during the first year after it is presented, according to the lawsuit. After that first year, the jacket must be stored on Augusta National premises and can only be used on the grounds and during the annual tournament. Augusta National said it owns the jackets, and the champions have “possessory rights” when they’re on Augusta National grounds.
The same rules apply to the member green jackets, except they may never leave Augusta National grounds, the lawsuit says. Each jacket is marked for identification and authenticity.
“It appears that Augusta National Golf Club is attempting to assert ownership claims to every green jacket ever produced, regardless of who currently owns or possesses the jackets,” Green Jacket Auctions co-owner Ryan Carey said in an email. “Obviously we at Green Jacket Auctions dispute such claims, and will litigate the matter, if necessary.”
The lawsuit says Augusta National recently learned Green Jacket Auctions was advertising a sale that includes the champion’s green jacket won by Byron Nelson in 1966. The jacket was where it was supposed to be, in storage at Augusta National, during a physical inventory in 2009. But a recent check determined that it is now missing, the lawsuit says. It is unclear how the jacket and other items ended up on the auction block.
By mid-afternoon Monday, the online bidding on the jacket, which closes at 8 p.m. Saturday, had reached $114,874.
The online sale also includes a member green jacket assigned to club member John R. Butler, Jr. According to the lawsuit, Butler has said he has never removed his jacket from the golf club and never agreed to have it sold by Green Jacket Auctions.
Another member green jacket that was assigned to George King, who was briefly a member of Augusta National Golf Club, is also part of the sale, the lawsuit says.
Green Jacket Auctions is in “wrongful possession” of all three jackets and does not hold the legal title to any of them, the lawsuit says.
Additionally, the online sale includes silverware stamped with the trademarked Augusta National map and flag logo. Augusta National does not sell or give away the proprietary silverware, so the only way someone could get it is to steal it from the golf club, meaning the silverware listed in the sale is either stolen or counterfeit, the lawsuit says.
Green Jacket Auctions is also selling a belt buckle with the trademarked map and flag logo, an item that was never approved by, licensed by or developed on behalf of Augusta National, the lawsuit says.
Green Jacket Auctions’ “marketing efforts are clearly intended to draw upon the valuable reference to the Augusta National Golf Club and the extensive secondary meaning associated with (Augusta National Inc.’s) Marks, and ability of consumers searching those trademark names to land on the offending website,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order Green Jacket Auctions not to use Augusta National trademarks and not to deceptively or unfairly compete with Augusta National. It also asks that the jackets and silverware be returned to Augusta National and the belt buckle destroyed. Augusta National also asks for damages and legal fees.
Green Jacket Auctions’ website says the company has previously auctioned off three green jackets that had been given to champions. It sold a coat belonging to Horton Smith, the first winner of the Masters, for about $682,000 in 2013. |
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s emergency alert systems blasted a cryptic alert to cellphones around the capital city, panicking residents by telling them simply “Civil Emergency” and “Prepare for Action” and leaving off that the threat was toxic algae at a local water supply.
Officials wanted to warn Salem-area residents Tuesday night that elevated levels of a natural toxin caused by the algae bloom had made area tap water unsafe for children and people with compromised immune systems. But that information got cut off, and a more ominous-sounding default message went out in its place, said Andrew Phelps, head of the state emergency management agency.
Officials sent a second message 31 minutes later with more information and a link to a municipal website.
Within hours of the first alert, residents stripped the aisles at one supermarket in the city’s downtown center of bottled water, and a shopping cart lay tipped on its side in front of the empty shelves. Workers brought out a pallet of sparkling water, which they placed at the front of the store, and told customers they hoped they’d get more regular water in the morning.
The incident marked a high-profile glitch in authorities’ use of emergency alert systems, following a false alarm sent out by Hawaii officials in January warning of an incoming ballistic missile.
In Oregon, confusion surrounded the initial alert even within the emergency management agency, with an official telling reporters the message had caught them unaware and state police asking residents via a Facebook post not to call 911 about the alert.
And when officials directed residents to the city of Salem’s municipal website for more information, the site briefly crashed under the load.
“The integrated public alert warning system inadvertently defaulted to a generic message,” Phelps said in a video posted on social media by the Office of Emergency Management. “I apologize for the confusion and the anxiety this incomplete message has caused.”
Phelps said the message had also been broadcast via local television stations.
Cole Mahaffey, a Salem resident, set down a case of bottled water Wednesday he was carrying down the sidewalk and described the uneasy feeling of seeing the first alert arrive on his phone, with an ominous warning but no other information.
“It almost made me not want to go outside,” Mahaffey said, adding that the alert caught him at the gym, and that he had interrupted his exercise routine to ask staff at the front desk if they knew what it was about. “I didn’t know if there was something going on in the area, or if there was a shooter, you just had no way of knowing.” |
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The Latest on the apparent assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia (all times local):
5:50 p.m.
Malaysian police say they have arrested a woman in connection with the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother.
Wednesday’s statement says the woman was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. She was carrying Vietnamese travel documents.
Kim Jong Un’s half brother died Monday after suddenly falling ill at the airport. According to a Malaysian government official, Kim told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray. |
CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) — Under a scorching sun just a short walk from Colombia’s border with Venezuela, hundreds of hungry men, women and children line up for bowls of chicken and rice — the first full meal some have eaten in days.
An estimated 25,000 Venezuelans make the trek across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge into Colombia each day. Many come for a few hours to work or trade goods on the black market, looking for household supplies they cannot find back home.
But increasingly, they are coming to eat in one of a half-dozen facilities offering struggling Venezuelans a free plate of food.
“I never thought I’d say this,” said Erick Oropeza, 29, a former worker with Venezuela’s Ministry of Education who recently began crossing the bridge at 4 a.m. each day. “But I’m more grateful for what Colombia has offered me in this short time than what I ever received from Venezuela my entire life.”
As Venezuela’s economy verges on collapse and its political upheaval worsens, cities like Cucuta along Colombia’s porous, 1,370-mile (2,200-kilometer) border with Venezuela have become firsthand witnesses to the neighboring South American nation’s escalating humanitarian crisis.
According to one recent survey, about 75 percent of Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds (8.7 kilograms) last year.
The Colombian government has crafted contingency plans in the event of a sudden, mass exodus, but already church groups and nonprofit organizations are stepping in, moved by images of mothers carrying starving babies and skinny men trying to make a few bucks on Cucuta’s streets to bring back home.
Paulina Toledo, 47, a Colombian hairstylist who recently helped feed lunch to 900 Venezuelans, said seeing how hungry they were “hurt my soul.”
“Those of us here on the border are seeing their pain,” she said.
People living on either side of the Colombia-Venezuela border have long had a foot in both countries: A Colombian who lives in Cucuta might cross to visit relatives in San Cristobal; a Venezuelan might make the reverse trip to work or go to school.
In the years when Venezuela’s oil industry was booming and Colombia entangled in a half-century armed conflict, an estimated 4 million Colombians migrated to Venezuela. Many started coming back as Venezuela’s economy began to implode and after Maduro closed the border in 2015 and expelled 20,000 Colombians overnight.
Oropeza said he earned about $70 a month working at the Ministry of Education and selling hamburgers on the side — twice Venezuela’s minimum wage but still not enough to feed a family of four. Once a month his family receives a bundle of food provided by the government, but it only lasts a week.
“So the other three weeks, like most Venezuelans, we have to make magic happen,” he said on a recent afternoon.
Desperate for money to feed his family, he left his job and traveled to the Venezuelan border town of San Antonio. He wakes up at 4 a.m. each morning to be among the first crossing the bridge into Cucuta, where he earns money selling soft drinks on the street.
He goes straight to the “Casa de Paso,” a church-run shelter that has served 60,000 meals to Venezuelans since opening two months ago. On an average day, 2,000 Venezuelans line up for meals, getting a ticket to reserve their spot and then waiting four hours for a meal served at outdoor plastic tables.
Workers stir gigantic metal pots filled with chicken and rice set on the bare dirt floor. Volunteers hand out boxes of juice to tired-looking children. Adults sit quietly, savoring their bowl of food as chickens waddle between them.
“Every day I have to remind myself why I am here,” said Oropeza, dressed in a faded striped collared shirt. “I try to repeat it to myself so that I won’t, you know, so those moments of weakness don’t affect you so much.”
When he’s not helping out or waiting in line at the shelter kitchen, Oropeza sells malted soft drinks for about 50 cents each. He’s been able to bring money back to his family and has earned enough to buy a cellphone, which he’d lacked for two years.
Jose David Canas, a priest, said his church will continue to serve food “as long as God allows.”
“Until they close the border,” he said. “Until everything is eaten or until the province tells us that they no longer have lunches to give out. And then it’s the end.”
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AP Writer Christine Armario contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was officially sworn into office Monday along with the Cabinet members who served under his predecessor.
The country’s prime minister during the last two years, Beata Szydlo, was sworn in as deputy prime minister during the ceremony at the Presidential Palace.
There had been speculation in Poland Monday that the Cabinet might undergo immediate changes. That proved not to be the case as the other ministers took their oaths one-by-one and signed declarations pledging to observe the Constitution.
Morawiecki, who previously held the posts of deputy prime minister and minister of finance and development, was picked last week to head the government by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of the ruling Law and Justice party. Kaczynski attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Szydlo was popular among Poles, but the country’s image abroad has suffered as a result of the conservative government’s refusal to accept migrants, pursuit of logging in a virgin forest and more assertive stance toward Germany.
Perhaps the most critical point of controversy has been the way Law and Justice has consolidated the government’s control over the judiciary, something the European Union sees as a violation of the rule of law.
Explaining the switch in leadership, party officials said the government needs to focus on the economy, which has grown in recent years but is seen as in need of a push for innovation — and to improve Poland’s standing in the European Union and with other foreign nations.
Morawiecki, a former banker who speaks English and German, is seen as better prepared to represent Poland internationally.
He is set to make his first policy speech Tuesday to Poland’s parliament and will face a confidence vote from lawmakers. The ruling party has a majority in parliament, so his approval as prime minister is all but certain.
Morawiecki suggested earlier there would be some changes to the Cabinet in January. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump named the chief of staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs to lead the agency on an acting basis on Wednesday while the president’s nominee awaits Senate confirmation.
The White House said Trump had designated Peter O’Rourke to serve as acting VA secretary, effective Tuesday. Trump tapped acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to serve as permanent secretary earlier this month.
Wilkie has led the VA since Trump fired David Shulkin in March amid an ethics scandal. Trump then turned to Ronny Jackson, the Navy doctor who had been his personal physician, but Jackson withdrew following questions about his professionalism. Wilkie, a former Pentagon undersecretary, cannot run the agency on an acting basis while he awaits Senate confirmation.
The VA is the federal government’s second-largest agency with 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans. Democrats have said they plan to question Wilkie on whether he plans to “privatize” or degrade the VA health system, an issue that Shulkin says led to his ouster.
O’Rourke, a veteran of the Navy and Air Force, previously served as the head of the VA’s new accountability office, which is charged with helping enforce the new law making it easier to fire employees. His appointment by Trump bypassed the No. 2 official at VA, Tom Bowman, who has come under criticism at the White House for being too moderate to push Trump’s agenda of fixing veterans’ care.
Previously a member of Trump’s transition team, O’Rourke is viewed by the White House as a trusted official amid political infighting at the department. He took over as the No. 3 official at VA in February after the former chief of staff stepped down over findings by the VA inspector general that she misled VA ethics officials to help secure a free 11-day trip to Europe for Shulkin’s wife.
When O’Rourke took over the chief of staff position, the VA issued a statement that his presence will ensure VA leadership works closely with the White House going forward. |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Bradley Cooper has unveiled the first trailer for his directorial debut “A Star is Born” for CinemaCon attendees Tuesday evening to hearty applause.
Cooper stars in his remake of “A Star Is Born” alongside Lady Gaga as a burgeoning singer. He says his co-star is a revelation in the film.
Cooper told the audience of theater owners and exhibitors that he knows that this movie is a big swing, but says you can’t control what moves you.
“A Star is Born” is three years in the making, and features live-singing on real stages at festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella.
It hits theaters on Oct. 5. |
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says a United Nations judge has been convicted of membership in an extremist group.
A court in Ankara sentenced Aydin Sefa Akay, a Turkish national, to seven and a half years in prison for “membership in an armed terror group” Wednesday, according to Anadolu news agency. Akay, a retired ambassador and a sitting judge at the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, was accused of links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey claims Gulen was behind the bloody failed coup last summer. He denies the allegations.
Akay was arrested in September as part of a crackdown on alleged followers of the cleric, drawing criticism from the UN. Following the guilty verdict, the court ruled to release him under judicial control and barred him from leaving Turkey. |
BRUSSELS (AP) — A power outage has hit Brussels airport that is expected to delay planes throughout the day.
Florence Muls of Brussels airport says the outage hit at 5 a.m. (0400 GMT; 11 p.m. EDT) Thursday and specifically affected the luggage and air conditioning systems. Hundreds of passengers were left outside the terminal at dawn and were allowed inside around two hours later.
All systems were back to normal by midmorning but by then the backup was such that it would affect schedules for the rest of the day.
Despite the delays, the airport warned passengers to show up on time. The airport said incoming flights shouldn’t be affected. |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A 23-year-old man who was “out for blood” when attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank in a plot similar to the deadly 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building is expected to be formally charged Monday, authorities said.
Federal officials said Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Oklahoma, was arrested early Saturday in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb in an alley adjacent to BancFirst in downtown Oklahoma City. Varnell was scheduled to appear in federal court later Monday on a charge of attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce. Court records do not indicate whether Varnell is represented by an attorney.
A federal complaint filed on Sunday says a confidential informant told the FBI in December that Varnell wanted to blow up a building and “that Varnell was upset with the government and was seeking retaliation.”
Officials said Varnell initially wanted to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., with a device similar to one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more.
In a series of text messages with the FBI’s informant, Varnell “claimed to have a bunker for when the world (or United States) collapsed” and indicated he was trying to build a team, the complaint states.
“I’m out for blood,” the complaint quotes Varnell’s texts. “When militias start getting formed I’m going after government officials when I have a team.”
An undercover FBI agent posed as someone who could help Varnell build a bomb and met face-to-face with him on June 1 to discuss obtaining materials for an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb similar to the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing, the complaint states.
Varnell indicated at the meeting that he had previously made homemade explosives and that he “was of the same mind with people who wanted to use explosives and make a statement,” the complaint says.
“Something needs to be done,” Varnell said, but killing a lot of people was not a good idea, according to the complaint. During text conversations in July, Varnell stated he wanted to conduct the attack after closing hours to prevent casualties but conceded that some bank workers or custodians who were inside the building could be killed or injured in the blast, it says.
The complaint says Varnell helped assemble the device and load it into what he believed was a stolen van. Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Varnell drove the van by himself from a storage unit in El Reno, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the bank in Oklahoma City, and dialed a number on a cell telephone that he believed would trigger the explosion. The FBI and members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Varnell shortly before 1 a.m.
The complaint also states that Varnell prepared a statement to be posted on Facebook after the explosion which reads in part that the attack was “retaliation against the freedoms that have been taken away from the American people” and “an act done to show the government what the people think of its actions.”
If convicted, Varnall faces between five and 20 years in prison.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a tying home run in the sixth inning, Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez went deep in the eighth and the New York Yankees rallied to beat the Mets 4-2 Monday night in the first of four Subway Series matchups this week.
Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes homered in the third inning off Luis Cessa to give the Mets a 2-0 lead at Yankee Stadium.
Sanchez started the Yankees’ comeback with a sacrifice fly in the fourth against Rafael Montero. Two innings later, Judge hit his AL-leading 36th home run — just his sixth since the All-Star break. The ball was dropped in the right-center field bleachers by a fan wearing a Judge jersey.
Hicks, who returned last week from an oblique injury, homered against Hansel Robles (7-4) leading off the eighth, his career-best 12th homer. Sanchez homered two batters later against Erik Goeddel. With 20 homers, Sanchez matched his total in his rookie season last year. |
Broadway went to get a normal check up at the dermatologist and ended up really embarrassing himself.
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A look at what’s happening around the majors Wednesday:
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REMEMBER HIM?
The Tampa Bay Rays face former teammate Alex Cobb when they play at Camden Yards. They had been set to meet up Tuesday night, but the game in Baltimore was rained out. The 30-year-old Cobb spent his entire career with the Rays before joining the Orioles in late March. Over six years with Tampa Bay, the right-hander was 48-35 and one of the leaders of the staff.
Cobb signed a $57 million, four-year deal with Baltimore. He got off to a late start because he missed most of spring training, and since his return has gone 0-2 with a 15.43 ERA.
LOOKS ODD
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has a 2.45 ERA after five starts, not far off his career mark of 2.36. But his won-loss record this season looks unusual — he’s 1-3. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner was a combined 67-18 over the previous four years. He’ll try to get back in the victory column when he starts against Miami at Dodger Stadium.
NEED A DOME!
There have been 28 postponements this season in the majors, the most related to weather through April since the commissioner’s office started keeping those records in 1986.
The Detroit-Pittsburgh game was rained out Tuesday night, forcing a doubleheader at PNC Park. It will be the second time they’ve played a twinbill this year against each other after wintry weather pushed back opening day at Comerica Park on March 29 and caused another matchup to be called off.
The Cubs and Indians played through steady rain Tuesday night in Cleveland. The wet weather intensified throughout the game, leaving puddles in the infield and causing Chicago reliever Steve Cishek to slip on the mound several times.
STRONG STARTS
Justin Verlander (3-0, 1.10 ERA) makes his sixth start of the season when Houston hosts the Angels. … Max Scherzer (4-1, 1.36 ERA), winner of the last two NL Cy Young Awards, pitches at San Francisco. … Phillies newcomer Jake Arrieta (2-0, 2.04 ERA) faces Arizona star Zack Greinke at Citizens Bank Park.
GRAY AREA
Yankees right-hander Sonny Gray (1-1, 8.27 ERA) has totaled just 16 1/3 innings in four starts this season. He’ll aim to add a little length when he pitches against Minnesota at Yankee Stadium. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman on Monday said she was a 17-year-old model and aspiring actress when Steven Seagal sexually assaulted her at a supposed casting session at a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2002.
Faviola Dadis was emotional but composed as she spoke at a news conference in Los Angeles, becoming the latest of several women to accuse the action star of sexual misconduct.
Dadis said Seagal reached under her bikini top, grabbed her nipples and then grabbed her genitals soon after the audition began. She said she promptly ended the audition and left deeply shaken.
“I have suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, have found it difficult to form trusting relationships with men,” Dadis said through tears as she read from a written statement.
She recently filed a report with police, and Los Angeles prosecutors said Monday that her case is under review.
Dadis spoke at the news conference alongside her attorney, Lisa Bloom, and another woman, Regina Simons, who said Seagal sexually assaulted her in 1995 when she was 18, allegations she previously made on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” in January.
Seagal’s attorney Anthony Falangetti said the actor adamantly denies the allegations.
“These claims by the two women who spoke today are completely fictitious and totally made up,” Falangetti told The Associated Press in a phone interview later Monday.
He said it was implausible that either woman ended up unaccompanied with Seagal in the ways they said they were.
“Neither one of their accounts is at all believable,” Falangetti said.
Dadis, now a 33-year-old doctoral candidate in clinical neuroscience, said she had recently moved to the U.S. from the Netherlands when a music producer introduced her to Seagal. After several phone calls and text messages, Seagal invited Dadis to a hotel room in Beverly Hills for the late-night casting session for a film he planned to make about Genghis Khan, Dadis said.
Dadis brought a family friend because her mother was suspicious, but the person stayed in the lobby and she ended up in a room with only Seagal and his personal security guard.
Seagal had told her to wear a bikini or bra and panties under her clothes, and had her walk around the room in the bikini before saying he wanted to test their chemistry together and started touching her, Dadis said.
“Steven sat there calmly as if nothing had happened while I was noticeably upset and terrified by the experience,” she said. “I left feeling horrified and totally violated.”
She said she told friends after about a month, but did not go to authorities at the time because she feared being blacklisted in the entertainment industry. She said Seagal later called her, but she never accepted the calls.
Dadis said she was inspired by the recent wave of reports of sexual misconduct by men in the entertainment industry, and was spurred to come forward especially by actress Portia de Rossi saying Seagal once unzipped his pants during an audition with her.
Actress Jenny McCarthy has also said Seagal sexually harassed her at an audition in 1995.
After her interview with McCarthy, Seagal said on his Facebook page that he had never met Simons and her story was fabricated, and he has denied the allegations of the other actresses.
Bloom said there are no immediate plans for lawsuits. |
HOUSTON (AP) — Advocates for a Mexican journalist detained in a remote West Texas facility asked the U.S. government to grant him asylum instead of deporting him to a country where he believes he’ll be killed.
Emilio Gutierrez Soto fled to the United States a decade ago after articles he wrote alleging corruption in the Mexican military caused his name to end up on a hit list. Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalism, likened to countries such as Syria and Iraq. At least 11 journalists have been killed in Mexico this year.
After coming within hours of possible deportation, Gutierrez, 54, is now appealing that denial. The National Press Club and other press freedom advocates held an event Monday highlighting Gutierrez’s case and those of other reporters whose lives were in danger.
Speaking by phone from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Sierra Blanca, Texas, Gutierrez accused Mexican leaders of being complicit in the violence of drug cartels and the murders of journalists, though he did not make specific allegations.
“The biggest criminal organization is the government,” Gutierrez said. “I’m afraid to take one step into Mexico.”
The U.S. government historically rejects most asylum claims. Over a five-year period ending in September 2016, the U.S. received about 267,000 asylum claims and granted 46,000.
It has granted asylum in recent years to a number of Mexican journalists. But Eduardo Beckett, Gutierrez’s lawyer, accused the U.S. of turning a blind eye to corruption and violence in Mexico, and blamed the Trump administration for changing how it deals with asylum seekers.
“There is no more humanity,” Beckett said. “The new tactic is, we’ll pressure you, we’ll keep you detained, in hopes you’ll give up.”
Another Mexican journalist did just that earlier this year. After spending nearly four months in an immigration facility, reporter Martin Mendez Pineda returned to Mexico and went into hiding.
Mexico has created a federal protection program for journalists, with about 600 enrollees nationwide. But one reporter in the program was killed earlier this year, and others question whether the federal government has the power or the will to protect them. Meanwhile, high-profile killings have continued, including the death of Javier Valdez, a legendary reporter who covered drug trafficking in Sinaloa state.
Gutierrez worked for El Diario del Noroeste, a newspaper in the state of Chihuahua. He said his problems began after he wrote articles that alleged military forces were robbing and extorting local people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of West Texas.
After receiving what his advocates called veiled threats, Gutierrez discovered his name had been placed on a hit list. So he fled north with his teenage son and entered the U.S. in 2008, seeking asylum.
He spent seven months in detention before his release in January 2009, while his application for asylum remained pending.
Beckett said that Gutierrez was no longer working in journalism while living in the West Texas border city of El Paso. Instead, he supported himself by operating a food truck, Beckett said. His son, now 24, works in a restaurant. But while in the United States, Gutierrez heard from people back in Mexico that if he returned, he would end up like other journalists who were killed.
After nine years, a judge denied his asylum request in July, and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal in November.
His advocates say he came close to being sent back to Mexico before the appeals board on Thursday issued a stay of his deportation.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Mexican foreign affairs ministry did not return messages seeking comment Monday. ICE said in a statement that Gutierrez remains in the agency’s custody “pending disposition of his immigration case.”
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Follow Nomaan Merchant on Twitter at @nomaanmerchant. Associated Press reporter Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top five economies are warning the United States that its massive tax overhaul could contravene some of its international obligations and risks “having a major distortive impact on international trade.”
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the finance ministers of Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain wrote they had “significant concerns” about three tax initiatives in particular, including the so-called base erosion and anti-abuse tax Senate bill.
In a letter seen by The Associated Press, the five wrote that “it is important that the U.S. government’s rights over domestic tax policy be exercised in a way that adheres with international obligations to which it has signed-up.” |
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — After eight surgeries and nearly losing his left leg, Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller still refuses to rule out a return to the football field.
In his first visit to Halas Hall since his Oct. 29 injury, Miller on Monday expressed thanks for the support he received from the Bears, teammates and fans after vascular surgery to repair a torn artery resulting from a knee injury.
“I’ve been a football player my whole life,” Miller said. “I would love to play football. We’ll cross that road when it’s time.”
Miller said the possibility of losing his left leg was very real in the hours after the injury against the Saints.
He has been through all those surgeries, some related to the dislocated knee and some to the artery. It’s possible he may require more operations.
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For more NFL coverage: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL |
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:
1. PIPE BOMB EXPLODES IN NYC SUBWAY
The only serious wounds from the blast during the morning rush hour are to the suspected bomber himself, who authorities say was inspired by Islamic State extremists.
2. WHAT FINAL PITCH ROY MOORE IS MAKING TO VOTERS
On the eve of the Senate election, the Alabama Republican casts himself as the victim of a national barrage of unjust allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers.
3. #METOO SPOTLIGHT TURNS TO TRUMP
Several women urge Congress to investigate their claims of sexual misconduct against the president, and a number of Democratic lawmakers demand his resignation.
4. HOW PUTIN IS CELEBRATING MOSCOW’S DEEPENING MIDEAST TIES
The Russian president declares “victory” in Syria during a surprise visit to a military base there, then travels to Egypt and Turkey, highlighting his country’s expanded reach.
5. WIND-FANNED WILDFIRE FLARES ANEW
Ash falls like snow and heavy smoke forces residents to gasp for air as a Southern California wildfire spreads alarmingly, becoming the fifth largest in state history
6. WHICH RESEARCHERS HAVE HIT THE JACKPOT
Eighteen climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere are awarded millions of euros in grants to relocate to France for the rest of Trump’s presidential term.
7. PENTAGON OPENS DOOR TO TRANSGENDER RECRUITS
Transgender individuals will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, after Trump’s ordered ban suffers another legal setback.
8. WORLDWIDE, AN ECONOMIC UPTURN
The U.N. says the global economy is growing by about 3 percent — its highest rate since 2011 — and a significant acceleration from last year.
9. CELEBRITY CHEF STEPS AWAY FROM RESTAURANT EMPIRE
The move comes after Mario Batali says that reports of sexual misconduct “match up” to his behavior.
10. STAR QB SUFFERS SEASON-ENDING INJURY
The Eagles’ Carson Wentz, a favorite in the NFL MVP race, has a torn left ACL and will miss the rest of the season and the playoffs. |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Like squabbling siblings, New Zealand and Australia have close ties but also a rivalry that can sometimes turn ugly.
That tension spilled into politics on Tuesday, when Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop accused New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party of conspiring to undermine her government, a claim New Zealand lawmakers said was “false” and “utter nonsense.”
The unlikely dispute involved Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s deputy prime minister. Joyce said Monday he’d been advised he was a New Zealand citizen and an Australian court was being asked to determine if he should be kicked out of parliament because Australia’s constitution bans lawmakers from being dual citizens.
If Joyce was disqualified, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s center-right government could lose its single-seat majority in the House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to govern.
But Joyce told Australia’s parliament on Tuesday that New Zealand had just told him verbally that his citizenship had been renounced after he requested as much over the weekend, and he was now awaiting written confirmation. Renunciation won’t affect the court decision since the case rests on his eligibility to run in the last election.
Bishop said Australia’s opposition Labor Party had used their New Zealand counterparts to raise questions about Joyce in the New Zealand parliament.
“This is highly unethical at least, but more importantly it puts at risk the relationship between the Australian government and the New Zealand government,” Bishop told reporters in Canberra.
“New Zealand is facing an election,” she said. “Should there be a change of government, I would find it very hard to build trust with those involved in allegations designed to undermine the government of Australia.”
New Zealand’s election is next month.
New Zealand Labour Party Leader Jacinda Ardern said the claims were false and “highly regrettable.” She said she’d contacted the Australian High Commission to register her disappointment and would be meeting with the commissioner in person.
Bishop was referring to two questions lodged in the New Zealand parliament by Labour lawmaker Chris Hipkins, who asked whether children born in Australia to a New Zealand father automatically had New Zealand citizenship.
Ardern said she had no knowledge of the questions lodged by Hipkins and knew nothing about the Joyce case until it broke in the media this week.
She told Radio New Zealand that somebody connected with the Australian Labor Party had put the questions to Hipkins without mentioning Joyce, and that Hipkins wouldn’t have asked them if he knew how they were going to be used. She called the questions inappropriate.
“I greatly value New Zealand’s relationship with the Australian government,” she said in a statement. “I will not let false claims stand in the way of that relationship. I would happily take a call from Julie Bishop to clarify matters.”
New Zealand’s Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said Hipkins had not started the row.
“This is so much utter nonsense — while Hipkins’ questions were inappropriate, they were not the instigator,” Dunne tweeted. “Australian media inquiries were.”
Joyce is perhaps best known abroad for the tough stance he took on Johnny Depp’s pet dogs Pistol and Boo. Joyce threatened to have the Yorkshire terriers euthanized after saying they were smuggled into Australia in 2014 where Depp was filming the fifth installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series.
Depp’s then-wife Amber Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying an immigration document to conceal the dogs in a private jet. She avoided jail under a deal that included Heard and Depp appearing in an awkward video warning against others breaking Australia’s strict quarantine laws.
The Australian and New Zealand opposition parties are kindred center-left parties, although the Australian party uses the American spelling for its name.
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McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia. |
DETROIT (AP) — Dennis Edwards, a former member of the famed Motown group The Temptations, has died. He was 74.
Rosiland Triche Roberts, his longtime booking agent, says Edwards died Thursday in Chicago after a long illness.
The Birmingham, Alabama-born Edwards replaced founding member David Ruffin in 1968. His soulful, passionate voice defined the group for years. He was a member on and off for about two decades and part of the lineup that released “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone,” ”Ball of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)” and “Cloud Nine.”
Paul Riser, a Motown arranger and musician, worked with Edwards during the label’s Detroit heyday and subsequent projects. He says Edwards possessed a “voice for the ages,” with a great range, energy and artistry.
Edwards would have turned 75 on Saturday. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department just gave Republicans ammunition that their tax cuts would pay for themselves.
But the one-page memo relies on a mathematical gimmick: It includes an assumption that tax cuts and other Trump administration policies would cause the economy to expand at a 2.9 percent annual pace over 10 years. Economic growth at that level would, in theory, be enough to keep the national debt from rising.
But most analyses have concluded that the Senate tax overhaul would add at least $1 trillion to budget deficits in the next decade because the analyses foresee significantly less growth resulting from the tax cuts.
The Treasury Department report enables President Donald Trump to claim that the Senate tax overhaul would pay for itself, even though outside analyses show otherwise.
When the same report tries to estimate how much growth the tax cuts would actually produce, it also finds that the national debt would likely increase by at least $1 trillion during the next decade.
Many economists and tax experts were quick to dismiss the Treasury memo.
“It’s a joke,” David Kamin, a law professor at New York University and former economic policy aide in the Obama White House, said on Twitter.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said, “It’s no more than a thinly veiled attempt by the Trump administration to cover up an economic agenda that showers corporations with goodies while taking money and health care away from those who need it most.”
Most economic analyses — including one by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation — assume that the tax cuts would cause the debt to rise significantly because the cuts would fail to deliver significantly faster growth.
An analysis of the Senate plan released Monday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that even after factoring in additional economic growth, deficits would rise by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years when including the additional interest costs.
A separate analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found a similarly sized increase in budget deficits.
None of the top academic economists surveyed by the University of Chicago said the tax cuts would likely generate enough growth to pay for themselves.
The Treasury Department report, though, might provide a tool for Republican lawmakers to sell to a skeptical public tax cuts that largely help corporations and the wealthy. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have said that the tax cuts wouldn’t add to budget deficits. |
Top high school prospect Marvin Bagley III has committed to Duke and reclassified for the 2017-18 season, immediately making the Blue Devils a top national-title contender.
Bagley made his announcement on ESPN’s SportsCenter on Monday night.
The 6-foot-11 Bagley is widely considered the top recruit of the 2018 recruiting class, but last month petitioned the NCAA to reclassify and become college eligible for the upcoming season.
Bagley went on campus visits in July to Duke and USC, with UCLA also expected to be in the mix.
Bagley started his high school career at Tempe Corona del Sol High School and ended up at Southern California’s Chatsworth Sierra Canyon High School.
He will likely be in the mix to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft whenever he decides to leave college. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Manson’s cremated remains have been scattered nearly four months after the cult leader died in prison. A funeral was held Saturday following a court battle for the 83-year-old’s remains.
Pastor Mark Pitcher of the Church of the Nazarene in Porterville, California, says 20 to 25 people attended the funeral.
Among them were Manson’s grandson, Jason Freeman, and Freeman’s wife, Audrey.
Freeman prevailed last week in a months-long court fight for custody of Manson’s remains.
His grandfather was cremated after the service and his ashes scattered.
Pitcher said Monday he agreed to lead the service because Freeman and his wife are Christians.
Manson was sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and eight others.
He died in November. |
SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) — A lawyer says the Vietnamese woman accused of killing the North Korean leader’s half brother told police she realized she had been used to murder him after she was detained.
Doan Thi Huong and co-defendant Siti Aisyah from Indonesia were charged with murder after Kim Jong Nam died at Kuala Lumpur’s airport last year. They could face the death penalty if convicted, but not if they lacked intent to kill.
The court heard Tuesday that Huong thought she was playing a harmless prank for a hidden camera show.
Lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said Huong told police she didn’t know the oily liquid given to her by a Korean man was VX nerve agent and she washed her hands after smearing Kim’s face because the substance was smelly and uncomfortable. |
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s state news agency says that Turkish authorities have arrested and charged a suspected Islamic State group member with killing two Syrian journalists in Turkey in 2015.
Anadolu Agency said Monday that a Turkish court charged Muaz El Ahsin with murder for allegedly slitting the throats of Ibrahim Abdul-Qadir and Fares Hamadi. Both were journalists for the “Raqqa is being slaughtered silently” collective, a group publicizing atrocities in the Syrian city under IS rule.
Police detained Ahsin on Aug. 11 while he was trying to cross into Turkey illegally, according to Anadolu. A court later ordered him officially arrested on murder charges.
Anadolu said that Ahsin fled to Syria after the killings on Oct. 29, 2015. Anadolu said that police were still searching for other suspects. |
NAIROBI,Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court on Wednesday released seven doctors who are officials in the medics’ union and who were jailed earlier this week for not calling off a strike by doctors working in public hospitals and other institutions.
About 1,000 doctors outside the court celebrated the officials’ release and held a peaceful march to Parliament and Nairobi’s Freedom Park. More than 5,000 doctors from public hospitals are on strike for a 180 percent pay raise and to protest Kenya’s dilapidated health care system.
At least a dozen people have died due to lack of medical care since the strike started early December over the government’s fail to implement a collective bargaining agreement it agreed upon in 2013.
The decision to free the seven was made by three judges of the appellate court. Health minister Dr. Cleopa Mailu told the Senate committee for health that he supported their release to encourage negotiations to end the strike.
Pressure had been mounting on government after the seven doctors were jailed Monday. A peaceful vigil by their colleagues was dispersed by paramilitary police. Doctors from private hospitals protested the imprisonment of the seven by calling a 48-hour strike that started Wednesday and has paralyzed Kenya’s health care. The Kenya Medical Association de-registered the health minister and the principal secretary in the health ministry for a year for “disgracing the organization.”
In addition to the pay increase, doctors say they want government to restore the dilapidated public health facilities, ensure continuous training of and hiring of doctors to address a huge shortage of doctors. Currently doctors, who train for six years in university, earn a basic salary $400-$850 similar to some policemen who it takes six months to train. |
MILAN (AP) — A lone gunman targeted foreigners in a drive-by shooting spree Saturday in a central Italian city, wounding six people, one of them with life-threatening injuries, before being arrested.
The suspect’s motive wasn’t immediately clear, but the city of Macerata in the central Marche region is still reeling from the gruesome killing and dismemberment of a young Italian woman this week, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian immigrant.
Police said all those wounded were foreigners and they later confirmed the arrest of a suspect identified as a 28-year-old Italian with no previous record. A video posted by the newspaper il Resto di Carlino showed a man with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders being arrested by armed Carabinieri officers in the city center, a short distance from where he apparently fled his car on foot.
Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said that six foreigners were wounded in the two-hour shooting spree, one of them with life-threatening injuries.
Carancini confirmed that all of the victims were black, and acknowledged that “the closeness of these two events makes you imagine that there is a connection.”
The shooting spree came days after the killing of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme. The head of the anti-migrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has capitalized on the killing in campaign appearances, and is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier.
The teen’s dismembered remains were found Wednesday in two suitcases, two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community.
The news agency ANSA reported that the car was seen in the area where the woman’s body was found and also near where the suspect lived. A video posted by il Resto di Carlino Video showed appeared to be a body on the ground on a shopping street.
Police had warned people to stay inside while the shootings were ongoing. Authorities ordered public transport halted and that students be kept inside schools, which are open on Saturdays.
Italians vote in the general election on March 4. |
NEW YORK (AP) — A senior North Korean official and the top U.S. diplomat had dinner in New York as President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un try to salvage prospects for a high-stakes nuclear summit. It’s the highest-level official North Korean visit to the United States in 18 years.
Kim Yong Chol, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed midafternoon Wednesday on an Air China flight from Beijing. Associated Press journalists saw the plane taxi down the tarmac before the North’s delegation disembarked at JFK International Airport.
During his unusual visit, Kim Yong Chol had dinner for about an hour-and-a-half with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled from Washington to see him. The two planned a “day full of meetings” Thursday, the White House said. Their talks will be aimed at determining whether a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 but later canceled by Trump, can be restored, U.S. officials have said.
The talks come as preparations for the highly anticipated summit in Singapore were barreling forward on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, despite lingering uncertainty about whether it will really occur, and when. As Kim and Pompeo were meeting in New York, other U.S. teams were meeting with North Korean officials in Singapore and in the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone.
“If it happens, we’ll certainly be ready,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the Singapore summit. Regarding the date for the meeting, she added, “We’re going to continue to shoot for June 12th.”
North Korea’s flurry of diplomatic activity following a torrid run in nuclear weapons and missile tests in 2017 suggests that Kim Jong Un is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and the international legitimacy the summit with Trump would provide. But there are lingering doubts on whether Kim will ever fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival in a region surrounded by enemies.
Trump announced that Kim Yong Chol was coming to New York for talks with Pompeo in a tweet on Tuesday in which he said he had a “great team” working on the summit. That was a shift from last week, when Trump announced in an open letter to Kim Jong Un that he had decided to “terminate” the summit following a provocative statement from the North.
Pompeo, Trump’s former CIA chief, has traveled to Pyongyang twice in recent weeks for meetings with Kim Jong Un, and has said there is a “shared understanding” between the two sides about what they hope to achieve in talks. South Korean media speculated that Pompeo could make a third trip to Pyongyang and that Kim Yong Chol was carrying a personal letter from Kim Jong Un and might push to travel to Washington to meet with Trump.
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York is its sole diplomatic presence in the United States. That suggests Kim might have chosen to first go to New York because it would make it easier for him to communicate with officials in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital. North Korea and the United States are still technically at war and have no diplomatic ties because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to make the nuclear deal that has evaded others, but he pledged to walk away from the meeting if he believed the North wasn’t serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear program.
After the North’s combative statements, there was debate inside the Trump administration about whether it marked a real turn to belligerence or a feint to see how far Kim Jong Un could push the U.S. in the lead-up to the talks. Trump had mused that Kim’s “attitude” had changed after the North Korean leader’s surprise visit to China two weeks ago, suggesting China was pushing Kim away from the table. Trump’s letter, the aides said, was designed to pressure the North on the international stage for appearing to have cold feet.
White House officials maintain that Trump was hopeful the North was merely negotiating but that he was prepared for the letter to mark the end of the two-month flirtation. Instead, the officials said, it brought both sides to the table with increasing seriousness, as they work through myriad logistical and policy decisions to keep June 12 a viable option for the summit.
Kim Yong Chol is a vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party’s central committee. The last official of his stature to visit the United States was Jo Myong Rok, the late first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, who visited Washington in 2000, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.
The White House emphasized that it has remained in close contact with South Korean and Japanese officials as preparations for the talks continue. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on June 7 to coordinate their thinking ahead of the summit. Trump hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in last week.
Moon, who has lobbied hard for nuclear negotiations between Trump and Kim Jong Un, held a surprise meeting with the North Korean leader on Saturday in an effort to keep the summit alive.
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Lederman reported from Washington and Bodeen from Beijing. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller and Catherine Lucey in Washington and Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights (all times local):
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4:17 p.m.
Hours before Vegas hosted Washington in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, fans filed in the plaza outside T-Mobile Arena on a 98-degree day in the desert.
Some of those gathered were holding the hottest ticket in town. Many planned to simply soak up the atmosphere while watching the game on big screens outside the arena with thousands of new friends.
The Golden Knights’ logo was worked into hairdos of fans willing to make the commitment while others opted to have their face painted in black and gold.
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2:13 p.m.
The Strip has hosted countless events over the years, featuring stars on stage and in the ring.
Las Vegas can now add a championship game in a major professional sports league to its list.
And, Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final has a tough act to follow.
The Vegas Golden Knights opened with a 6-4 win over the Washington Capitals, co-starring teams that combined for a Final-record four lead changes.
There also were big hits, some which might have lingering effects Wednesday night.
Washington’s Tom Wilson was penalized for blindsiding Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault after he passed the puck in Game 1. Ryan Reaves scored a tying goal Monday night after appearing to get away with cross-checking Capitals defenseman John Carlson.
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More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals |
LONDON (AP) — Snow and wintry weather are still wreaking havoc on travelers in Britain, with flights cancelled, roads sheathed in ice and rail travel disrupted.
With temperatures dropping overnight as low as minus 11.6 Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit), hundreds of schools were closed Monday. Europe’s largest airport, Heathrow, warned Monday that some flights would be cancelled as it cleared the backlog of flights delayed by Sunday’s snowfall.
Heathrow asked travelers to check with their airlines. In the world of interconnected air travel, any extended disruption quickly leaves planes and flight crews out of position, knocking them out of rotation for their next assignments.
National Rail said poor weather conditions are affecting travel across England and Wales. Trains on Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Great Western, and Virgin Trains will all also be affected. |
GENEVA (AP) — Russian officials say that some 25,000 Christians have returned to eastern Aleppo since the city was fully retaken by Syrian government forces backed by Russia.
In a conference organized in Geneva Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting, Russian officials sought to generate a generate another narrative about the country’s war that has left at least 400,000 people dead and driven over 12 million people from their homes.
The two hour presentation entitled “Aleppo: A city free from terror. New life, new hopes,” included a video uplink to speak with several Syrians on the ground in eastern Aleppo as well as images of Russian medics helping the injured.
The Russian event was also an appeal for greater support from Western nations for Aleppo’s reconstruction. |
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Nathan Eovaldi pitched six innings of no-hit ball in his return to the majors following a second Tommy John surgery, leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night.
Eovaldi (1-0) faced one over the minimum through six innings in his Tampa Bay debut. He threw 70 pitches and had four strikeouts. The only runner to reach base against him was Matt Chapman, who drew a one-out walk in the first.
Wilmer Font, acquired by the Rays from the A’s last Friday, gave up Jed Lowrie’s one-out single in the seventh for Oakland’s only hit of the game. Vidal Nuno got the last three outs to finish the one-hitter.
Rob Refsnyder hit a three-run home run off A’s starter Sean Manaea (5-6), and Johnny Field also homered for the Rays.
The game drew an announced crowd of 6,295, the smallest at the Coliseum since April 3, 2003.
Eovaldi last pitched in the majors on Aug. 10, 2016, for the Yankees. Nine days later, he underwent a second elbow surgery. Eovaldi also had Tommy John surgery in 2007 when he was a junior in high school.
The 28-year-old missed the first month of this season after undergoing surgery March 30 to remove loose bodies in his elbow. Eovaldi made four rehab starts in the minors before being activated off the disabled list prior to Wednesday’s game.
Eovaldi, the 12th pitcher in major league history to start in the majors after having two Tommy John surgeries, induced seven groundouts and retired the final 17 batters he faced following the walk to Chapman.
Font then came in and retired Matt Chapman on a liner to shortstop in the seventh before Lowrie pushed a single up the middle.
Nuno replaced Font in the ninth and gave up a leadoff walk to Chad Pinder then retired the next three batters.
That was all the offense the A’s could muster while being shut out by the Rays for the second time in three games.
Oakland went into the game batting .216 in May, the second-lowest average in the majors.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: INF Marcus Semien was placed on the paternity leave list before the game. Chad Pinder started at shortstop in Semien’s absence. RHP Josh Lucas was called up from Triple-A Nashville. … RHP Liam Hendriks began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville.
UP NEXT
Tampa Bay RHP Ryne Stanek (1-0, 3.24 ERA) will make his second career start, three days after getting a win coming out of the bullpen. RHP Daniel Mengden (5-4, 2.85) goes for Oakland.
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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball |
ISTANBUL (AP) — A trial has begun in Turkey against dozens of suspects, including the alleged shooter in the New Year’s Eve attack that left 39 people dead in Istanbul.
Fifty-seven suspects, mostly foreigners and 51 of them behind bars, were on trial Monday on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Albulkadir Masharipov — the lead suspect — is charged with membership in a terror group, murder, attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, among other charges. The prosecutor is seeking multiple aggravated life sentences.
On Jan. 1, an assailant shot his way into Istanbul’s Reina nightclub where hundreds were partying. The assailant escaped and the Islamic State group claimed the attack. Masharipov was caught 15 days later.
Turkey has been hit by a string of attacks since 2015, blamed on Kurdish militants and IS. |
PARIS (AP) — A tardy Naomi Campbell triggered a dangerous media scrum as she entered Jean-Paul Gaultier’s couture ode to smoking in Paris Wednesday.
It raised the heat in the already scorching atmosphere on the final day of Paris fall-winter shows.
Temperatures reached heatwave levels and sweating fashionistas fanned themselves with Gaultier-branded fans.
Here are some highlights of the couture collections.
GAULTIER’S ODE TO SMOKING
It’s been banned in public — but smoking evidently has not been outlawed as a source of fashion inspiration.
The unusual homage by Jean-Paul Gaultier to one of the world’s dirtiest, and most glamorous, habits made for a typically tongue-in-cheek collection of 73 varied looks.
A black bison tuxedo jacket had the words “Gaultier Smoking” emblazoned on the front.
It was a play on words on the French translation on “tuxedo,” which is “le smoking” — and one that continued in myriad black and white deconstructions of tuxedo looks.
A surreal variation on the red Fez hat from Morocco — a country famed for its shisha pipes — also made an appearance. It covered the face, and from eye slits, the red tassels seemed to hang down like tears.
Tulle mouth masks followed white plume boas representing plumes of smoke.
But the final creation — a giant silver bridal veil — was the most creative look. Its shimmering, five-meter (16-foot) train was so diaphanous, it licked the air and evoked rising smoke.
Pedro Almodovar’s muse, actress Rossy de Palma, applauded from the front row.
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ELIE SAAB
Elie Saab took his itinerant couture inspiration to Barcelona this season.
The famed Modernist architecture of Antoni Gaudi — and its organic lines — were the focus of many of the Lebanese designer’s gowns.
Oversize rounded shoulders, which were sometimes dramatically raised from the body, were a new silhouette variation on the house’s bread-and-butter cinched waist looks.
The industrious Saab couture atelier had got to work to weave the signature crystals, sequins and pearls together to — as the program notes put it — depict “the sinuosity of organic forms.”
The swirling stone reliefs of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs venue, inside the Louvre palace, accentuated the clothes’ architectural lines.
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PARIS FASHION GETS TOUGHER ON PRESS
Certain Paris Fashion Week houses pride themselves on careful image control and restrictive press access.
As privately held brands, this is their right — although it can sometimes be excessive and lead to accusations of elitism.
Invitations are sent to carefully selected journalists and buyers, and some houses prefer smaller venues. The system is thought to increase the mystery and cachet of the clothes.
Like Balenciaga, Maison Margiela under John Galliano is one of many with a highly strict policy.
For the second season Maison Margiela extended their media clampdown to all photographic agencies, bar two, sending out a note explaining they would be handling the photography mainly “in-house” for Wednesday’s morning show.
The unusual move means that almost all images of the couture are now under the direct control of the Maison Margiela house.
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Thomas Adamson can be followed at www.twitter.com/ThomasAdamson_K |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Carson Wentz threw a touchdown pass a few plays after suffering an injury that could ruin a special season for the Philadelphia Eagles, and then stuck around to greet teammates and celebrate a division-clinching victory with them.
It’s always team-first for No. 11.
Two sources familiar with the injury told The Associated Press that doctors believe Wentz tore his left anterior cruciate ligament in a 43-35 comeback win over the Rams on Sunday and will miss the rest of the season and playoffs.
Wentz, a favorite in the NFL MVP race, will have an MRI on Monday to confirm the severity of the injury. Both people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
After the game, Wentz’s left knee was wrapped in a brace. He was driven in a cart up the tunnel at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and then hobbled to one of the team buses.
“I don’t know anything until we evaluate him (Monday),” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said.
Wentz wrote on Twitter: “NFC East Champs! So proud of the resiliency of this team. Such a special group of men. And I greatly appreciate all the prayers! I know my God is a powerful one with a perfect plan. Time to just lean in to him and trust whatever the circumstances! #Proverbs3:5-6”
Wentz was hurt late in the third quarter at Los Angeles. Backup Nick Foles rallied the Eagles (11-2) to a win that secured the NFC East title and put them in first place in the conference with three games remaining.
“Everyone is really excited about the win but you have your starting quarterback go down, it’s emotional,” Foles said. “It’s emotional for me. I work with him every day so I’m dealing with that.”
The Eagles have overcome several key injuries and now have to move forward without their most indispensable player. Nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters, return specialist/running back Darren Sproles, star linebacker Jordan Hicks and special-teams captain Chris Maragos already went down for the season.
But they’re not the franchise quarterback.
“It (stinks) more so for Carson as a person and a friend and a teammate and what he puts into the game and his preparation,” safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “But as a team we have all our goals in front of us.”
Wentz is the latest NFL star to go down in a season in which several high-profile players have been sidelined. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Kam Chancellor, Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt and quarterback Deshaun Watson, Giants receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall, Chiefs safety Eric Berry, Browns tackle Joe Thomas and Vikings running back Dalvin Cook and quarterback Sam Bradford each sustained season-ending injuries.
After starting all 16 games as a rookie, Wentz made a giant leap this year. He passed for 3,296 yards, 33 TDs and only seven interceptions.
Wentz again was spectacular against the Rams before he got hurt after getting hit hard as he scrambled into the end zone on a play that was called back because of holding. He stayed in the game and threw a 3-yard TD pass to Alshon Jeffery on fourth down four plays later, setting the franchise record for most TD passes in a season.
“It shows how tough he is,” Pederson said.
Foles replaced Wentz the next drive after the Rams took a 35-31 lead. He led the Eagles to a pair of field goals on consecutive drives. Second-year pro Nate Sudfeld is Philadelphia’s No. 3 quarterback.
Wentz arrived in Philadelphia as the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft out of North Dakota State. On Sunday, he outperformed Rams quarterback Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in that draft.
Despite the injury, Wentz celebrated the victory over the Rams (9-4) with teammates.
“He’s one of the leaders on the team. He was there congratulating and celebrating with everyone,” Foles said.
Foles, a third-round pick by former Eagles coach Andy Reid in 2012, is in his second stint in Philadelphia. He replaced an injured Michael Vick in 2013 and led the Eagles to an NFC East title during Chip Kelly’s first season as coach. Foles tied an NFL record with seven TD passes in a game at Oakland in November 2013 and finished that season with 27 TDs and only two picks. The Eagles lost at home to New Orleans in the playoffs. Foles went to the Pro Bowl and was the offensive MVP.
But Kelly traded Foles to St. Louis for Sam Bradford after the 2014 season. Foles spent a year with the Rams, a season with the Chiefs and returned to Philadelphia as a free agent this season.
“I’m absolutely ready to go — need be,” Foles said. “I prepare every day.”
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AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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For more NFL coverage: http://pro32.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL |
PARIS (AP) — French police say an 8-year-old girl was killed and at least five people were injured when a driver slammed his car into the sidewalk cafe of a pizza restaurant in a small town east of Paris.
An official with the national gendarme service said the driver was arrested soon after the incident Monday night in the town of Sept-Sorts.
The official said it is unclear whether the act was deliberate. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy.
An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week, and a truck attack in the French city of Nice left 86 people dead a little more than a year ago. Several other countries have seen cars used as weapons in recent years. |
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts police officer is facing disciplinary action for writing “Hahahaha love this” on Facebook in response to a story about a car striking and killing a counter-protester at a white supremacist rally in Virginia.
Springfield Officer Conrad Lariviere later apologized, saying in a Facebook conversation with Masslive.com that he’s a “good man who made a stupid comment.”
Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri said he received a complaint about the comment Sunday.
“I took immediate steps to initiate a prompt and thorough internal investigation,” Barbieri said via email. “If in fact this post did originate from an officer employed with the Springfield Police Department, this matter will be reviewed by the Community Police Hearings Board for further action.”
Democratic Mayor Domenic Sarno denounced the comments.
“There is no place for this in our society, let alone from a Springfield Police Officer,” Sarno said in a statement.
Lariviere had written on Facebook: “Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn’t block road ways.”
He was responding to a story about the death on Saturday of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was struck by a car that plowed into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Nineteen others were injured. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested shortly after and charged with second-degree murder.
Lariviere also questioned whether the driver of the car that struck the crowd was a “nazi scumbag.”
He responded to a critic who asked whether he had ever been struck by a car, saying he had been struck by someone “with warrants, but who cares right you ignorant brat live in a fantasy land with the rest of America while I deal with the real danger.”
Lariviere told Masslive.com he is not a racist.
“Never would I want someone to get murdered. I am not a racist and don’t believe in what any of those protesters are doing,” he said.
Lariviere was a member of the Springfield Police Academy’s 2014 graduating class. A message left by The Associated Press at a listed number for a Conrad Lariviere in Springfield was not immediately returned. |
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Rickie Fowler took a share of the lead into the weekend in the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He knows from experience the party is just getting started.
“Just keep the gas pedal down,” Fowler said.
Fowler has had a lot of success at TPC Scottsdale without winning. He finished a shot behind Hunter Mahan in 2010, lost to Hideki Matsuyama on the fourth extra hole in 2016, and tied for fourth last year.
“From the first couple times I played it, I knew it was just kind of a matter of time before I would win here,” Fowler said. “I know I can win here. I put myself in position plenty of times.”
Fowler was tied with Bryson DeChambeau, with each shooting his second straight 5-under 66.
The festive tournament drew an estimated Friday-record crowd of 191,400 fans, bringing the week total to 439,088. The third-round mark of 204,906 set last year is expected to be shattered Saturday, and the week record of 655,434 from a year ago could fall with a day to spare.
DeChambeau birdied the final two holes, hitting a wedge to 8 inches on the par-4 18th late on another 80-degree afternoon.
“I missed a few short putts on the back nine, so definitely didn’t play my best,” DeChambeau said.
He won the John Deere Classic last year. In 2015, the former SMU star became the fifth player to win the NCAA individual title and U.S. Amateur in the same year.
Daniel Berger and former Arizona State player Chez Reavie were a stroke back.
Berger had a bogey-free 65.
“This is the fourth time I’ve been here, so I’ve kind of figured it out a little bit,” Berger said. “Mostly, it’s just about just enjoying yourself.”
Reavie eagled the 17th in a 65. He’s the only player without a bogey after two rounds.
“This is my home tournament, growing up here my whole life and coming to the tournament and carrying the sign board,” Reavie said. “So this is like the fifth major for me.”
Fowler birdied four of the first six holes. He bogeyed his old nemesis, the 317-yard 17th, after driving short of the green to the left and chipping across and off the green.
“Funky little chip where we were in a good position to make birdie,” Fowler said.
Two years ago, he blew a two-stroke lead on 17 in regulation when he drove through the green and into the water, then handed the playoff to Matsuyama when he hit into the water again.
Fowler is wearing a pin on his hat with a picture of Griffin Connell, the area boy he befriended at the event who died last week at age 7. Connell was born with a rare airway disorder.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence he’s playing so well this week, either,” said Griffin’s father, Jim Connell. “Griffin, he’s not here with us, but we know he’s watching from above.”
Scott Stallings (65), Chesson Hadley (68) and Chris Kirk (68) were 8 under, and Phil Mickelson (65) and fellow former Arizona State player Jon Rahm (68) topped the group at 7 under.
The 47-year-old Hall of Famer is making his record-tying 29th start in the event he won in 1996, 2005 and 2013. He birdied the last three holes — getting the stadium-enclosed No. 16 for the second straight day — and four of the final six.
“There’s no question that I play better down the stretch with people here,” Mickelson said. “I can feel their energy and it helps me focus.”
Justin Thomas and first-round leader Bill Haas were 6 under.
The fourth-ranked Thomas had his second 68. He was bogey-free after dropping three strokes late Thursday with a double bogey on 16 and a bogey on 17.
“I was pretty upset and mad about that last night because I really let a good chance get away to shoot, I felt like, 7 or 8 under,” Thomas said. “But stretches like that are going to happen over the course of four days.”
Haas followed his opening 64 with a 72. He made a double bogey on the par-5 third.
The tournament lost some star power when Jordan Spieth missed the cut and two-time defending champion Matsuyama withdrew because of a left wrist injury.
Spieth shot 72-70, playing alongside Thomas. The third-ranked Spieth last failed to advance to weekend play in May, when he missed consecutive cuts in The Players Championship and the AT&T Byron Nelson. Matsuyama’s injury ended his bid to match Arnold Palmer’s event record of three straight victories.
Robert Garrigus had the shot of the day, a drive on the 17th that hit the flagstick and stopped inches away. He’s 2 under after a 69. Andrew Magee aced the hole in 2001, the only hole-in-one on a par 4 in PGA Tour history. |
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — A fatal pedestrian crash involving a self-driving Uber SUV in a Phoenix suburb could have far-reaching consequences for the new technology as automakers and other companies race to be the first with cars that operate on their own.
The crash Sunday night in Tempe was the first death involving a full autonomous test vehicle. The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle outside the lines of a crosswalk in Tempe, police said.
Uber immediately suspended all road-testing of such autos in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The ride-sharing company has been testing self-driving vehicles for months as it competes with other technology companies and automakers like Ford and General Motors.
Though many in the industries had been dreading a fatal crash they knew it was inevitable.
Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said local authorities haven’t determined fault but urged people to use crosswalks. He told reporters at a news conference Monday the Uber vehicle was traveling around 40 mph when it hit Helzberg immediately as she stepped on to the street.
Neither she nor the backup driver showed signs of impairment, he said.
“The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk, so it was midblock,” Elcock said. “And as soon as she walked into the lane of traffic, she was struck by the vehicle.”
The National Transportation Safety Board, which makes recommendations for preventing crashes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which can enact regulations, sent investigators.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed condolences on his Twitter account and said the company is cooperating with investigators.
The public’s image of the vehicles will be defined by stories like the crash in Tempe, said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies self-driving vehicles. It may turn out that there was nothing either the vehicle or its human backup could have done to avoid the crash, he said.
Either way, the fatality could hurt the technology’s image and lead to a push for more regulations at the state and federal levels, Smith said.
Autonomous vehicles with laser, radar and camera sensors and sophisticated computers have been billed as the way to reduce the more than 40,000 traffic deaths a year in the U.S. alone. Ninety-four percent of crashes are caused by human error, the government says.
Self-driving vehicles don’t drive drunk, don’t get sleepy and aren’t easily distracted. But they do have faults.
“We should be concerned about automated driving,” Smith said. “We should be terrified about human driving.”
In 2016, the latest year available, more than 6,000 U.S. pedestrians were killed by vehicles.
The federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.
Many states, including Michigan and Arizona, have taken a largely hands-off approach, hoping to gain jobs from the new technology, while California and others have taken a harder line.
California is among states that require manufacturers to report any incidents during the testing phase. As of early March, the state’s motor vehicle agency had received 59 such reports.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey used light regulations to entice Uber to the state after the company had a shaky rollout of test cars in San Francisco. Arizona has no reporting requirements. Hundreds of vehicles with automated driving systems have been on Arizona’s roads.
Ducey’s office expressed sympathy for Herzberg’s family and said safety is the top priority.
The crash in Arizona isn’t the first involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. In March 2017, an Uber SUV flipped onto its side, also in Tempe. No serious injuries were reported, and the driver of the other car was cited for a violation.
Herzberg’s death is the first involving an autonomous test vehicle but not the first in a car with some self-driving features. The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in 2016 when his car, operating on its Autopilot system, crashed into a tractor-trailer in Florida.
The NTSB said that driver inattention was to blame but that design limitations with the system played a major role in the crash.
The U.S. Transportation Department is considering further voluntary guidelines that it says would help foster innovation. Proposals also are pending in Congress, including one that would stop states from regulating autonomous vehicles, Smith said.
Peter Kurdock, director of regulatory affairs for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington, said the group sent a letter Monday to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao saying it is concerned about a lack of action and oversight by the department as autonomous vehicles are developed. That letter was planned before the crash.
Kurdock said the deadly accident should serve as a “startling reminder” to members of Congress that they need to “think through all the issues to put together the best bill they can to hopefully prevent more of these tragedies from occurring.”
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Krisher reported from Detroit. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this story. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the White House visit of French President Emmanuel Macron (all times local):
12:16 p.m.
A pair of designers is responsible for Melania Trump’s white skirt suit and matching hat.
The first lady’s office says Michael Kors designed the two-piece suit that Mrs. Trump wore for Tuesday’s White House arrival ceremony for President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte.
Mrs. Trump also wore the suit on an outing to the National Gallery of Art in Washington with Mrs. Macron.
The first lady topped her outfit with a broad-brimmed white hat designed by Herve Pierre. Pierre designed the first lady’s inaugural ball gown.
The white hat quickly became the talk of the town, as well as on Twitter. Mrs. Trump typically doesn’t wear hats.
Still to come is Tuesday night’s piece de resistance: the first lady’s state dinner gown.
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10:40 a.m.
President Donald Trump is warning that if Iran restarts its nuclear program it “will have bigger problems than they have ever had before.”
Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will be discussing the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday during their meetings at the White House.
Macron wants Trump to maintain the deal. Trump is undecided but has called it “a terrible deal.”
Though Trump has warmly welcomed Macron to Washington, the two have disagreements to sort through, including Trump’s decision to leave the multinational Paris climate change agreement.
While with Macron, Trump refused to answer a reporter’s question as to whether he is considering a pardon for his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose office was raided by the FBI. Trump called it “a stupid question.”
Cohen has not been charged.
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9:54 a.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron is highlighting the close ties between his nation and the United States during his visit to the White House.
Macron, standing alongside President Donald Trump Tuesday, said “America represents endless possibilities for my country.”
He also told Trump that “France shares with your country an ideal of freedom and peace.”
Macron touted how the French fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, which laid the blueprint for cooperation between the nations.
The French president, who enjoys a closer relationship with Trump than many of his European peers, said that France works alongside the U.S. on challenges like terrorism, North Korea and Iran.
He is expected to lobby Trump to maintain the Iran nuclear deal and reconsider the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
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9:30 a.m.
President Donald Trump is sending prayers to the Bush family and wishing former President George H.W. Bush a “speedy recovery.”
Trump is recognizing the former president as he greets French President Emmanuel Macron on the South Lawn of the White House.
Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with an infection, just days after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara Bush.
Trump is also sending the nation’s sympathies to the Canadian people following the “horrendous tragedy” in Toronto.
A driver plowed a rented van along a crowded sidewalk in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others. Trump says the nation’s hearts are with the grieving families in Canada.
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9:25 a.m.
President Donald Trump says the “wonderful friendship” he has developed with French President Emmanuel Macron is a testament to two nations’ enduring alliance.
Trump is thanking Macron for his “steadfast partnership” in responding to the recent chemical attack in Syria.
The president is speaking at an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.
Trump and Macron are meeting Tuesday on a number of issues, including the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the crisis in Syria.
The two leaders are holding a joint news conference later in the morning and then Macron will be honored with Trump’s first state dinner.
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9 a.m.
President Donald Trump is welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House in a formal arrival ceremony.
The president and first lady are greeting Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, on rolled-out red carpet on the South Lawn.
The arrival is heavy on pomp, with nearly 500 U.S. service-members from all five military branches participating in the ceremonial welcome, which includes a “Review of the Troops.”
Vice President Mike Pence and several members of Trump’s Cabinet, lawmakers, and military families are in attendance. The audience includes students from the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills, Maryland.
The two leaders are spending the morning in meetings and then will hold a joint news conference. On Tuesday night, Macron will be feted at Trump’s first state dinner.
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12:50 a.m.
A sit-down between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron followed by a joint news conference highlight the business portion of the French leader’s second day in Washington.
The pageantry of Macron’s official state visit, the first of the Trump presidency, comes Tuesday night with a lavish state dinner at the White House. About 150 guests are expected to dine on rack of lamb and nectarine tart and enjoy an after-dinner performance by the Washington National Opera.
Monday night was more relaxed, featuring a helicopter tour of Washington landmarks and a trip to the Potomac River home of George Washington for dinner.
Pomp and ceremony aside, Trump and Macron disagree on some fundamental issues. A prime dividing point is the multinational Iran nuclear deal, which Trump wants to abandon. |
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge set a June 15 deadline Wednesday for lawyers for President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and Trump to make attorney-client privilege claims over data seized in April raids, saying it was important not to delay the criminal investigation.
U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said a special taint team of prosecutors will make determinations after that date.
Wood presided over a hearing at which a prosecutor revealed that the contents of a shredder and two Blackberry devices were all that remained to be turned over to a court-appointed special master screening evidence for attorney-client privilege. Also reviewing the materials are lawyers for Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the president and the Trump Organization.
Cohen’s lawyers asked to be allowed to review materials from the April 9 raids of Cohen’s office and home until mid-July, but Wood said she had to balance their needs to protect their client with the need of prosecutors to pursue their criminal fraud case against Cohen.
Cohen did not speak during the court proceeding, which lasted more than an hour and featured a colorful argument between lawyers for Cohen and Trump on one side and California attorney Michael Avenatti on the other as they discussed Avenatti’s public statements on behalf of his porn-star client, Stormy Daniels.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had sex once with Trump in 2006. Trump denies it. Daniels was not in court Wednesday.
Stephen Ryan, an attorney for Cohen, argued that Avenatti had acted outrageously by releasing banking information related to Cohen publicly and by criticizing Cohen in dozens of television appearances.
Wood noted that Avenatti would have to stop making comments about his perception of what he believed was wrongdoing by Cohen if he wanted to formally intervene in Cohen’s efforts to protect materials seized from violations of attorney-client privilege.
Cohen’s lawyers said they had finished studying about a third of the materials that were seized and were working around the clock.
Special Master Barbara Jones said in a letter Tuesday that lawyers Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization have designated more than 250 items as subject to the privilege. She said the material includes data from a video recorder.
Jones said more than a million pieces of data from three of Cohen’s phones are ready to be given to criminal prosecutors, and more than 12,000 pages of documents from eight boxes that survived attorney-client privilege scrutiny already have been given back to prosecutors. More than a dozen electronic devices were seized or copied in the raids, and Jones said she has not yet received data from three seized items.
The raids on Cohen were triggered in part by a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who separately is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Wood became involved after Cohen came to court, complaining that he feared attorney-client privilege would not be protected. Trump also expressed those concerns on Twitter.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had sex once with Trump in 2006. Trump denies the affair. |
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A fugitive captured in Mexico is due in a U.S. courtroom Tuesday on accusations that he orchestrated an elaborate scheme to export handguns to countries with restrictive gun laws.
Eric Daniel Doyle was indicted by a grand jury on federal firearms charges in 2015, but fled before he could be arrested and eluded authorities for more than two years.
Authorities allege the 37-year-old Kalispell man used the internet to set up handgun sales to customers in Australia, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The weapons were shipped through the U.S. Postal Service.
Doyle pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance last week. His attorney, Andrew Nelson, told The Associated Press that he had no comment on the case ahead of Tuesday’s detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch will decide if Doyle remains a flight risk. He faces 44 counts of illegal gun exports and related crimes.
Details on the allegations against Doyle were unsealed by a federal judge following his capture Nov. 8 in the Mexican state of Sonora by a joint operation between local authorities and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities allege that in 2014, at least 14 firearms — primarily high-caliber handguns — were shipped by Doyle to customers in Australia, Norway and Sweden, court documents show. The suspects also attempted to export at least one handgun to Denmark and four more to customers in Australia.
Court documents contained only the initials of the buyers. It was unclear if U.S. authorities had reached out to their counterparts in the destination countries to inform them of the sales.
In most cases, the serial numbers on the weapons had been obliterated, according to the 2015 indictment. Many of the guns had been obtained through a “straw purchaser” who would buy firearms from a licensed dealer on Doyle’s behalf, according to the indictment.
Doyle had been prohibited from possessing firearms because of felony convictions in Illinois in 2006 on drug and burglary charges, according to public records.
Four alleged accomplices were previously sentenced. Among them was Doyle’s uncle, Jay Isles, also of Kalispell.
In sentencing those defendants last year, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said the case had far-reaching implications because the alleged scheme’s customers resided in countries with highly-restrictive gun laws. Molloy rejected plea deals that had been offered by prosecutors for everyone in the case but Doyle, saying they were too lenient.
“This is the most obvious conspiracy that I have seen on 20 years on the bench,” Molloy said in his sentencing order.
But after attorneys for the other defendants made their cases, Molloy ended up handing down relatively light sentences. The punishments ranged from time already served for Isles, to five years of probation with periods of home confinement for defendants Jeffrey Lee Palmer and Tanna Lee Meagher. Brian Spain received two years of probation.
Defense attorney Peter Leander, who represented Palmer, said his client had been taken advantage of by Doyle, who purported to be Palmer’s friend. Prosecutors said in court documents that it was Doyle who first came up with the idea to use the internet to sell firearms to foreign customers.
“It was my impression that he was really manipulating and taking advantage of a lot of guys,” Leander said. “The bad guy got away, literally and figuratively, and these guys were left holding the bag.”
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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap . |
TOKYO (AP) — Charles Jenkins, a U.S Army deserter to North Korea who married a Japanese abductee and lived in Japan after their release, has died. He was 77.
Jenkins was found collapsed outside his home in Sado, northern Japan, on Monday and rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead, a group representing families of Japanese abductees to North Koreas said Tuesday.
Japan’s NHK national television said he died of a heart failure.
Jenkins, of Rich Square, North Carolina, disappeared in January 1965 while on patrol along the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea. He later called his desertion a mistake that led to decades of deprivation and hardship in the communist country.
Jenkins met his wife Hitomi Soga, who was kidnapped by Pyeongyang in 1978, in North Korea and the couple had two daughters, Mika and Blinda. His wife was allowed to visit Japan in 2002 and stayed. Jenkins and their daughters followed in 2004.
Once in Japan, Jenkins in 2004 was subject to a U.S. court-martial in which he said he deserted because of fear of being sent to fight in Vietnam. He pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy and was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 25 days in a U.S. military jail in Japan.
Jenkins and his family lived in Soga’s hometown of Sado, where he was a popular worker at a local souvenir shop and could often be seen posing in photos with visiting tourists.
Soga is one of 13 Japanese that Tokyo says were kidnapped to the North in the 1970s and 1980s as teachers of Japanese culture and language for agents spying on South Korea. Pyongyang acknowledged the abductions and allowed a Japan visit in 2002 for Soga and four others, who eventually stayed.
Jenkins, in his 2005 autobiographical book “To Tell the Truth,” and appearances at conferences on North Korean human rights, revealed that he had seen other American deserters living with women abducted from elsewhere including Thailand and Romania.
After settling in Japan, he visited North Carolina to see his mother and sister. But he said he had no plans to move back to the U.S.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Find her work at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi |
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Stanley Cup championship, the first an NHL team has won back to back in almost 20 years, spawned by far the biggest victory parade of any of the franchise’s five titles.
An estimated 650,000 people turned out along a downtown parade route that ended with a rally at Point State Park, city public works and public safety officials said Wednesday. A sunny day with temperatures in the 80s didn’t hurt, as the smell of sunscreen was as pungent as the Penguins’ love in a city that boasts, officially, only 305,000 residents.
“These guys are fierce competitors,” coach Mike Sullivan told the crowd from a stage in the triangular park formed by the confluence of the city’s three rivers. “They just know how to win.”
Roughly 400,000 fans attended last year’s celebration, which was the biggest for any of the team’s Stanley Cup championships to that point.
The Penguins won the cup Sunday against the Nashville Predators with a 2-0 win in Game 6. And judging from signs and chants from the crowd, this championship was sweetened by the adversity the team overcame.
Playoff MVP and Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was knocked out for the better part of two games with a concussion against the Washington Capitals, and the Penguins played without their best defenseman, Kris Letang, who had neck surgery before the playoffs.
As the players took the stage to PPG Paints Arena announcer Ryan Mill’s introductions, fans also learned that Ian Cole, another defenseman, played through a broken hand and broken ribs. And Nick Bonino, who broke his leg blocking a shot but still finished Game 2 of the finals before missing the rest, hobbled around on crutches while taking selfies with fans.
A couple of bittersweet story lines punctuated the festivities: 40-year-old veteran Matt Cullen, who has won two Cups since joining the Penguins as a free agent last season, has hinted he might retire, prompting fans to chant, “One more year!” And, perhaps the best story of the playoffs was how former starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury regained that job when rookie Matt Murray was injured during warm-ups in the first game of the playoffs. Fleury was in net for nine of the 16 victories the Penguins needed to win the Cup before Murray returned from injury to replace Fleury after a shaky third-round game against Ottawa and was in net for Pittsburgh’s final seven playoff wins.
Fleury, one of the most popular Penguins with fans and teammates, is likely to leave when the new Las Vegas franchise drafts its players or in an offseason trade.
Phil Kessel, another fan favorite since the Penguins acquired him from Toronto two seasons ago, drew some of the biggest cheers.
Fan Kristen Pearce, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, drove down to honor Kessel, a Wisconsin native, and was lucky enough to have him autograph her jersey and her sign, which read, “We drove from Wisconsin to see our Stanley Cup champion!”
Some fans lined up the night before, and most waited several hours for the parade to start.
Karla and Don Donahue drove 30 miles from Freeport to claim their seats in Point State Park at 2:30 a.m. This was the third victory parade for the Donahues, who also attended in 2009 and 2016.
Karla Donahue said if they aren’t at the games they’re watching on TV.
“If we’re somewhere else, it’s on the radio,” she said. “We haven’t missed a game in years.”
The Penguins also won the Cup in 1991 and 1992. They became the first team to repeat as champions since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997 and 1998.
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This story corrects the first name of a Penguins player to Nick Bonino. |
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Mother Nature is again putting on a show at California’s Yosemite National Park, where every February the setting sun draws a narrow sliver of light on a waterfall to make it glow like a cascade of molten lava.
The phenomenon known as “firefall” draws scores of photographers to a spot near Horsetail Fall, which flows down the granite face of the park’s famed rock formation, El Capitan.
Capturing the sight is a challenge. Horsetail Fall only flows in the winter or spring, when there is enough rain and snow. The sun lights up the fall for only about two minutes at dusk for a few days in February.
Some photographers have had success this year as pictures of the glowing falls are showing up on social media. |
NEW YORK (AP) — A shade of purple inspired by the late superstar Prince and his custom-made Yamaha piano was announced Monday by the icon’s estate.
The royal hue created by the Pantone Color Institute was dubbed “Love Symbol #2,” paying tribute to the graphic Prince began using as his name in 1993 in a testy battle with Warner Bros. Records over ownership of the master recordings of some of his biggest hits. He switched back to Prince in 2000 after his Warner Bros. contract expired.
Prince also used the symbol on the cover of a 1992 album before he took it as a name and it was his signature early on after release of his hit “Purple Rain.”
Prince died in April 2016 at age 57 of an opioid overdose, according to authorities. |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s deputy prime minister on Monday became the latest lawmaker to reveal he might have breached a constitutional prohibition on dual citizens becoming lawmakers, after the New Zealand government declared he was a kiwi.
Barnaby Joyce told Parliament he would become the fifth lawmaker to be referred to the High Court since last month for scrutiny over whether he was entitled to remain in Parliament.
Joyce, who leads the conservative Nationals minor coalition party, said he had legal advice that he would be cleared by the court and would not stand down from Cabinet.
The 116-year-old section of the constitution that bans dual nationals is taking an extraordinary toll on the finely balanced Parliament elected in July last year. Before the careers of five came under a cloud since July, only two elected lawmakers were caught. Both were elected in the late 1990s and were quickly disqualified by the High Court, the first over New Zealand citizenship and the second for being British.
Critics of the constitutional rule argue it no longer suits the modern multicultural Australia in which almost half the population was born overseas or has at least one overseas-born parent.
If Joyce was disqualified, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s center-right government could lose its single-seat majority in the House of Representatives where parties need a majority to govern. The other four lawmakers are senators who if disqualified would be replaced by members of their own parties.
Joyce said he was notified by the New Zealand High Commission on Thursday that the New Zealand government had discovered “I may be a citizen by descent of New Zealand.”
“Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information,” said Joyce, whose father migrated from New Zealand in 1947. Joyce was born in Australia in 1967.
New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English said he was told last week that Joyce was a New Zealand citizen.
“Unwittingly or not, he’s (Joyce) a New Zealand citizen and then it’s a matter for the Australian system to decide how Australian law applies in his case and how they deal with the issue,” English said.
The Australian opposition demanded that the government refuse to accept Joyce’s vote in Parliament and dump him from Cabinet until the court resolved his status. But Turnbull said he was confident that Joyce was eligible to sit in Parliament.
“We did not refer this matter to the court because of any doubt about the Member for New England’s (Joyce’s) position, but because of the need, plainly in the public interest, to give the court the opportunity to clarify the operation of the section (of the constitution) so important to the operation of our Parliament,” Turnbull told Parliament.
The citizenship crisis first took hold in Parliament when two minor Greens party senators, Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, quit days apart after discovering they were still citizens of their birth countries. Ludlam was born in New Zealand and Waters was born in Canada. Both left as children and made no efforts to secure citizenship other than Australian.
Turnbull accused the Greens of “incredible sloppiness” in vetting candidates, before senior government minister Matt Canavan announced that he had discovered he was Italian.
Australia-born Canavan, who said his mother applied for his Italian citizenship without his permission when he was aged 25, stood down as resources minister, but said he was staying in the Senate unless the court declares them ineligible.
Joyce temporarily shouldered Canavan’s portfolio and became a vocal supporter of his Nationals colleague.
New Zealand Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Dunne said that under the 1948 New Zealand Citizenship Act, every person born outside of New Zealand to a parent who was a New Zealand citizen by birth was automatically a New Zealand citizen.
“The problem is not with the New Zealand citizenship laws but rather with the Australian constitution,” Dunne said.
Last week, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim party One Nation Sen. Malcolm Roberts was referred to the High Court after he revealed that he only received written confirmation that he was not a British citizen five months after he was elected in July last year.
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Associated Press writer Nick Perry, in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report |
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the European Union will make every effort to avoid a trade war with the United States, but Washington needs to join in that effort.
President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports and is mulling whether to add tariffs on cars, trucks and auto parts.
Merkel told the German parliament Wednesday: “It is worth every effort to try to defuse this conflict so that it doesn’t turn into a real war, but of course there are two sides to that.” She added that the good functioning of the world economy depends on countries working together as partners.
The U.S. is also pressing Germany over what it considers insufficient defense spending. Merkel said that “Germany is a reliable partner in NATO.” |
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Under heavy security, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in northern Greece to discuss plans to become a key supplier of European energy through an ambitious Mediterranean undersea natural gas pipeline project.
Netanyahu met in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, while Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades was also due to attend the talks.
More than 3,500 police officers were deployed for security around the city, which historically had a large Jewish community that was almost wiped out during the Nazi occupation in World War Two.
Israel is hoping to export much of its newly discovered natural gas to Europe by a proposed undersea pipeline to Cyprus and Greece. |
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — An analysis by The Associated Press shows that the cost of putting on last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics was $13.1 billion, paid for with a mix of public and private money.
Officials of Brazil’s Public Authority for Olympic Legacy said at a news conference Wednesday, the cost for “sports-related venues” was 7.23 billion reals ($2.06 billion). In addition, the Rio organizing committee previously said the cost of running the Games at 9 billion reals ($2.8 billion).
The Olympic legacy body did not account for other Olympic-related costs. But the AP obtained them in emailed statements from city, state and federal agencies.
Those costs were 26.385 billion reals ($8.2 billion) for, among other things, a subway line, a doping laboratory, a renovated port and cleanup of polluted Guanabara Bay.
The doping laboratory was paid for by the federal government and cost 163.7 million reals ($50 million). A delay-plagued subway line project that was built to connect fans to Olympic Park had a price tag of 9.7 billion reals ($2.98 billion). According to a state auditor’s report cited in August, the railway was overbilled by 25 percent.
Another legacy project, the renovation of Porto Maravilha, a run-down historic area in Rio, cost the city 10 billion reals ($4.2 billion).
“Should a country with such inequality as Brazil have hosted such an event with this level of investment,” federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri said. He said it would be difficult to use the Olympic venues in a way that would generate enough income to cover maintenance expenses.
“It is a challenge and we can see the difficulties,” he said. “We recognize the difficulties.”
Officials presented the report at the Olympic Park in suburban Barra da Tijuca, which now consists of mostly vacant venues. Last month a federal prosecutor said many of the venues were “white elephants” that were built with “no planning.”
The Rio Olympics, which opened 10 months ago, were plagued by countless financial and organizational problems, and were hosted as Brazil sank into its deepest recession since the 1930s.
The state of Rio de Janeiro has been months late paying teachers, hospital workers, and pensions. The state also reported record-breaking crime in 2016 in almost all categories from homicides to robbery.
The problems around the Rio Games — and the aftermath — have called into question the wisdom of cities building new venues every few years to accommodate an event that lasts just over two weeks.
Paulo Marcio, the head of the Public Authority for Olympic Legacy, talked vaguely about plans to use the venues. The Olympic Park has staged mainly small national or local events.
He did not offer any cost or income figures with most of the Olympic arenas now being operated by Brazil’s federal government. A plan to auction off the venues to private operators failed when only one bidder was reported to be interested.
“I think that in a short period of time I will be able to deliver this legacy, and we have already been successful,” he said. |
BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey’s seizure of the town of Afrin in northern Syria is a significant military achievement for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that gives him control over a large chunk of Syrian territory but also entrenches his troops as an occupying force in a crowded terrain packed with adversaries.
Ignoring criticism by the United States and Europe of his eight-week military offensive, Turkish forces and allied Syrian militiamen swept into Afrin on Sunday, marching victoriously into the town’s center and shooting in the air in celebration.
And it doesn’t stop there, Erdogan says.
Emboldened, he vowed on Monday to expand military operations into other Kurdish-held areas in Syria and even into neighboring Iraq — a move that would potentially put his troops in direct confrontation with U.S. troops stationed nearby.
The main Kurdish militia, acknowledging defeat in Afrin, has vowed to turn to guerrilla warfare to confront Turkish troops.
Here’s a look at Turkey’s seizure of Afrin, and what lies ahead:
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WHAT DOES ERDOGAN REALLY WANT?
At this point, that question is anyone’s guess. Turkey has long backed rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad from power, opening its borders to foreign fighters to join the war in Syria.
But the war has greatly empowered Erdogan’s No. 1 enemy, the Kurds, whose rag-tag fighters Turkey considers to be “terrorists” and an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency. In the chaos of war, the Kurdish fighters have partnered with the United States to fight the Islamic State group and carved out a huge autonomous region along the border with Turkey, amounting to a quarter of Syria’s entire territory.
That has led Ankara to recalibrate its focus toward halting Kurdish expansionism.
Erdogan, who first launched military operations in Syria in 2016, has repeatedly said Turkey will not allow a “terror corridor” along its border and has vowed to push eastward in Syria after Afrin, to prevent the Kurdish militia from linking up territories it controls in eastern and western Syria. Turkey is home to some 3 million Syrian refugees, and Turkey has also said Afrin could be a place where those refugees would return to.
Afrin, a separate Kurkish-run canton cut off from the rest of Kurdish-held territory by a Turkish-held enclave, was an easy target.
But by pushing eastward as he is threatening to do, Erdogan risks overplaying his hand and getting bogged down in a fight bigger than Turkey can handle.
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE KURDS?
It’s a huge setback. Until a few months ago, Syria’s long-marginalized Kurds were described as the biggest winners in Syria’s civil war. They bragged of being the main ground force that ousted the Islamic State group out of its strongholds in Syria, including Raqqa, the extremist group’s de facto capital.
But the Kurds’ dream of self-rule is looking increasingly fragile. They have been historically used and cast aside, and may once again become the losers in the big powers’ play over influence in Syria.
The Turkish offensive on Afrin, which began Jan. 20, has put the U.S. in a tough spot, juggling between the interests of the Kurds, its only ally in war-torn Syria, and its relations with Turkey, a key NATO ally. It did not move a finger to help the Kurds fight for Afrin.
The Kurds vowed to defend the enclave until the end, describing it as an existential fight to preserve their territory. They relocated hundreds of fighters from front lines with the Islamic State group to bolster the defense of Afrin.
In the end, they were no match for Turkey’s NATO army’s overwhelming firepower.
The Kurds lost more than 800 fighters in the 58 days of fighting for Afrin. An estimated 500 civilians were killed, and tens of thousands of Afrin residents streamed out of the town before the Turkish troops entered.
The Kurdish fighters also withdrew, ostensibly, to spare the remaining civilians.
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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
A lot hinges on whether Erdogan goes ahead with his threat to expand military operations eastward, toward the town of Manbij and other areas east of the Euphrates River controlled by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, and where U.S. bases are also housed.
While the U.S. was able to distance itself from the fighting in Afrin, it can’t sit by silently if Turkey expands the fight to Manbij. Kurdish guerrilla-type attacks against Turkey and its Syrian allies could also jeopardize the U.S.-led mission to stabilize areas that have been captured from IS.
President Bashar Assad’s response is also an open question. His forces are now preoccupied with recapturing eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and other areas deemed more essential. But he has condemned Turkish “occupation” of parts of northern Syria and vowed to eventually recapture the region.
Another major question is whether the takeover would lead to ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish majority there. Images that emerged Sunday following Afrin’s takeover bode ill for the future of the ethnically-mixed region. Afrin residents reported widespread looting and pillaging soon after Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters marched into the town center Sunday.
Turkey, along with its Syrian allies, already controls large chunks of territory east of Afrin. But its presence there was more accepted than in Afrin because it chased IS militants from those areas.
Some 200,000 people fled Afrin over the past few days, and whether they will be permitted to return remains an open question. |
ATLANTA (AP) — Severe storms that spawned tornadoes damaged homes and downed trees as they moved across the Southeast on Monday night.
Forecasters warned that the storms could threaten more than 29 million people, raising the risk of powerful tornadoes, damaging winds and hail the size of tennis balls.
Cities in northern Alabama reported power outages, and the National Weather Service in Huntsville reported at least three confirmed tornadoes in the area.
In Limestone County, an Alabama county on the Tennessee border, the sheriff’s office posted photos online of houses with roofs ripped off and outbuildings torn from their foundations. Several roads were closed because of power lines or trees, the office tweeted. But it had no reports of injuries from the storms.
The athletic director at Jacksonville State University said late Monday there was significant damage to the campus.
“I can confirm we have major roof damage at Pete Mathews Coliseum, but The Pete is not completely destroyed,” Greg Seitz said in a tweet.
Seitz later tweeted that they were still surveying the campus but that there was major roof damage to two halls, adding that his was thankful that JSU was on spring break this week and that most students are out of town.
Portions of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee were still under tornado warnings Monday night, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for much of northern Georgia as the line moved eastward.
Forecasters said the storm threat is unusually dangerous because of the possibility of several tornadoes, some of which could be intense. The weather service says hail as large as 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) in diameter could fall, and there’s a possibility of wind gusts to 70 mph (115 kph).
“The potential for strong to violent, long-track tornadoes is a real possibility,” Alabama state meteorologist Jim Stefkovic said at a news conference.
Alabama Emergency Management Executive Operations Officer Jeff Smitherman raised the threat level and increased staffing at Alabama’s emergency management agency. The storms are the first severe weather to threaten the state this year.
School systems from central Tennessee as far south as Birmingham, Alabama, let out early, hoping students and staff would have time to get home before the storms moved through.
The threatened storms come one day before the official start of spring, and are “by far the most impressive setup we’ve seen so far this year,” said Kurt Weber, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Huntsville, Alabama.
“We can’t rule out a strong tornado east of Interstate 65 at this point with all the ingredients coming together,” Weber added. “Hopefully not, but definitely a possibility.”
He said golf ball to tennis ball-sized hail, which can do serious damage to buildings and cars, was possible.
“This is one of those days you want to put the car in the garage if you can,” Weber said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged Alabamians to implement safety plans and get in a safe location.
“We are not taking the situation lightly,” Ivey said. “Severe weather is unpredictable and that is why it is paramount we prepare ahead of time.”
The University of Alabama suspended operations Monday from 6:30 p.m. to midnight, meaning classes and campus activities were cancelled, libraries closed and shelters were opened on campus.
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Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, Mallory Moench in Montgomery, Alabama, and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans’ ardor for investigations and oversight, on display throughout the Obama administration, has cooled off considerably with Donald Trump in the White House.
Each day seems to bring a new headache or near-crisis from Trump, the latest being the departure of his national security adviser under questionable circumstances involving Russia.
Yet if there is a line too far, at which point Republicans will feel duty-bound to call for an independent investigation of their president or his administration, Trump hasn’t crossed it yet.
Democrats are clamoring for a full-scale probe of the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, including demanding to know what Trump knew, and when, about Flynn’s pre-inauguration conversations with a Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions. White House press secretary Sean Spicer disclosed that Trump was told in late January that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations.
Rather than go along with Democrats’ call for an independent outside investigation, Senate Republicans insisted Tuesday that the Intelligence Committee could look at the circumstances as part of an existing probe into Russia’s interference in the presidential election.
“The Intelligence Committee is already looking at Russian involvement in our election and they have broad jurisdiction over the intel community writ large and they can look at whatever they choose to,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., adding that “it’s highly likely they’d want to take a look at this episode as well.”
The intelligence panel’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told reporters that “aggressive” oversight would continue “privately. We don’t do that in public.”
House Republicans were even less interested, with some shrugging off Democrats’ calls for an investigation entirely. Rep. Devin Nunes of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that the “real crime” is how Flynn’s phone conversations were leaked, echoing a complaint Trump himself made over Twitter.
“I think the situation has taken care of itself” in light of Flynn’s resignation, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told reporters. That’s a far different stance toward potential wrongdoing by the executive branch than Chaffetz took last year, when House Republicans issued more than 70 letters and subpoenas aimed at investigating Democrat Hillary Clinton over a period of less than three months after the FBI announced criminal charges weren’t warranted related to her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Chaffetz did turn his attention to a different Trump administration matter later Tuesday, sending a letter to the White House seeking information about Trump’s discussion of a North Korea missile launch while dining al fresco with the Japanese prime minister at a resort in Florida.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., went so far as to counsel publicly against spending too much time investigating the White House, saying that doing so could only be counterproductive at a moment when the GOP faces a daunting legislative agenda on Capitol Hill.
“I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party,” Paul said in an appearance on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends.” ”We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing Obamacare if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense.”
The relatively hands-off stance of the GOP toward the Trump White House angers Democrats, who are powerless to do much except fume from the minority in both chambers of Congress.
“Do you hear the silence? This is the sound of House Republicans conducting no oversight of President Trump. Zero,” Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, complained at a news conference Tuesday. “That is what it sounds like when they abdicate their duty under the Constitution. We’ve been asking for months for basic oversight.”
The GOP’s lack of enthusiasm about investigating the Trump White House comes as Capitol Hill Republicans struggle to come to terms with a new administration that has been engulfed in upheaval after upheaval. Republicans are trying to focus on their agenda despite the distractions. And for now, they appear to have concluded, going easy on Trump is the best way to achieve their goals, including confirming a Supreme Court justice and passing a new health care law and other legislation they want the president to sign.
“We know full well that there are issues that are going to come up on a daily basis that we’re going to get asked about and have to respond to,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican, “but we’re interested in repealing and replacing Obamacare, reforming the tax code, reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, confirming a Supreme Court justice, getting these Cabinet nominees through — that’s what our agenda is right now.” |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday banned all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions. In a separate move, the administration also slapped sanctions on four current and former senior Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and mismanagement.
In an executive order that took effect immediately upon its issuance, President Donald Trump declared illegal all U.S. transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction last month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the “petro,” for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.
In the executive order, Trump said it was an “attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions” imposed for democratic backsliding.
The Treasury had said in January that the petro appeared to be an extension of credit to Venezuela and warned that transactions in it may violate U.S. sanctions.
In February, cash-strapped Venezuela became the first country to launch its own version of bitcoin, the petro, in a move that President Nicolas Maduro celebrated as putting his country on the world’s technological forefront.
The petro is backed by Venezuela’s crude oil reserves, the largest in the world, yet it has arrived on the market as the socialist country sinks deeper into an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and food shortages that put residents in lines for hours to buy common products.
Maduro had announced late last year that he was creating the digital currency to outmaneuver U.S. sanctions preventing Venezuela from issuing new debt.
Bitcoin and other digital tokens are already widely used in Venezuela as a hedge against hyperinflation and an easy-to-use mechanism for paying for everything from doctor visits to honeymoons in a country where obtaining hard currency requires transactions in the illegal black market.
The government has promised that Venezuelans will be able to use the $60 coins to pay taxes and for public services. But with the Venezuelan minimum wage hovering around $3 a month, it’s unlikely citizens will buy in large amounts.
In its own statement on Monday, Treasury said it was hitting the four current and former Venezuelan officials with sanctions that freeze any assets they may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.
The four include Americo Alex Mata, a director of Venezuela’s National Bank of Housing and Habitat and coordinator of Maduro’s 2013 campaign, Willian Antonio Contreras, the head of the body that oversees price controls in the country, Nelson Reinaldo Lepaje, the head of the Office of the National Treasury, and Carlos Alberto Rotondaro, the former president of the Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security. |
PARIS (AP) — It is a dream come true for U.S.-based climate scientists — the offer of all-expenses-paid life in France to advance their research in Europe instead of in the United States under climate skeptic President Donald Trump, two of the winners say.
American scientist Camille Parmesan and British scientist Benjamin Sanderson are among the 18 initial winners, including 13 based in the U.S., of French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” climate grants.
Macron congratulated the winners during a brief ceremony in Paris on Monday evening, ahead of a climate summit that gathers more than 50 world leaders in the French capital Tuesday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Parmesan expressed elation at the prospect of spending the next five years doing her research in France instead of the United States.
A scientist from the University of Texas at Austin, she is a leader in the field on how climate affects wildlife. She lived for a few years in Britain for family reasons and was considering returning to the U.S. until Trump’s election.
“He very, very rapidly has been actively trying to erode science in the U.S.A. and in particular climate science,” she said. “And it’s hard for two reasons: Funding is becoming almost impossible, and in a psychological sense.”
Parmesan answered with enthusiasm Macron’s appeal for climate researchers to come work in France, minutes after Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord. “It gave me such a psychological boost, it was so good to have that kind of support, to have the head of state saying I value what you do,” she said.
Parmesan, who said she is looking forward to improving her French, will be working at an experimental ecology station in the Pyrenees mountains.
Sanderson, who also worked in the U.S., told the AP that he found it “very reassuring” that France is “openly encouraging climate research.”
He said his application was motivated by “the fact that France is making a stand on prioritizing climate change research, but also it’s increasingly hard to get research funding in the U.S.”
Sanderson used to work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, on risks and uncertainties under climate change. For the next few years, he will be living in Toulouse, in southern France, where the country’s national meteorological service is based.
France’s ministry of Research said the selection of the laureates focused on “scientific excellence and relevance to the call”.
“It’s very troubling,” that researchers feel they need to leave the United States to get needed support for their work, said Chris McEntee, chief executive officer of the American Geophysical Union, an organization of more than 60,000 Earth and space scientists. “Ever since the election there has been fear and anxiety among the scientific community.
“It’s not good for the U.S. but it’s not good for the world either,” McEntee said.
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Science writer Seth Borenstein contributed from New Orleans. |
JERUSALEM (AP) — Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the spiritual leader of Israel’s non-Hassidic ultra-Orthodox Jews of European descent and one of the country’s most influential and powerful rabbis, died Tuesday. He was 104.
Shteinman was hospitalized several weeks ago with shortness of breath and passed away early on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands were expected to attend his noontime funeral in the central Israeli ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak and major roads were being shut down in advance of the procession.
Shteinman was a longtime political kingmaker whose orders were strictly followed by his representatives in parliament. His influence, however, far surpassed just that and he was seen as the leading voice of the entire community on many issues of religion and state. Following the 2012 death of his predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, he was widely regarded as “Gadol Hador,” or “leader of the generation.”
The ultra-Orthodox, known in Hebrew as “Haredim,” or “those who fear God,” are the fastest growing sector in Israel. Due to their high birth rate, they now number more than 1 million people, or about 12 percent of Israel’s 8.7 million citizens, with the majority living beneath the poverty line.
Shteinman was known for his rabbinic scholarship, his relatively pragmatic rulings and extremely modest lifestyle. He was often called to judge on sensitive matters such as how much the traditionally insular community should integrate with the larger Israeli society, embrace technology, pursue higher education, work or agree to serve in the largely security military. In recent years, he had faced a challenge from a more extremist rabbi in Jerusalem who sent thousands into the street to protest the small numbers of ultra-Orthodox who have enlisted.
Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, an expert on the ultra-Orthodox community, said that until just recently Shteinman was of clear mind and hosting followers who sought his advice.
“He was a person who knew very carefully how to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the individual,” he said. “His legacy is greatness of scholarship … but at the same time a very nuanced leadership.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin praised Shteinman as a leader who “carried on his shoulders the existential weight of the Jewish people.” |
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Supreme Court poised to rule on a case that could end the federal ban on sports gambling, more than a third of U.S. states are considering legislation to get in on the action, and professional leagues and casino interests are lobbying against each other for the biggest cut of the winnings.
The push to legalize betting on sports has already led to fractures in an uneasy alliance that had developed between leagues and gambling legalization advocates before Supreme Court arguments last fall.
The NBA and Major League Baseball have been asking states to give them 1 percent of the total amount wagered on their games, calling it an “integrity fee” so they can protect their products and snuff out attempts at cheating and game-fixing.
“Now, let’s be clear — that’s just a euphemism for a cut of the action,” Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill U.S., a sports book operator, told New York state lawmakers in January. “There will be plenty of financial benefits to the leagues.”
Gambling proponents say kicking back that much to the leagues would make sports books unprofitable and prevent a legal, regulated betting market from developing. They’re seeking an arrangement similar to what exists in Nevada, where the state takes 6.75 percent of winnings on top of a federal tax of 0.25 percent of the amount wagered.
Casinos have a built-in edge when it comes to battling in statehouses. Casinos are legal in 40 states; the commercial companies and American Indian tribes that run them are well-versed in dealing with regulators and state lawmakers. The NBA and MLB, on the other hand, are new to lobbying states on gambling and have sometimes relied upon the bully pulpit of their commissioners to get their point across.
“The leagues feel like they’re out of their element, and that’s making them uncomfortable,” said Kevin Braig, a Columbus, Ohio-based attorney, gambling industry analyst and handicapper. “The gaming industry lobbies all the states. I think it goes even beyond that: They’re almost partners in what they’re doing. They have a very close relationship because they have very closely overlapping interests.”
Before the Supreme Court heard New Jersey’s challenge to the 1992 federal law limiting sports betting to the four states that already had laws on the books, casino interests — and their influential trade group, the American Gaming Association — were encouraged by the professional leagues’ changing attitudes about gambling, even as leagues argued before the justices that the ban should remain. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said betting should be legalized and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said it could enhance fan interest in the sport. Although the NFL remains publicly opposed to gambling, Commissioner Roger Goodell has said his position has “evolved.”
The NFL and the NCAA have sat out the debate entirely in states considering legislation. That’s despite the fact that 31 percent of sports gambling winnings in Nevada last year came from football bets, and more is wagered on college basketball’s NCAA Tournament than on the Super Bowl.
The NBA and MLB argue their reputations are on the line because of the possibility of games being fixed. Sports fans are still familiar with the Black Sox scandal of 1919, Pete Rose’s lifetime banishment from baseball for betting on games and a point-shaving scandal involving former NBA referee Tim Donaghy.
“The damage from even a hint of scandal will hurt the sports leagues far worse than anyone else,” said Bryan Seeley, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at MLB.
“The NBA spends billions of dollars each year creating the games that would serve as the foundation for legalized sports betting, while bearing all of the risk and therefore incurring enormous additional expenses for compliance and enforcement,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “As a result, we believe it is reasonable for operators to compensate the NBA with a small percentage of the total amount bet on our games.”
State regulators monitor wagering 24/7 in Nevada, and the leagues pay contractors to monitor overseas bets.
Casinos argue that sports books don’t make much money and are really there to get gamblers in the door. Unlike blackjack or slots, where casinos have a house edge, sports books make money by encouraging individual gamblers to each side of a wager, and then charging a percentage for placing the bet. Casinos say leagues will benefit from enhanced fan interest and gambling-company sponsorships.
Bills to legalize sports betting have been introduced in 18 states. This month, West Virginia approved a bill that would legalize sports betting immediately if the Supreme Court allows it. A decision by the court is expected this spring.
Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania have also already authorized sports gambling. New York is considering whether to expand a law already on the books to allow sports gambling at racetracks and betting parlors. In Iowa, a bill to authorize sports books has advanced out of committee.
The states that have only introduced bills or are not as far along in the process are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
The NBA and MLB haven’t successfully sold lawmakers on a 1 percent cut so far, although the New York bill was amended to give 0.25 percent of the amount wagered to the leagues.
West Virginia’s new law doesn’t kick back anything to the leagues. Manfred said it has “serious problems” and benefits “only the gaming industry.” He may have found a sympathetic ear in Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who allowed the bill to become law without his signature and urged lawmakers to consider partnering with the leagues.
While 1 percent may not sound like a lot, sports books generally hold onto only around 5 percent of what’s wagered. That means a 1 percent tax on the handle can siphon away about 20 percent of gambling revenue. Add state and federal taxes, and casinos may find sports books to be a sucker bet.
Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs at the American Gaming Association, said the proposed fee runs counter to the leagues’ and casinos’ shared goal of curtailing illegal gambling.
“If you are trying to stamp out the illegal market and drive more traffic to the legal, regulated market,” Slane said, “you’re not going to be able to accomplish that with this type of business model.” |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant for months talked about his team’s hard work, ability to battle and their devotion to playing a full “200 feet of hockey.”
In pockets of Game 2 in the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night, the Golden Knights were surprisingly outworked, outbattled and outhustled in losing 3-2 to the Washington Capitals. Game 3 is Saturday night in Washington and Vegas is going to need to up the energy level even further in a frantic series with scoring chances galore.
Vegas outshot the Capitals 39-26, but the hustle stats in Game 2 went to Washington, which handed the expansion club just its second home loss of the postseason. Washington had 18 blocked shots to eight for Vegas, helping goaltender Braden Holtby turn things around. He allowed five goals in the opener but was sublime in Game 2 as he made 37 saves — none bigger than stopping Alex Tuch with the paddle of his stick in a sprawling move with just 1:59 left.
Washington also showed its mettle on the penalty kill, limiting the Golden Knights to a single goal in four attempts — including a 5-on-3 on the third period.
“You’ve got to try and capitalize on those,” Vegas defenseman Luca Sbisa said. “It’s just one of those games, even at the end, with Tuchy having that chance. Most of times it goes in. It’s just one of those games.”
And while Washington outhit the Golden Knights, 46-39, it was some of Vegas’ bigger hits that ignited the Capitals in the second period.
Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb hammered Washington’s first-line forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, sending him to the dressing room with a little more than five minutes left in the first period. He didn’t return.
Washington coach Barry Trotz didn’t provide an update on his star afterward, but said it was the key moment in the game for his team.
“It galvanized us as a group, I think it might be a turning point for us,” Trotz said.
With Kuznetsov out, Trotz added Nicklas Backstrom to his top line with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson. And 5:38 into the second period, with the game tied at 1-all and the Capitals on a power play, Ovechkin scored his first career Stanley Cup Final goal to give the Capitals the lead.
“I think they got energy from that, I think they were pissed off, that’s how sports go,” Vegas forward Erik Haula said. “You see one of your best players go down and you’re pissed off, that’s part of it. It’s no excuse for us. Bottom line is we were right in that game I think, it was right there for us to grab, we just came short.”
Vegas unraveled and gave up more uncharacteristic chances in front of Marc-Andre Fleury, who has yet to lose consecutive games this postseason. The Golden Knights also had 12 turnovers compared to Washington’s four.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a few times with some turnovers,” Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “At the end of the day you really have got to see where your game is at. If you look at it as a whole, we played really well for parts of the first period and we got caught up in the transition game in the second period — and that’s not the game we want to play.”
Instead, Washington fed off the momentum and dictated the tempo, and a little less than four minutes after Ovechkin scored, Brooks Orpik broke a 220-game goal drought with the eventual game winner. It was his first goal since Feb. 26, 2016.
“I haven’t yelled that loud for someone to score a goal since Ovi scored one of his milestones,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said.
Though the Golden Knights outshot Washington 15-6 in the third period, the Capitals skated faster, competed better, worked harder and played smarter to steal home-ice advantage with their first-ever Final win. The Capitals return to Capital One Arena, where they have just a 4-5 record in the postseason. Vegas is 6-2 on the road in the playoffs.
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More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals |