Trump asserts he didn’t push House GOP on immigration
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump claimed Saturday that he never pushed House Republicans to vote for immigration bills that failed last week, offering his latest display of whiplash on the legislation.
Trump tweeted from his New Jersey golf club that he didn’t press GOP lawmakers to support the plans because it wouldn’t have cleared the Senate. He wrote that he released many House Republicans “prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.”
But the president’s statement contradicted his commentary three days ago in which he tweeted that House Republicans should approve the “STRONG BUT FAIR” bill even though Democrats wouldn’t allow it to pass the Senate. A week earlier, he urged Republicans to stop wasting their time on the bill until after the elections.
Trump’s tweets were another twist in Republicans’ efforts to adopt changes to the nation’s immigration laws in the aftermath of highly publicized images and cries from young immigrant children being separated from their parents at the southern border. Trump’s statements coincided with people across the country marching Saturday in opposition to his immigration policies.
The GOP-led House soundly rejected a wide-ranging immigration bill last week despite Trump’s endorsement, a vote that followed the defeat on a harder-right package that garnered more conservative support.
Evangelical leaders downplay potential Roe v. Wade reversal
NEW YORK — For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail.
Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties to the White House suspects that the Supreme Court vacancy President Donald Trump fills in the coming months will ultimately lead to the reversal of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade. But instead of celebrating publicly, some evangelical leaders are downplaying their fortune on an issue that has defined their movement for decades.
“What people don’t understand is that if you overturn Roe v. Wade, all that does is give the states the right to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal,” Falwell told The Associated Press in an interview. “My guess is that there’d probably be less than 20 states that would make abortion illegal if given that right.”
Falwell added: “In the ’70s, I don’t know how many states had abortion illegal before Roe v. Wade, but it won’t be near as many this time.”
The sentiment, echoed by evangelical leaders across the country this past week, underscores the delicate politics that surround a moment many religious conservatives have longed for. With the retirement of swing vote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate plan to install a conservative justice who could re-define the law of the land on some of the nation’s most explosive policy debates — none bigger than abortion.
Trump claims Saudi Arabia will boost oil production
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump said Saturday he had received assurances from King Salman of Saudi Arabia that the kingdom will increase oil production, “maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels” in response to turmoil in Iran and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia acknowledged the call took place, but mentioned no production targets.
Trump wrote on Twitter that he had asked the king in a phone call to boost oil production “to make up the difference…Prices to (sic) high! He has agreed!”
A little over an hour later, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on the call, but offered few details.
“During the call, the two leaders stressed the need to make efforts to maintain the stability of oil markets and the growth of the global economy,” the statement said.
It added that there also was an understanding that oil-producing countries would need “to compensate for any potential shortage of supplies.” It did not elaborate.
Barbs for Bezos but Bill Gates largely admired in Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle region is home to America’s two richest men, but their local legacies to date represent two very different eras for the city.
While Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is blamed by some for rising rents and clogged city streets, Bill Gates is largely admired for helping lead the computing revolution and donating billions through his philanthropy.
The Microsoft co-founder’s legacy here includes opening the world’s largest private charity across the street from the Space Needle, creating housing for homeless families and supporting charter schools.
Microsoft was the first tech company to dramatically change the region’s economy as it grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, Seattle is booming again with housing prices skyrocketing thanks to online retail giant Amazon’s explosive growth that has added tens of thousands of well-paid workers to the area.
Bezos has been a flashpoint in the tension that has come with success. The City Council recently passed — then quickly rescinded — a tax on large employers to combat homelessness, which Amazon opposed and successfully worked to strike down.
A city councilwoman organized protests in front of Amazon buildings featuring people carrying “Tax Bezos” signs.
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Small capital city draped in grief by newspaper shooting
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The historic state capital of Annapolis is draped in grief from a shooting attack on the local newspaper, which killed journalists who chronicled soccer games, art exhibits and the fabric of small-city life.
A sign outside The Annapolis Bookstore, a block from the Maryland State House, starkly expresses the depth of sorrow many are feeling in this quaint waterside capital of about 40,000 near the Chesapeake Bay. “There are no words,” it says.
With its weekly sailboat races and picturesque downtown, residents were settling into summer’s languid rhythms when the shooting shattered the usual tranquility. In a quiet town where the incoming class of the U.S. Naval Academy just arrived this week and residents take pride in a rich colonial legacy, the shooting at The Capital that claimed five lives opens a new chapter in its long history.
“It feels so personal,” said Mary Adams, who owns The Annapolis Bookstore and knew two of the victims. “It has shifted our community, and maybe it’s made us more attuned to the fact that we are all in this together.”
The Rev. M. Dion Thompson, who worked as a journalist at The Baltimore Sun for 15 years, made the sadness a focus of his sermon at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis on Saturday evening. He also highlighted journalism as a force to comfort the afflicted, as he sought to comfort people saddened by the killings.
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Lull in rain allows Thailand cave rescue to pick up pace
MAE SAI, Thailand — The frantic effort to locate 12 boys and their soccer coach missing in a cave in Thailand for a week picked up pace as a break in the rain eased flooding in the system of caverns and more experts from around the world joined the anxious rescue mission.
The search in the northern province of Chiang Rai has been going slowly, largely because flooding has blocked rescuers from going through chambers to get deeper into the cave. Pumping out water hasn’t solved the problem, so the attention has focused on finding shafts on the mountainside that might serve as a back door to the blocked-off areas where the missing may be sheltering.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach entered the sprawling Tham Luang Nang Non cave after a soccer game on June 23, but near-constant rains have thwarted the search for them. Authorities have nevertheless expressed hope that the group has found a dry place within the cave to wait.
Reflecting that hope, a medical evacuation drill was held Saturday morning to see how long it would take to get rescued people out of the cave into 13 ambulances and to the nearest hospital.
Australian police and military personnel joined other multinational teams, including U.S. military personnel and experts from a British cave exploration club. China sent a six-person team of rescue and disaster experts to the cave, the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said. The group has experience in lifesaving operations in Myanmar and Nepal, the embassy said.