Police tow No. 2 leader of Venezuela congress to jail in car
CARACAS, Venezuela — Security forces arrested the No. 2 leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress Wednesday as President Nicolás Maduro’s government began going after foes tied to a failed attempt to stir up a military uprising last week.
National Assembly Vice President Edgar Zambrano was leaving his Democratic Action party’s headquarters when he was surprised by a commando unit from the feared SEBIN intelligence agency who surrounded his car.
A half hour later, the officers towed the vehicle away with the lawmaker still inside, at the same time Maduro was speaking live on state TV inaugurating an agricultural project. Neighbors looking on shouted “assassins” as the heavily armed agents pulled away.
“We democrats we will keep fighting!” Zambrano tweeted as he was hauled off.
House votes Barr in contempt, escalating Trump dispute
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating the Democrats’ extraordinary legal battle with the Trump administration over access to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report.
The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump, who for the first time invoked the principle of executive privilege, claiming the right to block lawmakers from the full report on Mueller’s probe of Russian interference to help Trump in the 2016 election.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York declared the action by Trump’s Justice Department a clear new sign of the president’s “blanket defiance” of Congress’ constitutional rights to conduct oversight.
“We did not relish doing this, but we have no choice,” Nadler said after the vote.
China says it will retaliate if Trump raises tariffs
BEIJING — China said Thursday it will retaliate if President Donald Trump goes ahead with more tariff hikes in a fight over technology and trade, ratcheting up tensions ahead of negotiations in Washington.
Beijing will be forced to take “necessary countermeasures” if the increases go ahead Friday as planned, the Commerce Ministry said. It gave no details of possible penalties.
From wire sources
Trump threw global financial markets into turmoil with his surprise threat Sunday to raise import duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%. Trump complained talks were moving too slowly and Beijing was trying to backtrack on earlier agreements.
“China deeply regrets that if the U.S. tariff measures are carried out, China will have to take necessary countermeasures,” said a Commerce Ministry statement.
California overhauls sex education guidance for teachers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has overhauled its sex education guidance for public school teachers, encouraging them to talk about gender identity with kindergartners and give advice to LGBT teenagers for navigating relationships and having safe sex.
LGBT advocates praised the new recommendations for giving attention to a community that is often left out of sex education policies. But some parents and conservative groups assailed the more than 700-page document as an assault on parental rights, arguing it exposes children to ideas about sexuality and gender that should be taught at home.
The guidance approved Wednesday by the California State Board of Education does not require educators to teach anything. It is designed as a guide for teachers to meet state standards on health education, such as nutrition, physical activity and combating alcohol and drug abuse.
But it’s the parts about sex that got the most attention during a public hearing on Wednesday. The framework tells teachers that students in kindergarten can identify as transgender and offers tips for how to talk about that, adding “the goal is not to cause confusion about the gender of the child but to develop an awareness that other expressions exist.”
It gives tips for discussing masturbation with middle-schoolers, including telling them it is not physically harmful, and for discussing puberty with transgender teens that creates “an environment that is inclusive and challenges binary concepts about gender.”
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Midwest downpours prompt more evacuations, flash flood fears
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rain swamping the nation’s midsection forced people from their homes in Kansas, stranded dozens of Texas children at school overnight and strained levees along the surging Mississippi River in Illinois, Missouri and elsewhere Wednesday prompting yet more flash flood concerns.
The flooding began in earnest in March, causing billions of dollars of damage to farmland, homes and businesses across the Midwest. Rivers in many communities have been above flood stage for more than six weeks following waves of heavy rain.
Some parts of Kansas received up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) from Tuesday through Wednesday morning, said Kelly Butler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wichita. She described that as a “ridiculous amount of water” on top of grounds that already were saturated by days of rains. Several Kansas districts canceled classes, and numerous water rescues were reported.
Emergency management officials began evacuating people from their homes near the Kansas college town of Manhattan around 5 a.m. Wednesday as Wildcat Creek overflowed its banks. The Cottonwood River spilled over in Marion County, prompting more evacuations and the surging Slate Creek also forced people from their homes in Wellington and closed a stretch of the Kansas Turnpike near the Oklahoma border.
“It seemed like our poor fire department folks were going out constantly overnight, whether it was sandbagging, barricading streets or assisting citizens,” said Keri Korthals, the emergency management director in Butler County, where crews rescued around a dozen people from vehicles stuck in rising water from the Walnut and Whitewater rivers.
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New York Senate OKs giving US House Trump state tax return
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Senate easily approved a bill Wednesday that would allow three congressional committees to get access to President Donald Trump’s state tax returns, giving Democrats a potential end-run around the administration’s refusal to disclose the president’s federal returns.
The bill, which now goes to the state Assembly, doesn’t target Trump by name but would authorize state tax officials to release any state returns filed in New York if requested by the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation. Both chambers of the state Legislature are controlled by Democrats.
The vote fell along party lines, with 39 Democrats in the 63-seat Senate voting for the measure.
Republicans said Democrats should be focused on lowering the state’s high taxes and improving the lives of New Yorkers, not going after the president’s tax returns, a move GOP senators deemed intrusive and a violation of privacy rights.
“I find that extremely troubling. This is bad public policy,” said John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican who leads the Senate’s GOP minority.
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Britney Spears gets restraining order against former friend
LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears was granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday against a former confidante who she says has been harassing her family again.
A judge ordered 44-year-old Sam Lutfi, who has been in legal fights with the Spears family for a decade, to stay at least 200 yards from her, her parents and her two sons, who are 12 and 13.
The judge also ordered that he not contact or disparage anyone from the family.
The restraining order petition alleges Lutfi has been sending harassing and threatening texts to Spears’ family and disparaging them on social media.
“Mr. Lutfi’s actions have caused severe mental trauma at a time where Ms. Spears is recovering from stress related to her father’s health and her work,” the documents state. “Mr. Lutfi’s unjustified interference in her life … threaten Ms. Spears’ safety and well-being.”