In Brief: Nation & World: 4-3-17
Trump says US is ready to act alone on North Korea
POTOMAC FALLS, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump says that the United States is prepared to act alone if China does not take a tougher stand against North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump’s comments in an interview with the Financial Times come just days before he is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. The two are expected to discuss a number of issues, including North Korea, trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea during their meeting on Thursday and Friday.
“Yes, we will talk about North Korea,” Trump told the newspaper for a story that appeared Sunday on its website. “And China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”
A State Department spokesman said late Sunday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been in touch with a top Chinese official about the upcoming trip.
“We can confirm Secretary Tillerson spoke today by telephone to Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi regarding this week’s visit of President Xi and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” the spokesman said. He discussed the upcoming visit on condition that his name not be used.
———
US ambassador says ‘no love’ in dealings with Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says there’s no question Russia was involved in the U.S. presidential election and insists President Donald Trump would fully support strong action against the Kremlin once investigations are complete.
Speaking in television interviews broadcast Sunday, Nikki Haley contended there is no contradiction between her tough stance and Trump’s repeated public statements seeking to minimize Russia’s role. She said Trump “has not once” told her to stop “beating up on Russia.”
She joins Defense Secretary James Mattis as Trump administration officials who have forcefully called out Russia for its actions during the 2016 U.S. campaign.
“We don’t want any country involved in our elections, ever,” Haley said. “We need to be very strong on that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied his country meddled in the 2016 contest between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. While Trump himself has said he believes Russian operatives hacked Democratic Party emails during the election, he has repeatedly lambasted as “fake news” any suggestion that he or his staff had connections to Russia.
———
2 Democratic senators split over support for Gorsuch
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Democratic senators on Sunday split over supporting Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana said he would vote in favor of Gorsuch’s confirmation while Sen. Jon Tester of Montana announced he would not back the federal appeals court judge based in Denver.
Donnelly became the third Democrat to break with the party as Republicans line up behind President Donald Trump’s choice for the high court.
With 52 Republican senators, eight votes from Democrats or the Senate’s two independents would be needed to advance the nomination and prevent a filibuster. So far, only Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — all representing states Trump won in November and all up for re-election next year — have said they will vote to confirm Gorsuch.
Tester represents a state won by Trump and faces re-election, too, but he said Gorsuch did not directly answer questions when the two met or during the confirmation hearing. Tester said he based his decision on the judge’s past cases, noting that he found troubling Gorsuch’s record on privacy and that he believes Gorsuch places corporations over people.
———
Washington’s high-court fights date to Washington himself
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wondering when Supreme Court nominations became so politically contentious? Only about 222 years ago — when the Senate voted down George Washington’s choice for chief justice.
This year’s brouhaha sees Senate Democrats and Republicans bracing for a showdown over President Donald Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch. It’s the latest twist in the political wrangling that has surrounded the high court vacancy almost from the moment Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016.
“We are in an era of extreme partisan energy right now,” said University of Georgia law professor Lori Ringhand. “In such a moment, the partisanship will manifest itself across government, and there’s no reason to think the nomination process will be exempt from that. It hasn’t been in the past,”
Each side has accused the other of unprecedented obstruction. Republicans wouldn’t even hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee. Democrats are threatening a filibuster, which takes 60 votes to overcome, to try to stop Gorsuch from becoming a justice. If they succeed, Republicans who control the Senate could change the rules and prevail with a simple majority vote in the 100-member body.
The struggle spilled over into the Sunday news shows, where the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” it’s “highly, highly unlikely” that Gorsuch will get 60 votes and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed the nominee will be confirmed this week one way or the other.
———
Desperation sets in as flood death toll in Colombia tops 200
MOCOA, Colombia (AP) — Townspeople desperately searched their ruined homes and the local hospital for loved ones Sunday after a torrent of water, mud and debris swept through a city in southern Colombia, causing more than 200 deaths, many of them children, and leaving hundreds more missing and injured.
Neighborhoods were left strewn with rocks, wooden planks, tree limbs and brown muck after heavy rain caused the three rivers that surround Mocoa to rise up and surge through the city of 40,000 Friday night and early Saturday as people slept. The deluge smashed houses, tore trees out by the roots and washed cars and trucks away.
Search-and-rescue teams combed through the debris and helped people who had been clawing at huge mounds of mud by hand. Many had little left to search.
“People went to their houses and found nothing but the floor,” said Gilma Diaz, a 42-year-old woman from another town who came to search for a cousin.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited Mocoa for a second straight day Sunday, declared the area a disaster zone and said the death toll stood at 210. But that could still rise because authorities said there were more than 200 injured, some in critical condition and people were continuing to locate remains in the debris. The president said on Twitter that 170 of the dead had been identified.
———
Dakota Access fight provides blueprint for pipeline protests
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Prolonged protests in North Dakota have failed to stop the flow of oil through the Dakota Access pipeline, at least for now, but they have provided inspiration and a blueprint for protests against pipelines in other states.
The months of demonstrations that sought to halt the four-state pipeline have largely died off with the February clearing of the main protest camp and the completion of the pipeline, which will soon be moving oil from North Dakota to a distribution point in Illinois.
Four Sioux tribes are still suing to try to halt the project, which they say threatens their water supply, cultural sites and religious rights. But they’ve faced a string of setbacks in court since President Donald Trump moved into the White House.
Despite the setbacks, Dakota Access protest organizers don’t view their efforts as wasted. They say the protests helped raise awareness nationwide about their broader push for cleaner energy and greater respect for the rights of indigenous people.
“The opportunity to build awareness started at Standing Rock and it’s spreading out to other areas of the United States,” said Dave Archambault, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has led the legal push to shut down the pipeline project.
———
Both candidates claim victory in Ecuador presidential runoff
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Results in Ecuador’s presidential runoff showed ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno winning Sunday but his rival earlier claimed victory based on exit polls that had him comfortably ahead in a tense race that could either further tilt Latin America toward the political right or reinforce President Rafael Correa’s “Citizens’ Revolution.”
With more than 92 percent of voting acts counted, Lenin Moreno was ahead with 51 percent to 49 percent for former banker Guillermo Lasso. Three exit polls, including one that had accurately predicted the results of the first-round race, showed Lasso winning by margin of between 3 and 6 percentage points while a fourth survey gave Moreno a 4-point edge.
Moreno and Correa immediately celebrated the results, even though the National Electoral Council had yet to issue a statement. Lasso called for a recount, saying “we will know how to defend the people’s will.” Lasso had yet to comment on the results.
“The moral fraud of the right-wing won’t go unpunished,” Correa said on Twitter, referring to what Moreno called misleading exit polls that had “lied” to his rival.
Earlier, a jubilant Lasso told supporters in Guayaquil that he would free political prisoners and heal divisions created by 10 years of iron-fisted rule by Correa. Before the election, he said he would evict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy in London within 30 days of taking office.
———
A ‘sci-fi’ cancer therapy fights brain tumors, study finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — It sounds like science fiction, but a cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer improved survival for the first time in more than a decade for people with deadly brain tumors, final results of a large study suggest.
Many doctors are skeptical of the therapy, called tumor treating fields, and it’s not a cure. It’s also ultra-expensive — $21,000 a month.
But in the study, more than twice as many patients were alive five years after getting it, plus the usual chemotherapy, than those given just the chemo — 13 percent versus 5 percent.
“It’s out of the box” in terms of how cancer is usually treated, and many doctors don’t understand it or think it can help, said Dr. Roger Stupp, a brain tumor expert at Northwestern University in Chicago.
He led the company-sponsored study while previously at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, and gave results Sunday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington.
———
Gonzaga? Tiny school with the funny name plays NC for title
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — For those who follow college basketball, the idea that Gonzaga is playing North Carolina for the national title doesn’t seem all that strange.
For those who don’t — or only get involved when it’s time to fill out a bracket — it still might.
Gonzaga? Really?
That a Jesuit school with 7,800 students based in Spokane, Washington is going up against a behemoth from Tobacco Road in Monday night’s NCAA final is testament to a coach with a stubborn streak, an administration that bought in to basketball and the modern-day realities of a sport that allows for little guys to reach the biggest stage.
“I know you have to believe,” Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said. “The biggest drawback some other schools have is that someone in that hierarchy says, ‘We can’t do that,’ or ‘We can never be like …’ Well, if that’s the case, then you probably can’t.”
———
Chicago police seek 2nd teen in Facebook sexual assault case
CHICAGO (AP) — An arrest warrant has been issued for a second teenage boy in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old Chicago girl that was streamed live on Facebook, and further arrests are expected, police said Sunday.
A day after announcing the arrest of a 14-year-old boy on sexual assault and child pornography charges, police said they were looking for a 15-year-old suspect in the March 19 attack, which investigators have said involved five or six males. Investigators didn’t specify how many others would likely be charged, but they did say one adult male was among them.
Police were careful not to release too many details of the ongoing investigation, but they did provide some that helped illustrate why Superintendent Eddie Johnson remained visibly upset as he has been since the investigation began.
Commander Brendan Deenihan said that the victim saw one of the suspects, whom she knew, on the day of the attack. She said the suspect “lured” her into the home of one of the offenders in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the city’s West Side, where she also lives.
“She was not allowed to leave and she did not consent to what occurred,” he said.
