In Brief: Nation & World: 5-23-17

UK police: 19 confirmed dead in explosion at Grande concert

LONDON (AP) — An explosion struck an Ariana Grande concert in northern England late Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens in what police say they are treating as a terrorist attack.

Greater Manchester Police said 19 people were confirmed dead and roughly 50 were injured by the explosion at Manchester Arena. Emergency vehicles were helping the injured and bomb disposal units were later seen outside the venue.

There was mass panic after the explosion at the end of the concert, which was part of Grande’s The Dangerous Woman Tour. The singer was not injured, according to a representative.

Britain’s terrorist threat level has been set at “severe” in recent years indicating an attack is highly likely. Police said the explosion is being judged a terrorist attack unless new information proves otherwise.

Witnesses reported hearing two loud bangs coming from near the arena’s bars at about 10:35 p.m. but there were few further details.

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Questions about Russia chase Trump during first Israel visit

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump solemnly placed a note in the ancient stones of Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Monday, sending a signal of solidarity to an ally he’s pushing to work harder toward peace with the Palestinians. But his historic gesture— and his enthusiastic embrace of Israel’s leader — were shadowed even here by reminders of Trump’s tumult back home

In this second stop on his maiden foreign trip, Trump unexpectedly offered a new defense of his disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats in a recent Oval Office meeting. Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he argued he never mentioned Israel, the source of the classified intelligence, according to various officials — something he has not been accused of doing.

“I never mentioned the word or the name Israel,” he told reporters. “So you have another story wrong.”

The moment was abrupt interruption of an otherwise warm and smooth welcome for Trump to the Holy Land. After years of butting heads with Trump’s predecessor, Netanyahu celebrated a new American president’s arrival as a moment of hope in the stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestinians. Trump, arriving from Saudi Arabia, declared he saw the possibility of new alignment of Muslim nations and Israel against a shared foe — Iran.

“There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran,” he said, at a welcome meeting with President Rueven Rivlin.

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Flynn rejects Trump-Russia probe subpoena; Dems say he lied

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in rebuffing a subpoena Monday in the investigation into Russia’s election meddling. Then a top House Democrat cited new evidence he said appeared to show Flynn lied on a security clearance background check.

With Trump himself in the Mideast on his first foreign trip as president, investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign — and allegations of Trump campaign collaboration — showed no sign of slackening in Washington. Flynn’s own defensive crouch revealed the high legal stakes he faces as investigations intensify: a U.S. counterintelligence probe of Russia, a federal investigation in Virginia and multiple congressional inquiries.

As well, The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump asked two top intelligence chiefs in March to deny publicly that there had been collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.

Citing current and former officials, the Post said the national intelligence director, Daniel Coats, and the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, both refused Trump’s request, judging it inappropriate. Coats could face questions on the report Tuesday when he is scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Flynn’s attorneys told the Senate intelligence committee on Monday that he will not turn over personal documents sought under the congressional subpoena, citing an “escalating public frenzy” against him. They also said the Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel has created a legally dangerous environment for him to cooperate with the Senate panel’s investigation.

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Trump budget promises balance in decade, relies on deep cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is proposing to balance the federal budget within a decade by making sharp cuts to social safety-net programs like food stamps and Medicaid and offering optimistic estimates of economic growth and tax revenues to fulfill the promise of a government back in the black.

Tuesday’s budget blueprint faces a skeptical reception from Congress, where Republicans and Democrats oppose Trump proposals to cut domestic agencies and foreign aid by 10 percent and are recoiling from a $1.7 trillion cut over the coming decade from mandatory government benefit programs. Cuts to Medicaid go beyond the $800 billion-plus contained in a House-passed health care rewrite. A 10-year, $193 billion reduction in food stamps — almost 30 percent — promises to drive millions of people off the program.

Trump would keep campaign pledges to leave core Medicare and Social Security benefits for the elderly alone and his cuts to domestic spending would be redirected to the Pentagon. He promises a new parental leave program championed by his daughter, Ivanka, but will fall short on his promises for a “massive tax cut.”

The budget is getting a low-key unveiling with the president traveling overseas. Trump’s plan, drawn up by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, lands as Trump’s GOP allies in Congress are grappling with repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s health care law and looking ahead to a difficult rewrite of the loophole-clogged U.S. tax code. Trying to balance the budget isn’t in the plan on Capitol Hill, but conservative Republicans are pushing for some action this year on spending cuts.

Because Trump largely leaves alone Social Security or Medicare, he’s proposing deep cuts to other so-called mandatory programs such as Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poorest and many disabled Americans. Trump’s budget, people familiar with the document say, would impose tighter limits on Medicaid’s growth rate than the House GOP’s health bill.

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Ex-SKorean President Park arrives for start of bribery trial

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In handcuffs and her eyes downcast, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye entered a Seoul courtroom Monday morning for the beginning of a corruption trial that could send her to prison for life if she is convicted.

The hearing at the Seoul Central District Court is Park’s first public appearance since she was jailed March 31. She emerged from a bus in handcuffs, her inmate number 503 attached to her clothing, and was escorted into the courtroom by police. She ignored a large crowd of journalists recording her entrance.

Park has been charged with extortion, bribery and abuse of power. Her arrest came weeks after she was removed from office in a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which upheld the December impeachment by lawmakers after massive street protests over the corruption allegations began last October.

Prosecutors boast of having “overflowing” evidence proving her involvement in criminal activities. They accuse Park, South Korea’s first female president, of colluding with a friend of 40 years to take about $26 million from the country’s largest companies through bribery. She also allegedly allowed her friend to manipulate state affairs from the shadows.

The scandal has led to the indictments of dozens of people, including former Cabinet ministers, senior presidential aides and billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong, who is accused of bribing Park and her friend, Choi Soon-sil, in exchange for business favors.

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3 white men, 2 white woman picked for Bill Cosby jury so far

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The panel that will decide Bill Cosby’s fate in his sex assault trial began to take shape Monday with the selection of five jurors, three white men and two white women.

The search for 12 jurors and six alternates got off to a brisk star, even though a third of the initial jury pool had an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence and an equal number said they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted. Lawyers on both sides are contemplating a person’s race, sex, age, occupation and interests as they weigh their likely sympathies, experts said.

“You’re looking for what people already believe,” said University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor David Harris. “People don’t take in new information and process it. They filter it into what they already know and think.”

The actor-comedian once known as America’s Dad for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” is charged with drugging and molesting a Temple University women’s basketball team manager at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. He calls their encounter consensual.

Dozens of other women have made similar accusations against Cosby, and the judge is allowing only one of them to testify at the June 5 trial in suburban Philadelphia. The jury from Pittsburgh will be sequestered nearly 300 miles from home.

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Lawmaker: Hugo Chavez’s childhood home burned by protesters

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Protesters set fire to late President Hugo Chavez’s childhood home in western Venezuela on Monday, an opposition lawmaker said, as protests against the South American nation’s socialist government grew increasingly hostile.

While demonstrators are decrying current President Nicolas Maduro for the country’s triple-digit inflation, rising crime and shortages of food and medicine, they have also destroyed at least five statues commemorating Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and the founder of Venezuela’s “Bolivarian revolution.”

Demonstrators lit the house in the city of Barinas where Chavez spent his early years aflame Monday afternoon along with several government buildings, including the regional office of the National Electoral Council, said Pedro Luis Castillo, a legislator who represents the area.

The burnings capped a violent day in Barinas — known as the cradle of Chavez’s revolution — during which protesters clashed with national guardsmen, businesses were shuttered and roads were blocked with fire-filled barricades.

Nineteen-year-old Yorman Bervecia was shot and killed during a protest, according to the nation’s chief prosecutor. His death brings to at least 49 the number killed in nearly two months of anti-government protests demanding new elections.

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Police: Man slays neo-Nazi roommates over Islam disrespect

A man told police he killed his two roommates because they were neo-Nazis who disrespected his recent conversion to Islam, and investigators found bomb-making materials and Nazi propaganda after he led them to the bodies.

Devon Arthurs, 18, told police he had until recently shared his roommates’ neo-Nazi beliefs, but that he converted to Islam, according to court documents and a statement the Tampa Police Department released Monday.

Arthurs is being charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony and three counts of armed kidnapping. Court records did not list an attorney for him.

In the apartment with the victims’ bodies on Friday, investigators found Nazi and white supremacist propaganda; a framed picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; and explosives and radioactive substances, according to the court documents.

They also found a fourth roommate, Brandon Russell, crying and standing outside the apartment’s front door in his U.S. Army uniform.

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Ford taps former office furniture executive to be new CEO

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) — The job of Ford’s new CEO won’t be easy: He will have to shore up the 114-year-old company’s traditional auto business, but also invest in self-driving cars and other projects that could one day make that business obsolete.

Ford thinks Jim Hackett is up to the task. The 62-year-old former chief executive of office furniture maker Steelcase was named to the post Monday, just three days after former CEO Mark Fields told the company he wanted to retire.

Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, said Hackett is a visionary who can help Ford modernize and become more nimble. He served on Ford’s board from 2013 to 2016 and became the head of Ford’s mobility unit in March of last year.

Hackett said Ford does many things well but has trouble handling complex strategy questions. He plans to assemble a small executive team that can communicate plans clearly and make decisions quickly. That’s a contrast with Fields, who was a product of Ford’s bureaucratic culture and had 20 people reporting to him.

“The biggest challenge I had (at Steelcase), and I will have here, is to have everybody see the future. They can see their opportunity in that. And secondly, that it’s our right to win, and we don’t have to cede that to anybody, Tesla or any of them,” Hackett said Monday during a news conference at Ford’s world headquarters. “I love that challenge because I know how to do that.”

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Mississippi lawmaker apologizes for calling for lynching

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi lawmaker has apologized for saying Louisiana leaders should be lynched for removing Confederate monuments, only after his comment sparked broad condemnation in both states.

“The destruction of these monuments, erected in the loving memory of our family and fellow Southern Americans, is both heinous and horrific,” Republican state Rep. Karl Oliver of Winona said in a post Saturday night, which was removed from his page Monday. “If the, and I use this term extremely loosely, ‘leadership’ of Louisiana wishes to, in a Nazi-ish fashion, burn books or destroy historical monuments of OUR HISTORY, they should be LYNCHED! Let it be known, I will do all in my power to prevent this from happening in our State.”

The post was made after three Confederate monuments and a monument to white supremacy were removed in New Orleans.

Oliver issued a statement Monday apologizing.

“I, first and foremost, wish to extend this apology for any embarrassment I have caused to both my colleagues and fellow Mississippians,” Oliver said. “In an effort to express my passion for preserving all historical monuments, I acknowledge the word ‘lynched’ was wrong. I am very sorry. It is in no way, ever, an appropriate term. I deeply regret that I chose this word, and I do not condone the actions I referenced, nor do I believe them in my heart. I freely admit my choice of words was horribly wrong, and I humbly ask your forgiveness.”