AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, announced Tuesday he would not run for re-election in 2018, condemning in a speech aimed at President Donald Trump the “flagrant disregard of truth and decency” that is undermining American democracy.

In a speech on the floor of the Senate, Flake said, “There are times we must risk our careers. Now is such a time.”

Flake, who has criticized the path that the Republican Party has taken under Trump, said the impulse to threaten and scapegoat” threatens to turn America and the GOP into a “fearful, backward looking people” and a “fearful, backward looking party.” Flake didn’t mention Trump by name, but clearly was directing his remarks at the president and his administration.

Flake is a conservative who favors limited government and free markets.

“A political career does not mean much if we are complicit in undermining these values,” he said.

After bucking Trump in a state the president won, Flake is bottoming out in polls. Republicans may be left with a hard-core conservative challenger that might win the primary but lose in the general election.

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GOP Sen. Flake says he'll retire, had tangled with Trump
GOP Sen. Flake says he'll retire, had tangled with Trump
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Source: AP HEADLINES

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairmen of two House committees say they’re opening an investigation into actions the Obama administration Justice Department took during last year’s presidential election.

The chairmen said in a statement Tuesday they have several questions, including why then-FBI Director James Comey decided to publicly announce the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information but not to publicly announce the investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign associates.

Trump fired Comey in May.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, chairman of the Oversight Committee, announced the probe.

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House GOP chairmen announce probe of Obama's Justice Dept
House GOP chairmen announce probe of Obama's Justice Dept
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a startling verbal assault on the president of his own party, Republican Sen. Bob Corker charged Tuesday that Donald Trump “debases our nation” with constant untruths, name calling and bullying, and will leave behind a sad legacy of damaging division.

A furious Trump lashed back over Twitter, calling Corker “incompetent,” saying he “doesn’t have a clue” and claiming the two-term lawmaker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.”

The extreme exchange unfolded just hours before Trump was to lunch with GOP senators at the Capitol to try to unite the party around a rewrite of the nation’s tax code. The tax overhaul is an urgent task for Republicans who’ve failed to notch a single significant legislative achievement this year despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress. Yet the dramatic escalation of the feud between Corker and Trump seemed certain to divert lawmakers’ attention.

“When his term is over, the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth-telling, just the name-calling, I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for and that’s regretful,” Corker told reporters at the Capitol. “His governing model is to divide and to attempt to bully and to use untruths.”

Corker, who is retiring from the Senate and therefore can fear no political repercussions, said that he and others had attempted to intervene with Trump over the months but “he’s obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president.”

“Unfortunately I think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue,” Corker said. He stopped short of calling Trump a liar and didn’t respond when asked if Trump should be removed from office.

Tuesday’s war of words intensified a simmering feud between the two men. Corker has been starkly critical of Trump in recent weeks, alleging at one point that the president’s careless rhetoric toward foreign powers could lead America toward World War III. That prompted Trump to label his antagonist “Liddle’ Bob Corker” and claim, falsely, that Corker had decided to retire after begging for an endorsement Trump wouldn’t give.

The latest exchange began when Corker said Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today” that Trump should leave it to Congress to set the course on taxes instead of intervening to shoot down one idea or another, as the president did Monday when he assured voters over Twitter that the tax package would leave their 401(k) plans intact.

That led to an angry Twitter response from Trump, who said, “Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts. …”

Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, responded on his own Twitter account: “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff.”

The back-and-forth then escalated even further as Corker launched a series of withering criticisms against Trump in hallway interviews, first with CNN and then in scrums with other journalists including The Associated Press, prompting more Twitter fire from Trump and still more angry retorts from Corker.

In one tweet, Trump wrote, “People like liddle’ Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!”

With Trump due at the Capitol to join GOP senators at a lunch it was not clear how the conflict would end, if at all. Privately, Senate GOP aides were expressing dismay at a dispute that could only frustrate their already stymied efforts to produce results to take to voters in next year’s midterm elections.

Trump spoke approvingly about the GOP tax efforts before leaving the White House to come to Capitol Hill, but ignored shouted questions about Corker.

House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to downplay the conflict, telling reporters, “I don’t think it’s changed our efforts on tax reform. I know Bob, who supported the budget, and wants to get tax reform. I know the president wants to get tax reform. … I’m glad the president’s coming to lunch, because I have long believed that it’s best just to settle these things in person, and I hope that they can get a chance to do that.”

Tuesday’s lunch already had potential for more than a few awkward moments given Trump’s recent disputes with other GOP senators including John McCain of Arizona and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Trump has blamed them all for the failure of his agenda, saying it’s not his fault. On the other hand, after meeting last week with McConnell, Trump promised to intercede with his former top adviser Steve Bannon, who is now on the outside promising an all-out war on the GOP establishment by urging primary challenges against a number of sitting GOP senators.

Nonetheless, Republicans and the Trump administration are determined to get tax legislation into law this year, and before the latest outburst between Corker and Trump, all sides seemed to think they can unite around that goal.

“If you have people who are running for re-election next year, whether it’s a House member or one of the senators who’s up this year, I think the best thing you can go back and talk about is that you got results,” said GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. “And I think that to the degree the president delivers that message it will be very well received by Republican senators.”

The tax plan crafted by Trump and Republican leaders calls for steep tax cuts for corporations and potentially for individuals. It would double the standard deduction used by most Americans, shrink the number of tax brackets from seven to three or four, and repeal inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. But crucial details of the plan have yet to be worked out, notably what income levels would fit with each tax bracket.

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A striking row, even for Trump: New war of words with Corker
A striking row, even for Trump: New war of words with Corker
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s four-month worldwide ban on refugees ended Tuesday, officials said, as his administration prepared to unveil tougher new screening procedures.

Under an executive order Trump signed earlier this year, the United States had temporary halted admissions for refugees from all countries, with some exceptions. The end-date written into the order came and went Tuesday with no new order from Trump to extend it.

Refugees seeking entry to the U.S. will face what officials described as more stringent and thorough examination of their backgrounds, in line with Trump’s “extreme vetting” policy for immigrants. The Homeland Security Department, the State Department and other U.S. agencies have been reviewing the screening process during the temporary ban.

The new screening procedures were to be announced shortly, said a State Department official, who wasn’t authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.

Yet even with the ban lifted, refugee admissions are expected to be far lower than in recent years. Last month, Trump capped refugee admissions at 45,000 for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, a cut of more than half from the 110,000 limit put in place the year earlier by President Barack Obama. And the actual number admitted this year could be far lower than Trump’s 45,000 cap, which sets a maximum but not a minimum.

The refugee restrictions were in addition to Trump’s broader “travel ban” on people from several countries. Courts have repeatedly blocked that policy, but largely left the temporary refugee policy in place.

Trump has made limiting immigration the centerpiece of his policy agenda. In addition to the travel ban, which initially targeted a handful of Muslim-majority nations, the president rescinded an Obama-era executive action protecting young immigrants from deportation and vowed to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.

—

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Trump's refugee ban ends, new screening rules coming
Trump's refugee ban ends, new screening rules coming
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare that “ethnic cleansing” is occurring against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims. That assessment would raise pressure on the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers to consider new sanctions on a country that had been lauded for its democratic transition.

Tillerson could receive the recommendation as early as this week, said officials familiar with the process. He will then decide whether to adopt the advice of his agency’s policy experts and lawyers.

A declaration of “ethnic cleansing” by the top U.S. diplomat would mark a reversal of fortune in American relations with the country also known as Burma, whose civilian government has been under the leadership of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for more than a year. But Suu Kyi and her government allies have little control over Myanmar’s still powerful military, which is blamed for a brutal crackdown on Muslims in Rakhine State that has caused more than 600,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh.

The State Department declined to comment.

The recommendation is being prepared as U.S. lawmakers urge fresh sanctions on Myanmar’s military and are calling on the Trump administration to sever already restricted military ties. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes up the issue at a hearing on U.S. policy toward Myanmar on Tuesday.

The U.S. officials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the internal process and requested anonymity, said the State Department won’t make a call yet on whether crimes against humanity in Myanmar have occurred. Such a determination would be even more detrimental to Myanmar’s military, as it could force the U.S. to push for legal accountability.

Attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in late August triggered what human rights groups have called a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Amnesty International has reported that hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children have been systematically killed.

Calls for a U.S. determination of “ethnic cleansing” have intensified, as the United Nations and leading Western governments have used the term. Six weeks ago, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said it “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” French President Emmanuel Macron echoed that opinion, as have leaders of many in the Muslim world.

U.S. officials have been more reticent. Tillerson, who last week said that perpetrators will be held to account for atrocities, has referred to the violence as “characterized by many as ethnic cleansing.” U.N. envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council last month it was “a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority.”

But that’s as far as the administration has gone as it prepares for President Donald Trump’s first trip to the region next month.

U.S. lawmakers have pushed for the administration to use the term without qualification. Earlier this month, Patrick Murphy, a senior U.S. diplomat for Southeast Asia, described it as a “human tragedy” as he was grilled by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He will testify again Tuesday.

According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, “ethnic cleansing” isn’t recognized as an independent crime under international law, unlike crimes against humanity and genocide. It surfaced in the context of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, when a U.N. commission defined it as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area.”

Before the latest exodus, roughly 1 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. The Buddhist majority believes they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.

Sarah Margon, Washington director for Human Rights Watch, said a U.S. “ethnic cleansing” determination “is long overdue,” but should only be a first step.

“Even if the U.S. government does get there, the real question is what concrete response is there going to be?” she said.

Starting in 2012, the Obama administration lifted long-standing sanctions against Myanmar to reward its shift from military rule. The transition culminated in 2015 elections and a civilian government led by Suu Kyi. U.S. officials who are focused on Asia policy remain leery of punishing Myanmar for fear it could undermine Suu Kyi’s efforts and push her country away from the United States and closer to rivals such as China.

Officials say the recent violence has prompted the U.S. administration to reverse a policy of waiving visa restrictions and allowing members of Myanmar’s military and their families to visit here. The State Department also announced Monday that all units and officers involved in the operations in Rakhine were ineligible for U.S. assistance, and it has rescinded invitations for senior Myanmar security forces to attend U.S.-sponsored events.

Some lawmakers say that’s hardly enough. More than 40 House members wrote to Tillerson last week to seek “significant actions to stop the ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya. Twenty-one senators wrote to Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., urging multilateral sanctions against specific senior Myanmar military officials.

Sen. Ben Cardin, the Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, says the Rohingya are facing not just “ethnic cleansing,” but “genocide.” The U.N. defines that term as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Already, two years ago, Yale Law School argued there was “strong evidence that genocide is being committed.”

—

Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

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APNewsBreak: Review to confirm Rohingya 'ethnic cleansing'
APNewsBreak: Review to confirm Rohingya 'ethnic cleansing'
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

NEW YORK (AP) — For more than 50 years, every American president has been forced to grapple, in one way or another, with the quagmire of the Vietnam War. Now it’s Donald Trump’s turn.

The ghosts of Vietnam are stirring anew, just as Trump prepares to visit the nation on his first presidential tour of Asia. Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain, who spent more than five years in a prisoner of war camp after his plane was shot down, this week put an unwelcome spotlight on Trump’s five draft deferments to avoid military service. And Trump’s prolonged political tussle over the proper way for presidents to honor and grieve with the families of fallen soldiers has focused attention on his lack of military service as well.

Trump tried to set all that aside Monday as he presented the Medal of Honor to retired Capt. Gary Rose, a Vietnam era medic who repeatedly ran into the line of enemy fire and ignored his own wounds to save his colleagues during a fierce firefight in enemy-controlled territory in September 1970.

“Mike, this is serious stuff,” Trump said. “Your love for your fellow soldier, your devotion to your country inspires us all.”

But the matter of Trump’s lack of service wasn’t far off stage.

McCain, the Arizona Republican who has frequently clashed with the president, made clear he had Trump in mind Monday as he criticized the Vietnam draft system that forced low-income Americans to serve while the wealthy could avoid war with a doctor’s note. Trump, the son of a millionaire developer, received draft deferments, one attained with a physician’s letter stating that he suffered from bone spurs in his feet.

“I don’t consider him so much a draft dodger as I feel that the system was so wrong that certain Americans could evade their responsibilities to serve the country,” McCain said on ABC’s “The View.” McCain was being pressed about earlier comments on C-SPAN in which he lamented that the military “drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say they had a bone spur.”

When a host on the ABC show remarked that people thought McCain had been talking about Trump on C-SPAN because the president had sought a medical deferment, McCain interjected, “More than once, yes.”

Over the decades, Vietnam has become shorthand for a bogged-down military conflict, a comparison invoked during more recent struggles in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has served as a cautionary lesson about the political peril for presidents ensnared in prolonged overseas military operations.

President Lyndon Johnson abandoned his re-election quest after an escalation in the war led to more American deaths, while President Richard Nixon took fierce criticism for expanding the conflict. President Bill Clinton’s wartime deferment before he entered the Vietnam draft generated considerable heat during the 1992 presidential campaign.

More recently, questions about the service of George W. Bush and John Kerry were prominent in the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard but faced scrutiny over his status and why he was never deployed overseas. Kerry was a decorated veteran who threw away his medals and testified against the war before Congress. His service record was questioned in campaign ads.

Obama, the first post-Vietnam president, positioned himself as the one who might heal the rift between those who served and those who didn’t. Although he, too, was burdened with lessons of the war.

“Let us resolve that when America sends our sons and daughters into harm’s way, we will always give them a clear mission; we will always give them a sound strategy; we will give them the equipment they need to get the job done,” Obama said at a visit to the Vietnam Memorial in 2012. “We will have their backs.”

Trump is slated to make his first presidential trip to Vietnam early next month as part of his 12-day, five-nation Asia tour. He will participate in an international summit in Da Nang before meeting the Vietnamese president in Hanoi. The White House said Monday it had not been decided if Trump would visit any war sites, like the prison where McCain was held.

Trump ignited a feud with McCain in July 2015 when he belittled the senator’s time in captivity.

“He’s not a war hero,” said Trump. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Trump once compared his ability to avoid sexually transmitted diseases in the Manhattan dating scene of the 1980s and 1990s to the perils of wartime that claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans in Vietnam.

“It is a dangerous world out there,” Trump said in a 1997 interview with shock jock Howard Stern. “It’s like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”

The renewed focus on Trump’s lack of service in Vietnam comes as he faces scrutiny over his treatment of the families of America’s war dead.

Trump has been pushing back against criticism from the family of slain Army Sgt. La David Johnson, killed this month in Niger, that he was disrespectful in his condolence call to the new widow.

Trump has steadfastly denied the claim. But the Johnsons are not the only family of a slain solider to be angry at Trump.

The family of Capt. Ben Cross of Bethel, Maine, who was one of three Marines killed in an MV-22 Osprey crash in August off the coast of Australia, received a condolence letter from Trump on Friday.

The family questioned the timing of the letter, which arrived via overnight mail after the controversy over Gold Star families had erupted.

“I think that anyone who received five deferrals in order to avoid military service is unfit to be commander in chief and even less qualified to console a grieving family who has lost a loved one defending our country,” Cross’ brother Ryan said Monday. “He doesn’t know the first thing about service or sacrifice.”

—

Associated Press writer David Sharp contributed reporting from Portland, Maine.

—

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

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Ghosts of Vietnam stirring as Trump preps for Asia trip
Ghosts of Vietnam stirring as Trump preps for Asia trip
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Andy Wong

BEIJING (AP) — The ruling Communist Party on Tuesday formally lifted Xi Jinping’s status to China’s most powerful ruler in decades, setting the stage for the authoritarian leader to tighten his grip over the country while pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy and military expansion.

The move to insert Xi’s name and dogma into the party’s constitution alongside the party’s founders came at the close of a twice-a-decade congress that gathered the country’s ruling elite alongside rank-and-file party members. It not only places him in the first rank with past leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, but also effectively makes any act of opposing him tantamount to an attack on the party itself.

“The Chinese people and nation have a great and bright future ahead,” Xi told party delegates as the meeting came to a close after delegates approved the addition of Xi’s ideology of “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era” to the party charter.

“Living in such a great era, we are all the more confident and proud, and also feel the heavy weight of responsibility upon us,” he said.

The concept Xi has touted is seen as marking a break from the stage of economic reform ushered in by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and continued under his successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The placement of Xi’s thought among the party’s leading guidelines also comes five years into his term – earlier than his predecessors.

“In every sense, the Xi Jinping era has begun in earnest,” said Zhang Lifan, an independent political commentator in Beijing. “Only Mao’s name was enshrined in the party ideology while he was still alive. We’re opening something that hasn’t been broached before.”

For centuries, Chinese emperors were accorded ritual names that signaled either they were successors in a dynastic line or the founder of an entirely new dynasty. What Xi accomplished this week was a modern equivalent of the latter, Zhang said.

“He wants to join that pantheon of leaders,” he said.

Despite being elevated to the status of both a political and theoretical authority in the party, Xi still lacks the broad popular support of the Chinese public that Mao had enjoyed, said Zhang Ming, a political analyst in Beijing who recently retired from a prestigious university.

“This (elevation) is a result of the party’s political system and not of the sincere support of the people’s hearts,” Zhang Ming said. “If he can achieve that, he would become Mao.”

Xi has described his concept as central to setting China on the path to becoming a “great modern socialist country” by midcentury. This vision has at its core a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese.

He’s set the target dates of 2021 – the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding – and the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049 – for the establishment of a prosperous, modern society. China has the world’s second-largest economy and legions of newly wealthy urban residents, but raising living standards for millions of people continues to be a challenge.

Zhang Ming, the retired professor, said the goals Xi laid out were lofty but mostly constituted mere rhetoric. “These goals have nothing to do with the people but are just jargon that people shouldn’t take seriously,” Zhang said. “It is not important for him to achieve these goals, just as long as his power reaches its peak.”

The move came at the close of the 89 million-member party’s twice-a-decade national congress at Beijing’s hulking Great Hall of the People, where nearly 2,300 delegates gathered to elect the party’s leading bodies and hear reports.

Although the delegates nominally have the power to vote on candidates, all choices are carefully vetted and the outcomes decided by negotiations among the top leaders.

The constitution was also amended to include references to the party’s “absolute” leadership over the armed forces, which have been modernizing rapidly under Xi, and a commitment to promote Xi’s signature foreign policy and infrastructure initiative known as “One Belt, One Road.” That initiative seeks to link China to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond with a sprawling network of roads, railways, ports and other economic projects.

—

Associated Press writers Gerry Shih and Gillian Wong contributed to this report.

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China lifts Xi's status to most powerful leader in decades
China lifts Xi's status to most powerful leader in decades
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Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. special forces unit ambushed by Islamic militants in Niger didn’t call for help until an hour into their first contact with the enemy, the top U.S. general said Monday, as he tried to clear up some of the murky details of the assault that killed four American troops and has triggered a nasty political brawl.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the American people and the fallen soldiers’ families deserve answers about the deadly ambush in the west African nation. But he said he still lacks many of the details about how the attack unfolded, and he asked for patience as the military investigation continues.

Dunford’s description of the incident, however, underscored how long the mid-morning attack dragged on, and that it was many hours before the wounded and killed were evacuated. He said that “within minutes” after the unit called for assistance, a U.S. drone was moved into position overhead, providing surveillance and full-motion video. He declined to say if it was armed, but said it did not fire.

Another hour went by before French fighter jets arrived, but the wounded weren’t taken out until later in the afternoon when French helicopters arrived along with additional Niger troops. The bodies of the three Green Berets who were killed were evacuated that evening, he said.

“I make no judgment as to how long it took them to ask for support,” Dunford said. “I don’t know that they thought they needed support prior to that time. I don’t know how this attack unfolded. I don’t know what their initial assessment was of what they were confronted with.”

A battle-hardened commander, Dunford recalled situations when, “you’re confronted with enemy contact, your initial assessment is you can deal with that contact with the resources that you have.”

He added that under the military’s rules, U.S. forces only accompany Niger troops on missions in that area when “the chances of enemy contact are unlikely.” But he also agreed that it is an inherently dangerous area, and U.S. forces are there as part of a training and advising mission to help local Niger forces learn to deal with the various al-Qaida and IS-linked groups operating in the region.

Dunford acknowledged that nearly three weeks after the attack, many questions remain. They include whether the U.S. had adequate intelligence, equipment and training, did they have an accurate assessment of the threat in that area, how did they become separated in the fight and why did it take so long to recover the body of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was missing for two days before his body was found by Niger troops and turned over to the U.S.

He said the 12-member Army special forces unit accompanied 30 Nigerien forces on a reconnaissance mission to an area near the village of Tongo Tongo, about 85 kilometers north of the capital on Oct. 3. They ended up spending the night there, and when they were returning to their base the next morning, they encountered about 50 enemy fighters traveling by vehicle, carrying small arms and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Dunford said the White House was notified by the operations center when it became clear that at least three U.S. forces had been killed, and more direct notifications were made when officials realized that Johnson was missing. When he received the call about Johnson, Dunford said he made a “20-second” call to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and got immediate approval to bring the “full weight of the U.S. government to bear” in order to locate the missing soldier.

Independent of the events surrounding the attack, Johnson’s death and his family’s ordeal have become a major political dispute. After Johnson’s body was returned to the U.S., President Donald Trump credited himself with doing more to honor the dead and console families than any of his predecessors.

Then, Johnson’s aunt said Trump showed “disrespect” to his family as he telephoned to extend condolences. In an extraordinary White House briefing, John Kelly, the former Marine general who is Trump’s chief of staff, shot back at Trump’s critics, and the president continued the criticism over the weekend.

Members of Congress are also demanding answers. Last week, Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, even threatened a subpoena to accelerate the flow of information from the administration.

Asked about the congressional complaints, Dunford said that if lawmakers believe they aren’t getting enough information, “then I need to double my efforts to provide them with information.”

He said the military will try to wrap up its investigation into the incident as quickly as possible. The FBI is also investigating, but that probe likely focuses on counterterrorism, and any information or intelligence related to threats to the U.S.

Dunford defended the broader American mission in Niger. He said U.S. forces have been in the country intermittently for more than two decades. Currently, some 800 U.S. service members are supporting a French-led mission to defeat the Islamic State, al-Qaida and Boko Haram in West Africa.

“We are back to conducting operations as normal,” he said. “Our intent is to continue operations there and continue to train, advise, assist our partners.”

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US general lays out Niger attack details; questions remain
US general lays out Niger attack details; questions remain
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Source: AP HEADLINES

NEW YORK (AP) — Within the next three decades, floods that used to strike the New York City area only once every 500 years could occur every five years, according to a new scientific study released just days before the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.

The study, performed by researchers at several universities and published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, primarily blames the predicted change on sea-level rise caused by global warming.

“This is kind of a warning,” said Andra Garner, a Rutgers University scientist and study co-author. “How are we going to protect our coastal infrastructure?”

The researchers based their analysis on multiple models that factored in predictions for sea level rise and possible changes in the path of future hurricanes.

Many of the models had a dose of good news for the nation’s largest city: Climate changes may mean that storms are more violent, but are also likely to swing further off-shore, meaning storm surge heights aren’t likely to increase substantially through 2300.

However, rising sea levels could mean that floods of 7.4 feet (2.25 meters) or more that struck the New York city area roughly once every 500 years before 1800, and which occur roughly every 25 years now, could happen once every five years between 2030 and 2045.

Researchers made no recommendations on what public officials or others should do to prepare.

“The idea is this kind of study we hope will provide information that people making those kinds of decisions can use,” Garner said. “We know that when Sandy hit in 2012, of course, subways, tunnels flooded, power was knocked out, parts of the city were just really devastated so studies like this provide some warning.”

Other researchers included scientists from Penn State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The researchers said there is scientific consensus that global sea level will rise in the coming centuries, although it is not certain how high. They cautioned that sea-level rise at New York City could exceed 8 feet by the end of the century if, in a high-emissions future, the West Antarctic ice sheet rapidly melts.

The study expects about 5 inches to 11 inches (12.7 centimeters to 27.9 centimeters) of sea-level rise likely in New York City between 2000 and 2030.

The study examined sea level rise through the year 2300.

“I think the study is valid, but year 2300 is a long way off,” said Billy Sweet, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in it. “What is more certain is the amount of sea level rise likely to occur in the next 50 to 100 years or so and that storm surges from nor’easters and hurricanes will continue to pose a risk for New York City.”

Hurricane Sandy merged with two other weather systems into an unusual storm that devastated the oceanfront coastline and caused catastrophic flooding in New York and cities in New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012. It was blamed for at least 182 deaths and $65 billion in damage in the U.S.

State and city officials in New York say they are planning numerous projects to guard against future flooding, including fortifying utilities and transit facilities, and note other projects are still in the design stage.

—

This story has been corrected to reflect estimated sea level rise of 5 inches to 11 inches is between 2000 and 2030, not 2000 and 2300.

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Study: NYC could see bad flooding every 5 years
Study: NYC could see bad flooding every 5 years
{$excerpt:n}
Source: AP HEADLINES

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday gave a preliminary OK to a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would provide Puerto Rico with a much-needed infusion of cash and keep the federal flood insurance program from running out of money to pay claims.

The 79-16 procedural vote set the stage for a final vote, most likely on Tuesday.

The measure also provides $18.7 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s rapidly dwindling emergency disaster accounts. On Monday, FEMA announced more than $500 million in aid to Puerto Rico, including $285 million to help restore power and water services to the devastated island. An additional $16 billion would permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program to pay an influx of Harvey-related claims.

But the bill rejects requests from the powerful Texas and Florida congressional delegations for additional money to rebuild after hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, whose state’s citrus industry endured significant losses during Irma, sought to add $3 billion in immediate agriculture assistance to the measure, but was denied by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said money for crop losses would be in subsequent aid measures.

Senate passage on Tuesday would send the measure to President Donald Trump for his signature.

There was urgency to move the measure swiftly – rather than add more money to it at this time – because the government’s disaster response and flood insurance reserves are running out. Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said that would happen “in a matter of days” without action.

Still, members of the Texas and Florida delegations in Congress are unhappy because the measure failed to address extensive requests for additional hurricane rebuilding money. Texas, inundated by Harvey in August, requested $19 billion, while Florida sought $27 billion.

“I’m pretty disappointed with what the House sent over,” Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said last week. But later, after speaking to both Trump and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, Cornyn said he was promised that the White House would issue another disaster aid measure next month for Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. A fourth, and perhaps final, measure is likely to anchor a year-end spending bill.

“The victims of these hurricanes can continue to count on our support,” said McConnell said.

Up to $5 billion of the measure’s total could be used to assist Puerto Rico’s central government and various municipalities that are suffering unsustainable cash shortfalls as Maria has choked off revenues and strained resources. An additional $150 million would help Puerto Rico with the 10 percent match required for FEMA disaster relief.

More than one-fourth of the island’s residents don’t have potable running water and only 17 percent have electricity, according to FEMA. Just 392 miles of Puerto Rico’s 5,073 miles of roads are open. Conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands are bad as well, with widespread power outages.

But Trump last week graded his response to the Puerto Rico disaster a 10 on a scale of 10.

“President Trump seems more concerned about claiming credit for a job well done than the actual situation on the ground deserves, particularly in Puerto Rico,” Leahy said. “This is the hard part of governing,” he added. “We dig in for the long haul, we stop patting ourselves on the back.”

The measure currently before the Senate contains $577 million for wildfires in the West that forced agencies to tap other reserves for firefighting accounts and FEMA money.

Republicans delayed action last year on modest requests by President Barack Obama to combat the Zika virus and help Flint, Michigan, repair its lead-tainted water system. But they are moving quickly to take care of this year’s alarming series of disasters, quickly passing a $15.3 billion relief measure last month and signaling that another installment is coming next month.

Damage is still being assessed and final cost estimates for recovering and rebuilding from this year’s hurricane season are not in yet. Some House conservatives are becoming restive at the high price tag for the disasters, which come as the deficit is growing.

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Senate advances .5B disaster relief package
Senate advances .5B disaster relief package
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Source: AP HEADLINES