Trending
Trump claim
raises eyebrows: NKorea no longer a nuke threat?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- America and the world can "sleep well tonight," President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday, boasting that his summit with Kim Jong Un had ended any nuclear threat from North Korea though the meeting produced no details on how or when weapons might be eliminated or even reduced.
While Trump claimed a historic breakthrough at the most significant diplomatic event of his presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was more measured. He said the U.S. wants North Korea to take "major" nuclear disarmament steps within the next two years -- before the end of Trump's first term in 2021.
Pompeo also cautioned that the U.S. would resume "war games" with close ally South Korea if the North stops negotiating in good faith. The president had announced a halt in the drills after his meeting with Kim on Tuesday, a concession long sought by Pyongyang.
The summit in Singapore did mark a reduction in tensions -- a sea change from last fall, when North Korea was conducting nuclear and missile tests and Trump and Kim were trading threats and insults that stoked fears of war. Kim is now promising to work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
But the details of what is sure to be a complex and contentious process have yet to be settled.
Primary election lesson for GOP: Don't cross the president
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't cross President Donald Trump.
That's the lesson many Republicans are drawing from Rep. Mark Sanford's surprise defeat Tuesday in his primary election in South Carolina. The victor, state Rep. Katie Arrington, repeatedly highlighted Sanford's criticism of the president. The outcome is a cautionary tale for Republicans in Congress who try to work with Trump while also maintaining their independence. One wrong turn -- or in Sanford's case, many -- and they could face the wrath of a president who is quick to attack detractors as enemies, even in his own party.
"That's ultimately what the race devolved down to, which was, was I Trump enough?" Sanford told reporters on Capitol Hill.
"It's a very tribal environment right now," he said. "Are you for or against Trump?"
Antarctica's ice sheet is melting
3 times faster
than before
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The melting of Antarctica is accelerating at an alarming rate, with about 3 trillion tons of ice disappearing since 1992, an international team of ice experts said in a new study. In the last quarter century, the southern-most continent's ice sheet -- a key indicator of climate change -- melted into enough water to cover Texas to a depth of nearly 13 feet, scientists calculated. All that water made global oceans rise about three-tenths of an inch. From 1992 to 2011, Antarctica lost nearly 84 billion tons of ice a year. From 2012 to 2017, the melt rate increased to more than 241 billion tons a year, according to the study Wednesday in the journal Nature .
"I think we should be worried. That doesn't mean we should be desperate," said University of California Irvine's Isabella Velicogna, one of 88 co-authors. "Things are happening. They are happening faster than we expected."
Part of West Antarctica, where most of the melting occurred, "is in a state of collapse," said co-author Ian Joughin of the University of Washington.
Worker protections seen at risk in Trump health care shift
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration's latest move against "Obamacare" could jeopardize legal protections on pre-existing medical conditions for millions of people with employer coverage, particularly workers in small businesses, say law and insurance experts. At issue is Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recent decision that the Justice Department will no longer defend key parts of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act in court. That includes the law's unpopular requirement to carry health insurance, but also widely supported provisions that protect people with pre-existing medical conditions and limit what insurers can charge older, sicker customers.
Two independent experts said Wednesday that the administration appears to be taking aim at provisions of the ACA that protect people in employer plans, not only the smaller pool of consumers who buy a policy directly from an insurer. The new Trump administration position was outlined last week in a legal brief filed by the Justice Department in a Texas case challenging the Obama health law.
Workers "could face the prospect of insurance that doesn't cover their pre-existing conditions when they enroll in a plan with a new employer," said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley said the administration does not appear to have thought through all the consequences of moving against one provision of a health law that has many complicated interlocking parts.
Fed raises key rate and sees possible acceleration
in hikes
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve took note of a resilient U.S. economy Wednesday by raising its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year and signaling that it may step up its pace of rate increases. The Fed now foresees four rate hikes this year, up from the three it had previously forecast. The action means consumers and businesses will face higher loan rates over time.
The central bank raised its key short-term rate by a modest quarter-point to a still-low range of 1.75 percent to 2 percent. With the economy now nine years into an expansion, the move reflects the steadiness of growth, the job market's strength and inflation that's finally reaching the Fed's 2 percent target level. Economists said the Fed left little doubt that it's prepared to increase the pace of its credit tightening to guard against high inflation later on.
"The labor market is getting tighter, and price pressures are picking up," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "The Fed is prepared to be quicker about pushing rates higher."
GOP leaders sell immigration bills, with Trump's
blessing
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican leaders began the problematic task of finding support for an immigration compromise Wednesday, telling lawmakers that President Donald Trump was backing the still-evolving bill. But cracks within the party were on full display and it seemed that pushing the measure through the House next week would be a challenge.
"If it was a resolution on apple pie, you're going to lose some votes, some Republican votes," said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
A day after top Republicans said the House would vote next week on two competing immigration measures, it was widely assumed that a hard-right measure would lose. That bill would give young "Dreamer" immigrants just limited opportunities to remain in the U.S. while imposing tough restrictions on legal immigration and bolstering border security.
GOP leaders, negotiating with quarreling moderates and conservatives, were still writing the second bill. Republicans said it would contain a way for Dreamers to qualify for permanent residence and potentially become citizens, while accepting conservatives' demands to finance Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico and restrictions on legal immigration.
With Republicans battling to keep their House majority in November's elections, merely staging the immigration votes, win or lose, achieves some political objectives. The plan helped party leaders block unhappy moderates trying to force the House to consider immigration bills considered too liberal by many Republicans, and will let lawmakers assert that they tried addressing the issue.
Comcast challenges Disney with $65B bid for Fox
NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast made a $65 billion bid Wednesday for Fox's entertainment businesses, setting up a battle with Disney to become the next mega-media company.
The bid comes just a day after a federal judge cleared AT&T's takeover of Time Warner and rejected the government's argument that it would hurt competition in cable and satellite TV and jack up costs to consumers for streaming TV and movies. The ruling signaled that Comcast could win regulatory approval, too; its bid for Fox shares many similarities with the AT&T-Time Warner deal.
Comcast says its cash bid is 19 percent higher than the value of Disney offer as of Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal and others reported earlier that Comcast had lined up $60 billion in cash to challenge Disney for media mogul Rupert Murdoch's company. Disney's offer was for $52.5 billion when it was made in December, though the final value will depend on the stock price at the closing.
"This is a golden offer that will put considerable pressure on (Disney CEO Bob) Iger and Disney to step up their game on another bid," GBH Insights analyst Dan Ives said. "This is even higher than the Street thought, which speaks to Comcast really wanting these key assets."
The battle for Twenty-First Century Fox comes as traditional entertainment companies try to amass more content to compete better with technology companies such as Amazon and Netflix for viewers' attention -- and dollars.
Panel opts not to change school's Redskins team name, mascot
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A Cincinnati-area high school whose teams have been called the Redskins for over 80 years will keep that mascot for now after a committee heard heated debate and decided against recommending any change.
It's the latest round in a recurring fight over use of the Redskins name at Anderson High School.
People pushing to change the name argue it's offensive and inappropriate to use the racial reference. Advocates of keeping the name contend that it is part of school tradition and that changing the branding would be an unnecessary expense of hundreds of thousands of dollars.