AP News in Brief 05-07-18

Giuliani confounds, contradicts as he defends Trump in media

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is delivering confounding and at times contradictory statements as he tries to lessen the legal burdens on his client from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a $130,000 hush payment to a porn actress.

The former New York City mayor is embracing his client’s preferred approach to challenges as he mounts Trump’s defense through the media. But it’s proving to be a bewildering display.

In an interview Sunday with ABC’s “This Week,” Giuliani dismissed as rumor his own statements about Trump’s payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, said he can’t speak to whether the president lied to the American people when he denied knowledge of the silencing agreement and wouldn’t rule out the president asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the Russia investigation. Giuliani also couldn’t say whether Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made similar payments to other women on the president’s behalf.

Giuliani said despite Trump’s openness to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation, he would strongly advise Trump against it.

“I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart?” Giuliani asked, referring to the lifestyle maven convicted in 2004 of lying to investigators and obstruction in an insider trading case.

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ scores second-best weekend 2 ever

LOS ANGELES — After breaking opening weekend records, “Avengers: Infinity War” continued to dominate in its second weekend in theaters, but alternative programming like the romantic comedy “Overboard” also found an audience in what has historically been considered the “official” kick-off to the summer movie season.

The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday that “Avengers: Infinity War” will gross an estimated $112.5 million from North American theaters over the weekend, becoming the second highest grossing film in weekend two behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens’” $149.2 million and just slightly ahead of “Black Panther” ($111.7 million).

It’s a 56 percent drop from its first weekend in theaters — less steep than the second weekend fall of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (59.4 percent) or “Captain America: Civil War” (59.5 percent), but more than “Black Panther’s” uniquely soft 44.7 percent sophomore weekend decline.

“We’re in uncharted territory again,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “This is a second weekend number that many films would aspire to have on opening weekend.”

From wire sources

Globally, “Avengers: Infinity War” has now grossed over $1.2 billion and become the first film ever to cross the $1 billion mark in 11 days of release, and it has yet to even open in China.

CIA nominee offered to withdraw over interrogation program

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, offered to withdraw her nomination, two senior administration officials said Sunday, amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA.

White House aides on Friday sought out additional details about Haspel’s involvement in the CIA’s now-defunct program of detaining and brutally interrogating terror suspects after 9/11 as they prepared her for Wednesday’s confirmation hearing. This is when she offered to withdraw, the officials said.

They said Haspel, who is the acting director of the CIA, was reassured that her nomination was still on track and will not withdraw. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The news was first reported Sunday by The Washington Post.

Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the CIA, is the first career operations officer to be nominated to lead the agency in decades. She served almost entirely undercover and much of her record is classified. Democrats say she should be disqualified because she was the chief of base at a covert detention site in Thailand where two terrorism suspects were subjected to waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

Haspel has told lawmakers in recent weeks that she would stand firm against any effort to restart the brutal detention and interrogation program, administration officials told The Associated Press on Friday. She is expected to reiterate that publicly this week.

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Britain hopes to address Trump concerns on Iran nuclear deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. said Sunday his country believes it’s still possible to address President Donald Trump’s concerns about the Iran nuclear deal in time to prevent him from pulling out of the agreement.

Kim Darroch said Britain has ideas for dealing with those concerns. They include Iran’s ballistic missile program and its involvement in Mideast conflicts, issues that aren’t part of the international agreement. Trump also objects to the accord’s sunset clause, which allows Iran to resume part of its nuclear program after 2025.

“We think that we can find some language, produce some action that meets the president’s concerns,” Darroch told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The deadline for Trump’s decision is this coming Saturday.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has scheduled talks with U.S. officials in Washington this week. His trip follows visits in recent weeks by the leaders of France and Germany, who also tried to convince Trump to stick with the agreement. All three European countries signed the 2015 deal, along with Russia and China.

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Airplane and oil deals at risk in Trump pullout of Iran deal

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — From airplanes to oilfields, billions of dollars are on the line for international corporations as President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Regardless of where they are headquartered, virtually all multinational corporations do business or banking in the U.S., meaning any return to pre-deal sanctions could torpedo deals made after the 2015 agreement came into force.

That threat alone has been enough to scare risk-averse firms, like Boeing Co., into slow-walking deals agreed to months ago. A complete pullout by the U.S. would wreak further havoc and likely frighten off those considering making the plunge.

“I absolutely think those on the fence will not jump in,” said Richard Nephew, a former sanctions expert at the U.S. State Department who worked on the nuclear deal and now is at New York’s Columbia University. “The only ones who will, will be those who see tremendous monetary benefit and no U.S. risk.”

The 2015 Iran nuclear deal lifted crippling economic sanctions that had locked Iran out of international banking and the global oil trade. In return, Tehran limited its enrichment of uranium, reconfigured a heavy-water reactor so it couldn’t produce plutonium and reduced its uranium stockpile and supply of centrifuges.

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Guatemala’s crusading prosecutor exits amid praise, threats

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — It’s been a long time since it was safe for Thelma Aldana to go out in public alone, and perhaps it never will be again.

As chief prosecutor for Guatemala, Aldana won plaudits at home and abroad as the woman who sent a president to prison and broke up a number of high-level corruption rings. But it came at a cost — her own personal safety — as her crusading angered some of the country’s most powerful and dangerous people, long accustomed to doing as they pleased with little or no consequences.

The biggest trophy on her wall from four years in office: Taking down a network allegedly led by then-President Otto Perez Molina, who is accused of defrauding the state of millions of dollars.

“In the Bible it says you shall know them by their fruits, and I gave my best effort,” Aldana said in a series of interviews with The Associated Press as she prepares to leave office when her term ends this month. “With all modesty, I leave with my head high.”

Those close to her call the 62-year-old Aldana “the boss.” She is described as a strictly punctual person and a voracious reader. Appearing before news cameras to announce the latest corruption ring to fall, she typically appears calm, collected and intrepid. Her facial expression is often tough and inscrutable, making it difficult to guess what she is thinking.

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Fatal attack on interracial couple in Arizona heads to trial

PHOENIX (AP) — An interracial couple was walking near a Phoenix park when authorities say a shirtless neo-Nazi began angrily yelling a racial slur and harassing the black man in the couple over dating a white woman.

Authorities say the men exchanged tense words before Travis Ricci rushed back to a home where other white supremacists were partying, grabbed a shotgun and returned in a sedan driven by an associate. Ricci leaned out the car and fired two buckshot blasts, missing the black man — the intended target — and killing his girlfriend, investigators said.

Lawyers are now picking a jury to decide whether Ricci should be convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the 2009 attack, which prosecutors say was a hate crime. Opening statements are tentatively scheduled for June 6.

The case has offered several unexpected turns.

Ricci, whose defense is expected to include an argument that he’s not the man he used to be, claims his great-grandfather was a member of the French Resistance killed by Nazis during World War II.

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