In Brief: Nation & World: 10-17-16

Analysis: Trump ‘rigged’ vote claim may leave lasting damage

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump keeps peddling the notion the vote may be rigged. It’s unclear whether he understands the potential damage of his words, or simply doesn’t care.

Trump’s claim, made without evidence, undercuts the essence of American democracy, the idea that U.S. elections are free and fair, with the vanquished peacefully stepping aside for the victor. His repeated assertions are sowing suspicion among his most ardent supporters, raising the possibility that millions of people may not accept the results on Nov. 8 if Trump loses.

The responsibilities for the New York billionaire in such a scenario are minimal. Trump holds no public office and has said he’ll simply go back to his “very good way of life” if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins.

Instead, Clinton and congressional Republicans, should they retain control, would be left trying to govern in a country divided not just by ideology, but also the legitimacy of the presidency.

As Trump’s campaign careens from crisis to crisis, he’s broadened his unfounded allegations that Clinton, her backers and the media are conspiring to steal the election. He’s accused Clinton of meeting with global financial powers to “plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty” and argued his opponent shouldn’t have even been allowed to seek the White House.

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Emails show Clinton treading lightly with Wall Street talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton generally avoided direct criticism of Wall Street as she examined the causes and responses to the financial meltdown during a series of paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, according to transcripts disclosed by WikiLeaks.

Three transcripts released Saturday as part of the hack of her campaign chairman’s emails did not contain any new bombshells showing she was unduly influenced by contributions from the banking industry, as her primary rival Bernie Sanders had suggested. Still, her soft-handed approach in the speeches was likely to act as a reminder to liberals in the party of their concerns that the Democratic presidential nominee is too close to Wall Street to be an effective check on its excesses if elected.

In October 2013, the transcripts show, Clinton told bankers she had “great relations” and worked closely with Wall Street as New York’s senator, and said “the jury is still out” on whether the Dodd-Frank financial reforms put in place after the financial crisis had been the right approach. She said more openness from the start could have prevented the uproar on Wall Street over those reforms.

“What happened, how did it happen, how do we prevent it from happening? You guys help us figure it out, and let’s make sure that we do it right this time,” she said.

Working to relate her speech to her audience, Clinton in one speech likened her experience as secretary of state to business and finance, saying “it’s like anybody’s balance sheet,” with both opportunities and potential liabilities. In one exchange, a conference participant from Texas told Clinton that she had “the honor to raise money for you” during her 2008 presidential campaign.

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Iraqi forces poised to launch operation to retake Mosul

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces appear poised to launch their most complex anti-IS operation to date: retaking the country’s second-largest city of Mosul. While the country’s military has won a string of territorial victories that have pushed the Islamic State group out of more than half the territory the group once held, some Iraqi officials worry that the Mosul fight has been rushed and if the city is retaken without a plan to broker a peace, it could lead to more violence.

Mosul fell to the Islamic State group in June of 2014, when the extremist group blitzed across northern and western Iraq, overrunning nearly a third of the country and plunging Iraq into its most critical political and security crisis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The most recent string of territorial victories for Iraqi ground forces have been in the country’s west. Iraqi forces retook the city of Ramadi in late 2015, followed by a number of towns and villages along the Euphrates River valley and then Fallujah in June. This allowed Iraqi forces to weaken the group by cutting supply lines used to ferry fighters and supplies between territory held in Syria and Iraq.

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GOP strategists: Clinton is in good shape with 3 weeks left

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With roughly three weeks to Election Day, Republican strategists nationwide publicly concede Hillary Clinton has a firm grip on the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House — and may be on her way to an even more decisive victory over Donald Trump.

“He is on track to totally and completely melting down,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayers, who is advising Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s re-election campaign. Like many Republican strategists, he was willing to speak publicly about the GOP nominee’s rough road ahead at the end of an unprecedented campaign.

Things can change before Election Day. There is one more presidential debate, and Trump has rallied before. His core supporters remain strongly committed.

But along with indicators such as polling, campaign travel, staffing and advertising, the interviews with Republican political professionals unaffiliated with the Trump campaign suggest only an epic collapse by Clinton would keep her from winning enough states to become president.

In the past week, Trump’s campaign has been hit by allegations the New York billionaire sexually accosted several women over the past three decades. Early voting in pivotal North Carolina and Florida shows positive signs for Clinton, and donations to the Republican National Committee are down about a quarter over the past three months from the same period in 2012, when Mitt Romney was the nominee.

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Nigerian parents reunite with 21 girls freed by Boko Haram

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Joy, jubilation and dancing erupted Sunday when a group of Nigerian parents were reunited with 21 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 2 ½ years ago and freed in the first negotiated release organized by the government and the Islamic extremist group.

The girls were hugged and embraced by their parents when they were presented by the government, according to video obtained by The Associated Press.

“I never expected I will see my daughter again and I pray that those girls still left behind, that God will bring them out safely the way our own daughter came out alive,” said a mother of one of the released girls, Raha Emmanuel, in the Hausa language.

The girls were released Thursday and flown to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, but it’s taken days for the parents to arrive. Most arrived Sunday after driving hours over potholed roads slowed by military checkpoints and the danger of attack by the insurgents, said community leader Tsambido Hosea Abana.

The parents came from the remote northeastern town of Chibok, where nearly 300 girls were kidnapped on April 2014 in a mass abduction that shocked the world. Dozens of schoolgirls escaped in the first few hours but after last week’s release, 197 remain captive. The government says negotiations are continuing to win their freedom.

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US, UK say support is weak for military action against Syria

LONDON (AP) — The United States and Britain on Sunday acknowledged the Western world’s weak support for any military action against Syria’s government as they sought ways to pressure President Bashar Assad and his chief backer, Russia, to halt a deadly offensive in Aleppo. They tried to present it as a possibility, nevertheless.

After a meeting of 11 governments opposing Assad’s rule, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson each insisted all options were on the table. But their stark explanations about the danger of resorting to military force appeared to rule out such a move.

The result was a somewhat schizophrenic threat that was unlikely to scare Assad’s government or Russia as they move to crush the last rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

“When a great power is involved in a fight like this, as Russia has chosen to be by going there and then putting its missiles in place in order to threaten people against military action, it raises the stakes of confrontation,” Kerry said after the meeting in London.

He said no one should be “lighting a fire” under a larger sectarian war in the Middle East or one drawing in superpowers against one another.

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Unofficial results: Montenegro pro-West ruling party wins

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro’s pro-West ruling party has won the most votes in the small Balkan country’s parliamentary election on Sunday, according to unofficial results, but without enough support to govern alone and assure the country’s chartered course into NATO and other Western institutions.

The tense election was marked by the arrest of 20 people suspected of planning politically motivated armed attacks after the polls closed in the vote during which Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic faced the toughest challenge yet to his quarter-century rule.

The independent CeMI election monitoring group said that with 100 percent of the vote counted, the Democratic Party of Socialists won 41 percent, while two opposition parties — the Democratic Front and the Key Coalition have — 20 and 11 percent respectively. The monitoring group used its own vote count at the polling stations.

Both the ruling party and the opposition claimed they have enough seats to form the country’s future government. They will have tough time to form post-electoral coalitions with small groups that enter the 81-seat parliament. The outcome of those negotiations will determine whether the state continues on its Western course or turns back to traditional ally Russia.

Official results are expected Monday.

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Bad cable delays comeback rocket launch from Virginia

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A bad cable delayed a rocket launch from Virginia on Sunday by a NASA shipper eager to make a strong comeback.

Orbital ATK was poised to fly its Antares rocket with a load of supplies for the International Space Station, after being grounded for two years. But seven hours before the planned liftoff, NASA announced the flight was off until Monday night.

The cable — part of ground support equipment at the Wallops Island launch complex — will be replaced.

This will be the first launch of the unmanned Antares rocket since one exploded shortly after liftoff in October 2014 on a station supply run for NASA. Orbital ATK replaced the Russian-built engines and made other changes to the rocket. In addition, the launch pad had to be rebuilt.

NASA is paying Orbital ATK as well as the SpaceX company to deliver cargo to the station. SpaceX is currently grounded, meanwhile, because of a launch pad explosion last month.

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Agent: Daughter of Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay fatally shot

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The 15-year-old daughter of Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay was fatally shot in the neck, authorities and the athlete’s agent said Sunday.

Trinity Gay died at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the coroner’s office for Fayette County said in a statement. The athlete’s agent, Mark Wetmore, confirmed in a text message to The Associated Press that Gay’s daughter had died.

Lexington police said in a statement that officers went to the parking lot of a restaurant near the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington about 4 a.m. Sunday after witnesses reported an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles. Officers located one of the vehicles and stopped two people for questioning, the statement added.

Police spokeswoman Brenna Angel said police don’t believe Trinity Gay was in either of the vehicles involved.

Tyson Gay competed in the last three Summer Olympics. He was part of a team that won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter relay at the 2012 London Games though that medal was ultimately stripped after Gay tested positive for steroids in 2013.