Retreating after Trump tweet, GOP won’t gut ethics office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new GOP era in Washington got off to a messy start Tuesday as House Republicans, under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, abruptly dropped plans to gut an independent congressional ethics board.
The dizzying about-face came as lawmakers convened for the first day of the 115th Congress, an occasion normally reserved for pomp and ceremony under the Capitol Dome. Instead, House Republicans found themselves under attack not only from Democrats but from their new president, over their secretive move Monday to neuter the independent Office of Congressional Ethics and place it under lawmakers’ control.
GOP leaders scrambled to contain the damage, and within hours of Trump registering his criticism on Twitter, they called an emergency meeting where House Republicans voted without opposition to undo the change.
The episode, coming even before the new Congress was convened and lawmakers were sworn in, was a powerful illustration of the sway Trump may hold over his party in a Washington that will be fully under Republican control for the first time in a decade. GOP lawmakers who’ve felt unfairly targeted by the ethics office had defied their own leaders with their initial vote to neuter the body, but once Trump weighed in they backpedaled immediately.
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,” Trump had asked over Twitter Tuesday morning, in an objection that appeared focused more on timing than on substance. Trump, who will take office in a little over two weeks, said the focus should be on tax reform and health care, and he included the hash-tag #DTS, for “Drain the Swamp,” his oft-repeated campaign promise to bring change to Washington.
———
Trump’s slim NKorea options: Diplomacy, sanctions, force
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump says he is confident North Korea won’t develop a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the United States. But his options for stopping the reclusive communist country are slim: diplomacy that would reward Pyongyang, sanctions which haven’t worked, and military action that no one wants.
For more than two decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have tried carrots and sticks to steer North Korea away from nuclear weapons. Each has failed. And as Trump prepares to take office Jan. 20, the stakes are rising.
Pyongyang may already be able to arm short-range and mid-range missiles with atomic warheads, threatening U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, and American forces in each country. On Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile “reached the final stage.”
Trump tweeted the following day: “It won’t happen!”
Some experts believe the North is likely to have the capability to strike the U.S. mainland before Trump’s four-year term is up.
———
AP Exclusive: Golf club shows pitfalls of Trump presidency
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The decorative clock bearing the name of America’s incoming 45th president has yet to start at the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, but the developers behind the project already are counting the money they’ve made.
The 18-hole course is likely to be the first Trump-connected property to open after his Jan. 20 inauguration as president, joining his organization’s projects stretching from Bali to Panama.
It also encapsulates the host of worries of possible conflicts of interest circulating around a president who is very different from America’s past leaders. While the Oval Office has always been home to the wealthy, Donald Trump represents the first franchise president.
Could foreign governments pressure or please Trump through his international businesses? Should projects bearing his name receive additional security? And how close should his ties remain to business executives operating in areas with far different opinions about human rights and justice?
“There has never been anything remotely like this — not even close,” said Robert W. Gordon, a legal historian and ethics expert who teaches at Stanford University. “Trump himself tends to treat his businesses and his public policy as sort of extensions of himself. He seems to be completely unembarrassed about scrambling up and conflating his business enterprise and the actions and policies of the U.S. government.”
———
Video shows man believed to be nightclub attacker in Turkey
ISTANBUL (AP) — An eerie video emerged Tuesday of a man believed to be the attacker who killed 39 people in a mass shooting at a nightclub, showing him taking a selfie as he silently toured Istanbul’s most famous square.
The camera never leaves the man’s unsmiling face as he walked through Taksim Square during the 44-second clip that was broadcast on state-run Anadolu television and other Turkish media.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the video was made before or after the New Year’s massacre at the Reina nightclub, or how it was obtained. The gunman, who hasn’t been publicly identified, is still at large.
On Monday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded nearly 70 people. The extremists said a “soldier of the caliphate” had carried out the mass shooting to avenge Turkish military operations against IS in northern Syria.
Funerals began Tuesday in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Turkey for the dead, most of them tourists. Mourners wept for the lives that were cut short in the early hours of 2017 at the popular and glamorous club.
———
Silenced by IS, displaced Iraqis relish return to phones
SEWDINAN CAMP, Iraq (AP) — Iraqis who escaped Islamic State rule during the battle for Mosul are indulging in a newfound freedom — the right to check their phones.
When the Iraqi offensive to retake the northern city began in mid-October, its Islamic State rulers warned residents that anyone caught with an active mobile phone would be killed for spying.
Many destroyed their SIM cards, and at least one terrified resident flushed his phone down the toilet. Others hid their devices where the militants were unlikely to look — under women’s clothes at the bottom of a wardrobe or in bird coops on the roofs of their homes.
For many, the phones came in handy later, when they were able to phone the military to coordinate their escape. After arriving in camps for the displaced, they were able to reach out to loved ones and return to social media after a virtual two-year blackout.
Sahm Yassin, a primary school teacher, was one of those who took the risk and hid his phone. Before he fled Mosul about a week ago, he used it sparingly, walking under cover of darkness to high ground where he could get a signal strong enough to call family in Baghdad.
———
Quick decisions meant life or death in Southeastern storms
As an apparent tornado bore down on them, seven people in a mobile home in southeast Alabama made a life-or-death decision: Three ran into one bathroom for shelter and four ran in the opposite direction to another room seeking safety.
The three, including Lawana Henrich, survived without a scratch, according to Coroner Robert Byrd. But a big hardwood tree that slammed into the mobile home killed the four others, including Henrich’s daughter and sister, Byrd said.
The tree toppled over during a wave of severe weather that brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Southeast, and it couldn’t have hit in a worse spot when it fell Monday night near Rehobeth, Alabama.
“It was dead center,” Byrd said. “You think, ‘What’s the chance of four people being so close in one area?’ But they were.”
Those four and a fifth man who drowned in the Florida Panhandle died as a line of severe thunderstorms moved across the Southeastern United States from Texas.
———
Megyn Kelly leaving Fox News, will host 2 shows on NBC
NEW YORK (AP) — Megyn Kelly, the Fox News star who’s had a contentious relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, said Tuesday that she’s leaving the network for NBC News, where she will host a daytime talk show and a weekend newsmagazine, as well as contribute to breaking news coverage.
NBC News made the announcement Tuesday, ending months of speculation over whether she would re-up with Fox, where she has flourished while suffering bruised feelings in recent months, or start a new chapter in her career. Her contract with Fox expires this summer. Her last show on Fox will be Friday night.
Kelly’s departure deprives Fox News of its second-most-watched host, behind only Bill O’Reilly, and a hole at 9 p.m. in its prime-time lineup.
“While I will greatly miss my colleagues at Fox, I am delighted to be joining the NBC News family and taking on a new challenge,” Kelly said in a message on Twitter on Tuesday.
Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox, said that “we thank Megyn Kelly for her 12 years of contributions to Fox News. We hope she enjoys tremendous success in her career and wish her and her family all the best.”
———
Border guards in Spain find migrants hidden in suitcase, car
MADRID (AP) — Guards on the border of Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa, say they have recently detained one Moroccan suspected of attempting to smuggle migrants concealed in a suitcase and another suspected of hiding migrants in a car.
Custom agents found a 19-year-old migrant from Gabon hidden in a suitcase pushed on a trolley by a woman who tried to cross the land border from Morocco on Dec. 30, said a spokesman for the Guardia Civil in Ceuta.
According to the spokesman, who spoke anonymously in accordance with the organization’s rules, the 22-year-old Moroccan woman raised suspicions by trying to avoid security checks.
When officials asked her to open the luggage, they found the man curled up in the poorly ventilated space. Police said the man received immediate medical attention.
On Monday, border police found two more migrants hidden in false compartments built into a car arriving from Morocco.
———
Annotated version of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ a hit in Germany
BERLIN (AP) — An annotated edition of “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler’s notorious manifesto, has become a non-fiction best-seller in Germany. The publisher said Tuesday that a sixth print run will go on sale later this month.
Some 85,000 copies of the book have been sold since it was first published a year ago, according to the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History. The publisher spent years adding comments to Hitler’s original text in an effort to highlight his propaganda and mistakes.
The institute said in late 2015 that it planned an initial print run of up to 4,000 copies and wasn’t sure whether more would be printed. In April, however, the book topped the weekly Der Spiegel’s non-fiction best-seller list.
The bulky two-volume edition, titled “Hitler, Mein Kampf: A Critical Edition,” weighs in at 1,948 pages and costs a hefty 59 euros ($62). It was the first version to be published in Germany since the end of World War II.
Before the copyright on “Mein Kampf held by Bavaria’s state finance ministry expired at the end of 2015, the ministry had used it prevent the publication of new editions in the country.
———
Here come ‘smart stores’ with robots, interactive shelves
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tomorrow’s retail stores want to take a page from their online rivals by embracing advanced technology — everything from helpful robots to interactive mirrors to shelves embedded with sensors.
The goal: Use these real-world store features to lure shoppers back from the internet, and maybe even nudge them to spend more in the process.
Amazon’s new experimental grocery store in Seattle, opening in early 2017, will let shoppers buy goods without needing to stop at a checkout line. Sensors track items as shoppers put them into baskets or return them to the shelf. The shopper’s Amazon account gets automatically charged.
“Amazon, for good or bad, has been setting the path,” said Robert Hetu, research director at Gartner Research. “Each retailer is going to have to respond in some way. But it’s not one-size-fits-all.”
Kroger, Neiman Marcus and Lowe’s are among the companies already experimenting with futuristic retail stores. Robots, for instance, could help guide shoppers to the right aisle, while augmented reality apps could help you see how a particular shade of paint will look in the living room — or how you might look in a pair of jeans. Many of these technologies will be unveiled or demonstrated at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, which begins Tuesday with media previews.