Kim, Xi portray strong ties after N. Korean leader’s visit
BEIJING (AP) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping sought to portray strong ties between the neighbours and long-time allies despite a recent chill, as both countries on Wednesday confirmed Kim’s secret trip to Beijing this week.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Kim made the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday at Xi’s invitation in what was in his first trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011.
Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency said.
Official media reports from both countries sought to portray warm ties between the sides and counter the narrative that relations have chilled recently because of Kim’s development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. For China, the visit reminds that Beijing remains one of North Korea’s most important allies and is a player not to be sidelined in denuclearization talks.
Xi hailed Kim’s visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.
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Analysis: Kim’s trip shows China’s value in Korean diplomacy
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s surprise visit to Beijing makes clear what has been easily forgotten amid the whirlwind of diplomatic developments in past months: China still plays a major role in efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear program.
Just how much is still open to debate, but the visit shows Kim Jong Un hasn’t forgotten his only major ally despite recent antipathy between the countries and bombshell announcements that the young North Korean leader will hold summits with his foes in Washington and Seoul. China, after all, provides the vital trade, aid and diplomatic support that keep the North and its broken economy afloat.
Because of North Korea’s dependence on China, it makes sense that Pyongyang would consult with Beijing before any major approach to the West.
Analysts say Kim, on his first visit overseas since taking power since 2011, would have intended to remove any Chinese concern that it’s being reduced to a bystander as Pyongyang attempts to shake up regional politics by reaching out to Seoul and Washington. In demonstrating its ties with China, North Korea could also a message to Washington and Seoul, showing it has other options should the summits fall apart.
Other experts say it’s also possible that the Kim-Xi meeting would have been planned long before Kim’s outreach to South Korea and the United States. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the summit was a predictable outcome between two leaders who believe they have completed consolidating their power at home and are now shifting their focus to external stability.
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Decision to add citizenship question to census draws protest
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s decision to ask people about their citizenship in the 2020 census set off worries among Democrats on Tuesday that immigrants will dodge the survey altogether, diluting political representation for states that tend to vote Democratic and robbing many communities of federal dollars.
Not since 1950 has the census collected citizenship data from the whole population, rather than just a population sample, says the Congressional Research Service. The decision to restore the question after decades prompted an immediate lawsuit from California — already tangling with Washington over immigration — and moves by other states with large immigrant populations to engage in a legal fight.
The population count, a massive effort taken every 10 years, is far more than an academic exercise. It’s required by the Constitution and used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House as well as how federal money is distributed to local communities. Communities and businesses depend on it in deciding where to build schools, hospitals, grocery stores and more.
The political stakes of undercounting segments of the population are high.
Several states that have slowing population growth or high numbers of immigrants such as California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio are typically at risk of losing U.S. House seats when their congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years — depending on how fully their residents are counted.
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10 Things to Know for Wednesday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:
1. KIM JONG UN TRAVELS TO BEIJING
North Korea’s reclusive leader meets with China’s president in his first known trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011.
2. WHAT’S WELCOME NEWS FOR WHITE HOUSE
A growing American economy and passage of a Republican tax overhaul appear to be helping Trump lift his approval ratings from historic lows.
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AP-NORC Poll: Trump’s approval rating up from historic lows
WASHINGTON (AP) — The good news for President Donald Trump? His approval rating is up 7 points since last month, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The bad news? That only lifts Trump’s approval to 42 per cent, low for a president at this point in his tenure.
Still, the trajectory is a welcome shift for a White House that has been battered by chaos, controversies and internal upheaval. The poll suggests that at least some of the president’s improving standing is tied to the economy and the Republican tax overhaul, which offers a glimmer of hope for GOP lawmakers who plan to make both issues the centerpiece of their efforts to maintain control of Congress in November.
Nearly half of Americans surveyed — 47 per cent — say they approve of how Trump is handling the economy, his highest rating on any issue. When it comes to tax policy, 46 per cent of Americans back Trump’s moves.
“Our fortunes will rise and fall with the economy and specifically with the middle-class tax cut this fall,” said Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan. Bliss urged Republican candidates to view the law as “an offensive, not defensive weapon.”
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California county votes to join Trump’s ‘sanctuary’ lawsuit
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — In a dramatic one-two punch, leaders in California’s Orange County voted Tuesday to condemn the state’s sanctuary law that limits police co-operation with federal immigration authorities and to join a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to overturn it.
The all-Republican Board of Supervisors in the county that is home to 3.2 million people and many immigrants approved the measures by unanimous votes. One of the five supervisors was absent.
The meeting produced a raucous debate between those who say the moves uphold the rule of law and draw a line on illegal immigration and others who said it was racist and more about politics than public safety.
Supervisor Michelle Steel, an immigrant from South Korea, told the crowd that fixing the country’s immigration system will take time. “Along the way, law enforcement should absolutely co-operate fully within the constraints of federal law,” she said.
The votes were the most dramatic development in a growing counter-movement in more conservative-leaning areas of the state against the sanctuary law, which the Democrat-controlled Legislature approved last year as the Trump administration called for more stringent immigration enforcement and a wall on the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Former Michigan State dean charged in Larry Nassar scandal
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The sexual abuse scandal at Michigan State University widened Tuesday when authorities charged a former dean with failing to protect patients from sports doctor Larry Nassar, along with sexually harassing female students and pressuring them for nude selfies.
William Strampel, 70, is the first person charged since an investigation was launched in January into how Michigan State handled complaints against Nassar, who for years sexually violated girls and young women, especially gymnasts, with his fingers during examinations.
Strampel, who as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine oversaw the clinic where Nassar worked, neglected his duty to enforce examining-room restrictions imposed on Nassar after a patient accused the doctor in 2014 of sexual contact, authorities alleged.
Nassar was not supposed to treat patients near any “sensitive areas” on the body without a chaperone present. Because Strampel did not follow up to make sure Nassar was complying, he was able to commit a host of additional sexual assaults until he was fired two years later, prosecutors said.
The criminal complaint also accused Strampel of soliciting nude photos from at least one female medical student and using his office to “harass, discriminate, demean, sexually proposition, and sexually assault female students in violation of his statutory duty as a public officer.”
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2 officers in black man’s fatal shooting won’t be charged
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s attorney general ruled out criminal charges Tuesday against two white Baton Rouge police officers in the shooting of a black man whose death led to widespread protests nearly two years ago.
Attorney General Jeff Landry’s decision came nearly 11 months after the Justice Department ruled out federal criminal charges in Alton Sterling’s July 2016 death.
Officer Blane Salamoni shot and killed Sterling during a struggle outside a convenience store where the 37-year-old black man was selling homemade CDs. Officer Howie Lake II helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, but Lake didn’t fire his gun. Two cellphone videos of the shooting quickly spread on social media, prompting large protests.
Landry made the announcement of no charges at a news conference after meeting with family members of Sterling. They angrily denounced the decision.
Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of one of Sterling’s children, Cameron, said the officers killed Sterling “in cold blood.”
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Trump floats using military budget to pay for border wall
WASHINGTON (AP) — Still angry about the budget deal he signed last week, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of using the military’s budget to pay for his long-promised border wall with Mexico, despite the fact that such spending would likely require approval from Congress.
Trump raised the funding plan with House Speaker Paul Ryan at a meeting at the White House last Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity.
And he’s publicly tweeted that building “a great Border Wall” is “all about National Defence,” and called to “Build WALL through M!”, meaning the military.
Departments, however, have limited authority to reprogram funds without congressional approval. Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood referred all questions on the wall to the White House, where spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected them, saying she was “not going to get into the specifics of that.”
Trump threw Washington into a tizzy on Friday when he threatened to veto the omnibus spending bill, in part because it didn’t include the $25 billion he’d tried to secure for the wall in a last-minute bargaining spree.
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Biter-gate: Tiffany Haddish reports somebody nipped Beyonce
NEW YORK (AP) — The speculation is wide, rumours numerous and denials firm. And the crime? Somebody allegedly bit Beyonce on the face at a party back in December.
How do we know this? Because Tiffany Haddish told us so. More specifically, she told GQ magazine in a profile released Monday. She didn’t nail the culprit but set off Beyonce’s social media Beyhive of die-hard fans and a whole lot of internet sleuthing. The mystery, natch, has a hashtag: #WhoBitBeyonce?
The latest nugget came Tuesday when TMZ reported multiple sources it did not identify by name as saying Haddish told them partygoer Sanaa Lathan is the biter. She got the hive treatment — swarms of bee emojis — until she finally spoke on Twitter: “Y’all are funny. Under no circumstances did I bite Beyonce and if I did it would’ve been a love bite.”
Lathan, of “The Best Man” movies, included a single red-lip emoji to battle all those bees.
The purported bite (purportedly) occurred at an after-party for Beyonce hubby Jay-Z’s “4:44” concert at The Forum in Los Angeles on Dec. 22. There was, purportedly, something about flirting with Jay, and something, purportedly, about the flirt being wasted.
