Trump presses GOP leaders to embrace him as certain nominee
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump’s chief lieutenants pushed skeptical Republican leaders Thursday to embrace him as their likely presidential nominee, declaring he can deliver big electoral gains this fall despite his contentious ways.
Even as his team pressed Trump’s case, the billionaire raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina’s “bathroom law,” which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates. Trump also came out against the government’s plan to replace President Andrew Jackson with the civil-rights figure Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
The developments came as the GOP’s messy fight for the White House spilled into a seaside resort in south Florida. While candidates in both parties fanned out across the country before important primary contests in the Northeast, Hollywood’s Diplomat Resort & Spa was transformed into a palm-treed political battleground.
There were new signs of frustration among members of the Republican National Committee, who are eager for the divisive primary season to end.
“I want to see Mr. Trump begin to bring us together,” said Henry Barbour, a committeeman from Mississippi. “And I haven’t seen it. It’s not good enough to do it for 30 minutes one day and then the other hours of the day try to divide.”
In Saudi visit, Obama works to calm Gulf tensions with US
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Barack Obama strained to ease tensions with Persian Gulf allies Thursday, pledging U.S. help in confronting Iran and other security threats. Yet he failed to win the commitments he sought to boost economic aid to Iraq.
Obama’s trip to Saudi Arabia — the fourth and probably last of his presidency — did not result in any major breakthroughs. Obama said Gulf leaders attending the regional summit had agreed to step up the campaign against the Islamic State group, but did not lay out specifics. He described the talks as a chance to clear up misperceptions among allies, insisting the U.S. and Gulf partners had “tactical differences” but similar goals.
“A lot of the strain was always overblown,” Obama said as he closed a two-day trip here.
Saudi Arabia, like other Sunni-led countries in the region, has been wary of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and skeptical of his approach in Syria. Obama came to the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting not only to urge its members to do more to tackle thorny security challenges but also to offer his own reassurance.
His brief visit, though, illustrated the limits of what can be achieved when Gulf budgets are stretched by a slump in oil prices and the region is eagerly looking beyond Obama to his successor. Obama leaves office in January after eight years that Saudi leaders saw as heralding a shift in traditional U.S. loyalties away from Saudi Arabia and toward Iran.
Paris climate agreement on track for early start
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — As many as 170 countries are expected to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change Friday in a symbolic triumph for a landmark deal that once seemed unlikely but now appears on track to enter into force years ahead of schedule.
U.N. officials say the signing ceremony Friday will set a record for international diplomacy: Never before have so many countries inked an agreement on the first day of the signing period.
That could help pave the way for the pact to become effective long before the original 2020 deadline — possibly this year— though countries must first formally approve it through their domestic procedures.
“We are within striking distance of having the agreement start years earlier than anyone anticipated,” Brian Deese, an adviser to President Barack Obama, said in a speech last week at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
The U.S. and China, which together account for nearly 40 percent of global emissions, have said they intend to formally join the agreement this year. It will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have done so.
US Navy accuses Gulf commander of misconduct
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A U.S. Navy officer relieved of commanding a Persian Gulf patrol ship allegedly failed to maintain equipment to the point of exposing “his crew to unnecessary risk,” interfered with an inquiry into his actions and once slept drunk on a bench at a Dubai port, according to a naval investigation.
The accusations against Lt. Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley saw the Navy on March 12 remove him from the USS Typhoon, a Manama, Bahrain-based vessel patrolling a region crucial to global oil supplies where American forces routinely have tense encounters with Iranian forces.
Daley, now assigned to Task Force 55, is on leave and was unavailable for comment Thursday, according to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and oversees the task force. Later reached by The Associated Press, Daley said he was challenging the report and appealing his punishment as a “good number of things are 100 percent not true.”
He declined to elaborate as he said he was on leave for the birth of his second child, adding that he wanted the appeal process “to take its course.”
The 300-page investigative report into Daley’s actions, obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows his crew also complained about his poor management style, with one sailor saying morale aboard the ship was the “worst” the sailor had seen in a 28-year career.
