Trump begins backing off campaign vows on Clinton, warming
Trump begins backing off campaign vows on Clinton, warming
NEW YORK (AP) — Two weeks after his election victory, President-elect Donald Trump began backing off campaign promises Tuesday, including his hard line on climate change and his vow to jail “Crooked Hillary” Clinton.
A top adviser said Trump is now focused on matters that are essential in setting up his administration, not on comments he made during the heat of the campaign.
After a year blasting The New York Times, Trump submitted to an interview with reporters and editors at the Times office. Among the topics covered, he:
• Pushed back against questions about conflicts that could arise due to a lack of separation between his government post and his many businesses, declaring that “the law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”
• Took his strongest stance yet against the “alt-right,” a term often used as code for the white supremacist movement. Though members are celebrating his victory, he said, “It’s not a group I want to energize. And if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why.”
Iraqis finally put out some oil fires set months ago by IS
QAYARA, Iraq (AP) — For months, residents of the Iraqi town of Qayara have lived under a dark cloud of toxic fumes released by oil well fires lit by retreating Islamic State fighters.
But in recent days, oil workers and firefighters extinguished the blazes closest to the populated center. The move returned a small measure of order to Qayara, where complaints about government neglect have simmered since last summer, when the militants torched the oil wells as the Iraqi army drove them out.
The work is far from complete, but it could be a first step in easing some of the bitterness, anger and social fissures among people who desperately need government services and reconciliation after waves of retaliatory violence that followed the defeat of the extremists.
Eight burning wells have been extinguished in recent weeks, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, adding that most were located near homes. The area’s 54 wells once pumped nearly 10,000 barrels a day before IS militants took the fields in their June 2014 onslaught when they seized a third of Iraq’s territory.
Father of injured pipeline protester says she may lose arm
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A New York woman seriously hurt protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline faces multiple surgeries and could lose an arm, her father said Tuesday, and protesters and law enforcement gave conflicting accounts about what might have caused the explosion that injured her.
Sophia Wilansky, 21, was listed in serious condition and was undergoing surgery at a Minneapolis hospital.
Wilansky’s father, Wayne Wilansky, said his daughter was hurt when law enforcement threw a grenade. The Morton County Sheriff’s Office maintains authorities did not use concussion grenades or any devices that produce a flash or bang during a clash late Sunday and early Monday near the camp along the pipeline route in southern North Dakota, where protesters have gathered for months.
The sheriff’s office suggested in a statement Monday that an explosion heard during the skirmish might have been caused by small propane tanks that authorities said protesters had rigged to explode.
Dallas Goldtooth, a protest organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Wayne Wilansky disputed the claim by authorities, saying “there’s multiple witnesses and my daughter, who was completely conscious, said they threw a grenade right at her.”
Trump faces hurdles to reinstating waterboarding
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump backs waterboarding and his pick for CIA director has called those who have done it “patriots” not “torturers.” Yet, a Trump administration faces steep legal and legislative hurdles to reinstate the interrogation practice that simulates drowning.
Under a law approved last year, all government employees, including intelligence agents, must abide by Army guidelines for interrogating prisoners — guidelines that don’t permit waterboarding. Those rules are subject to review, but it’s not clear if they can be revised to allow the practice.
If the Trump administration was to try to change the law or the guidelines, the effort would run into bipartisan opposition in Congress. The most formidable obstacle there would be a fellow Republican, John McCain. The Arizona senator, who was beaten as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, adamantly opposes waterboarding. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he would be well-positioned to block any attempt to revive it.
“I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do or anybody else wants to do,” McCain said during a security conference in Canada last weekend. “We will not waterboard. We will not do it.”
Police: Package bomb targeted man in Philadelphia apartment
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A bomb stuffed inside a padded envelope exploded in a downtown apartment early Tuesday when a man opened the package, apparently thinking it contained medicine, police said. The victim was hospitalized with hand and chest injuries.
Federal agents and the city bomb squad were investigating the blast that injured a man in his 60s at about 4 a.m. The man’s name has not been released. Authorities said he had arrived home at that hour after being out of town, and was opening his mail.
Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon the envelope contained some type of shrapnel and caused “substantial damage” to appliances in the kitchen. The man’s most serious injuries involved his left hand.
The package was “target specific,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said. Authorities do not believe the envelope was sent in the mail, because it had an old barcode on it, he said.
Authorities have not seen the type of explosive device in Philadelphia before, Sullivan said, but they are “familiar with it in other areas of the world.”
Thanksgiving in space: turkey, green beans and even football
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Turkey and football will be the main Thanksgiving headliners on the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, the station’s commander, is serving as Thanksgiving chef for the six-person crew. He showed off the specialties he’ll be preparing in a video this week.
On Thursday — a regular workday for the crew — Kimbrough will warm up pouches of sliced smoked turkey, candied yams and cherry and blueberry cobbler. He’ll also add water to the bags of freeze-dried cornbread dressing, green beans and mushrooms and mashed potatoes.
Network confirms Kanye West is hospitalized in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kanye West has been hospitalized in Los Angeles after abruptly canceling the last 21 dates of his national tour.
A spokeswoman for the E! network, which airs the Kardashian family reality show and its spinoffs, confirmed an E! News report that West was hospitalized Monday afternoon after his personal doctor called 911.
Christel Wheeler said Tuesday that E! cameras were not filming when the 911 call was made and that they are not filming at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where West is being treated.
A spokeswoman for West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, had no comment Tuesday.