GOP health care divisions multiply as Trump pressures Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican divisions over health care multiplied Monday as President Donald Trump pressured GOP senators to act quickly, and Vice President Mike Pence suggested they might have to revert to a straightforward Obamacare repeal if they can’t agree on an alternative.
Consensus on a replacement seemed more remote than ever as senators returned to the Capitol from a Fourth of July recess. Some lawmakers spent the break facing critics of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bill, or voicing criticism of their own. But Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, told reporters a revised bill would be unveiled this week, and “the goal continues to be to” vote next week.
To succeed, the new legislation will have to address the concerns of conservatives such as Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas, who want a more full-blown repeal, and moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who want essentially the opposite, a more generous bill.
Underscoring the divisions within the GOP, and an occasional communications vacuum between the White House and the Senate, Pence appeared on conservative host Rush Limbaugh’s radio show to rule out working with Democrats.
“The president’s made it very clear. We believe if they can’t pass this carefully crafted repeal and replace bill, do those two things simultaneously, we ought to just repeal only,” and then turn to replacement legislation later on, Pence said, although Trump has at times dangled the prospect of working with Democrats.
Hospital: Ailing China Nobel laureate in critical condition
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese doctors worked urgently Monday to save critically ill Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, as the government hardened its position against growing pleas to allow China’s best-known political prisoner to leave for treatment overseas.
A stark update issued by Liu’s hospital said he was suffering from poor kidney function and bleeding in the liver from metastasizing tumors. It heightened pressure on Beijing, which has resisted appeals from several nations to let Liu and his family go.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, asked other countries at a daily news briefing “to respect China’s national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in its domestic affairs due to an individual case.” On Monday the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Beijing for a “signal of humanity for Liu Xiaobo and his family.”
Liu’s health has been the subject of international attention after news emerged in late June that the dissident had been transferred to a Chinese hospital because of late-stage liver cancer. Supporters and Western governments urged China to allow Liu to choose where he wanted to be treated and to release him. Beijing has so far resisted, citing Liu’s fragile health and arguing that he is receiving the best possible care in China.
Liu was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the “Charter 08” movement calling for political reform. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while in prison.
Hell and high water: Northern California is besieged again
OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Five months ago, it was fears over flooding. Now it’s flames.
When Chuck Wilsey was ordered to flee over the weekend as a wildfire roared near his ranch home in Oroville, he was ready. He started keeping his truck and camper loaded with supplies back in February, when some of the heaviest winter rains on record in Northern California nearly led to catastrophic flooding below the nation’s tallest dam.
“Fire and flood so close together,” he marveled on Monday at a Red Cross shelter. “We just try to stay prepared,”
Wilsey, 53, and his family were among about 4,000 people evacuated as flames raced through grassy foothills in the Sierra Nevada, about 60 miles north of Sacramento. Sheriff’s deputies drove through neighborhoods announcing evacuation orders over loudspeakers.
Crews were making progress against that fire and dozens of others across California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, and into Canada.
Authorities were hopeful some Oroville evacuees would be able to return Monday as winds diminished and firefighters working in rugged terrain extended containment lines.
Tillerson aims to ease Qatar crisis with shuttle diplomacy
KUWAIT CITY (AP) — The Trump administration tossed aside its aversion to mediating a weeks-long Persian Gulf dispute Monday, as the top U.S. diplomat flew to the region hoping to corral Qatar and its neighbors into negotiation. The new approach isn’t without diplomatic risk, thrusting America into the middle of an Arab squabble at a time President Donald Trump had hoped the U.S. allies would be uniting against terrorism.
On his first foray into shuttle diplomacy since becoming secretary of state, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will hop between Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from Monday until Thursday, testing ways to break an impasse that has persisted despite Kuwaiti mediation efforts. The crisis has badly damaged ties between several key American partners, including hosts of two major U.S. military bases, threatening counterterrorism efforts.
Tillerson landed in Kuwait City late Monday and was greeted at the airport by the Gulf country’s foreign minister, who chatted with Tillerson in the searing Kuwaiti sun and shared a traditional Arabic coffee. On his first day in the country, Tillerson also met with Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
“We are trying to resolve an issue that concerns not just us but the whole world,” Sheikh Sabah told the visiting U.S. diplomat.
Soldier charged with killing NY trooper after shooting wife
THERESA, N.Y. (AP) — A state police trooper responding to reports of gunfire was shot to death by a soldier who had just killed his wife at their home near his Army base in northern New York, authorities said Monday.
Trooper Joel Davis was approaching the couple’s home in rural Theresa, near the Canadian border, when Staff Sgt. Justin Walters shot him in the torso with a rifle, leaving him in a roadside ditch, according to police and court documents. Another trooper arrived and found Davis, 36, who died about an hour later at a hospital.
Walters’ wife, Nichole Walters, was found dead in the driveway, with multiple gunshot wounds. A female friend of hers, who was living on the property, also was shot, suffering non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Davis had been a state police trooper for four years, after 10 years as a county sheriff’s deputy in the area.
“He truly did love being a law enforcement officer,” family friend Chris Fletcher said. “One of his last texts to another one of his cousins was he couldn’t believe he got paid to do what he does.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said “the entire New York family grieves” for Davis. A married father of three teenagers, he was the commissioner of a youth baseball league in his tight-knit community.
1st day of Penn Station repairs: crowds, delays, mostly OK
NEW YORK (AP) — Commuters in and out of New York City handled Monday’s first day of extensive repair work to the nation’s busiest train station without any major issues.
Hundreds of thousands of commuters dealt with some confusion, a bit of overcrowding and some delays at the start of what figures to be an arduous two-month period.
While some seem bewildered by a new routine devised to accommodate the major repairs to the tracks and signals at Penn Station, others said the commute wasn’t much different than normal and the transit agencies were exhaling.
“A lot of confusion and too many people gathered in one space,” Lex Marshall, 35, of Morristown, New Jersey, said at New Jersey Transit’s Hoboken Terminal. “Everybody’s just bumping into each other, pushing each other, to get to their destination.”
Jesse Krakow, of South Orange, New Jersey, who transferred through Hoboken, described being packed “like sardines” on a Port Authority Trans-Hudson train that stopped several times between stations as it waited for other trains up ahead. He said his trip took about 45 minutes longer than normal.
Elsewhere, some took advantage of alternative modes of transportation put in place by the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit to accommodate overflow due to reduced rush-hour train service.
