Iran FM scolds Trump for tweet, rules out nuke renegotiation
NEW YORK (AP) — Iran’s top diplomat scolded President Donald Trump on Wednesday for a weekend tweet about a nonexistent Iranian missile launch and essentially ruled out renegotiating or launching follow-up talks to a landmark nuclear accord that Trump is threatening to dismantle.
“We need to check our facts before we make statements,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It worries me that people play with facts and produce alternative facts.”
He also criticized a recent referendum on independence by Iraq’s Kurdish minority as “dangerous” to stability in a Middle East already beset by efforts to defeat the Islamic State extremist group and civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
And Zarif seemed to float the possibility of a prisoner exchange for several detained Americans in Iran, responding to a question about their fate by raising the situation of several Iranians held or being pursued by the United States for sanctions violations.
But the minister reserved his sharpest scorn for Trump, who on Saturday blasted Iran in a Tweet that renewed criticism of its 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers including the United States.
‘Nothing, nothing.’ Aid lags in hurricane-torn Puerto Rico
MONTEBELLO, Puerto Rico (AP) — Relatives helped Maribel Valentin Espino find shelter when Hurricane Maria roared through her community in northern Puerto Rico. Neighbors formed volunteer brigades to cut fallen trees and clear twisty mountain roads after the storm had passed. Now, friends and a local cattle ranch provide the water they need to survive in the tropical heat.
Valentin and her husband say they have not seen anyone from the Puerto Rican government, much less the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since the storm tore up the island Sept. 20, killing at least 16 people and leaving nearly all 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico without power and most without water.
“People say FEMA is going to help us,” Valentin said Tuesday as she showed Associated Press journalists around the sodden wreckage of her home. “We’re waiting.”
Many others are also waiting for help from anyone from the federal or Puerto Rican government. But the scope of the devastation is so broad, and the relief effort so concentrated in San Juan, that many people from outside the capital say they have received little to no help.
Valentin, her husband and teenage son live in one such area, Montebello, a 20-minute drive into what used to be lushly forested mountains near the northern coastal municipality of Manati. Hurricane Maria’s Category 4 winds stripped the trees bare and scattered them like matchsticks. “It seemed like a monster,” she recalled.
Trump says he’s not happy with HHS Secretary Tom Price
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is “not happy” with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price following reports that Price used a private plane for official business.
And Trump says he let Price know it.
Asked whether he’s planning on firing Price, Trump responded: “We’ll see.”
Trump spoke to reporters Wednesday as he departed the White House for a trip to Indianapolis to sell his tax plan.
Price said Saturday he would stop flying private planes on official business while an internal review of the flights is being done. He’s also said he welcomes the review.
Moore’s path to victory in Alabama: God, guns and defiance
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Roy Moore wouldn’t stand a chance in many Senate races after defying federal court orders, describing Islam as a false religion, calling homosexuality evil and pulling out a revolver on stage before hundreds of supporters.
But in Alabama, he’s now the odds-on favorite to join the nation’s most exclusive political body. Moore prevailed Tuesday in a Republican primary runoff by defeating an opponent backed by both President Donald Trump and deep-pocketed allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell.
As hard as it may be to understand in liberal cities such as New York or San Francisco, Moore is widely popular across a mostly white, Christian-dominated state where voters have repeatedly embraced outsiders who campaign on embracing God and rebuffing authority.
“The things that end careers for politicians elsewhere strengthen Roy Moore,” said Alabama political strategist David Mowery, who helped run a Democratic campaign against Moore for state chief justice in 2012.
After all, this is a state where George C. Wallace, who famously vowed “segregation forever” and defied court orders, won four terms as governor. President Donald Trump carried the state handily with his insurgent run for the White House. It’s also a place where campaign commercials often depict politicians at a church, praying or holding a Bible.
Dark days for Senate Leader McConnell as losses cast doubt
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans reckoned Wednesday with an insurgent’s win in Alabama that poses clear threats to their own grip on power and the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Nearly $10 million spent by a McConnell-backed super PAC couldn’t save incumbent GOP Sen. Luther Strange, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump as well. It came the same day that McConnell, short of votes, pulled the plug on the latest and possibly final GOP effort to repeal and replace “Obamacare.”
Coming together, the events raised questions about McConnell’s leadership within the Senate and outside, casting doubt on his reputation both as a seasoned political operator and a nearly unbeatable vote-counter on Capitol Hill.
“I’d hate to think about where we would be without Sen. McConnell’s efforts. But I think we’ll learn from it, and we’ll adjust,” McConnell’s No. 2, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, said of the victory of rabble-rousing former jurist Roy Moore, known for hanging the Ten Commandments in his courtroom in defiance of federal court orders. “We’re all listening and watching very closely and trying to understand the message that’s being sent.”
To some conservative campaign operatives, there was little question about that message.
“Don’t be afraid!” Pope starts campaign to promote migrants
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday launched a two-year education campaign about the plight of migrants to counteract mounting anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and Europe, urging the world: “Don’t be afraid!”
Francis posed for selfies, shook hands, kissed babies and hugged migrants at the end of his weekly general audience, teaching by example that “others” are not to be feared but embraced.
The campaign, spearheaded by the Vatican’s Caritas charity, encourages people to meet with migrants and listen to their stories, rather than treat them as statistics clouded by negative stereotypes.
Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, urged individuals and governments to open their arms and welcome migrants and share in their plight, as Jesus did. Throwing his arms open as he spoke, Francis said migrants are driven by the very Christian virtue of hope to find a better life, and said receiving countries should share in that hope by welcoming them and integrating them.
“Brothers, don’t be afraid of sharing the journey. Don’t be afraid of sharing hope,” he told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
