Nation and World briefs for October 26

Fats Domino stirred New Orleans flavor into rock ‘n’ roll

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In appearance, Fats Domino wasn’t a typical teen idol. He stood 5-feet-5 and weighed more than 200 pounds, with a wide, boyish smile and a haircut as flat as an album cover. But Domino sold more than 110 million records, with hits including “Blueberry Hill,” ”Ain’t That a Shame” and other standards of rock ‘n’ roll.

Domino, the amiable rock ‘n’ roll pioneer whose steady, pounding piano and easy baritone helped change popular music even as it honored the grand, good-humored tradition of the Crescent City, died early Tuesday. He was 89.

Mark Bone, chief investigator with the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, coroner’s office, said Domino died of natural causes early Tuesday morning.

His dynamic performance style and warm vocals drew crowds for five decades. One of his show-stopping stunts was playing the piano while standing, throwing his body against it with the beat of the music and bumping the grand piano across the stage.

Domino’s 1956 version of “Blueberry Hill” was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry of historic sound recordings worthy of preservation. The preservation board noted that Domino insisted on performing the song despite his producer’s doubts, adding that Domino’s “New Orleans roots are evident in the Creole inflected cadences that add richness and depth to the performance.”

Premiums rising 34 percent for most popular health plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Premiums for the most popular “Obamacare” plans are going up an average of 34 percent, according to a study Wednesday that confirms dire predictions about the impact of political turmoil on consumers.

Window-shopping on HealthCare.gov went live Wednesday, so across the country consumers going online can see the consequences themselves ahead of the Nov. 1 start of sign-up season for 2018.

The consulting firm Avalere Health crunched newly released government data and found that the Trump administration’s actions are contributing to the price hikes by adding instability to the underlying problems of the health law’s marketplaces.

President Donald Trump puts the blame squarely on “Obamacare” saying the program is imploding, while ignoring warnings that his administration’s actions could make things worse.

The Avalere analysis is for the 39 states using HealthCare.gov. Along with the increase for silver plans, premiums also are going up by double digits for different levels of coverage, including bronze (18 percent), gold (16 percent), and platinum (24 percent).

Brazil’s Temer survives corruption charges vote in Congress

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Michel Temer survived a key vote Wednesday night on whether he should be tried on corruption charges, mustering support in Brazil’s lower house of Congress despite abysmal approval ratings and widespread rejection among his countrymen.

To avoid being suspended and put on trial for charges of obstruction of justice and leading a criminal organization, the president needed the support of at least one third of the 513 deputies in the Chamber of Deputies.

He reached the threshold of 171 about two hours into the voting. The final tally was 251 in support of Temer and 233 against. The remaining were abstentions and absences.

Temer survived a similar vote in August on a separate bribery charge.

“This accusation is fragile, inept and worse than the first one,” legislator Celso Russomanno said while voting in favor of Temer.

Kenya opposition leader urges boycott on eve of repeat vote

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The leader of Kenya’s main opposition party urged his supporters to boycott a rerun of the disputed presidential election scheduled for Thursday amid rising political tensions and fears of violence in East Africa’s economic power.

Jubilant supporters of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who seeks a second term, celebrated the news that the election would proceed after a last-minute petition to the Supreme Court seeking to postpone the vote couldn’t go forward. Kenyatta said security forces will be deployed nationwide to ensure order, and he urged Kenyans to vote while respecting the rights of those who don’t.

His rival, opposition leader Raila Odinga, called on his political coalition to become a “resistance movement,” accusing the president of moving a country known for relative stability and openness toward authoritarian rule.

“Do not participate,” Odinga told a rally of thousands in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park on the eve of the vote. The gathering was mostly peaceful, though police fired tear gas to disperse some groups of opposition supporters who occupied roads after the demonstration ended.

Protesters also set fires and blocked roads in part of Nairobi’s Kibera slum, and police and demonstrators clashed throughout the day in some neighborhoods in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city and an opposition stronghold.

No GOP dam break: Senators rally behind Trump and his agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no dam break of Republican rancor against Donald Trump on Wednesday, a day after a pair of the party’s prominent senators denounced their president and invited colleagues to join them. Instead, most GOP lawmakers rallied around Trump and his agenda, with one all but saying “good riddance” to Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee.

“Maybe we do better by having some of the people who just don’t like him leave, and replace them with somebody else,” Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma told The Associated Press. “And I think that’s what’s happening.”

Trump heartily agreed, declaring that both men were retiring because they couldn’t win re-election, and “I think I’m probably helped greatly in Arizona by what happened with Sen. Flake.”

Inhofe went further than most GOP lawmakers, but he had plenty of company in his refusal to echo the criticisms of Flake and Corker. Trump himself proclaimed he was leading a party unified in its pursuit of tax cut legislation.

“There is great unity in the Republican Party,” he contended as he left the White House for a hurricane briefing and other events in Texas. Claiming a show of affection at his appearance at a Senate GOP lunch a day earlier, Trump said: “I called it a lovefest. It was almost a lovefest. Maybe it was a lovefest.” He’s said repeatedly that he got multiple standing ovations.

On JFK documents, Trump squeezed over disclosure

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is caught in a push-pull on new details of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, jammed between students of the killing who want every scrap of information and intelligence agencies that are said to be counseling restraint. How that plays out should be known Thursday, when long-secret files are expected to be released.

On one side is an alliance of sleuths and scholars pushing for Trump to mind the 1992 law that requires the release this week of all 3,150 still-secret files on Kennedy’s killing on Nov. 22, 1963. For them, Trump has tweeted his intent to “allow the release of the long blocked and classified JFK FILES.”

But U.S. intelligence agencies are apparently citing the same law to urge him to keep some files out of public sight on national security grounds. For this group, Trump’s tweet offered a caveat that he intends to disclose the materials “subject to the receipt of further information.”

Students of the assassination say the CIA is pushing Trump to keep some of the materials secret. The spy agency isn’t denying that.

“Clearly there are documents, plural, files, plural, being appealed to him,” said University of Virginia historian Larry Sabato, an authority on Kennedy. Of the pressure on Trump, Sabato said, “I’m told reliably that it continues and that it has intensified.” The historian said documents generated in the 1990s that could contain the names of people who are still alive are of particular concern to those who want files held back.