Trump laments G-7 move from Doral after bipartisan pushback
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lashed out Monday at critics who prompted him to move next year’s Group of Seven summit from his private golf club in Florida, claiming he would have hosted it for free and now it will end up costing taxpayers “a fortune.”
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Trump said it would have been the greatest G-7 ever if held at his Doral resort outside Miami, but “Democrats went crazy” with criticisms that he would have violated the “phony” emoluments clause in the Constitution banning presidents from receiving gifts from foreign countries.
“I was willing to do this for free,” Trump said Monday, comparing it to his decision not to take his $400,000 presidential salary. “It will cost a fortune for the country.”
Trump brushed aside the criticism that hosting the summit would have been one big promotion for his brand. “You don’t think I get enough promotion? I get more promotion than any human being that’s ever lived.”
Trump reversed course Saturday on hosting the G-7 at Doral after Republicans joined Democrats in raising alarm. His acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said that the president had realized that “it looks lousy” to steer business to his own property.
US diplomat in Ukraine text messages to testify to Congress
KYIV, Ukraine — William Taylor has emerged as an unlikely central player in the events that are at the heart of the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
The retired career civil servant was tapped to run the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine after the administration abruptly ousted the ambassador. He was then drawn into a Trump administration effort to leverage U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
And then he apparently grew alarmed.
“I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” he wrote at one point in excerpts of text messages released by impeachment investigators in Congress.
Now, members of Congress will hear directly from Taylor. The former Army officer is scheduled to testify behind closed doors in an inquiry trying to determine if Trump committed impeachable offenses by pressing the president of Ukraine into pursuing information that could help his campaign as he withheld military aid to the Eastern European country.
Israel’s Netanyahu gives up on forming new coalition
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that he had failed to form a majority government in parliament, marking a major setback for the embattled Israeli leader that plunges the country into a new period of political uncertainty.
In a statement, Netanyahu said he had worked “tirelessly” to establish a unity government with his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, but been repeatedly rebuffed. Facing a Wednesday deadline, Netanyahu said he was returning the “mandate” to President Reuven Rivlin, who will now ask Gantz to try to form a coalition. Gantz, however, could face an equally difficult task.
While Netanyahu remains at the helm of his Likud party, his announcement marked the second time this year that he has been unable to form a government. With Israel’s attorney general set to decide in the coming weeks on whether to indict Netanyahu in a series of corruption cases, the longtime Israeli leader could come under heavy pressure to step aside. One party rival, Gideon Saar, has already indicated he would challenge Netanyahu if Likud holds a primary.
In last month’s national election, Netanyahu fell short of securing a 61-seat parliamentary majority. But Rivlin gave Netanyahu the first opportunity to form a government because he had more support — 55 lawmakers — than Gantz, who was supported by only 54.
Netanyahu had hoped to form a broad “unity” government with Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White party. But Netanyahu insisted that his coalition include his traditional allies, a collection of hardline and religious parties, drawing accusations from Gantz that he was not negotiating in good faith.
New blow to Johnson’s Brexit plan after vote on deal blocked
LONDON — Britain faced another week of grinding political gridlock after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was denied a chance Monday to hold a vote by lawmakers on his Brexit divorce bill.
With just 10 days before Britain’s scheduled departure date, Johnson’s government had sought a “straight up-and-down vote” on the agreement he struck last week with the 27 other EU nations laying out the terms of Britain’s exit.
But the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, refused to allow it because lawmakers voted to delay approving the Brexit deal on Saturday, and parliamentary rules bar the same measure from being considered a second time during a session of Parliament unless something has changed.
Bercow’s ruling plunged the tortuous Brexit process back into grimly familiar territory. The government must now try to implement its Plan B — attempt to pass a Brexit-implementing bill through Britain’s fractious Parliament before the country’s scheduled Oct. 31 departure date.
Bercow — whose rulings in favor of backbench lawmakers have stymied government plans more than once before — said the motion proposed by the government was “in substance the same” as the one Parliament dealt with on Saturday. He said it would be “repetitive and disorderly” to allow a new vote Monday.
In Congo, an Ebola survivor with a motorbike helps ease fear
BENI, Congo — When Germain Kalubenge gets a request for a ride on his motorcycle it can be a matter of life or death. The 23-year-old is a survivor of the Ebola virus and often is the only driver his community trusts to help if someone suspects they are infected.
“I wake up every day at 5 in the morning to … wait for calls from suspected Ebola cases who do not like to take an ambulance,” he said. “In the community they are afraid of ambulances. They believe that in an ambulance, doctors will give them toxic injections and they will die before arriving at the hospital.”
Kalubenge is a rare motorcycle taxi driver who is also an Ebola survivor in eastern Congo, making him a welcome collaborator for health workers who have faced deep community mistrust during the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. More than 2,000 people have died since August of last year, and the World Health Organization last week said the outbreak still warrants being classified as a global emergency, even as the number of confirmed cases has slowed.
This is the first time Ebola has been confirmed in this part of Congo, and rumors quickly spread in Beni, an early epicenter of the outbreak, that the virus had been imported to kill the population. The community has been traumatized by years of deadly rebel attacks and is wary of authorities, blaming them for the insecurity that has killed nearly 2,000 people since late 2014.
Gaining people’s trust has been a constant challenge for health workers.