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  • Candidates compete for schools chief, lieutenant governor

    Voters will choose candidates for lieutenant governor, schools chief and other statewide offices in California’s June 5 primary. The race for superintendent of public education is shaping up to be an

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Voters will choose candidates for lieutenant governor, schools chief and other statewide offices in California’s June 5 primary. The race for superintendent of public education is shaping up to be an expensive showdown between unions and charter school advocates. In the crowded contest to become California’s next lieutenant governor, several Democrats have emerged as front-runners. Five candidates are vying to replace the state’s outgoing treasurer. Meanwhile, incumbents are trying to hold onto their offices in the races for secretary of state and controller.

    Below is an overview of those five down-ballot races:

    SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

    With wealthy donors on both sides of the charter school debate throwing their weight behind candidates, the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction promises to be an expensive contest.

    Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, backed by teachers unions, and former Los Angeles schools executive Marshall Tuck, backed by pro-charter donors, are front-runners in the race to be the state’s top public education official.

    Tuck and Thurmond both want to spend more on public schools and ban for-profit charter schools. Thurmond has also stressed opposing the Trump administration’s agenda, including proposals to transfer money from traditional public schools to charter schools. Tuck has emphasized giving families choice in the schools their children attend, including nonprofit charter schools.

    Tuck’s donors include charter school advocates such as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and KB Home founder Eli Broad. Thurmond’s top donors are teachers unions and labor groups.

    Thurmond and Tuck are Democrats, but the race is nonpartisan and their party affiliation won’t appear on the ballot.

    Lily Ploski, an educator and former college administrator, and Steven Ireland, a parent, are also running.

    If any candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in June, he or she will win the race outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates advance to the November general election.

    Tuck ran for the seat unsuccessfully in 2014. Incumbent Tom Torlakson beat him with backing from unions.

    LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

    Three Democrats are leading the cash race to be California’s next No. 2 executive.

    The lieutenant governor serves as a University of California regent, a California State University trustee and as a state lands commissioner overseeing conservation and public access. He or she also acts as governor when the top executive is away.

    There’s little difference among state Sen. Ed Hernandez and former diplomats Eleni Kounalakis and Jeff Bleich when it comes to policy. All three say they want to lower college costs and oppose oil drilling off the California coast.

    They have tried to differentiate themselves by experience.

    If elected, Kounalakis would be the first woman to hold the position. She emphasizes her background as a developer and former ambassador to Hungary.

    Hernandez, chair of the Senate Health Committee, authored a bill increasing transparency around drug pricing last year. It passed over opposition from pharmaceutical companies.

    Bleich, a former aide to President Barack Obama and ambassador to Australia, has touted his experience as a California State University trustee and as a lawyer on civil rights and immigration cases.

    As of the April campaign finance filing deadline, Bleich had raised roughly $2 million, Hernandez about $2.6 million and Kounalakis nearly $3 million.

    Republican Cole Harris also has a sizeable war chest after putting $2 million into his own campaign.

    Three other Republicans – Lydia Ortega, David Fennell and David Hernandez – are running, along with Democrat Cameron Gharabiklou. Two no-party-preference candidates – Gayle McLaughlin and Danny Thomas – are also on the ballot.

    California’s current lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, is running for governor.

    TREASURER

    Five candidates are vying to replace Treasurer John Chiang, who is running for governor.

    The treasurer manages the state’s money and sits on the boards of California’s public employee pension funds.

    Democrat Fiona Ma has the most political experience and the biggest fundraising haul. The State Board of Equalization member and former assemblywoman says she would make socially responsible investments with the state’s money.

    One of her challengers is Gov. Jerry Brown aide Vivek Viswanathan, a Democrat who says he won’t take corporate money.

    Two Republicans are running: Cudahy City Councilman Jack Guerrero, who says he would push for lower taxes, and businessman Greg Conlon, who challenged Chiang in the last general election.

    Peace and Freedom candidate Kevin Akin is also running.

    SECRETARY OF STATE

    Secretary of State Alex Padilla faces seven primary challengers in his re-election bid.

    Republican attorney Mark Meuser is challenging Padilla on a platform of modernizing California elections. He advocates purging voter rolls of people who have moved or died and conducting audits to ensure ineligible people aren’t registered to vote.

    Padilla has emphasized his record of sparring with the Trump administration. He often denounces the president’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the state. Padilla also refused to comply with the administration’s requests to hand over data on California voters, arguing it was politically motivated.

    Democrat Ruben Major, Green Party candidates Michael Feinstein and Erik Rydberg, Libertarian Gail Lightfoot and Peace and Freedom candidate C.T. Weber will also appear on the ballot.

    CONTROLLER

    Controller Betty Yee faces a Republican challenger in her re-election campaign.

    The California controller serves as the state’s top accountant and audits various state programs. They sit on several state boards and the State Lands Commission.

    Entrepreneur Konstantinos Roditis says he would advocate cutting government spending and auditing high-speed rail, a project Republicans frequently criticize because of rising costs.

    Yee says she has promoted tax policies that are equitable for vulnerable populations, including people living in poverty and LGBT people, specifically supporting equal taxation for same-sex couples before gay marriage was legalized.

    Peace and Freedom candidate Mary Lou Finley is also running for the office.

  • Iranian dissidents call for Trump to ‘rip up’ nuclear deal

    Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition groups rallied just blocks from the White House on Saturday for the downfall of Tehran’s theocratic government and to invite President Trump to “rip up” t

    Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition groups rallied just blocks from the White House on Saturday for the downfall of Tehran’s theocratic government and to invite President Trump to “rip up” the Iran nuclear deal.

    The rally came one week before Mr. Trump’s May 12 deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal that saw the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China ease sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits to its nuclear program. Mr. Trump has criticized the 2015 accord since it took effect.

    “What do you think is going to happen to that nuclear agreement?” former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani yelled to a packed conference hall at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

    A longtime ally of Iranian dissidents, Mr. Giuliani just joined Mr. Trump’s personal legal team. Holding a piece of paper in his hands, he drove the rally wild by pretending to rip it apart.

    “We do not want President Trump to renegotiate, we want him to rip it up,” said Shirin Nariman, a spokeswoman for the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) and an event organizer.

    Saturday’s rally saw organizers gather more than 1,000 Iranian delegates from across the U.S. for a rowdy flag ceremony, fiery speeches and music. In addition to criticizing the nuclear deal, dissidents blasted the Islamic Republic’s human rights record, and argued for a free, democratic and secular Iran.

    Several speakers zeroed-in current unrest across Iran. Protests are still underway after a major uprising that erupted in 142 cities across in January, the largest since 2009.

    Some analysts believe the demonstrations began as an attempt by hard-line conservatives in the regime to undercut President Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate cleric who strongly backed the nuclear deal and just won a second four-year term.

    Mr. Rouhani has claimed that one of the exiled opposition groups involved in organizing Saturday’s rally — the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) — was inciting the violence.

    The MEK has close ties to a Paris-based organization, the National Council of Resistance (NCRI) of Iran. The NCRI holds an annual rally in France that draws tens of thousands to call for the downfall of Iran’s mullah-led government and has deep sources in Iran.

    The group is credited with exposing secretive Iranian nuclear facilities in the early 2000s. It also has had a contentious relationship with Washington, and was listed it as a terrorist organization by the State Department until 2012.

    Many prominent U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Mr. Giuliani, have long spoken out in support of the NCRI and the MEK, claiming the latter was wrongly put on the terror list.

    NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi addressed the rally via video link from Paris.

    “At no time has the regime been so engulfed in crisis, and at no time has the time been so ripe to organize and expand the uprising,” she said.

    Mrs. Rajavi, who also called for the end of the Iranian death penalty, which has been liberally used as a scare tactic to subdue protests, also voiced opposition to the nuclear deal. She urged the international community to abandon the agreement and instead conduct unconditional inspections of Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program.

    Former U.S. Energy Secretary and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a longtime MEK and NCRI supporter, fired up the convention hall.

    “The regime is on the ropes as they say with boxers,” he said. “The debate is no longer the hard liners against the reformers. It is now the entire people against the regime.”

    Mr. Richardson also praised OIAC, MEK and NCRI as “leadership that is willing to sacrifice and take risks.”

    When Mr. Giuliani noted that Mr. Trump backed the Iranian protests earlier this year with the words “we support their fight for freedom,” the crowd erupted.

    All speakers predicted regime change is coming soon, with Ms. Nariman noting that one of the organization’s most prominent Washington supporters, John R. Bolton, is Mr. Trump’s new national security adviser.

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also supports regime change.

    Ms. Nariman expressed hope that this group, in addition to Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump, would soon bring about change.

  • Airplane and oil deals at risk in Trump pullout of Iran deal

    From airplanes to oilfields, billions of dollars are on the line for international corporations as President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – From airplanes to oilfields, billions of dollars are on the line for international corporations as President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

    Regardless of where they are headquartered, virtually all multinational corporations do business or banking in the U.S., meaning any return to pre-deal sanctions could torpedo deals made after the 2015 agreement came into force.

    That threat alone has been enough to scare risk-averse firms, like Boeing Co., into slow-walking deals agreed to months ago. A complete pullout by the U.S. would wreak further havoc and likely frighten off those considering making the plunge.

    “I absolutely think those on the fence will not jump in,” said Richard Nephew, a former sanctions expert at the U.S. State Department who worked on the nuclear deal and now is at New York’s Columbia University. “The only ones who will, will be those who see tremendous monetary benefit and no U.S. risk.”

    The 2015 Iran nuclear deal lifted crippling economic sanctions that had locked Iran out of international banking and the global oil trade. In return, Tehran limited its enrichment of uranium, reconfigured a heavy-water reactor so it couldn’t produce plutonium and reduced its uranium stockpile and supply of centrifuges.

    For Western businesses, the deal meant access to Iran’s largely untapped market of 80 million people. Most prominently, airplane manufacturers rushed in to replace the country’s dangerously dilapidated civilian fleet.

    In December 2016, Airbus Group signed a deal with Iran’s national carrier, IranAir, to sell it 100 airplanes for around $19 billion at list prices. Boeing later struck its own deal with IranAir for 80 aircraft with a list price of some $17 billion, promising that deliveries would begin in 2017 and run until 2025. Boeing separately struck another 30-airplane deal with Iran’s Aseman Airlines for $3 billion at list prices.

    But Boeing has yet to deliver a single aircraft to Iran. The Chicago-based company’s CEO recently stressed it understands the “risks and implications around the Iranian aircraft deal,” which would be the biggest business agreement between an American company and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover.

    “We continue to follow the U.S. government’s lead here and everything is being done per that process,” Dennis Muilenburg said during a quarterly earnings conference call on April 25. “We have no Iranian deliveries that are scheduled or part of the skyline this year, so those have been deferred again in line with the U.S. government process.”

    Airbus, a European airline consortium based in Toulouse, France, likewise continues its sales at the discretion of the American government. At least 10 percent of its aircraft components are of American origin, meaning it requires permission from the U.S. Treasury for its sales to Iran. Airbus has already delivered two A330-200s and one A321 to Iran.

    Airbus declined to comment when asked by The Associated Press about its possible plans ahead of Trump’s decision.

    European airplane manufacturer ATR struck a $536-million deal with IranAir for at least 20 aircraft last year. It’s already has delivered eight of its twin-engine turboprops to Tehran after earlier winning permission from the U.S. Treasury.

    “To date, we are on track to deliver the remaining ATR aircraft in due time, before the end of the year,” ATR spokesman David Vargas told the AP.

    The speed at which Western airplane manufacturers went into Iran is contrasted by a slow start by Western energy firms despite the country’s vast oil and gas wealth. The exception is French oil giant Total SA, which in July signed a $5 billion, 20-year agreement with Iran and a Chinese oil company to develop the country’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field. The natural gas pumped by the deal will go toward Iran’s domestic market.

    The deal marked a return to Iran for Total, which pulled out of the country in 2008 as Western sanctions over its nuclear program began to ramp up. Total did not respond to requests for comment, though its CEO Patrick Pouyanne reportedly told Trump in February to stick with the deal.

    “If the framework, the rules of the game, change, of course we will have to re-evaluate,” Pouyanne told the Financial Times.

    French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen reached a deal in 2016 to open a plant producing 200,000 vehicles annually in Iran. Peugeot, once a major player in Iran’s car market before sanctions, did not respond to a request for comment.

    Meanwhile, fellow French automobile manufacturer Groupe Renault signed a $778-million deal to build 150,000 cars a year at a factory outside of Tehran.

    “The Renault Group is closely monitoring the evolution of the diplomatic situation,” the company said in a statement to the AP, without elaborating.

    Volkswagen also began exporting cars to Iran.

    “Currently we are tracking and examining the development of the political and economic environment in the region very closely,” the German carmaker said in a statement. “In principle, Volkswagen adheres to all applicable national and international laws and export regulations.”

    Nuclear deal co-signers Britain, France and Germany, which have urged Trump to preserve the deal, may seek exemptions to protect their companies if the U.S. snaps back sanctions, said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow studying Iran at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

    “This should include a series of exemptions and carve-outs for European companies already involved in strategic areas of trade and investment with Iran, with the priority being to limit the immediate shock to Iranian oil exports,” she wrote Wednesday.

    ___

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .

  • Chelsea Manning: Insurgent bid for US Senate is genuine

    Chelsea Manning is no longer living as a transgender woman in a male military prison, serving the lengthiest sentence ever for revealing U.S. government secrets. She’s free to grow out her hair, trave

    NORTH BETHESDA, Md. (AP) – Chelsea Manning is no longer living as a transgender woman in a male military prison, serving the lengthiest sentence ever for revealing U.S. government secrets. She’s free to grow out her hair, travel the world, and spend time with whomever she likes.

    But a year since former President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence, America’s most famous convicted leaker isn’t taking an extended vacation. Far from it: The Oklahoma native has decided to make an unlikely bid for the U.S. Senate in her adopted state of Maryland.

    Manning, 30, filed to run in January and has been registered to vote in Maryland since August. She lives in North Bethesda, not far from where she stayed with an aunt while awaiting trial. Her aim is to unseat Sen. Ben Cardin, a 74-year-old Maryland Democrat who is seeking his third Senate term and previously served 10 terms in the U.S. House.

    Manning, who also has become an internationally recognized transgender activist, said she’s motivated by a desire to fight what she sees as a shadowy surveillance state and a rising tide of nightmarish repression.

    “The rise of authoritarianism is encroaching in every aspect of life, whether it’s government or corporate or technological,” Manning told The Associated Press during an interview at her home in an upscale apartment tower. On the walls of her barely furnished living room hang Obama’s commutation order, and photos of U.S. anarchist Emma Goldman and British playwright Oscar Wilde.

    Manning’s longshot campaign for the June 26 primary would appear to be one of the more unorthodox U.S. Senate bids in recent memory, and the candidate is operating well outside the party’s playbook. She says she doesn’t, in fact, even consider herself a Democrat, but is motivated by a desire to shake up establishment Democrats who are “caving in” to President Donald Trump’s administration. She vows she won’t run as an independent if her primary bid fails.

    She’s certainly got an eye-catching platform: Close prisons and free inmates; eliminate national borders; restructure the criminal justice system; provide universal health care and basic income. The top of her agenda? Abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency created in 2003 that Manning asserts is preparing for an “ethnic cleansing.”

    Manning ticks off life experiences she believes would make her an effective senator: a stint being homeless in Chicago, her wartime experiences as a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq – even her seven years in prison. She asserts she’s got a “bigger vision” than establishment politicians.

    But political analysts suspect the convicted felon is not running to win.

    “Manning is running as a protest candidate, which has a long lineage in American history, to shine light on American empire,” said Daniel Schlozman, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. “That’s a very different goal, with a very different campaign, than if she wanted to beat Ben Cardin.”

    Manning’s insurgent candidacy thus far has been a decidedly stripped-down affair, with few appearances and a campaign website that just went up. In recent days, she approached an anti-fracking rally in Baltimore almost furtively, keeping to herself for much of the demonstration. But when it was her turn to address the small group, her celebrity status was evident. People who never met her called her by her first name and eagerly took photos.

    Manning has acknowledged leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks in 2010. She said her motivation was a desire to spark debate about U.S. foreign policy, and she has been portrayed as both a hero and a traitor.

    Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her arrest, she came out as transgender after her 2013 court-martial. She was barred from growing her hair long in prison, and was approved for hormone therapy only after litigation. She spent long stints in solitary confinement, and twice tried to kill herself.

    The Pentagon, which has repeatedly declined to discuss Manning’s treatment in military prison, is also staying mum about her political ambitions. Democratic Party officials say they have no comment, citing a policy not to weigh in on primaries. Republican operatives are quiet.

    In Maryland, a blue state that’s home to tens of thousands of federal employees and defense contractors, it appears Manning’s main supporters are independents or anti-politics, making them unlikely to coalesce politically. She recently reported contributions of $72,000 on this year’s first quarterly finance statement, compared with Cardin’s $336,000.

    The candidate has barely made an effort at tapping sources of grassroots enthusiasm outside of activism circles. And it’s easy to find Democrats who feel her candidacy is just a vehicle to boost her profile.

    “It feels to me almost like it’s part of a book tour – that this is her moment after being released from prison,” said Dana Beyer, a transgender woman who leads the Gender Rights Maryland nonprofit and is a Democratic candidate for state senate. “I don’t think this is a serious effort.”

    Manning is indeed working on a book about her dramatic life. For now, she says she supports herself with income from speaking engagements. She’s spoken at various U.S. colleges and is due to take the stage at a Montreal conference later this month.

    Last week, she appeared at a tech conference in Germany’s capital of Berlin, arriving to cheers from the audience of several thousand people. She told attendees she’s still struggling to adjust to life after prison and hasn’t gotten used to her celebrity status yet.

    “There’s been a kind of cult of personality that is really intimidating and that is overwhelming for me,” she said in Berlin.

    At her Maryland apartment, Manning told the AP she occasionally wakes up panicked that she’s back in the cage in Kuwait where she was first jailed, or incarcerated at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, where a U.N. official concluded she’d been subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” She works hard to overcome anxiety, centering herself with yoga, breathing exercises, and reading.

    “I’ve been out for almost a year now and it’s becoming increasingly clear to me just how deep the wounds are,” she said in her Spartan living room.

    Asked how she would define success, Manning responded with passionate intensity: “Success for me is survival.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow McFadden on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dmcfadd

  • Gigi Hadid, Vogue Italia apologize for darkened skin tone

    Gigi Hadid and Vogue Italia have both apologized for the May Vogue Italia cover that showed the model with a dark skin tone, a distortion that unleashed a social media backlash and underlined the lack

    MILAN (AP) — Gigi Hadid and Vogue Italia have both apologized for the May Vogue Italia cover that showed the model with a dark skin tone, a distortion that unleashed a social media backlash and underlined the lack of diversity in the fashion industry.

    In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Hadid said diversity in the industry needs to be addressed and that she does not want “to take opportunities away from anyone else.”

    The cover shot by Steven Klein showed the normally blonde Hadid with dark hair and heavily bronzed skin, wearing a Dolce & Gabbana sequined legging ensemble with matching tiara. Inside, Hadid poses in beachwear in the spread titled “High Voltage.”

    Hadid said the photo shoot that also included digital editing of the photo, “was not executed correctly” and agreed that the concerns raised were “valid.”

    Social media posts decried the dark skin tone, many likening it to the blackface minstrels of the 19th century that promoted racial stereotypes. Others pointed out that Vogue Italia under its previous editor, the late Franca Sozzani, was a prominent advocate for racial diversity in fashion, notably with its famed “All Black” cover in 2008.

    “I want to address this for those who were offended by the editing/retouch/coloring of the cover. Please know that things would have been different if my control of the situation was different,” the model said.

    “Regardless, I want to apologize because I never want to diminish these concerns.”

    Vogue Italia said Klein’s “vision was to create a beachwear-themed story with a stylized bronzing effect,” and that “throughout its history, Vogue Italia has respected and encouraged the creative viewpoints of commissioned photographers.”

    But the fashion magazine added that it understood the issues it ignited among its readers.

    “We sincerely apologize if we have caused any offense.”

  • Donald Trump to host South Korea’s Moon Jae-in ahead of summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit President Trump at the White House later this month ahead of Mr. Trump’s historic summit with North Korea’s leader on the pivotal issue of denuclearizatio

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit President Trump at the White House later this month ahead of Mr. Trump’s historic summit with North Korea’s leader on the pivotal issue of denuclearization.

    The White House said Friday that Mr. Trump will host Mr. Moon on May 22, their third meeting since Mr. Trump took office.

    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr. Trump’s upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be high on the agenda, following Mr. Moon’s first meeting with Mr. Kim on April 27.

    “President Trump and President Moon will continue their close coordination on developments regarding the Korean Peninsula,” she said. “This third summit between the two leaders affirms the enduring strength of the United States–Republic of Korea alliance and the deep friendship between our two countries.”

    Mr. Trump said Friday that the U.S. and North Korea have agreed on the date and location of their summit, but he didn’t disclose the details. Among the locations under consideration are Singapore, Mongolia and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

  • Trump team returning from China, won’t back down from trade-war threat, president says

    President Trump said Friday that he is not backing down from demands for fair trade with China, as top administration officials returned from the first round of trade talks in Beijing.

    President Trump said Friday that he is not backing down from demands for fair trade with China, as top administration officials returned from the first round of trade talks in Beijing.

    The two-day talks in Beijing did not produce major announcements, and the Trump administration is still threatening to impose tariffs on $150 billion worth of Chinese goods. But further rounds of negotiations were expected.

    “My people are coming right now from China, and we will be doing something one way or another with respect to what is happening in China,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House.

    He he said that he had been “nice” in the negotiations out of respect for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has helped the U.S. apply pressure to bring North Korea to talks on giving up its nuclear weapons.

    “I have great respect for President Xi. That’s why we are being so nice, as we have a great relationship,” said Mr. Trump. “But we have to bring fairness into trade between the U.S. and China, and we will do it.”

    Beijing has said that it is open to improving access to U.S. business but also threaten to retaliate against U.S. tariffs, including targeting industries with big business in China such as agriculture and airplanes.

    The trade delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and included Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad.

    The White House talks as “frank discussions” about rebalancing trade.

    A chief aim of the Trump administration is to break down barriers to U.S. business in China and reduce America’s $375 billion annual trade deficit with China.

    “The United States delegation affirmed that fair trade will lead to faster growth for the Chinese, United States, and world economies,” the White House said in a statement.

    The size and high level of the delegation illustrated the importance that the Trump Administration places on securing fair trade and investment terms for American businesses and workers, said the statement.

    “There is consensus within the Administration that immediate attention is needed to bring changes to United States–China trade and investment relationship,” it said.

  • Senate Dems concerned Ukraine not cooperating with Mueller’s Russia probe

    Top Senate Democrats are pushing Ukrainian officials to explain allegations that they’re not cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation because they fear President Trump.

    Top Senate Democrats are pushing Ukrainian officials to explain allegations that they’re not cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation because they fear President Trump.

    The three senators — Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Richard Durbin of Illinois and Patrick Leahy of Vermont — wrote a letter Friday to Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern about a recent New York Times report quoting Ukrainian government officials saying its relationship with the U.S. and Trump administration is too valuable to jeopardize in any way.

    “As strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine, we believe that our cooperation should extend to such legal matters, regardless of politics,” the senators wrote. “Blocking cooperation with the Mueller probe potentially cuts off a significant opportunity for Ukrainian law enforcement to conduct a more thorough inquiry into possible crimes committed during the Yanukovich era.”

    Viktor Yanukovych served as Ukraine’s president from 2010 to 2014, when he was removed from power during the Ukrainian revolution. He is currently in exile in Russia.

    “This reported refusal to cooperate with the Mueller probe also sends a worrying signal — to the Ukrainian people as well as the international community — about your government’s commitment more broadly to support justice and the rule of law,” the senators wrote.

    The letter also includes questions the senators have about Mr. Lutsenko’s office allegedly preventing the issuing of subpoenas to collect evidence and interview witnesses in four open cases related to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

    As part of the Mueller probe, Mr. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and tax and bank fraud charges related to his lobbying work for Mr. Yanukovych.

  • King Tut’s tomb has no hidden rooms, Egypt says

    New radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Sunday, bringing a disappointing end to yea

    CAIRO — New radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Sunday, bringing a disappointing end to years of excitement over the prospect.

    Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said an Italian team conducted extensive studies with ground-penetrating radar that showed the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls as was earlier suspected. Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented the findings at an international conference in Cairo.

    In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed, after analysis of high-definition laser scans, that queen Nefertiti’s tomb could be concealed behind wall paintings in the famed boy king’s burial chamber. The discovery ignited massive interest, with officials first rushing to support the theory but then later distancing themselves and ultimately rejecting it.

    The ministry says two previous scans by Japanese and American scientists had proved inconclusive, but insists this latest ground-penetrating radar data closes the lid on the tomb having such hidden secrets.

    “It is concluded, with a very high degree of confidence, said Dr. Porcelli, the hypothesis concerning the existence of hidden chambers or corridors adjacent to Tutankhamun’s tomb is not supported by the GPR data,” it said in its statement.

    The ministry has been gradually moving King Tut’s belongings to a new museum outside Cairo near the Giza Pyramids to undergo restoration before they are put on display. The transfer of the priceless belongings has become a particularly sensitive issue; In 2014 the beard attached to the ancient Egyptian monarch’s golden mask was accidentally knocked off and hastily reattached with an epoxy glue compound, sparking uproar among archaeologists.

    The fourth International Tutankhamun Conference in Cairo where Porcelli presented the findings, the most extensive radar survey of the site to date, was attended by a wide range of Egyptologists and archaeologists from the world over.

    During the conference, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said that the first phase of the new museum, including King Tut’s halls, will be completed by the end of this year but the date for the museum’s “soft opening” has yet to be decided. The museum currently hosts more than 43,200 artifacts of which over 4,500 belong to King Tut alone, and its grand opening is planned for 2022.

  • Thelma Aldana, Guatemala’s crusading prosecutor, exits amid praise, threats

    It’s been a long time since it was safe for Thelma Aldana to go out in public alone, and perhaps it never will be again.

    GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — It’s been a long time since it was safe for Thelma Aldana to go out in public alone, and perhaps it never will be again.

    As chief prosecutor for Guatemala, Aldana won plaudits at home and abroad as the woman who sent a president to prison and broke up a number of high-level corruption rings. But it came at a cost — her own personal safety — as her crusading angered some of the country’s most powerful and dangerous people, long accustomed to doing as they pleased with little or no consequences.

    The biggest trophy on her wall from four years in office: Taking down a network allegedly led by then-President Otto Perez Molina, who is accused of defrauding the state of millions of dollars.

    “In the Bible it says you shall know them by their fruits, and I gave my best effort,” Aldana said in a series of interviews with The Associated Press as she prepares to leave office when her term ends this month. “With all modesty, I leave with my head high.”

    Those close to her call the 62-year-old Aldana “the boss.” She is described as a strictly punctual person and a voracious reader. Appearing before news cameras to announce the latest corruption ring to fall, she typically appears calm, collected and intrepid. Her facial expression is often tough and inscrutable, making it difficult to guess what she is thinking.

    It seems the only one able to crack that demeanor is Toby, her 5-year-old Shih Tzu. Speaking to the AP in a small room at her offices decorated with recognitions where she likes to receive visitors, Aldana broke into a broad smile recalling how when she brings work home, Toby likes to rest in the cardboard box she uses to carry the same documents that could end up putting criminals and politicians behind bars.

    Aldana’s long path to becoming Guatemala’s top prosecutor began in 1981 as a low-level judicial counselor and progressed through a number of posts — including Supreme Court president in 2011. She holds a master’s degree in civil law and another pending that is related to women’s rights and gender issues.

    Perez Molina tapped her to be chief prosecutor in 2014, replacing Claudia Paz y Paz, who was the first woman to hold the job and who also angered influential interests and received threats for aggressively prosecuting corruption and human rights abuses dating to Guatemala’s 1960-1990 civil war.

    Perez Molina, who had been a powerful general in one of the region’s most feared armies during the conflict, likely never imagined that his downfall would come not on the battlefield but in a courtroom and at the hands of a woman he himself selected.

    Indeed, at the time many Guatemalans also thought it improbable that Aldana would investigate suspicions of corruption on the part of the man who picked her for the post.

    Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian lawyer, heads a U.N.-sponsored anti-corruption commission that has been a key partner with Aldana’s office in investigating corruption cases and bringing them to trial.

    Velasquez told the AP that trust did not come immediately between him and Aldana, but over time they developed a close working relationship where they were able to reconcile differences and reach consensus. What cemented his confidence was when she didn’t shy from going after Perez Molina.

    Aldana did not hesitate at “a very critical moment,” Velasquez said, praising her strength and valor in the job.

    Perez Molina, who denies wrongdoing, is currently behind bars along with his then vice president and others from his inner circle.

    In 2017 alone, Aldana’s office won 9,358 convictions. She has also made great strides in clearing what has been a crushing backlog: In 2014 prosecutors had 1,280,378 unresolved cases. Today that has been reduced by over half.

    Last year, Time magazine named her one of the world’s most influential people, along with the likes of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Academy Award-winning actor Viola Davis and Brazilian soccer star Neymar. She was named a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s 2016 International Women of Courage Award. But her personal favorite among dozens of other recognitions is a wand of authority presented to her by indigenous Guatemalan leaders.

    The work has been far from glamorous — more of a slow slog, she says.

    “Fighting corruption is a process, and it is not easy,” Aldana said.

    Aldana said the last four years had been by far the toughest of the 37 she has spent working in Guatemala’s judicial system.

    One of the hardest moments came when current President Jimmy Morales, whom she and Velasquez sought to investigate on suspicion of illegal campaign financing, seemed ready to expel Velasquez from the country. Aldana rallied to her colleague’s defense.

    “I announced that if he left, I would resign,” Aldana recalled.

    Along the way there have been numerous death threats, harassment and attempts to sully her character. In 2016 government officials confirmed that a criminal group had paid for a hit on Aldana that was never carried out.

    Today she lives under protective measures provided by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and has been forced to abandon the routines of daily life.

    “I practically do not go to public places and I cannot walk in the street. I always have to be accompanied by a security team,” Aldana said. “My way of life changed drastically. … We have investigated powerful criminal structures, and as a consequence I must behave with great caution.”

    She added that she worries about safety after she leaves office, saying, “It will be the responsibility of the Guatemalan state to protect my life, and that of my family.”

    Though the law did not bar Aldana from seeking a new term as prosecutor, she said she decided against it for security concerns and because she was convinced Morales would never have agreed for her to continue.

    On Thursday, Morales selected career jurist and Constitutional Court alternate magistrate Maria Consuelo Porras to replace Aldana effective May 17. Some civil society groups have expressed concern over Porras’ military ties, but institutions such as the U.N. commission and the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office asked Guatemalans to give her the benefit of the doubt. At a news conference, Porras promised to work with the U.N. body.

    Asked how she wants to be remembered, Aldana expressed pride over spearheading efforts to raise national attention to violence against women and said she hopes she has proved to Guatemalans that an independent prosecutor’s office is possible.

    “It is a precious commodity,” she said.

    She confessed she feels she owes a debt to her family and hopes to make up for lost time with her two children, ages 21 and 24. In retirement, “the boss” hopes to become a professor, drawing on her career experience to teach a new generation about prosecuting crime and corruption.

    For now, Aldana has a more personal wish: To take in, on TV and in real time, the entirety of this summer’s World Cup, something that until now has been impossible due to the demands of office.

    “I have always had to watch it at night, delayed. But now I have a desire to watch it live.” she said. “After that I will see what to do with my professional life.”