AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
Trump knew Flynn misled WH weeks before ouster: officials
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice president about contacts with Russia. Trump kept his No. 2 in the dark and waited nearly three weeks before ousting the aide, Michael Flynn, citing a slow but steady erosion of trust, White House officials said Tuesday.
Flynn was interviewed by the FBI about his telephone conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., a sign his ties to Russia had caught the attention of law enforcement officials.
But in the White House's retelling of Flynn's stunning downfall, his error was not that he discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian before the inauguration - a potential violation of a rarely enforced law - but the fact that he denied it for weeks, apparently misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other senior Trump aides about the nature of the conversations. White House officials said they conducted a thorough review of Flynn's interactions, including transcripts of calls secretly recorded by U.S. intelligence officials, but found nothing illegal.
Pence, who had vouched for Flynn in a televised interview, is said to have been angry and deeply frustrated.
"The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask General Flynn for his resignation," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday, one day after the president asked Flynn to leave.
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Russia cloud over Trump not likely to fade with Flynn exit
WASHINGTON (AP) - Questions about the Trump administration's ties to Russia are hardly going to disappear with the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Investigations are underway, and more are likely by the new administration and on Capitol Hill.
U.S. agencies, including the FBI, have been probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. And three congressional committees are conducting their own investigations that include looking at contacts between Russian officials and members of the Trump campaign and administration.
This isn't the first time Trump has distanced himself from an adviser in light of a relationships with Moscow. In late August, Paul Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman after disclosures by The Associated Press about his firm's covert lobbying on behalf of the former pro-Russian ruling political party in Ukraine.
The New York Times reported late Tuesday that members of Trump's campaign, including Manafort, had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence officials during the year before the election. The U.S. knew about these contacts through phone records and intercepted calls, the Times said.
Reached late Tuesday, Manafort told The Associated Press he has not been interviewed by the FBI about these alleged contacts.
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US official: Russia deployed missile in violation of treaty
WASHINGTON (AP) - Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a Trump administration official said Tuesday, a development that complicates the outlook for U.S.-Russia relations amid turmoil on the White House national security team.
The Obama administration three years ago accused the Russians of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by developing and testing the prohibited cruise missile, and officials had anticipated that Moscow eventually would deploy it. Russia denies that it has violated the INF treaty.
U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the missile became operational late last year, said an administration official, who wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the matter and demanded anonymity.
The deployment may not immediately change the security picture in Europe, but the alleged treaty violation may arise when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis attends his first NATO meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. It also has stirred concern on Capitol Hill, where Sen. John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, called on the Trump administration to ensure U.S. nuclear forces in Europe are ready.
"Russia's deployment of nuclear-tipped ground-launched cruise missiles in violation of the INF treaty is a significant military threat to U.S. forces in Europe and our NATO allies," McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement Tuesday. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "testing" Trump.
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10 Things to Know for Wednesday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:
1. TOP AIDE'S DEPARTURE ADDS TO WHITE HOUSE TURMOIL
The ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn, less than a month into Trump's tenure, marks another jarring setback for the new administration.
2. WHAT'S COMPLICATING US-RUSSIA RELATIONS
Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a Trump administration official says.
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Clues scarce after half-brother of NKorea leader killed
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The astonishing assassination of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother rippled across Asia on Wednesday as Malaysian investigators scoured airport surveillance video for clues about the two female assailants and rival South Korea offered up a single, shaky motive: paranoia.
Kim Jong Nam, 46, was targeted Monday in a shopping concourse at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, said a senior Malaysian government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case involves sensitive diplomacy. He had not yet gone through security.
Kim, who died on the way to a hospital, told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray, the official said.
South Korea's spy service said Wednesday that North Korea had been trying for five years to kill Kim Jong Nam. But the National Intelligence Service did not definitely say that it was North Korea, just that it was presumed to be a North Korean operation, according to lawmakers who briefed reporters about the closed door meeting with the spy officials.
The NIS cited Kim Jong Un's alleged "paranoia" about his half-brother. Still, the NIS has a history of botching intelligence on the North and has long sought to portray the North's leaders as mentally unstable.
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White House: Mideast peace may not be 2-state solution
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration suggested Tuesday that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians may not come in the form of a two-state solution - a position that could represent a dramatic shift from what has been U.S. policy for more than 20 years.
Speaking to reporters ahead of President Donald Trump's meeting Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior White House official said Trump is eager to begin facilitating a peace deal between the two sides and hoping to bring them together soon.
But the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the meeting beforehand, said it will be up to the Israelis and Palestinians to determine what peace will entail - and that peace, not a two-state solution, is the goal.
For decades, the U.S. position has been that Israelis and Palestinians must work through direct negotiations to establish two states living side by side, with Palestinians to ultimately create an independent state. All serious peace negotiations in that have time have assumed that the two-state solution was the basis for future peace.
State Department officials expressed surprise at the comments and said Tuesday they were not aware of any policy shift on the desirability of a two-state solution. Three officials said the department was seeking clarification from the White House comments, which came as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was having dinner with Netanyahu. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
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Rumors highlight the hidden lives of North Korean leaders
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - The alleged murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother could be the best cloak-and-dagger thriller North Koreans will never get to hear. And if they did, they'd likely need some plot explainers - few know Kim Jong Un even had a half-brother.
While no country in the world has a cult of personality surrounding its leaders as intensive as North Korea's, the narrative is carefully groomed and highly selective, leaving even some of the most basic details unknown to the general public. Predictably enough, the existence of an elder half-brother - and particularly a somewhat rebellious, free-wheeling one - has never been part of the North's official leader narrative.
It is simpler to keep the line of succession and power as clear and direct as possible. For the most part, that means grandfather, father and son.
Ironically, or perhaps not, the swirling reports of the hit on half-brother Kim Jong Nam at a Malaysian airport come as the nation is gearing up for one of the biggest leader-reverence events of the year.
It's called the "Day of the Shining Star," the birth anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong Il, who was Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Nam's father, though they had a different mother.
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Mattis' reassurance tour in Europe could include US requests
BRUSSELS (AP) - For Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the next few days will be a reassurance tour with a twist.
As much he'll tell allies the U.S. is committed to NATO, he also is expected to visit Europe with a hand out, hoping to secure bigger defense spending commitments and greater assistance in military campaigns in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Mattis also will field questions on national security adviser Michael Flynn's resignation over his pre-inauguration discussions with Russia, and what the change means for U.S. policy on Moscow.
Speaking to reporters on the way to a NATO defense ministers' meeting, Mattis said Flynn's departure "has no effect at all" on him.
"Frankly, this has no impact," he said. "I haven't changed what I'm heading there for. It doesn't change my message at all. Who is on the president's staff is who I will work with. And so, you know, it's full speed ahead."
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Evacuation lifted for 200K Californians living below dam
OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Nearly 200,000 Northern Californians who live downstream of the country's tallest dam were allowed to return home Tuesday after two nights of uncertainty, but they were warned they may have to again flee to higher ground on a moment's notice if hastily made repairs to the battered structure don't hold.
The fixes could be put to their first test later this week with the first of a series of small storms forecast for the region.
But the real test is still to come in the weeks ahead when a record amount of snowfall melts in nearby mountains.
"There is the prospect that we could issue another evacuation order if the situation changes and the risk increases," Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Tuesday, telling residents they could return home but to remain vigilant.
Residents living below the Oroville Dam were suddenly ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon after water authorities had assured them for nearly a week that the dam was sound despite a gaping and growing hole found in the structure's main spillway. The order came after authorities feared an earthen emergency spillway used when the lake behind the dam overflows its capacity appeared ready to fail Sunday because of erosion.
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Rumor the German shepherd wins best in show at Westminster
NEW YORK (AP) - Rumor the German shepherd has become America's top dog.
Cheered loudly all around the ring by a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden, Rumor was picked as best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club on Tuesday night.
Rumor became just the second German shepherd to win the nation's most prestigious pooch parade, joining the fittingly named Manhattan in 1987. Rumor retired after a near-miss at Westminster last year, but she returned a month ago to give it another try.
The 5-year-old Rumor is named for the Adele hit song "Rumor Has It." This was the 104th career win for Rumor, and handler and co-owner Kent Boyles said earlier in the day that this would definitely, for real, be her last major show.
There were nearly 2,800 dogs entered in the 141st Westminster canine competition, spread across the 202 eligible breeds and varieties.