Lady Brexit meets Monsieur Europe: May, Macron hold talks
Lady Brexit meets Monsieur Europe: May, Macron hold talks
PARIS (AP) — She wants to escape the European Union, he wants to embolden it. British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron held talks Tuesday from opposite sides of the Brexit front line and agreed that negotiations for Britain’s divorce from the European bloc will start next week as planned.
They also reached common ground on fighting a shared enemy: terrorism. Standing side by side in the garden of the Elysee Palace after a working dinner, the two leaders announced plans to pursue an initiative to require tech companies to better police online extremism and hold them legally liable if they fail to do so.
“We are united in our total condemnation of terrorism and our commitment to stamp out this evil,” May said.
May arrived in Paris with her leadership hobbled by a catastrophic election last week just as Britain heads into tough talks on leaving the EU.
While May struggles to hold onto power, Macron is on the ascendancy, with his year-old party set to win a huge majority in parliamentary elections Sunday. That should fortify Macron’s standing in Europe as he tries to push the remaining EU nations to stand tough in Brexit negotiations, and to unite even more closely as Britain departs.
AP sources: Trump tells senators House health bill ‘mean’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told Republican senators Tuesday that the House-passed health care bill is “mean” and urged them to craft a version that is “more generous,” congressional sources said.
The president’s comments, at a White House lunch with 15 GOP senators, came as Senate Republican leaders’ attempts to write their own health care package have been slowed by disagreements between their party’s conservative and moderates.
Trump’s remarks were a surprising critique of a Republican-written House measure whose passage he lobbied for and praised. At a Rose Garden ceremony minutes after the bill’s narrow House passage, Trump called it “a great plan.”
His comments also seemed to undercut efforts by Senate conservatives to include restrictions in their chamber’s bill, such as cutting the Medicaid health care program for the poor and limiting the services insurers must cover. Moderate GOP senators have been pushing to ease those efforts.
The sources say the president did not specify what aspects of the bill he was characterizing.
Tillerson warns against steps that cut off talks with Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. relationship with Russia is at an all-time low and deteriorating further, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday, yet he cautioned against taking steps that might close off promising avenues of communication between the two former Cold War foes.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson was noncommittal about a package of new Russia sanctions, saying he’s still reviewing the proposed penalties that Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed upon after lengthy negotiations. But it’s important, he stressed, that President Donald Trump have the flexibility “to turn the heat up” on Russia if necessary.
At the same time, he also said he doesn’t want to preemptively shut down a potentially productive conversation. As an example, Tillerson said talks with Moscow on stabilizing war-ravaged Syria are progressing, but it’s too early to tell if the discussions will bear fruit. Imposing more sanctions could lead the Russians to curtail the dialogue.
Top lawmakers on two Senate committees — Banking and Foreign Relations — announced the sanctions deal late Monday amid the firestorm over Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and investigations into Moscow’s possible collusion with members of President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The plan calls for strengthening current sanctions and imposing new ones on corrupt Russian figures, those involved in human rights abuses and those supplying weapons to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The package also would require a congressional review if a president attempts to ease or end current penalties. And, penalties would be slapped on those responsible for malicious cyber activity on behalf of the Russian government.
Jury in Bill Cosby sex assault case studies his deposition
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The jury in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case, weighing charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life, drilled down Tuesday on what the TV star said happened inside his suburban Philadelphia home and how he characterized his relationship with the accuser.
With deliberations stretching into the evening of a second day, jurors reviewed more than a dozen passages from a deposition Cosby gave more than a decade ago. They heard excerpts on a wide range of topics, from Cosby’s first meeting with Andrea Constand to the night in 2004 she says he drugged and violated her.
As he described reaching into Constand’s pants, Cosby testified, “I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.”
Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting Constand, 44. His lawyer has said they were lovers sharing a consensual sexual encounter.
The 79-year-old entertainer did not take the stand at his trial, but prosecutors used his deposition testimony — given in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand’s civil suit against him — as evidence.
Jury re-watches 2 key videos in police shooting of motorist
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A jury weighing the fate of a Minnesota police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a black motorist asked Tuesday to re-watch two key videos.
In their second day of deliberations, jurors returned to court to again see dashcam video captured by Officer Jeronimo Yanez’s squad car that shows the shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile. Yanez shot Castile five times last July during a traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb, just seconds after Castile informed him he was carrying a gun.
The jury also watched a replay of the video that Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed on Facebook beginning seconds after Castile had been shot.
No explanation was given for the request. The jury also requested transcripts of squad car audio and of Yanez’s statement to state investigators the day after the shooting, but the judge denied the request because defense attorneys did not agree.
The jury ended the day without a verdict and was to resume Wednesday.