Nation and World briefs for July 26

Trump tape a turning point in legal game of cat-and-mouse

WASHINGTON — The sudden public airing of Donald Trump talking about paying for a Playboy model’s silence marks a turning point in the legal game of cat-and-mouse between the president and the lawyer who once promised to take a bullet for Trump but now seems out to save himself.

The feud between Trump and his onetime legal “fixer,” Michael Cohen, escalated when an audio recording of their 2016 pre-election conversation was released Tuesday by Cohen, prompting Trump to tweet Wednesday: “What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!”

As the two sides battled over the exact meaning of the sometimes-garbled words on the recording, it was clear that the tape could be just an opening volley. At least a dozen more recordings were seized from Cohen’s office as well as hundreds of thousands of documents.

The tape, made just weeks before the 2016 election, appears to undermine Trump’s contention that he was not aware of a payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who has alleged she had an affair with the married future president.

That raises questions about possible campaign finance violations. It shows Cohen advising Trump on campaign matters, and that could be of interest to investigators looking into whether the lawyer violated election laws by orchestrating hush money payouts.

IS fighters ambush city, villages in southern Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria — Islamic State fighters ambushed a city and several villages in southern Syria on Wednesday, triggering ferocious clashes between residents and the militants that provincial health officials said killed more than 200 people.

The coordinated attacks across the province of Sweida, which included several suicide bombings, shattered the calm of a region that has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence of Syria’s seven year long civil war.

The suicide bomb blasts inside the provincial capital, also called Sweida, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks on villages in the eastern countryside, creating mayhem across the province.

The attacks triggered deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and residents who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns on one side and IS militants on the other.

By nightfall, the province’s health directorate had recorded 204 civilians killed and 180 wounded, according to local official Hassan Omar, making it the single bloodiest day for the province since the 2011 national revolt that sparked the ongoing civil war.

Sultan Bou Ammar, a resident of the village of Shbiki, said some residents unwittingly opened their doors when militants knocked early Thursday morning, so unexpected was the attack.

“They kidnapped more than 40 people, all of them women or children,” said Bou Ammar.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 183 people were killed, including 94 residents who were part of local defense militias that have the backing of the Syrian government. At least 45 IS militants were killed in the fighting.

Hopes rise again for a drug to slow Alzheimer’s disease

CHICAGO — Hopes are rising again for a drug to alter the course of Alzheimer’s disease after decades of failures. An experimental therapy slowed mental decline by 30 percent in patients who got the highest dose in a mid-stage study, and it removed much of the sticky plaque gumming up their brains, the drug’s makers said Wednesday.

The results have been highly anticipated and have sent the stock of the two companies involved soaring in recent weeks.

The drug from Eisai and Biogen did not meet its main goal in a study of 856 participants, so overall, it was considered a flop. But company officials said that 161 people who got the highest dose every two weeks for 18 months did significantly better than 245 people who were given a dummy treatment.

There are lots of caveats about the work, which was led by company scientists rather than academic researchers and not reviewed by outside experts. The study also was too small to be definitive and the results need to be confirmed with more work, dementia experts said. But they welcomed any glimmer of success after multiple failures.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, whose international conference in Chicago featured the results.

Tesla, others help Puerto Ricans go solar amid power turmoil

ADJUNTAS, Puerto Rico — Ten months after Hurricane Maria, Adjuntas still loses power any time a heavy rain or wind pounds the rickety power lines feeding this town high in the central mountains of Puerto Rico.

That leaves its 20,000 people once again in the dark, without light, fresh water or air conditioning — except for a handful of homes and businesses glowing in the night thanks to solar energy.

The people of Adjuntas call those places “cucubanos,” an indigenous Puerto Rican firefly. They’re part of a small but growing movement to provide the U.S. territory with sustainable, renewable energy independent of the decrepit power grid.

A scattering of hardware stores, barbershops and corner stores across the island are embracing solar energy, trying to wean themselves off a state-owned power company that remains heavily dependent on imported petroleum. The numbers remain small — a few dozen or hundreds out of millions of power users — but power industry officials and environmentalists are closely watching this as a test of whether Puerto Rico can make a large-scale switch to renewable, off-grid energy.

Currently, renewables represent 4 percent of generation at Puerto Rico’s power company, against a U.S. national average of 15 percent, so it likely will be years before solar could account for a significant share of Puerto Rico power.

Milwaukee police officer fatally shot; suspect is in custody

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee police chief confirmed Wednesday that an officer died after being shot and that a suspect was in custody.

Police Chief Alfonso Morales announced the officer’s death at a press briefing. Morales said the officer, a 17-year police veteran, was also a friend of his.

The suspect was wanted on gun and drug violations, Morales said.

Deputy Fire Chief David Votsis said the Milwaukee Fire Department was called to the shooting shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday and that the officer was taken to a nearby hospital.

Votsis earlier noted that one other person was wounded in the shooting, but Morales said at the briefing that the suspect was not wounded.

With rare candor, Lovato chronicled her recovery and relapse

NEW YORK — While most celebrities tend to hide their struggles with drugs and battles with depression, Demi Lovato not only acknowledged her issues, she’s shared them with the world.

Lovato has been an open book since she announced in 2010 that she was checking into a rehabilitation center to deal with an eating disorder, self-mutilation and other issues. Over the next eight years, she became a role model and bona fide pop star, releasing multi-platinum songs and albums that range from playful to serious with lyrical content about her battles with drugs and alcohol.

“(She) has found enormous success by addressing those issues, and not only addressing them when they were still fresh, but also continuing to speak about them as she had been sober for years. She’s always kind of keeping it at the forefront … and showing people that it’s OK to be open about having struggles whether it’s mental health issues, substance abuse (or) body positivity,” said Jason Lipshutz, the editorial director at Billboard. “By opening herself up and sharing herself she has given the signal to a lot of people — either young listeners or adult listeners — that they can do the same.”

“Obviously she’s got an amazing voice and she’s got some great hooks and a lot of hit singles, but I think people really connect with that type of openness,” he added.

Lovato’s representative said in a statement Tuesday that the 25-year-old was awake and recovering with her family after the singer was reportedly hospitalized for an overdose. It came a month after she released a new song called “Sober,” indicating that she relapsed after six years of sobriety.