President Donald Trump’s lawyers are appealing a judge’s conclusion that the president cannot stop Manhattan’s district attorney from getting his tax returns.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero had said in his ruling Monday that he could not grant such a “categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity.”

Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That means the returns are unlikely to be turned over immediately.

That court is also based in Manhattan. The Justice Department declined to comment.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has asked Trump’s accounting firm to turn over his business and personal tax returns.

It is part of an investigation of the Trump Organization’s involvement in buying the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president.

A federal judge has rejected President Donald Trump’s challenge to the release of his tax returns for a New York state criminal probe.

Judge Victor Marrero ruled Monday. He said he cannot endorse such a “categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from judicial process.”

The returns had been sought by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. His office is investigating the Trump Organization’s involvement in buying the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president.

Trump’s lawyers have said the investigation is politically motivated and that the quest for his tax records should be stopped because he is immune from any criminal probe as long as he is president.

A fall paralyzed him from the shoulders down. But inside a robotic skeleton, his brain puts his body back in motion. Scientists say this one success is far from a magic pill for those living with paralysis but say this is an important step. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has this report.

“Joker,” by Todd Phillips, is a chilling stand-alone character drama on the creation of Batman’s arch nemesis. The film shows how a meek, marginalized man who suffers from mental health disorders is driven by society into a downward spiral, turning into a homicidal maniac. The strong imagery of the film and Joaquin Phoenix’s visceral performance have caused security concerns for copycat behavior in theaters. Despite the controversy, the film has shattered the box office on its opening weekend. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with film professor May Santiago on the message of the film.

Most cat owners know that their domesticated felines still carry their ancient hunting skills. And while they can easily chase their prey up into trees, a lot of them have trouble getting back down. In Seattle, there’s a rescue team for that.  Anna Rice tells his story.

Film star Cate Blanchett will back a global campaign on Monday to end the plight of an estimated 10 million people with no nationality amid warnings rising xenophobia is stymieing efforts to meet a 2024 deadline for eradicating statelessness.

The double Oscar-winner will speak at a major meeting in Geneva aimed at persuading governments to dramatically escalate progress in the campaign called #Ibelong.

Blanchett’s attendance will help boost attention on some of the world’s most invisible people.

Not recognized as nationals of any country, stateless people are often deprived of basic rights like education and healthcare, and risk exploitation and detention.

Blanchett will interview Maha Mamo, a formerly stateless activist who has become a torchbearer for #Ibelong.

As a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), Blanchett recently visited Bangladesh to meet stateless Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, and has met displaced Syrian families in the Middle East.

When U.N. chief Antonio Guterres launched the #Ibelong initiative in 2014, during his time as head of the UNHCR, he described statelessness as a “cancer” that must be excised.

But the task ahead is monumental. Only about 200,000 people acquired citizenship during the first half of the campaign, barely making a dent in the overall number.

And U.N. officials admit the total may now be even higher than in 2014 because of increasing displacement triggered by crises in Syria, Venezuela and elsewhere, which has raised the risk of many children growing up stateless.

There is also no solution in sight for many of the largest groups of stateless people including the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to Bangladesh following an upsurge in violence.

Experts on statelessness spoke of “storm clouds on the horizon” as forced displacement, xenophobia and populism complicate efforts to meet the 2024 deadline.

They are keeping a close eye on India, where 1.9 million people in the northeastern state of Assam have been left off a register of citizens, stoking concerns that many could become stateless.

Dogs Have More Rights

People end up stateless for a host of historical, social and legal reasons including migration, flawed citizenship laws and ethnic discrimination. Others fall through the cracks when countries break up.

Aside from Myanmar, there are big stateless groups in Ivory Coast, Thailand, Nepal, Kuwait and some former Soviet countries.

Stateless people have previously told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they feel stigmatized and forgotten.

“We’ve had people telling us, ‘dogs are more important than I am,’” said Melanie Khanna, head of the UNHCR’s statelessness section. “People feel totally scarred and isolated. They often say, ‘I thought it was just me’. It sends chills down your spine.”

Despite slow progress on reducing numbers, Khanna said there was far greater global awareness of statelessness than five years ago.

Almost all countries will be represented in Geneva, with more than 20 sending ministers. U.N. officials expect governments to make scores of pledges which will provide a roadmap for accelerating the campaign.

In July, Kyrgyzstan made history when it became the first country to officially end statelessness. U.N. officials believe Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan could also meet the 2024 deadline.

Thailand, where nearly 479,000 people are stateless, including members of ethnic hill tribes in the northern border regions, is also stepping up action.

The issue made international headlines last year during rescue efforts to save a young Thai football team trapped in a flooded cave.

During the drama it emerged that several of the boys and their coach were stateless. They were granted citizenship after their ordeal.

Win-Win

But resolving statelessness is not just a human rights issue. Statelessness has fueled conflict and displacement in both Myanmar and Ivory Coast.

Khanna said there was a growing recognition that resolving statelessness was a “win-win” because it was in governments’ interests to have everybody feel invested in the society they live in and motivated to contribute.

The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of global pledges on tackling poverty, inequality and other ills with an overall ambition to “to leave no one behind,” have helped shift attitudes, Khanna said.

“The SDGs have allowed us to talk about this whole area as a development issue and not just a human rights one,” she added. “This makes a lot of sense because you don’t want disenfranchised, impoverished people on your territory.”

Khanna said an increasing number of countries were changing their nationality laws and policies to prevent future generations ending up in limbo.

Colombia, for example, has announced it will give citizenship to thousands of children born to Venezuelan migrants to prevent them growing up stateless.

Other countries have scrapped discriminatory laws that prevent women passing their citizenship to their children – a major cause of statelessness.

The impact of such laws has been clearly seen during the Syrian war with many displaced mothers unable to obtain documents for their children where the father is dead or absent.

Iran became the latest country to pass reforms last week – a move human rights experts believe could help thousands of children obtain citizenship.

There has also been a flurry of countries joining the U.N. conventions on preventing and eliminating statelessness.

The 1961 convention stipulates that a state must grant nationality to anyone born on its territory who would otherwise be stateless – a safeguard that would wipe-out most new cases of statelessness if adopted by all countries.

“Statelessness causes devastating and totally unnecessary damage,” Khanna said. “But solutions aren’t complicated. The biggest obstacle is political will.”

A total of 110 million toilets constructed for 600 million people in 60 months.

Citing these figures, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced October 2 that the open defecation in rural India has ended.

However, the results of the world’s biggest toilet-building program rolled out by his government five years ago are more mixed.

While huge progress has been made in providing toilets across hundreds of thousands of villages, experts say open defecation has not been eliminated in a country where venturing into the fields is accepted as normal and where not everyone has access to a toilet yet.

The experience of 37-year-old Komal Godiwal, who migrated from her village in the northern Rajasthan state to work as a housemaid in New Delhi, highlights the gains and shortfalls of Modi’s flagship $20 billion “Clean India” mission.

Two years ago, she rushed to her village when, like millions of poor people, she received a government subsidy of about $200 to build a latrine. Her sister, who lives in the same village but did not receive the subsidy, uses the toilet. Critics charge that the distribution of money to help build toilets has been uneven.

Despite being the proud owner of a toilet, Godiwal herself struggles with issues of sanitation in the urban slum that is home to thousands of poor migrants like her. She and her family share a bathroom with about eight other families. “I have to wake up before 5 am, otherwise they get very dirty and there is a huge line,” she says.

Five years ago India accounted for the most people in the world defecating in the open – 600 million.  They mostly lived in rural areas, where having a household latrine was never a priority because of centuries-old cultural resistance to a toilet under the same roof as the kitchen or the prayer room.

Since then, those numbers have fallen dramatically as India has raced to build millions of toilets using an inexpensive design that involves constructing a twin-pit latrine where waste is piped from one pit to another and decomposes over time.

 Critics, however, charge that overzealous government workers may have inflated numbers since a deadline had been set for declaring India open-defecation free by October 2 — the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence struggle.

“The entire movement happened in a mission mode. There were targets to achieve,” according to Nazar Khalid, a New Delhi research fellow at the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics, a nonprofit that works on child and sanitation issues in India. He charges that in some places people were coerced to build toilets by local authorities who wanted to demonstrate progress.

A study conducted last year by the group in four of India’s biggest states found that access to household toilets increased from 37% in 2014 to 71% last year. However, roughly one-quarter of people who owned a toilet continued to defecate in the open – they considered it wholesome and healthy and an opportunity to get some fresh air or see their fields.   

The government has dismissed the study, saying that the sample size of 3,235 households was too small in a program that had targeted millions of homes.  

A publicity blitz by the Clean India mission has attempted to shift dogged age-old attitudes and get people to use inside toilets.

Nearly half a million volunteers at the village level took the message to the country’s vast rural areas about how open defecation is the source of diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and worm infection. Catchy advertisements and even a Bollywood movie featuring a top star picked up the issue to emphasize how toilets at home improve security for women who venture into the fields in the cover of darkness.

Many sanitation experts emphasize that although problems persist, there have been massive gains.

“We have to look at it in the context of the massive scale of India,” according to V.K. Madhavan who heads the India affiliate of WaterAid, a global nonprofit organization working on sanitation issues.

“My sense is that while there are still areas for improvement and gaps, the progress that has been made and what has been achieved will shift the global indicators on sanitation.”

Godiwal, who grew up going into the fields, testifies to changes she has noticed during her visits to her village in the last two years, saying most younger people have stopped open defecation.

Nevertheless, age-old habits have been harder to break among the older people, she says.

“My brother scolds my mother if she goes out in the open, but she gets up early and goes out quietly because she prefers it,” she laughs. Meanwhile, she frets about the state of the toilet she is forced to use in her slum.  

The challenge of reaching the “last mile” also remains – coverage for the poorest and most marginalized, who often tend to be excluded from such programs.

“The point is that in our country so many people are so poor, life is a struggle and sanitation is not a priority,” says Madhavan.

At the same time, he is bullish about the program, saying there will be a point at which “it becomes aspirational for everybody to have a toilet.”

 

French and German attempts to end the conflict in east Ukraine risk increasing tensions that were already rising in the European Union over how to handle Russia and which could complicate peace efforts.

Progress at talks between Russian and Ukrainian envoys have raised hopes of convening the first international summit in three years on ending the fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

But some EU states, while welcoming a summit that would involve France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, are worried by growing talk that the EU might partially lift sanctions imposed on Moscow since its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

EU divisions over how to deal with Moscow have been growing over overtures to the Kremlin in recent months, led by Paris.

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron have especially upset governments in EU countries that were once Soviet satellite states or constituent republics. Alarmed by what they see as an increasingly aggressive Russian foreign policy, they reject anything that might smack of appeasement.

“Are we to reward Russia because they have not done anything grotesque in the past few months?” one EU diplomat asked.

In EU meetings, letters and speeches, divisions about Russia that were once under control are resurfacing, diplomats say.

The tension could make it harder for the EU to agree new sanctions if Russia intensifies what are often depicted by Western leaders as efforts by President Vladimir Putin to undermine Western institutions such as the 28-nation bloc.

The tension could also further divide the bloc – with a group of French-led, relatively Russia-friendly allies such as Italy on one side, and the Baltic states, Poland and Romania on the other. This in turn could weaken the resolve of Western-backed governments to stand up for Ukraine, diplomats said.

EU diplomats still expect leaders of the bloc to extend sanctions on Russia’s energy, financial and defense sectors for another six months at a regular summit in December.

But while Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say there can be no sanctions relief until Russia implements a peace deal for Ukraine agreed in 2014-2015, both see sanctions as impeding better relations with Moscow.

MACRON’S “RESET”

The measures, imposed over the annexation of Crimea and Russian support for the separatists fighting in Ukraine, require all EU governments to agree. Any friction could allow just one country, possibly Moscow’s ally Hungary, to end them.

“The time has come for the German government to pressure the EU for a partial lifting of the sanctions,” German lawmaker Peter Ramsauer, whose centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU) is a member of Germany’s ruling coalition, told Reuters.

Baltic states, once part of the Soviet Union, fear a Russian trap to block Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO and the EU. The country of 42 million has borders both with Russia and countries in the EU and NATO.

With Germany open to France taking a more active role on Russia, Macron unexpectedly relaunched a bid for better Russian ties in July.

Sending his defense and foreign ministers to Moscow in September and ending a four-year freeze on such high-level diplomatic visits, Macron is seeking to bring Moscow back into the fold of leading industrialized nations.

Macron, who said in August that alienating Russia was “a profound strategic mistake”, wants Moscow’s help to solve the world’s most intractable crises, from Syria to North Korea.

“The geography, history and culture of Russia are fundamentally European,” Macron said on Tuesday in a speech to the Council of Europe, the continent’s main human rights forum, from which Russia was suspended after Crimea.

Russia’s readmission in July, for which France and Germany lobbied, was the first time that an international sanction imposed for Moscow’s seizure of Crimea has been reversed.

Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, told EU diplomats last month that while Russia was a security threat, it “remains a neighbor too and we must deal with this reality.”

In a letter to EU diplomats last month, the EU’s ambassador to Moscow also called for a “pragmatic” approach to Russia.

REWARD OR REVENGE?

EU diplomats from eastern, Baltic and Nordic nations have said they are confused by Macron’s approach, questioning what has changed in Russia to merit a renaissance in relations.

The conflict in east Ukraine has killed over 13,000 people since April 2014 .

Russia and Ukraine swapped prisoners in September in what was seen as the first sign of an improvement in relations.

But Putin has ruled out returning Crimea, gifted to Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

NATO accuses Russia of trying to destabilise the West with new nuclear weapons, pulling out of arms control treaties, cyber attacks and covert action.

Last year, Western governments including France expelled an unprecedented number of Russian diplomats after a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England that EU leaders blamed on Moscow.

The Kremlin rejected any involvement.

Michel Duclos, a former French envoy to Syria, said the risk for Macron was that, viewed from Moscow, France was “useful for disuniting the Western camp,” recalling what he said was a “classic feature” of East-West relations during the Cold War.

Macron’s offer to Putin is based on setting up a so-called structured dialogue focusing on five points: sharing expertise and intelligence; a mechanism to defuse EU-Russia tensions; arms control in Europe; European values; working together on international crises.

The European Union’s own five-point strategy to deal with Russia involves so-called selective engagement. Many EU diplomats say that is the best way forward, seeking Russian collaboration on issues such as climate change to rebuild trust.

A second whistleblower has come forward with information about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, adding to the impeachment peril engulfing the White House and potentially providing new leads to Democrats in their unfurling investigation of Trump’s conduct.

Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, said the second person has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog and can corroborate information in the original whistleblower complaint. That document alleged that Trump pushed Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s family, prompting a White House cover-up. Crucially, the new whistleblower works in the intelligence field and has “firsthand knowledge” of key events, Zaid said.

The emergence of the second whistleblower threatened to undermine arguments from Trump and his allies to discredit the original complaint. They have called it politically motivated, claimed it was filed improperly and dismissed it as unreliable because it was based on secondhand or thirdhand information.

A rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, released by the White House, has already corroborated the complaint’s central claim that Trump sought to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. The push came even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the former vice president or his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Text messages from State Department officials revealed other details, including that Ukraine was promised a visit with Trump if the government would agree to investigate the 2016 election and Ukrainian gas company Burisma — the outline of a potential quid pro quo.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said word of a second whistleblower indicates a larger shift inside the government.

“The president’s real problem is that his behavior has finally gotten to a place where people are saying, ‘Enough,’” Himes said.

The July call raised questions about whether Trump held back near $400 million in critical American military aid to Ukraine as leverage for a Burisma investigation. Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Ukraine. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.

A leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Biden wrote in The Washington Post that he had a message for Trump and “those who facilitate his abuses of power. … Please know that I’m not going anywhere. You won’t destroy me, and you won’t destroy my family.”

Additional details about the origins of Trump’s July 25 call with Zelenskiy emerged over the weekend.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry had encouraged Trump to speak with the Ukrainian leader, but on energy and economic issues, according to Perry spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes. She said Perry’s interest in Ukraine is part of U.S. efforts to boost Western energy ties to Eastern Europe.

Trump, who has repeatedly described his conversation with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” told House Republicans on Friday night that it was Perry who teed up the July call, according to a person familiar with Trump’s comments who was granted anonymity to discuss them. The person said Trump did not suggest that Perry had anything to do with the pressure to investigate the Bidens.

As the furor over Trump’s phone call and the House’s subsequent impeachment inquiry escalated, two Republicans challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination engaged in a heated on-air debate over what should happen to the president. The exchange between former Reps. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Joe Walsh of Illinois was notable, given the refusal of all but three Republican senators to criticize Trump’s conduct.

Walsh said the president deserves to be impeached. Sanford tried to make the case that moving forward with impeachment in the Democratic-run House if the Republican-controlled Senate doesn’t have the votes to convict would be counter-productive.

“This president needs to be impeached, just based on what he himself has said,” Walsh said. “And Republicans better get behind that.”

…

Miami, the second home to legendary Mexican crooner Jose Jose, mourned the iconic artist on Sunday by gathering several hundreds of his fans at a closed casket wake with his family.

Known as the “Prince of Song,” Jose Romulo Sosa Ortiz died eight days ago in Miami at age 71. The singer had been battling pancreatic cancer.

The artist’s youngest daughter Sarita Sosa thanked Miamians for embracing her dad when he first arrived decades ago, saying he was brought back to life in Florida.

“May his music never die, please,” she said, holding back tears. “Thank you for coming. You are our family. All of Miami, thank you.”

Jose Jose rose to stardom in 1970 with his hit “El Triste” or “The Sad One,” and became well-known across Latin America in the 1980s with his best-selling album “Secrets,” a collaboration with Spanish composer and producer Manuel Alejandro.

But the Mexican singer struggled with substance abuse and depression. Following the 1993 separation from Mexican model Anel Norena, he began sleeping in a taxi on the outskirts of the Mexican capital before friends intervened and took him to an addiction treatment center in the U.S.

The artist remarried in 1995 to a Cuban-American woman named Sarita Salazar, and the couple had Sarita Sosa the following year.

In a brief private ceremony broadcast by Univision before the public wake, Salazar was seen on stage next to the golden coffin, which was covered by a giant arrangement of white hydrangeas. A group of Mariachi performers dressed in white and played some of the artist’s melodies such as “The Sad One” and “Pillow,” and fans got up from their seats to sing along.

“He was born in Mexico, but we were lucky to have Jose Jose living here,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Some of the Miami fans even tell stories of seeing the well-dressed singer at the supermarket or local pharmacies. He “never allowed fame to change who he was,” Gimenez said.

The gifted singer — a combination of baritone and lyric tenor — was revered for his wide registry and ability to sustain long notes. He charmed audiences with his elegant suits accented with bow ties, pocket handkerchiefs and silk scarves and for his romantic interpretations of ballads such as “Hawk or Dove” and “Love and Want.”

Jose Jose was nominated on multiple occasions for a Grammy, but never received that accolade. The Latin Recording Academy recognized the singer with a Musical Excellence Prize at the 2004 Latin Grammy awards. That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As he got older, Jose Jose’s vocals began to fail him. For a 2008 concert with Greek composer and pianist Yanni, it took him seven days to prepare “just to attempt to sing,” Yanni recounted.

Even as the singer’s voice got scratchy, ardent followers turned out to see him as recently as 2017 for concerts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. For the public funeral, fans with Mexican, Colombian, Argentine and other Latino origins traveled from New Jersey and other cities around Florida to honor him.

Anotoria Vinas, an 80-year-old Dominican woman, said she ironed the artist’s shirts when he began his career in Miami decades ago.

“I’m sad, like his song goes,” the woman said as she left the wake. “It hurts to see that he left this world, and how much he suffered before he did.”

Turkey summoned a top American diplomat Sunday after the U.S. Embassy’s official Twitter account “liked” a tweet that said the people of Turkey should prepare for a political era without the leader of Turkey’s national party, who is reportedly ill.

The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. charge d’affaires Jeffrey Hovenier was summoned despite an embassy statement that said its Twitter account had liked “an unrelated post in error,” and apologized.

Many interpreted the tweet as suggesting that the nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli could soon die. The tweet was posted by a journalist Turkey accuses of having links to a network led by a cleric who is blamed for a 2016 failed coup attempt. Turkish media reports say the journalist, Ergun Babahan, is wanted in Turkey.

The tweet drew ire from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party and as well as Bahceli’s party, which are allies. Turkey’s main opposition party also said it regarded the embassy’s move as an insult to Turkey’s parliament.

The embassy issued a second apology after Hovenier was called to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

“We do not associate ourselves with Ergun Babahan nor do we endorse or agree with the content of his tweet,” the embassy’s second apology read. “We reiterate our regret for this error.”

The incident occurred at a time when ties between Turkey and the U.S. are strained over Syria policies. Turkey is accusing Washington of not acting fast enough toward the creation of a so-called safe zone in northeast Syria that would keep U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters away from the Turkish-Syrian. Disagreements remain on the size of the zone.

Erdogan has threatened a unilateral intervention to drive away the Kurdish fighters.

Meanwhile, Erdogan and U.S President Donald Trump agreed to meet in Washington next month to discuss the proposed safe zone, Turkish officials said following a telephone call between the two leaders.

During the call late Sunday, the Turkish leader “shared with President Trump his frustration over the U.S. military and security bureaucracy’s failure to implement” an agreement toward the creation of the zone, according to a statement from Erdogan’s office.

Erdogan also told Trump that the creation of the safe zone was key to eliminating the threat posed to Turkey by the Kurdish fighters and would allow for the return of Syrian refugees, the statement said.

Gabriel Duvalesse squatted slightly as he prepared to push 50 gallons (190 liters) of cooking oil in an old wheelbarrow to an outdoors market an hour away so he could earn $1.

It was his first job in seven days as deadly protests paralyze Haiti’s economy and shutter businesses and schools. Opposition leaders and thousands of supporters are demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise amid anger over government corruption, ballooning inflation and scarcity of fuel and other basic goods.
 
Seventeen people have been reported killed and nearly 200 injured in the protests.
 

The political turmoil is hitting cities and towns outside the capital of Port-au-Prince especially hard, forcing non-government organizations to suspend aid as barricades of large rocks and burning tires cut off the flow of goods between the city and the countryside. The crisis is deepening poverty in places such as Leogane, the epicenter of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake.
 
“We are starving,” said 28-year-old Duvalesse, who has been unable to work. “I had to make $2 last one week.”

The United Nations said that before the protests even began, some 2.6 million people across Haiti were vulnerable to food shortages, adding that roadblocks have severely impacted some humanitarian programs. On Sept. 16, the World Food Program was forced to suspend all food deliveries to schools as demonstrations started.
 
Meanwhile, cash transfers to some 37,000 people in need were postponed.
 
U.N. officials also said that private transporters are reluctant to deliver goods given the security situation, a problem that Leogane business owner Vangly Germeille knows well.
 
He owns a wholesale company that sells items including rice, soap, cooking oil and cereal to small markets. But his warehouse is nearly empty and he struggles to find truck drivers willing to go to markets to deliver the goods because of thieves and barricades.
 
 “It’s an enormous economic loss,” said Germeille, a father of two who is thinking of moving to the Dominican Republic if things don’t improve soon. “If there’s no way to make a living here, I can’t stay.”
 
Rice, coconuts, milk and diapers are among the dozens of goods that people in this coastal community of more than 200,000 inhabitants say are hard to find since the protests began in mid-September.
 
On Saturday, a grocery store near the town’s center opened briefly to sell rice, said 40-year-old IT engineer Sony Raymond.
 
 “In less than three hours it was gone,” he said. “Leogane is basically paralyzed.”
 

The protests and barricades are increasingly isolating already struggling communities across Haiti, including those like Barriere Jeudi, where amateur bull fights on weekends provide some distraction from people’s financial problems.
 
Bruinel Jean-Louis, who repairs refrigerators and stoves, said he hasn’t been able to find much work because he can’t travel to find the parts he needs.
 
 “It takes a very long time, and that also makes me suffer,” he said as several bulls brayed behind him.
 
To make up for the financial shortfall, he sells halters for horses.
 
In a small mountain village near the coastal city of Jacmel, some phones began ringing at 5 a.m. on Sunday as friends and family let each other know that a gas station would open that day and there was a limited supply.

The family of drummer Ginger Baker, the volatile and propulsive British musician who was best known for his time with the power trio Cream, says he has died. He was 80.

Baker’s family said on Twitter that he died Sunday: “We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning.”

Gary Hibbert, a media representative for Baker’s family, confirmed his death.

Baker wielded his blues power and jazz technique to help break open popular music and become one of the world’s most admired and feared musicians.

With his blazing eyes, orange-red hair and fiery temperament, Baker ranked with Keith Moon of The Who as the embodiment of musical fury and uncontrollable personality.

 

A second whistleblower has come forward about U.S. President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, the lawyer representing the person said.

Zaid also told the ABC News program  “This Week” that the individual is from the intelligence community, like the first whistleblower whose complaint regarding a phone call between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents triggered an impeachment inquiry into Trump.

Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, said the second person has first hand knowledge of the matter with as well as some of the allegations outlined in the original complaint. He said the second whistleblower has been interviewed by the head of the intelligence community’s internal watchdog office, Michael Atkinson.
 

Zaid also represents the first whistleblower who filed a complaint involving a July 25 phone call  between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump asked for help investigating a Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden along with Biden’s son, Hunter.
 
Trump tweeted Saturday, “The first so-called second hand information “Whistleblower” got my phone conversation almost completely wrong, so now word is they are going to the bench and another “Whistleblower” is coming in from the Deep State, also with second hand info. Meet with Shifty. Keep them coming!”

The first so-called second hand information “Whistleblower” got my phone conversation almost completely wrong, so now word is they are going to the bench and another “Whistleblower” is coming in from the Deep State, also with second hand info. Meet with Shifty. Keep them coming!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019

Trump has insisted that no pressure was exerted during the July 25 call with Ukraine’s president. He has repeatedly termed the call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” while attacking his critics as “traitors” and alleging a “coup” is in the works to remove him from office

The president, however, told reporters on Thursday he would like both Ukraine and China to investigate ties between their countries and Biden’s son.

Some members of Trump’s own Republican Party criticized Trump over comment. Those included U.S. Senators Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Susan Collins.
 
The president lashed out at Romney on Saturday and Sunday, tweeting “The Democrats are lucky that they don’t have any Mitt Romney types. They may be lousy politicians, with really bad policies [Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities etc.], but they stick together!”

The Democrats are lucky that they don’t have any Mitt Romney types. They may be lousy politicians, with really bad policies (Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities etc.), but they stick together!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019

 
The first whistleblower complaint prompted House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump, saying that his actions threatened national security.

The complaint alleges Trump used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election,” and that Attorney General Bill Barr and Trump’s personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also appear to be involved in the effort.

 

 

The U.S. Supreme Court is headed for another blockbuster year, starting a busy new term Monday with hot-button cases that will be decided in the midst of a contentious presidential election campaign.

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, who has been unusually vocal about protecting the high court’s reputation, the nine justices on the bench will likely seek a low profile, as they did last term following the raucous confirmation hearing of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

But with a string of cases involving socially divisive issues, from abortion to LGBTQ rights, on the docket, court watchers are bracing for as many ideologically split decisions that could be exploited by presidential and congressional candidates for political gain. 

“It would probably be a mistake to expect that many of the high-profile cases will be unanimous or nearly unanimous; more likely is a series of angry 5-to-4 decisions,” said Garrett Epps, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore.

“The court is nearly as polarized along partisan lines as is the nation, and like the rest of us is stressed by the unpredictability of the political situation and the Trump administration,” Epps said. “All told, this is going to be a hot October term.”

Divisive issues

The high court’s last term was marked by a relatively high degree of consensus among the justices even as they tackled such divisive issues as the addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census and partisan gerrymandering to redraw congressional district maps. Every conservative justice, for example, crossed party lines, at least once, to vote with the liberal wing.

“I can fairly predict that the new term will have a fair share of closely watched cases,” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said at a recent event at Georgetown University Law Center.

Typically, the court takes up about 70 cases a year. So far this term, it has agreed to hear 56 cases, including an abortion case added to the docket Friday. An additional dozen cases or so will likely be added as the term gets underway.

The abortion case challenges a Louisiana law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The court struck down a similar Texas law three years ago, and the new case will test whether the justices will affirm that precedent.

In November, justices will hear oral arguments in three cases that challenge the legality of the Trump administration’s decision in 2017 to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

DACA was created in 2012 by the Obama administration to protect from deportation immigrants who entered the country as children. But the Trump administration called the program an “unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”

The plaintiffs — a DACA recipient in New York, the University of California and the NAACP — challenged the move, getting lower courts to block the decision. The administration appealed, leading the Supreme Court to take up the case in June.

At issue is whether the lower courts could weigh in on the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA and whether that decision was legal.

At stake is the fate of nearly 800,000 immigrants who are not only protected from deportation but also benefit from a program that allows them to work, obtain a driver’s license and get health insurance. On Friday, more than 140 businesses and trade associations filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of the program.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the politically divisive issue of gun rights returns to the court, as a debate rages over access to firearms following a spate of deadly mass shootings.

In a case called New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. City of New York, the justices will weigh whether New York City’s now-defunct ban on carrying a handgun to a home or shooting range outside the city violates the Second Amendment and other constitutional rights.

New York City lifted the ban over the summer and later asked the court to dismiss the case. But the rifle association objected, arguing that the city might change its rules again.

The court has yet to issue a ruling on New York’s motion. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for December.

The justices are broadly divided between conservatives, who view gun ownership as an individual right, and liberals, who want to restrict it.

A Hong Kong court rejected Sunday a challenge to an emergency law criminalizing protesters wearing face masks as democracy activists hit the streets again in defiance of the ban while half of the city’s subway stations remain closed.

Thousands of protesters have staged unsanctioned flash mob rallies across the strife-torn city — some vandalizing subway stations and shops — after Hong Kong’s leader outlawed face coverings at protests, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.

Pro-democracy lawmakers went to the High Court on Sunday seeking an emergency injunction against the ban, arguing the emergency powers bypassed the legislature and contravened the city’s mini-constitution.

But a senior judge dismissed their injunction demand.

As the ruling was being delivered, two unsanctioned rallies were kicking off on both sides of Victoria Harbor, with thousands of masked protesters gathering in torrential downpours.

After four months of huge and increasingly violent protests, the city’s unelected pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam invoked a sweeping colonial-era law Friday allowing her to make “any regulations whatsoever” during a time of public danger.

She used it to ban masks, which protesters have used to hide their identity or protect from tear gas, and warned she would use the powers to make new regulations if the unrest did not abate.

The move was welcomed by government supporters and Beijing.

But opponents and protesters saw it as the start of a slippery slope tipping the international finance hub into authoritarianism.

“I would say this is one of the most important constitutional cases in the history of Hong Kong,” lawmaker Dennis Kwok told reporters before the ruling.

“If this emergency law just gets a pass just like that Hong Kong will be deemed into a very black hole,” he added, previously likening Lam to the autocratic English monarch Henry VIII.

Two teen protesters shot

Hong Kong has been battered by a summer of rage as widespread public anger seethes over Chinese rule and the police response to protests.

The rallies were ignited by a now-scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the mainland, which fueled fears of an erosion of liberties promised under the 50-year “one country, two systems” model China agreed ahead of the 1997 handover by Britain.

After Beijing and local leaders took a hard line, the demonstrations snowballed into a wider movement calling for more democratic freedoms and police accountability.

Lam has refused major concessions but struggled to come up with any political solution, leaving police and demonstrators to fight increasingly violent battles as the city tips into recession.

The worst clashes to date erupted Tuesday as China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule, with a teenager shot and wounded by police as he attacked an officer.

A 14-year-old boy was then shot and wounded Friday night when a plainclothes police officer, who was surrounded by a mob of protesters throwing petrol bombs, fired his sidearm.

That night, masked protesters went on a rampage in dozens of locations, trashing subway stations and businesses with mainland China ties.

The city’s subway system, which carries 4 million people daily, was shut down entirely Friday night and throughout Saturday, bringing much of the metropolis to a halt.

Major supermarket chains and malls announced they were closing, leading to long lines and panic buying.

Thousands of masked protesters still came out onto the streets throughout Saturday despite the mask ban and transport gridlock, although the crowds were smaller than recent rallies.

Subway partially reopens

On Sunday, the subway operator said 45 stations would open but 48 remained shuttered, many of them in the heart of the city’s main tourist districts as well as those areas hit hardest by the protests and vandalism.

Lam has defended her use of the emergency powers and said that she is willing to issue more executive orders if the violence continues.

“We cannot allow rioters any more to destroy our treasured Hong Kong,” Lam said in a stony-faced video statement Saturday.

But protesters have vowed to keep hitting the streets.

“The anti-face mask law is the first step,” Hosun Lee, a protester in Causeway Bay, told AFP, saying he feared more laws under the emergency order were on the way.

Protester demands include an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,000 people arrested and universal suffrage — all requests rejected by Lam and Beijing.
 

A homeless man wielding a long metal bar rampaged through New York City’s Chinatown early Saturday attacking other homeless people who were sleeping, killing four and leaving a fifth with serious injuries, police said.

Police recovered the weapon, which was still in the suspect’s hands when he was arrested, officials said.

“The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks,” Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano said, adding there was no evidence yet that the victims were “targeted by race, age, anything of that nature.”

Randy Rodriguez Santos was taken into police custody early Saturday. Police say he has been arrested at least a half-dozen times in the past two years, three times on assault charges.

Santos was escorted out of a police station late Saturday. Detectives told journalists he was being taken to a hospital for the gathering of DNA evidence. An arraignment was expected Sunday morning. It wasn’t clear whether Santos had a lawyer yet.

The victims, all men, were attacked as they slept in doorways and sidewalks in three different locations in Chinatown, which is packed during daylight hours but empties out at night.

Police responded to a 911 call just before 2 a.m. as one assault was in progress. They found one man dead in the street and a second with critical head injuries. A search of the neighborhood turned up three additional bodies.

The suspect’s identity was revealed to The Associated Press by two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because criminal charges hadn’t yet been finalized.

The suspect’s mother, Fioraliza Rodriguez, 55, told the Daily News she had kicked him out about three years ago. He struggled with drugs, assaulted her and his grandfather, and stole from the family, she said.

“I never thought he would kill someone,” she said. “I was afraid of him, though, because he punched me. That’s when I told him to get out of my house.”

New York City’s homeless population has grown to record levels over the past decade, and the homeless remain among the most vulnerable residents. In the past five years, an average of seven have been slain each year.

Mayor Bill de Blasio launched new homeless outreach efforts early in his tenure in an attempt to move more people off the street and into shelters, but the program has faced challenges. City efforts to build more homeless shelters have dragged because of neighborhood opposition.
 

A U.S. senator and a well-known Indian activist were barred from visiting Indian-administered Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory where at least 10 people were injured Saturday in a grenade blast as a government security and communications lockdown entered a third month.

Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said the blast was caused by a militant attack and occurred near the office of a civil administrator in Anantnag.

He said a police official and a journalist were among those hurt and suffered minor injuries.

“It was a militant attack,” he said, without elaborating. “Police are probing to identify and nab the culprit.”

Daily life disrupted

Since removing several constitutional provisions in August that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir semi-autonomy, Indian authorities have flooded the Kashmir Valley, the heart of a decades-old armed insurgency, with thousands of additional troops.

Mobile internet and phone services have been cut and landline phone access remains spotty, disrupting daily life and business in the valley, home to about 7 million people. More than 2,000 people, including mainstream political leaders, are locked up or under house arrest.

Ram Madhav, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said leaders under house arrest in Kashmir would be released soon, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

“Prevention detention in five-star hotels with good facilities with TVs and books and all those things is a temporary measure to ensure law and order in the state,” PTI quoted Mahdav as saying.

US senator, activist denied visit

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, part of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting India on trade and other issues, told reporters Friday in New Delhi that the Indian government had denied his request to travel to Kashmir.

The Maryland Democrat said Washington was “closely monitoring the humanitarian situation” in Kashmir. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on human rights in South Asia later this month, and Kashmir is expected to be a focus.

Sandeep Pandey, an education reformer, said he and other activists were barred from leaving the airport in Srinagar, the region’s main city, where they had traveled Friday for an informal fact-finding mission.

“We were held up and we don’t know what it was done,” Pandey said at a news conference Saturday in New Delhi.

The district magistrate restricted him from traveling beyond the arrivals lounge, citing a law that limits public gatherings, according to a copy of the order.

The 54-year-old intended “to organize protests” against the constitutional changes in Kashmir, according to the order. Pandey denied the charge.

No foreign journalists

No foreign journalists have received permission from the Indian government to report in Kashmir since Aug. 5, although Indian citizens who work for foreign news organizations, including The Associated Press, have been able to report from the region.

The conflict over Kashmir began in late 1940s, when India and Pakistan won independence from the British Empire and began fighting over their rival claims.

A full-blown armed rebellion has raged in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989 seeking a united Kashmir — either under Pakistani rule or independent of both countries.

About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and an Indian military crackdown. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
 

Hong Kong’s rail operator partially reopened the city’s metro system Sunday after an unprecedented shutdown but kept many typically busy stations closed as the Chinese territory braced for large demonstrations later in the day.

Violent protests erupted across the Asian financial center Friday hours after its leader Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers, last used more than 50 years ago, to curb months of unrest.

The night’s “extreme violence” justified the use of the emergency law, Beijing-backed Lam said in a television address Saturday.

The city felt eerily quiet Saturday with the subway and most shopping malls closed and many roads deserted. Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and took to the streets across the city earlier in the day, but by evening they had largely dispersed.

The former British colony has been roiled by increasingly violent protests for four months, which began in opposition to a bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China but have spiraled into a broader pro-democracy movement.

Hong Kong’s rail operator MTR Corp said that because of serious vandalism some stations will not be opened for service Sunday, as damaged facilities needed time for repair. Train service would also be shortened to end at 9 p.m., more than three hours earlier than normal.

The operator’s closure Saturday had largely paralyzed most of the city with its network typically carrying about 5 million passengers a day.

Supermarkets and commercial stores that shuttered Saturday had mostly reopened by Sunday morning.

Many restaurants and small businesses have had to repeatedly shut with the protests taking a growing toll on Hong Kong’s economy as it faces its first recession in a decade.

Two major protests are planned for Sunday afternoon, one on the island and another on the Kowloon Peninsula with many demonstrators expected to defy a ban on face masks.

Beijing-backed Lam said a ban on face masks that took effect Saturday was ordered under the emergency laws allowing authorities to “make any regulations whatsoever” in whatever they deem to be in the public interest.

The move enraged protesters, who took to the streets Friday night to vent their anger, many wearing masks in open defiance.

Some set fires, hurled petrol bombs at police and burned the Chinese national flag, in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.

The Museum of the Bible in Washington quietly replaced an artifact purported to be one of a handful of miniature Bibles that a NASA astronaut carried to the moon in 1971 after an expert questioned its authenticity.

The move follows an announcement last year that at least five of 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments that had been on display at the museum were found to be apparent fakes.

The museum replaced the original microfilm Bible with one that was donated by an Oklahoma woman who wrote a book about the Apollo Prayer League, which arranged for Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to carry tiny Bibles to the moon.

“We know for sure that one on display right now went to the moon, but we could not verify for sure that the one we had originally on display had gone to the moon,” museum spokeswoman Heather Cirmo said. “We couldn’t disprove it, it just wasn’t certain.”

Evangelical Christian billionaires

The $500 million museum was largely funded by the Green family, evangelical Christian billionaires who run the Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores. The purported “lunar” Bible is just the latest item purchased by the family to come under scrutiny.

Steve Green, museum founder and president of Hobby Lobby, also purchased thousands of Iraqi archaeological artifacts for a reported $1.6 million, but was forced in 2018 to return them to the Iraqi government and Hobby Lobby paid a $3 million fine after authorities said they were stolen from the war-torn country and smuggled into the U.S. Museum officials have said none of those items were ever part of its collection.

As for the Dead Sea Scrolls that were called into question, the 11 remaining fragments are being tested, with results expected by the end of the year, Cirmo said. Two of the fragments remain on display with signs noting that they are being tested.

The museum did not announce that it was replacing the lunar Bible — a decision Cirmo defended.

“It’s pretty ridiculous to think that any museum, that every time you switch something out you’re going to announce it on plaques,” Cirmo said. “Collectors make mistakes all the time. … This is not something that is unique to Steve Green.”

The item that was previously displayed is now in storage, Cirmo said.

Authenticity concerns

Tulsa author Carol Mersch, who had raised concerns about its authenticity, donated the replacement Bible.

“(Green) is thankful, as is the museum, that someone came forward and donated one that actually went to the moon … and that one didn’t cost anything,” Cirmo said.

Mersch was given 10 lunar Bibles by then-NASA chaplain the Rev. John Stout, a co-founder of the Apollo Prayer League.

Green, chairman of the museum’s board, bought the original Bible for about $56,000. It had also been displayed at the Vatican.

Mersch questioned its authenticity because it had a serial number that was only three digits; she said Stout engraved the authentic lunar Bibles with five-digit numbers. Mersch said the Bible she provided was authenticated by both Stout and Mitchell.

“I thought (donation) the best thing I could do to honor Rev. Stout. He had asked me to donate them to museums,” Mersch said.

Green bought the item that was originally on display from Georgia-based Peachstate Historical Consulting, which acquired the Bibles from Stout’s brother, James Stout. The Stout brothers are both dead, as is Mitchell. Peachstate owner David Frohman did not respond to requests for comment.

In an interview with The Associated Press a month before the museum’s 2017 opening, Green acknowledged the museum had made some mistakes early on.

“There’s a lot of complexities in areas that I’m still a novice at,” he said. “But we are engaging the best experts we can to advise and help us in that process.”
 

Most Republican leaders were silent or supportive of President Donald Trump’s public call for another foreign government, China, to investigate his political foe, while a handful voiced concern that the president was trying to enlist a rival power in his reelection effort.

Several House and Senate leaders stayed mum as Trump escalated the controversy that has fueled an impeachment inquiry and plowed through another norm of American politics. The quiet continued as House Democrats released a trove of text messages showing U.S. diplomats conducted a campaign to push Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump next November, and Biden’s son Hunter.

Foreign interference in elections has long been viewed as a threat to U.S. sovereignty and the integrity of democracy, and soliciting foreign help in an election is illegal.

But Trump found support in his willingness to openly challenge that convention. Vice President Mike Pence made clear he backed the president and believes he is raising “appropriate” issues. Other allies agreed.

“I don’t think there’s anything improper about doing that,” GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said of Trump’s call on China to investigate the Bidens.

Dissent came from familiar corners this past week, and Trump took notice.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted, “By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.”

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said in a statement to the Omaha World-Herald: “Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth. If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps.”

Neither Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nor House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded to requests for comment Friday.

Trump fired back at Romney on Twitter: “Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics,” he wrote Saturday in tweets that also attacked Romney personally.

I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019

While the president was breaking another political barrier, his party leaders have made no public effort to rein him in. Critics have argued that reaction has only emboldened the president, while doing lasting damage to the party and the presidency. Trump allies argue the president’s rule-breaking rhetoric is not as important as his policies, which they support.

But the silence this time also reflects a sharper dilemma for Republicans.

As Democrats pursue an impeachment investigation, Republicans have struggled with how best to shield themselves – and the unpredictable president who may decide their political fortunes – from the steady drip of new revelations. With little guidance from the White House, lawmakers have tried to say as little as possible, blame Democrats or express vague optimism about the investigative process.

Some Republicans appeared eager for the controversy to simply not exist. “I don’t think it’s a real request,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a prominent China critic, told reporters Friday. “I think he did it to get you guys. I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it.”

Rubio later tried to clean up his statement with a tweet. “Before we nullify the results of an election or dismiss some very serious accusations as an attempted coup, maybe it would be a good idea to try and gather all of the facts & then give some thought to what would be in the best interest of our country.” His reference to “coup” theories was a backhanded chastisement of Trump, who has used that term to describe the investigation.

The president and his defenders indicated he was quite serious Thursday. Standing outside the White House, Trump defended himself against allegations that he privately pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens by inviting a geopolitical rival to launch a probe.

“China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said after being asked about trade negotiations with the country.

Trump on Friday argued he was not specifically targeting a political foe, but merely pushing countries to clean up corruption. Although there is no evidence that the Bidens were involved in criminal corruption in either Ukraine or China, Republicans quickly took up the explanation.

Romney tweeted the counter-argument: “When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.”

House Democrats are investigating whether Trump abused his power when he pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to look into theories about Ukraine meddling in the 2016 and a separate allegation about Hunter Biden’s business ties.

The younger Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.

The question of whether to dodge or defend is perhaps most critical for the Republican senators in competitive races next year. Those Republicans have little incentive to criticize the president because they can’t risk alienating Trump’s base voters.

But their futures also depend on peeling off enough swing voters who turned against Trump last year. An impeachment vote will force them to pick sides – and lose some support.