AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EST
Senate leaders' budget deal faces opposition in both parties
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate leaders brokered a long-sought budget agreement Wednesday that would shower the Pentagon and domestic programs with an extra $300 billion over the next two years. But both Democratic liberals and GOP tea party forces swung against the plan, raising questions about its chances just a day before the latest government shutdown deadline.
The measure was a win for Republican allies of the Pentagon and for Democrats seeking more for infrastructure projects and combatting opioid abuse. But it represented a bitter defeat for many liberal Democrats who sought to use the party's leverage on the budget to resolve the plight of immigrant "Dreamers" who face deportation after being brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The deal does not address immigration.
Beyond the $300 billion figure, the agreement adds almost $90 billion in overdue disaster aid for hurricane-slammed Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
Senate leaders hope to approve the measure Thursday and send it to the House for a confirming vote before the government begins to shut down Thursday at midnight. But hurdles remain to avert the second shutdown in a month.
While Senate Democrats celebrated the moment of rare bipartisanship - Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "genuine breakthrough" - progressives and activists blasted them for leaving immigrants in legislative limbo. Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California, herself a key architect of the budget plan, announced her opposition Wednesday morning and mounted a remarkable daylong speech on the House floor, trying to force GOP leaders in the House to promise a later vote on legislation to protect the younger immigrants.
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Syria confirms rare US strike on pro-government forces
BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian state-run media on Thursday confirmed a rare U.S. strike on government-backed troops in eastern Syria, citing reports of dozens killed and wounded from the attack.
The overnight attack, which a U.S. military official earlier said killed about 100, adds another layer to a conflict in Syria that is once again plunging into a new unpredictable spiral of violence.
The U.S. official said the U.S. launched the airstrikes after as many as 500 attackers began what appeared to be a coordinated assault on U.S.-backed forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces who were accompanied by U.S. advisers in Deir el-Zour province.
The official said the strikes were in self-defense after the pro-government forces began firing artillery and tank rounds at the SDF. About 100 of the attackers were killed, the official said.
It was a rare U.S. strike against forces that support Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
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South Korean president to meet North Korean leader's sister
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's president plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister and other senior North Korean officials when they visit the South this week for the Winter Olympics, his spokesman said Thursday.
Kim Yo Jong, believed to be around 30, would be the first member of North Korea's ruling family to visit the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.
She is to arrive Friday on a private jet to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Games later that day, and will join South Korean President Moon Jae-in for lunch on Saturday, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
It's highly unlikely that the luncheon will lead to an immediate breakthrough in international tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons development, but just holding such a meeting seemed unimaginable only a few months ago.
Moon is looking to the Olympics as an opportunity to pursue a diplomatic opening with North Korea after a year of heightened tensions over its nuclear and missile programs.
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North Korea has military parade on eve of Olympics in South
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea held a massive military parade highlighted by intercontinental ballistic missiles in its capital on Thursday, just one day before South Korea hosts the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Kim Jong Un, dressed in a long black winter coat, was shown walking on a red carpet with his wife at the beginning of the event, which North Korea's state-run television broadcast hours after it was over.
It began with thousands of goose-stepping troops lined up in Kim Il Sung Square to form words and slogans. Later, North Korea displayed its most powerful strategic weapons, including what appeared to be Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 ICBMs rolled out on launcher trucks. Analysts believe the missiles, which were successfully tested last year in three launches, could potentially reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.
Virtually all foreign media were excluded from the event.
In a televised speech, Kim said the parade marks North Korea's emergence as a "global military power" despite facing the "worst sanctions."
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Pelosi speaks for record 8 hours in favor of 'Dreamers'
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi staged a record-breaking, eight-hour speech in hopes of pressuring Republicans to allow a vote on protecting "Dreamer" immigrants - and to demonstrate to increasingly angry progressives and Democratic activists that she has done all she could.
Wearing four-inch heels and forgoing any breaks, Pelosi, 77, spent much of the rare talkathon Wednesday reading personal letters from the young immigrants whose temporary protection from deportation is set to expire next month. The California Democrat quoted from the Bible and Pope Francis, as Democrats took turns sitting behind her in support. The Office of the House Historian said it was the longest continuous speech in the chamber on record.
"You see, these people are being deported," Pelosi said around hour six. "We can do something today to at least make whole the children."
Her remarks seemed partly aimed at the liberal wing of Pelosi's own party, who seethed as Senate Democrats cut a budget deal with Republicans that could quickly steal the momentum behind the effort to resolve the Dreamers' plight.
The wide-ranging budget accord says nothing about renewing the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, called DACA, which temporarily shields Dreamers - hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the country as children and living here illegally - from deportation. President Donald Trump has moved to annul DACA.
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George W. Bush says Russia meddled in 2016 US election
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Former President George W. Bush said on Thursday that "there's pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled" in the 2016 American presidential election.
While never mentioning President Donald Trump by name, Bush appeared to be pushing back on Trump's decisions on immigration, as well as trying to have warmed relations with Russia.
"There's pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled," Bush said at a talk in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. "Whether they affected the outcome is another question."
Bush also said that "it's problematic that a foreign nation is involved in our election system. Our democracy is only as good as people trust the results."
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump win. Numerous investigations are under way to determine whether Trump's campaign aided the Kremlin in its efforts.
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Pentagon misconduct complaints increase; fewer found guilty
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of complaints filed against senior military and defense officials has increased over the past several years, but more cases are being rejected as not credible and fewer officers are being found guilty of misconduct, according to data from Defense Department investigators.
Overall, there were 803 complaints filed in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, compared to 787 the previous year. But just 144 were deemed credible and investigated by the IG, and 49 senior officials were eventually found guilty of misconduct. Allegations against the officials often involve ethical misconduct - such as having an inappropriate relationship - but they also include violating travel rules, wrongly accepting gifts, sending subordinates on personal errands or treating workers badly.
The data was released Wednesday during a House Armed Services personnel subcommittee hearing. Glenn Fine, who is serving as the Pentagon's inspector general, said the decline in the number of cases being investigated is due to a more thorough screening process of the complaints that come in. As a result, he said, about one-third of the cases that are investigated are ultimately substantiated. That rate is a bit lower than last year, but much higher than previous years. The rate in 2008 was just 14 percent.
Senior military leaders also told the panel that they are seeing far more so-called whistleblower complaints that can trigger investigations and stall careers, but only a tiny fraction of the alleged offenders are found guilty.
Fine told the House panel that just two whistleblower cases charging a senior official with retribution were substantiated in the 2017 fiscal year, compared to three in each of the two previous years. Whistleblower cases usually allege that an officer or superior has retaliated against a lower ranking service member or worker for making some type of complaint.
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AP Exclusive: AP finds food used as weapon against Rohingya
NAYAPARA REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (AP) - Abdul Goni says the Myanmar government was starving his family one stage at a time.
First, soldiers stopped the Rohingya Muslim from walking three hours to the forest for the firewood he sold to feed his family. Then Buddhist neighbors and seven soldiers took his only cow, which he rented out to fertilize rice fields. Next, he says, they killed his uncle and strung him up on a wire for trying to stop the theft of his buffalos.
By the time Goni saw bodies floating down the local river, of fellow Rohingya killed for illegal fishing, he knew his family would die if they didn't leave. On bad days, they carved the flesh out of banana plant stalks for food. On the worst days, his children ate nothing.
"I felt so sorry that I couldn't give them enough food," the 25-year-old says, tears running down his face, in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, just across the border from Myanmar. "Everything just got worse and worse. ... Day by day, the pressure was increasing all around us. They used to tell us, 'This isn't your land. ... We'll starve you out.'"
First, massacres, rapes and the wholesale destruction of villages by the Myanmar military in western Rakhine state forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, in reprisal for Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25. Now, the food supply appears to be another weapon that's being used against the dwindling numbers of Rohingya in Myanmar.
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Ancient temple left neglected as Yemen war threatens history
MARIB, Yemen (AP) - Along a narrow road in Yemen choked by natural gas tankers and heavily armed soldiers lies an ancient temple neglected and threatened in a nation now at war.
The Awwam Temple links a region now on the front lines of the Saudi-led war against Shiite rebels to Arabia's pre-Islamic past, a time of spice caravans and the mysterious Queen of Sheba.
Experts fear the temple, as well as other historic and cultural wonders across Yemen beyond those acknowledged by international authorities, remains at risk as the country's stalemated war rages on.
"All the villages are historic in a way," said Anna Paolini, the director of UNESCO's regional office in Qatar that oversees Yemen and Gulf Arab nations. "They're still heritage of the country. It's sad to see what's happening."
The nearly 3-year-old Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 2 million and helped spawn a devastating cholera epidemic in the Arab world's poorest country. Amid its humanitarian crises, Yemen's culture and historical sites also have been affected.
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Philly feting 1st Super Bowl title with parade
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The championship parade Philadelphia has dreamed about and agonized over - year after year, decade after decade, across generations of faithful but frustrated fans - well, it's here, Philly. It's finally here. Your beloved Eagles are heading up Broad Street.
The city's first Super Bowl parade steps off Thursday, capping a glorious week for jubilant fans celebrating an NFL title that had eluded them for nearly 60 years. Led by backup quarterback Nick Foles and second-year coach Doug Pederson, the Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33.
Schools, museums, courts, government offices and even the Philadelphia Zoo will be shut down as the city fetes an underdog Eagles team that few outside Philadelphia thought had a prayer of beating the mighty Patriots. The parade starts near the team's stadium and, fittingly, ends its 5-mile (8-kilometer) trek at the art museum steps that Sylvester Stallone climbed in the "Rocky" movies.
Organizers said they're preparing for as many as 2 million people to jam the parade route. No official estimate was released for the parade after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, but experts have said that crowd likely didn't exceed 750,000.
Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney asked fans to celebrate with passion and pride after Sunday's wild postgame celebration was marred by "knuckleheads" who resorted to violence and vandalism.
