Trump recorded discussing paying for Playboy model’s story

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A secretly recorded tape of Donald Trump by his longtime personal lawyer was played on CNN Tuesday night in which the two can be heard discussing a potential payment for a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair and the soon-to-be president is heard discussing whether to “pay with cash.”

The audio recording, surreptitiously made by Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen two months before the 2016 presidential election, was provided to CNN by Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis.

The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer’s parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. Trump denies the affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.

Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougal’s story from the Enquirer’s parent company.

Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company “for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” a possible reference to David Pecker, Trump’s friend and president of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc.

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Trump-backed candidate Kemp wins Georgia GOP governor runoff

ATLANTA (AP) — With a damning secret recording of his opponent and a late Trump-Pence endorsement, Secretary of State Brian Kemp on Tuesday won a bruising Republican runoff in the race for Georgia governor.

A self-described “unapologetic conservative” whose campaign ran an eyebrow-raising ad that said he could use his own pickup truck to “round up criminal illegals,” Kemp rode a national wave of voter contempt for the establishment in favour of bare-knuckled outsider politics.

He now faces Democrat Stacey Abrams, who could become the country’s first black female governor, in a race that will test Democrats’ assertion that changing demographics have turned the Republican stronghold into a swing state.

Kemp thanked supporters at a party in his hometown of Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday night and said he had won a “clear, convincing victory.” He credited the White House’s backing for sealing his win. “They poured gasoline in the fire and fueled the Kemp surge to victory,” Kemp said.

Kemp portrayed the race against Abrams as a battle with the “radical left” as Georgia’s future hangs in the balance. “Do you want a governor who is going to answer to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton?” he asked.

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US announces billions to help farmers hurt by Trump tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump’s escalating trade disputes with China and other countries.

However, some farm-state Republicans quickly dismissed the plan, declaring that farmers want markets for their crops, not payoffs for lost sales and lower prices.

The Agriculture Department said it would tap an existing program to provide billions in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trump’s tariffs.

With congressional elections coming soon, the government action underscored administration concern about damage to U.S. farmers from Trump’s trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The administration said the program was just temporary.

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Family says Oakland murder suspect mentally ill

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A paroled robber who allegedly stabbed to death an 18-year-old woman in an unprovoked attack at a California train station is mentally ill and failed to receive proper treatment, his family said Tuesday.

John Cowell, 27, was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles from the Oakland station where Nia Wilson was fatally attacked and her sister wounded Sunday night.

It wasn’t immediately known if Cowell had a lawyer. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday and could be charged with first-degree murder.

Authorities haven’t released a motive for the attack but Cowell’s family told KRON-TV in a statement that he has suffered from mental illness “most of his life.”

Cowell had been in and out of jail without receiving proper treatment, the family contended.

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Toronto shooter’s neighbours unaware of his mental illness

TORONTO (AP) — Ashley Robinson saw Faisal Hussain almost every day when she walked her dog on the winding sidewalk near her high-rise apartment building in Toronto.

“He always was smiling,” she said, adding they lived in the same building in Thorncliffe Park, a 21-story grey building that’s home to immigrants and Canadians alike.

The tall man from floor seven made a point to pet Robinson’s low-slung lab-heeler mix named Dax and would often remark that he was a good dog. “A lot of people here are afraid of my dog, but he wasn’t.”

Robinson didn’t know Hussain’s name until Monday, when she saw video of him on the news. His lanky body was clad in black. His arm calmly raised a handgun on people as they strolled in Toronto’s Greektown neighbourhood on Sunday night.

“I teared up when I saw that video,” said Robinson.

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Rep: Pop star Demi Lovato awake and recovering with family

NEW YORK (AP) — A representative for Demi Lovato says she is awake and recovering with her family after the pop singer was reportedly hospitalized Tuesday for an overdose.

“Demi is awake and with her family who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support,” Lovato’s representative said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Some of the information being reported is incorrect and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now.”

The statement did not provide any details on what led to the singer’s hospitalization.

Emergency officials confirmed they transported a 25-year-old woman who lives on Demi Lovato’s block to the hospital after receiving a call at 11:22 a.m. Tuesday.

TMZ was the first to report that Lovato had been hospitalized for a drug overdose, based on its sources, and other outlets including People magazine also reported her hospitalization based on sources.

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Wildfires in Greece kill 74 in deadliest blazes in decades

RAFINA, Greece (AP) — The death toll from Greece’s deadliest wildfires in decades climbed to 74 Tuesday as rescue crews searched on land and sea for those who sought to escape the blazes that engulfed popular summer resort spots near Athens.

The number of victims appeared set to go even higher, with crews checking charred homes and vehicles and the coast guard scouring beaches and deeper waters. There was no definitive count of the missing.

Fueled by 80 kph (50 mph) winds that frequently changed direction, the fires — one to the west of Athens near the town of Kineta and another to the northeast near the port of Rafina — spread at speeds that surprised many, trapping hundreds on beaches and cutting off escape routes.

All the casualties appeared to be from the fire near Rafina, a popular seaside area that is a mix of permanent residences and vacation homes. The blaze broke out Monday afternoon during a hot, dry spell but the cause was not immediately clear. Aerial photos showed charred swathes of forest and homes.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared three days of national mourning. Apart from the dead, which included children, hospitals treated 187 people, most for burns, with 10 listed in serious condition.

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Newspapers endure more cuts, hope for brighter future online

U.S. newspapers are battered and broken, and this week’s layoffs at the New York Daily News serve as the latest blow. But while local newsgathering has taken a hit, some observers think it’s poised for a digital comeback.

Media company Tronc Inc. cut half of the Daily News’ newsroom staff Monday, including the paper’s editor in chief. The remaining staff, the company said, will focus on breaking news involving “crime, civil justice and public responsibility.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning tabloid has been a fixture in New York for the last century. Jere Hester, news director at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism and a former staffer at the Daily News, bemoaned the gutting of a watchdog in the nation’s largest city.

“Any time we lose a reporter covering a neighbourhood or City Hall, the city is greatly diminished for it. Bottom line is, when you don’t have reporters out there doing grunt work in the street, stories get lost,” Hester said.

The anguish in the world’s media capital exemplifies what’s been happening in the rest of the country for years. Estimated U.S. daily newspaper circulation, print and digital combined, fell 11 per cent to 31 million in 2017, according to the Pew Research Center.

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Ivanka Trump is shutting down her clothing company

NEW YORK (AP) — Ivanka Trump is shutting down her fashion line of dresses, shoes and handbags that became a target of political boycotts and spurred concerns about conflicts of interest after her father was elected.

The president’s daughter said in a statement she made the decision so she could focus more on work as a White House adviser. She had stepped away from the day-to-day management of her company when she joined President Donald Trump’s administration.

“After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington,” she said. She called the move the “only fair outcome for my team and partners.”

The Ivanka Trump brand has been buffeted by politics since she joined the White House early last year. Sales appeared to surge at times due her celebrity as the U.S. president’s daughter — White House adviser Kellyanne Conway once urged on Fox News for people to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff” — only to get battered as those who disliked her father’s policies urged shoppers to boycott the line.

Nordstrom dropped the Ivanka Trump line last year, citing slowing sales, and recently Hudson Bay reportedly did the same.

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Mars making closest approach to Earth in 15 years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Now’s the time to catch Mars in the night sky.

Next week, the red planet is making its closest approach to Earth in 15 years.

The two planets will be just 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometres) apart next Tuesday. And on Friday, Mars will be in opposition. That means Mars and the sun will be on exact opposite sides of Earth. That same day, parts of the world will see a total lunar eclipse.

Mars is already brighter than usual and will shine even more— and appear bigger — as Tuesday nears. Astronomers expect good viewing through early August.

A massive dust storm presently engulfing Mars, however, is obscuring surface details normally visible through telescopes. The Martian atmosphere is so full of dust that NASA’s Opportunity rover can’t recharge — not enough sunlight can reach its solar panels — and so it’s been silent since June 10. Flight controllers don’t expect to hear from 14-year-old Opportunity until the storm subsides, and maybe not even then.