AP News in Brief at 11:11 p.m. EST

House OKs Democrats’ bill blocking Trump emergency on wall

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats ignored a veto threat and rammed legislation through the House Tuesday that would stymie President Donald Trump’s bid for billions of extra dollars for his border wall, escalating a clash over whether he was abusing his powers to advance his paramount campaign pledge.

The House’s 245-182 vote to block Trump’s national emergency declaration fell well below the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override his promised veto. Top Republicans worked to keep defections as low as possible — 13 backed the Democrats’ resolution — underscoring their desire to avoid a tally suggesting that Trump’s hold on lawmakers was weakening.

The vote also throws the political hot potato to the Republican-run Senate, where there were already enough GOP defections to edge it to the cusp of passage. Vice-President Mike Pence used a lunch with Republican senators at the Capitol to try keeping them aboard, citing a dangerous crisis at the border, but there were no signs he’d succeeded.

“I personally couldn’t handicap the outcome at this point,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s planning a vote within the next three weeks. He even said Republicans remained uncertain about the legality of Trump’s move, telling reporters, “We’re in the process of weighing that.”

Senate passage would force Trump’s first veto, which the House vote demonstrated that Congress would surely fail to overturn. But the showdown was forcing Republicans to cast uncomfortable votes pitting their support for a president wildly popular with GOP voters against fears that his expansive use of emergency powers would invite future Democratic presidents to do likewise for their own pet policies.

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Cohen says he will tell ‘my story’ in public hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said Tuesday that the American people can decide “exactly who is telling the truth” when he testifies Wednesday to the House Oversight and Reform committee, setting the stage for a blockbuster public hearing that threatens to overshadow Trump’s summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Cohen, once Trump’s loyal attorney and fixer, has turned on his former boss and co-operated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. He begins a three-year prison sentence in May after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 and committing campaign finance violations while he was working for Trump.

“I look forward to tomorrow, to be able to in my voice to tell the American people my story,” Cohen told reporters Tuesday.

He made the comments after meeting with the Senate intelligence committee for more than nine hours behind closed doors. Cohen said he appreciated the opportunity to “clear the record and tell the truth” to the Senate committee after acknowledging he lied to the panel in 2017.

It was the first of three consecutive days of congressional appearances for Cohen. After the public hearing Wednesday, he will appear before the House intelligence panel Thursday, again speaking in private.

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Trump, Kim to hold second nuclear summit with world watching

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — President Donald Trump is paying a courtesy call on his Vietnamese hosts while North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was expected to take in some sights Wednesday before the leaders open their second nuclear summit with a one-on-one meeting and private social dinner.

But the carnival-like atmosphere in the Vietnamese capital, with vendors hawking T-shirts emblazoned with the leaders’ faces, stood in contrast to the serious items on their agendas: North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Trump and Kim first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was long on historic pageantry but short on any enforceable agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea has spent decades, at great economic sacrifice, building its nuclear program, and there is widespread skepticism that it will give away that program cheaply.

Trump has praised Pyongyang for ceasing missile tests and has appeared to ease up on demanding a timeline for disarmament. Trump hopes that Kim, who is seeking relief from crushing U.S. sanctions, will opt to give up his nuclear weapons program in exchange for help revitalizing his country’s economy.

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Trump touts prosperity, but is that what North Korea wants?

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — President Donald Trump’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been simple and clear: give up your nuclear weapons and a flood of wealth will soon be yours for the taking.

But here’s a nagging question: Is that really what Kim wants?

With Trump and Kim descending on Hanoi for their second summit , there has been a persistent suggestion that Kim will look around at the relative prosperity of his Vietnamese hosts — who are certainly no strangers to U.S. hostility — and think that he, too, should open up his country to more foreign investment and trade.

Trump himself has been the primary cheerleader.

Before boarding Air Force One, he tweeted that “Chairman Kim realizes, perhaps better than anyone else, that without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the world.”

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Nigeria’s president is declared winner after bumpy vote

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s president was declared the clear winner of a second term in Africa’s largest democracy early Wednesday, after a campaign in which he urged voters to give him another chance to tackle gaping corruption, widespread insecurity and an economy limping back from a rare recession.

While many frustrated Nigerians had said they wanted to give someone new a try, President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator, profited from his upright reputation in an oil-rich nation weary of politicians enriching themselves instead of the people.

Supporters began dancing in the streets of the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday night as vote counting stretched his lead from the weekend election to nearly 4 million votes over top opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar, a billionaire former vice-president who made sweeping campaign promises to “make Nigeria work again.”

Buhari received 15.1 million votes, the electoral commission said in making its official declaration before dawn Wednesday. Abubakar received 11.2 million. The average national turnout was 35.6 per cent, continuing a downward trend.

In a failed last-ditch effort to stop the official declaration, Abubakar’s party claimed that election data had been manipulated and demanded fresh elections in four of Nigeria’s 36 states.

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Ex-federal prosecutor advances to runoff for Chicago mayor

CHICAGO (AP) — A former federal prosecutor running as an outsider advanced Tuesday to a runoff for Chicago mayor, a transitional election for a lakefront metropolis still struggling to shed its reputation for corruption, police brutality and street violence.

Lori Lightfoot, who could become the first African-American woman to lead the nation’s third-largest city, was the top vote-getter in a field of 14 that included a member of the Daley family that has dominated Chicago politics for much of the last six decades. She advances to a runoff against the candidate with second-highest vote.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel ‘s decision not to seek a third term drew some of the biggest names in state and municipal government as would-be successors, along with some political newcomers with strong support. But none figured to get enough votes to avoid a two-candidate faceoff on April 2.

“What do you think of us now?” Lightfoot said Tuesday night to a crowd of her supporters. “This is what change looks like.”

Lightfoot, the first openly gay woman to run for Chicago mayor, has been critical of efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white police officer.

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Australian Cardinal Pell faces abuse sentencing hearing

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of child sex abuse could face his first night in custody after a sentencing hearing Wednesday that will decide his punishment for molesting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral two decades ago.

A Victoria state County Court jury unanimously convicted Cardinal George Pell in December of abusing the two 13-year-olds in a rear room of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 weeks after becoming archbishop of Australia’s second-largest city.

But unusually, Pell wasn’t taken into custody immediately because he had surgery scheduled to have both knees replaced.

Chief Judge Peter Kidd continued Pell’s bail until his sentencing hearing, but warned Pell that did not indicate he would avoid a custodial sentence.

Pope Francis removed Pell as a member of his informal cabinet in October. He had remained prefect of the Vatican’s economy ministry, but his five-year term expired this month, acting Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said.

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United Methodist delegates reject recognizing gay marriage

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s divisive bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy.

Emotions were high throughout the third and final day of the UMC’s meeting. Some supporters of greater LGBT inclusion were in tears, while others vented their anger when, midway through the session, delegates defeated a proposal that would have let regional and local church bodies decide for themselves on gay-friendly policies.

“Devastation,” was how former Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson of Detroit described her feelings. “As someone who left because I’m gay, I’m waiting for the church I love to stop bringing more hate.”

After several more hours of debate, the conservatives’ proposal, called the Traditional Plan, was approved by a vote of 438-384. Opponents unsuccessfully sought to weaken the plan with hostile amendments or to prolong the debate past a mandatory adjournment time set to accommodate a monster truck rally in the arena. One delegate even requested an investigation into the possibility that “vote buying” was taking place at the conference.

The Traditional Plan’s success was due to an alliance of conservatives from the U.S. and overseas. About 43 per cent of the delegates were from abroad, mostly from Africa, and overwhelmingly supported the LGBT bans.

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GOP candidate in disputed US House race not running again

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican candidate whose narrow lead in a North Carolina congressional race was thrown out because of suspicions of ballot fraud announced Tuesday he will not run in the newly ordered do-over election, saying he needs surgery late next month.

The withdrawal of Mark Harris could help Republicans try to keep the competitive 9th District seat by enabling the GOP to distance itself from the scandal.

The Harris announcement focused on his health problems without mentioning the absentee ballot scandal. He didn’t say what kind of surgery was planned.

Harris had led Democrat Dan McCready by just 905 votes after November’s election, but the outcome was never certified. State election officials grew concerned about reports that an operative working for Harris was illegally tampering with absentee ballots.

A hearing last week into the allegations took an unexpected turn when Harris said while testifying that he agreed a new election should be called. He gave up attempts to be declared winner, citing a blood infection that required hospitalization and led to two strokes. It is unclear when the strokes occurred.

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Dozens buried by landslide at unlicensed Indonesia gold mine

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The collapse of an unlicensed gold mine in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province has buried dozens of people, disaster officials said Wednesday, as emergency personnel struggled to rescue victims in a remote location that’s inaccessible to heavy earth-moving equipment.

Local disaster official Abdul Muin Paputungan said one person is confirmed dead and at least 13 people with injuries ranging from light to serious have been rescued. Dozen could be buried, he said.

“It is estimated that as many as 60 people are buried under landslide and rock material,” he said in a statement released by the national disaster agency.

Makeshift wooden structures in the mine in Bolaang Mongondow district collapsed on Tuesday evening due to unstable soil and the large number of mining holes, burying people in the mine pit.

Informal mining operations are commonplace in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labour in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.