Federal judge: McGahn must comply with House subpoena

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to President Donald Trump’s effort to keep his top aides from testifying.

The outcome could lead to renewed efforts by House Democrats to compel testimony from other high-ranking officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton.

Not even the president’s closest aides who receive a subpoena from Congress can “ignore or defy congressional compulsory process, by order of the President or otherwise,” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in ruling on a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee.

McGahn was a star witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and Democrats wanted to question McGahn about possible obstruction of justice by Trump. That was months before the House started an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice-President Joe Biden.

The administration will appeal Jackson’s ruling. “This decision contradicts longstanding legal precedent established by Administrations of both political parties,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said. “We will appeal and are confident that the important constitutional principle advanced by the Administration will be vindicated.”

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Esper says Trump ordered him to stop SEAL review board

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defence Secretary Mark Esper declared Monday that President Donald Trump ordered him to stop a disciplinary review of a Navy SEAL accused of battlefield misconduct, an intervention that raised questions about America’s commitment to international standards for battlefield ethics.

Esper’s comments are the latest twist in the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, which led to a conflict between Trump and armed services leaders over military discipline. The dispute peaked over the weekend with the firing of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer.

Gallagher was acquitted of murder in the stabbing death of an Islamic State militant captive but convicted by a military jury of posing with the corpse while in Iraq in 2017.

Esper initially favoured allowing the Navy to proceed with a peer-review board which could have resulted in Gallagher losing his SEAL status, but he said he was obliged to follow Trump’s order. Still, Esper also directed the Pentagon’s legal office to review how service members are educated in the laws of armed conflict and trained to wartime behavioural standards.

“I can control what I can control,” Esper told reporters when asked whether Trump sent the right message to U.S. troops by intervening to stop the Gallagher review. “The president is the commander in chief. He has every right, authority and privilege to do what he wants to do.”

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In Virginia, Bloomberg blasts Trump for Navy leader’s ouster

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — New presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg travelled to the city that hosts the world’s largest Navy base on Monday and blasted President Donald Trump over the recent ouster of the nation’s Navy secretary.

For the first stop of his Democratic campaign, Bloomberg went to Norfolk, where he criticized Trump over the firing of Richard Spencer. The civilian leader of the Navy said he could not in good conscience follow an order by the president to allow a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes to retire without losing his SEAL status.

“The fact remains: We have a president, a commander in chief, who has no respect for the rule of law, and no concern whatsoever for ethics or honour, or for the values that truly make America great,” Bloomberg told a group of reporters at a downtown hotel.

Virginia is a critical Super Tuesday state that is key to Bloomberg’s campaign strategy of bypassing early states to focus on the crush of states that vote later in the cycle. And the locale offered the billionaire and former mayor of New York City more than just the latest controversy in Washington to promote his platform.

The neighbouring city of Virginia Beach suffered a mass shooting on May 31 that killed 12 people at a municipal complex. Bloomberg, 77, said that such shootings have become “almost routine” and that “we have to put an end to this madness.”

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With testimony over, work begins on key impeachment report

WASHINGTON (AP) — The witnesses have spoken, the politics are largely settled. Now impeachment investigators will make the case for public opinion.

On Monday, hundreds of pages from Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff’s intelligence committee were being compiled into an exhaustive report that will begin to outline whether President Donald Trump engaged in “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours” by withholding $400 million in aid as he pushed Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. The report may come as soon as next week.

There are rising political stakes for all sides. Americans remain deeply split over the impeachment question, despite hours of sometimes riveting testimony, and the country’s polarization now seems to foreshadow an outcome: Democrats are poised to vote to impeach the president while Republicans stand firmly with Trump.

Sending the case on to the Judiciary Committee, which is ready to start its own round of hearings in December, provides yet another chance to sway public opinion before a House vote expected by Christmas and a Senate trial in 2020.

“The evidence of wrongdoing and misconduct by the President that we have gathered to date is clear and hardly in dispute,” Schiff told colleagues in a letter Monday. “What is left to us now is to decide whether this behaviour is compatible with the office of the Presidency, and whether the constitutional process of impeachment is warranted.”

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Remains found believed to be UFC fighters’ stepdaughter

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama district attorney said Monday that authorities have “good reason” to believe human remains found in a wooded area belong to the missing stepdaughter of a UFC heavyweight fighter.

The remains were found on a county road in neighbouring Macon County, Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes told The Associated Press.

“I can confirm that human remains have been found in Macon County on County Road 2 and we have good reason to believe they are that of Aniah Blanchard,” Hughes said.

Police arrested a third person Monday in connection with the disappearance of Blanchard, 19. She was last seen Oct. 23 in Auburn. Her stepfather is UFC fighter Walt Harris.

After she disappeared, Blanchard’s black Honda CRV was found abandoned more than 50 miles (90 kilometres) away at an apartment complex in Montgomery, Alabama. Auburn police detective Josh Mixon testified at a hearing last week that Blanchard’s blood was found in the car and it appeared she had suffered a life-threatening injury.

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Inspiring tale of a Chicago neighbourhood that would not die

CHICAGO (AP) — With the echo of African drums, Fairfield Avenue comes alive.

Men, women and children, drawn to their front porches by the pulsing beat, witness an impromptu parade led by 60-year-old Hasan Smith. A long line of well-wishers follows him to the home that he helped rebuild — the first home he has ever owned.

“Hello, neighbours!” his wife, Mary, shouts.

They all wave, and celebrate another chapter in the rebirth of a neighbourhood.

Today, the area known as Chicago Lawn is a place where kids ride bikes, where revelers gather for block parties and street dances, where shoppers frequent a farmers’ market and a resale shop in a once-vacant storefront and where neighbourhood teens find work at a screen-printing business.

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Hong Kong leader refuses to give ground after poll setback

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam refused to offer any concessions to anti-government protesters despite a local election setback, saying Tuesday that she will instead accelerate dialogues and identify ways to address societal grievances.

Lam said the central government in Beijing didn’t blame her for the election outcome. Nearly 3 million voters cast their ballot in a record turnout that gave the pro-democracy bloc a landslide victory with 90 per cent of seats and control of 17 out of 18 district councils.

The low-key race was viewed as a barometer for public support for more than five months of pro-democracy protests.

Lam said Sunday’s election may have reflected unhappiness with the government handling of the unrest but it also showed that many people want a stop to violence.

In early September when she withdrew an extradition bill that sparked the unrest, Lam said she had also given a detailed response to protesters’ other demands including free elections for the city’s leader and legislature, as well as a probe into alleged police brutality.

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Pope visits Jesuit Japan community that could have been his

TOKYO (AP) — Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Japan in a very personal way Tuesday, spending the morning with his Jesuit confreres in the community that would have been his own had his dream to be a missionary come true.

Francis celebrated morning Mass in the chapel of the Jesuit-run Sophia University and visited retired and sick priests before delivering a speech on Jesuit education in the final event of his weeklong Asia pilgrimage.

“In a society as competitive and technologically oriented as present-day Japan, this university should be a centre not only of intellectual formation, but also a place where a better society and a more hope-filled future can take shape,” he told faculty and students.

As a young Jesuit in Argentina, the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio had dreamed of following in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier, who introduced Christianity to Japan in the 16th century.

He was prevented because of health reasons, but he joked with Japanese bishops upon arriving in Tokyo that he got his “revenge” when he was in charge of the order in Buenos Aires and sent five Argentine priests to Japan as missionaries.

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As stigma ebbs, college students seek mental health help

More college students are turning to their schools for help with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of more than three dozen public universities found.

On some campuses, the number of students seeking treatment has nearly doubled over the last five years while overall enrolment has remained relatively flat. The increase has been tied to reduced stigma around mental health, along with rising rates of depression and other disorders. Universities have expanded their mental health clinics, but the growth is often slow, and demand keeps surging.

Long waits have provoked protests at schools from Maryland to California, in some cases following student suicides. Meanwhile, campus counsellingcentres grapple with low morale and high burnout as staff members face increasingly heavy workloads.

“It’s an incredible struggle, to be honest,” said Jamie Davidson, associate vice-president for student wellness at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which has 11 licensed counsellors for 30,000 students. “It’s stressful on our staff and our resources. We’ve increased it, but you’re never going to talk to anyone in the mental health field who tells you we have sufficient resources.”

The Associated Press requested five years of data from the largest public university in each state. A total of 39 provided annual statistics from their counselling clinics or health centres. The remaining 11 said they did not have complete records or had not provided records five months after they were requested.

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No easy mark: Female bodybuilder, 82, clobbers intruder

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — An intruder didn’t count on an 82-year-old woman living alone being an award-winning bodybuilder with nerves of steel.

Willie Murphy was getting ready for bed Thursday at her home in Rochester, New York, when a man pounded on the door and said he needed an ambulance, Murphy told WHAM.

She called police but wouldn’t open the door. Then, she said, the man broke in and skulked through the dark house.

“He picked the wrong house to break into,” Murphy said.

She clobbered him with a table, poured shampoo in his face and was beating him with a broom when police arrived.