AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Democrats poised to unveil 2 impeachment articles vs. Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are poised to unveil two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — with an announcement expected early Tuesday.

Democratic leaders are expected to announce the formal charges over Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, which they say put U.S. elections and national security at risk when the president asked the foreign ally to investigate his rivals, including Joe Biden.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined during an evening event Monday to discuss the articles or the coming announcement. Details were shared by multiple people familiar with the discussions but unauthorized to discuss them and granted anonymity.

When asked if she has enough votes to impeach the president, the Democratic leader said she would let House lawmakers vote their conscience.

“On an issue like this, we don’t count the votes. People will just make their voices known on it,” Pelosi said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. “I haven’t counted votes, nor will I.”

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FBI was justified in probing Trump-Russia, fed watchdog says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI was justified in opening its investigation into ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia and did not act with political bias, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog declared Monday, undercutting President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he has been the target of a “witch hunt.”

The long-awaited report rejected theories and criticism spread by Trump and his supporters, though it also found “serious performance failures” up the bureau’s chain of command that Republicans are citing as evidence that Trump was targeted by an unfair investigation.

The affirmation of the investigation’s legitimacy, balanced by criticism of the way it was conducted, ensured that partisan battles would persist over one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history. Another review of the origins of the probe continues, and the prosecutor picked by Attorney General William Barr to lead that effort hinted Monday he’ll take a harder view of the FBI’s actions.

Monday’s review by Inspector General Michael Horowitz knocked down multiple lines of attack against the Russia investigation, finding that it was properly opened and that law enforcement leaders were not motivated by political bias. Contrary to the claims of Trump and other critics, it said that opposition research compiled by an ex-British spy named Christopher Steele had no bearing on the decision to open the investigation known as Crossfire Hurricane. And it rejected allegations that a former Trump campaign aide at the centre of the probe was set up by the FBI.

It found that the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it opened its investigation in July 2016 into whether the Trump campaign was co-ordinating with Russia to tip the election in his favour. The report said the FBI had cause to investigate a potential national security threat.

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Report: US misled public on progress in Afghanistan war

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government across three White House administrations misled the public about failures in the Afghanistan war, often suggesting success where it didn’t exist, according to thousands of pages of documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The documents reveal deep frustrations about America’s conduct of the Afghanistan war, including the ever-changing U.S. strategy, the struggles to develop an effective Afghan fighting force and persistent failures to defeat the Taliban and combat corruption throughout the government.

“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing,” Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House’s Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers in 2015.

The interviews were conducted as part of a “Lessons Learned” project by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction over the past several years. SIGAR has produced seven reports so far from the more than 400 interviews, and several more are in the works. The Post sought and received raw interview data through the Freedom of Information Act and lawsuits.

The documents quote officials close to the 18-year war effort describing a campaign by the U.S. government to distort the grim reality of the war.

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Up to 13 feared dead in volcanic eruption off New Zealand

WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) — Unstable conditions hampered rescue workers Tuesday from searching for at least eight people missing and feared dead after a volcano off the New Zealand coast erupted in a towering blast of ash and scalding steam while dozens of tourists explored its moon-like surface. Five deaths have been confirmed.

After Monday afternoon’s eruption, helicopter crews had landed on White Island despite the danger and helped evacuate many survivors, some of them suffering critical burns. But officials said Tuesday they were still working with scientific experts to determine when it would be safe to return to the island to search for the missing.

Aircraft have flown over the island repeatedly, and “no signs of life have been seen at any point,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Russell Clark, an intensive care paramedic worker, said the scene looked like the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, “just blanketed in ash.

The eruption sent a plume of steam and ash an estimated 12,000 feet (3,660 metres) into the air. One of the rescue boats that returned from the island was covered with ash half a meter (yard) thick, Ardern said.

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AP Exclusive: Troops that defied Maduro have fled Venezuela

MIAMI (AP) — For seven nerve-wracking months, they slept through the day in cramped quarters on cold floors, while spending their nights in prayer, keeping fit with dumbbells made from water jugs and peering through the diplomatic compound’s curtains for fear of surveillance.

But on Monday, 16 national guardsmen who shocked Venezuela and the world alike by revolting on April 30 against President Nicolás Maduro were safely out of the country, having successfully fled the Panamanian embassy in Caracas that had been their makeshift home.

The Associated Press spoke exclusively to the group’s leaders, who provided the first detailed account of what led them to plot with Maduro’s opponents in an uprising that laid bare fraying support for the socialist leader within the armed forces.

Due to security concerns, lieutenant colonels Illich Sánchez and Rafael Soto wouldn’t reveal their location, or say exactly when or how they left Venezuela. They only said they journeyed in small groups as part of a clandestine “military operation” that counted with the support of dozens of low-ranking troops and their commanders.

“We want to clarify to all of the Venezuelan people that the decision taken April 30 was in fulfilment of the constitution, the republic’s laws and our democratic institutions,” Sánchez said in a handwritten missive sent to the AP confirming that he and the other 16 troops had all safely left the country.

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Pensacola gunman got around a ban on foreigners buying guns

Generally, foreigners are not allowed to buy guns in the United States. But there are exceptions written into federal law, which may explain how the Saudi flight student who shot three servicemen to death at the Pensacola naval base was able to purchase a weapon.

For example, a foreigner who manages to obtain a state hunting license and can show proof of residency in that state can legally buy a gun.

“It seems every day we find a new loophole,” said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and an expert on gun laws and politics.

Authorities have not disclosed precisely how 21-year-old Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force officer undergoing months of flight training at the Florida military base, obtained the Glock 9 mm handgun he used in the attack Friday that ended with him being killed. But the FBI said it was purchased legally in Florida.

In the aftermath of the rampage, which the FBI is treating as a terrorist attack, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned whether foreigners should be allowed to buy guns. The Republican governor said he supports the Second Amendment but it “does not apply to Saudi Arabians.”

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Consulting firm allows Buttigieg to release names of clients

The McKinsey & Co. consulting firm said Monday that it will allow Pete Buttigieg to identify the clients he served more than a decade ago while the Democratic presidential contender also pledged to open his fundraising events to the news media and provide the names of key fundraising organizers.

The moves reflect the growing pressure Buttigieg is under as his campaign gains traction in early voting states, particularly Iowa, less than two months before the Democratic contest begins. He’s working to avoid losing his momentum as rivals, especially Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, step up their criticism of him for not being forthright about how he raises money and the type of corporate work he undertook more than a decade ago.

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is one of the party’s most successful fundraisers this year — collecting more than $50 million so far in 2019 — in part by tapping the resources of big donors. That’s set him apart from Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have pleased the party’s progressive base by rejecting traditional fundraising techniques and instead relying largely on small dollar donations.

Buttigieg has resisted opening his fundraisers, but that position became untenable as his campaign moved into the top tier. On Monday, Buttigieg campaign manager Mike Schmuhl said, “From the start, Pete has said it is important for every candidate to be open and honest, and his actions have reflected that commitment.”

Former Vice-President Joe Biden is the only other current Democrat candidate who regularly opens his fundraisers to a pool of reporters. Warren only does fundraisers for the Democratic Party and says she’ll only do those if they are open to the media. Sanders holds what his campaign calls “grassroots” fundraisers that are meant to prioritize even small donors and have generally been open to the press or livestreamed.

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Broadcast TV shut out of Globe nods, Netflix edges HBO

NEW YORK (AP) — The Golden Globe TV nominations were most striking not for what they included, but what they didn’t: The traditional broadcast networks were completely shut out in all 55 nominations.

It was a crowning moment for Netflix, and not just for the jeweled one on Queen Elizabeth’s head. The streaming service, which dominated the Globe nominations overall, edged out HBO to win the most TV nods on Monday.

Netflix got 17 TV nods, to go with its 17 on the movie side. HBO was a close successor at 15. Two Netflix shows got four nods: “The Crown,” in its new Olivia Colman incarnation, in the drama category, and “Unbelievable” in the limited series category, tying with HBO’s “Chornobyl.”

The shutout, believed to be for the first time, of the broadcast networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW and PBS — made for a seemingly awkward situation for NBC, which will host the awards ceremony Jan. 5 and covered the nominations live on “Today.”

“It’s shocking and weird that NBC will still telecast the Globes even though voters decided that the network’s programs aren’t worthy to compete,” said TV analyst Tom O’Neil of goldderby.com, adding that a similar scenario has gradually been playing out at the Emmys.

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George Laurer, inventor of ubiquitous UPC, dies at 94

WENDELL, N.C. (AP) — George J. Laurer, whose invention of the Universal Product Code at IBM transformed retail and other industries around the world, has died. He was 94.

A funeral was held on Monday for Laurer, who died Thursday at his home in Wendell, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Sean Bannon with Strickland Funeral Home in Wendell said he had no information on Laurer’s cause of death.

Laurer was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in the early 1970s when he spearheaded the development of t he UPC, or bar code.

The now-ubiquitous marking, composed of unique black bars and a 12-digit number, allowed retailers to identify products and their prices as they are scanned, usually at checkout.

Laurer said in a 2010 interview that grocery stores in the 1970s were dealing with soaring costs and the labour-intensive requirements of putting price tags on all of their products. The bar code led to fewer pricing errors and allowed retailers to keep better account of their inventory.

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Strasburg, Nationals reach record $245M, 7-year deal

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Stephen Strasburg returned to the Washington Nationals with a record contract on the first day of the winter meetings, a deal that puts fellow free agent pitcher Gerrit Cole in position for an even larger payday.

Washington and the World Series MVP agreed to a $245 million, seven-year contact, a deal of surprising size and length for a 31-year-old right-hander with an injury filled resume.

Strasburg received the highest deal for a pitcher in both total dollars and average annual value at $35 million. The largest contract for a pitcher had been David Price’s $217 million, seven-year deal with Boston that began in 2016. The highest average value had been Zack Greinke’s $34.4 million as part of a $206.5 million, six-year agreement with Arizona prior to the 2016 season.

“For me, it was an early Christmas present,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “Just watching his whole career, to think that he’s going to end it here with the team he started with is awesome for him and his family.”

Strasburg gets $35 million annually, with $80 million deferred — an even $11,428,571 a year — at 1% interest. The deferred money is payable from 2028-30, with an interest payment of about $4 million due on Dec. 31, 2029.