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A U.S. federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to keep in place deportation protection for 700,000 young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers.”

In a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, District Judge John Bates also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to accept new applicants to the program.

The 2012 policy enacted under former President Barack Obama allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors, were enrolled in or completed high school and did not have a serious criminal record to live and work in the country for two-year renewable periods without the fear of deportation.

DHS rescinded the program in 2017, arguing the prior administration lacked the legal authority to create it. 

Trump gave lawmakers a March deadline for coming up with a permanent fix for DACA recipients, but the Republican-led Congress has not acted. Several federal courts have also ruled existing DACA protections must remain in place while the overall legal challenges continue.

Judge Bates wrote in the Tuesday decision that the DHS decision to rescind DACA was “arbitrary and capricious because the department failed to adequately explain its conclusion that the program is unlawful.”

He put his ruling on hold for 90 days to give the department a chance to “better explain its rescission decision.”

There was no immediate response from the Trump administration.
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President Donald Trump likes to tell a story about the U.S. paying out billions of dollars to Iran as part of the multinational deal freezing its nuclear program and easing sanctions against it. What he doesn’t say is that most of that money was Iran’s to begin with. The rest relates to an old debt the U.S. had with Iran.

The numbers and some details change in his retelling — dating back to the 2016 campaign — but his bottom line is always the same: The Obama administration was hoodwinked into giving Iran all that money, some of it in a huge and hidden bundle of cash.

The latest iteration of his claim Tuesday and the reality behind it:

TRUMP: “The Iran deal is a terrible deal. We paid $150 billion. We gave $1.8 billion in cash. That’s actual cash, barrels of cash. It’s insane. It’s ridiculous. It should have never been made. But we will be talking about it.” — remarks before a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. At a news conference Tuesday, he spoke about “giving them, Iran, $150 billion at one point.”

THE FACTS: There was no $150 billion payout from the U.S. treasury. The money he refers to represents Iranian assets held abroad that were frozen until the deal was reached and Tehran was allowed to access its funds.

The payout of about $1.8 billion is a separate matter. That dates to the 1970s, when Iran paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered because the government was overthrown and diplomatic relations ruptured.

That left people, businesses and governments in each country indebted to partners in the other, and these complex claims took decades to sort out in tribunals and arbitration. For its part, Iran paid settlements of more than $2.5 billion to U.S. citizens and businesses.

The day after the nuclear deal was implemented, the U.S. and Iran announced they had settled the claim over the 1970s military equipment order, with the U.S. agreeing to pay the $400 million principal along with about $1.3 billion in interest. The $400 million was paid in cash and flown to Tehran on a cargo plane, which gave rise to Trump’s dramatic accounts of money stuffed in barrels or boxes and delivered in the dead of night. The arrangement provided for the interest to be paid later, not crammed into containers.

Read more AP Fact Checks.
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The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule Tuesday that would stop it from relying on scientific research underpinned by confidential data in its making of regulations.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt billed the measure as a way to boost transparency for the benefit of the industries his agency regulates. But scientists and former EPA officials worry it will hamstring the agency’s ability to protect public health by putting key medical and industry data off limits.

“The science that we use is going to be transparent, it’s going to be reproducible,” Pruitt told a gathering at the EPA.

“It’s going to be able to be analyzed by those in the marketplace, and those that watch what we do can make informed decisions about whether we’ve drawn the proper conclusions or not,” said Pruitt, who has been pursuing President Donald Trump’s mission to ease the regulatory burden on business.

The EPA has for decades relied on scientific research that is rooted in confidential medical and industry data as a basis for its air, water and chemicals rules. While it publishes enormous amounts of research and data to the public, the confidential material is held back.

Business interests have argued the practice is tantamount to writing laws behind closed doors and unfairly prevents them from vetting the research underpinning the EPA’s often costly regulatory requirements. They argue that if the data cannot be published, the rules should not be adopted.

But ex-EPA officials say the practice is vital.

“Other government agencies also use studies like these to develop policy and regulations, and to buttress and defend rules against legal challenges. They are, in fact, essential to making sound public policy,” former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Janet McCabe, former assistant administrator for air and water, wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times last month.

The new policy would be based on proposed legislation spearheaded by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who denies mainstream climate change science.

Emails obtained through a public records request last week showed that Smith or his staff met with Pruitt’s staff in recent months to craft the policy. Those emails also showed that Pruitt’s staff grappled with the possibility the policy would complicate things for the chemicals industry, which submits reams of confidential data to EPA regulatory programs.
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Fighting back tears before a Senate panel, American physician Chris Brann on Tuesday recounted the abduction of his son, Nicholas, who was taken to Brazil in 2012.

“This is best described as a living death,” Brann said in a halting, emotion-laden voice. “He [Nicholas] was 3 years old when he was unilaterally ripped out of my life, moved to a country he had never lived in, to a language he didn’t speak, to a culture he didn’t understand.”

Brann added, “I’ve never been allowed to be there for his birthday, to be there for Christmas. You can’t know what that feels like until you’ve been in that situation. As a father, there are times I feel like a failure because I wasn’t able to protect my boy.”

Hundreds of cases yearly

Nicholas was taken by his Brazilian-born mother, Brann’s ex-wife. The case is not unique. Hundreds of international child abductions by parents are reported in the United States each year.

According to State Department officials, the return rate hovers at about 45 percent. U.S. lawmakers of both parties say America can and must do a better job recovering its youngest citizens and preventing such abductions in the first place.

“There’s more Congress and the executive branch can do to end the kidnapping of these children,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said.

Hague Convention

The United States is one of 82 signatories to the 1980 Hague Convention to combat international child abduction, which commits nations to expeditiously return minors illegally taken abroad by a parent.

U.S. law also speaks to the issue. The 1993 International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act established federal penalties for a parent who removes a child from the United States in violation of another parent’s custodial rights.

The 2014 International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act gives the State Department wide latitude to punish nations that fail to cooperate in resolving overseas abduction cases involving American children, from public condemnations to suspending U.S. developmental and security assistance to canceling state visits.

Testifying before the Judiciary Committee, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Carl Risch admitted the department has used the 2014 law’s provisions sparingly, issuing diplomatic protests rather than imposing stronger measures on nations that do not assist in the return of abducted U.S. children.

“Continued diplomatic engagement is our best tool to promote long-term institutional changes in foreign governments,” Risch said.

‘We’re so sorry’

Brann disagreed, noting that nothing the State Department has done so far has convinced Brazil’s judiciary to reunite him with his son. Brann compared the State Department’s reluctance to sternly punish uncooperative countries to a doctor who refuses to use the strongest medical tools to treat an illness.

“When the State Department says we are going to continue to engage diplomatically, what they are saying is that they are just going to pat me on the shoulder and say, ‘We’re so sorry that has happened,’ ” he said.

Another witness testified to the power of heightened pressure on foreign countries. In 2011, Kentucky resident Noelle Hunter’s ex-husband took their 5-year-old daughter, Muna, to Mali. The Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, spearheaded a sustained effort by Kentucky’s congressional delegation to compel Malian officials to return Muna. The campaign succeeded and Hunter brought her daughter back to America in 2014.

“If every member of Congress with kidnapped constituents would begin to regularly inquire of federal agencies and the [foreign] nations in which they are held, these children are going to come home,” Hunter said.

A numbers problem

The committee’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, applauded the concept of increased activism by lawmakers, but noted that her state, California, has hundreds of parents with a child missing abroad and only two senators representing all of them.

“How do you do 300 cases [in California] like your state was able to do for you?” Feinstein asked, adding that an intervention by members of Congress is “possible to do, but it’s not possible to do it every day of the year.”

Rather, Feinstein said, the solution is to “increase the clout of the State Department and others to move more personally on this [issue].”

Federal officials stressed that preventing abduction is the best outcome, adding that a program is in place to mobilize U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents when a child at risk of international abduction is identified.

“We can enter lookouts in our system if there are any attempts to travel [depart the United States],” said Don Conroy, who directs the agency’s National Targeting Center. “Returning the child is sometimes very complex. Prevention is a key piece of this.”

Lawmakers of both parties stressed they want to see more done.

“I’ve seen the extremes we go to to recover people who have been held hostage and the like, but we’re not doing that for children,” New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker said.
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Confirmation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Veterans Affairs agency may be in jeopardy. 

The Washington Post reported late Monday that Senate lawmakers have postponed the confirmation hearing for Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson after top Republicans and Democrats raised concerns about his qualifications. 

Jackson was scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee for Veterans Affairs on Wednesday. 

Two sources told CNN that committee members have been informed of allegations of improper conduct at more than one stage in Jackson’s career. 

Jackson, who currently serves as Trump’s physician, is already facing scrutiny over his lack of experience managing an agency as large as the VA — the U.S. government’s second-largest agency.

Jackson gained a degree of fame unusual for White House physicians in 2017 when he took questions from the White House press corps on national television, discussing at length the president’s physical exam.

Trump, the oldest first-term president in American history, was plagued at the time by questions about his physical health, weight and mental stability. But Jackson gave the president top rating. “The president’s overall health is excellent,” Jackson declared at the time. 

Trump picked Jackson to replace David Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama era.
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NASA’s new boss is already getting cheers from space.

Immediately after being sworn into office Monday by Vice President Mike Pence, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine took a call from the three U.S. astronauts at the International Space Station who offered “hearty congratulations.” The Oklahoma congressman became the 13th administrator of NASA, filling a position that had been vacant for more than a year.

“America loves what you guys are doing,” Bridenstine, a former naval aviator, told the astronauts. He promised to do his best “as we reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.”

This is the 60th anniversary year for NASA .

Bridenstine is the first elected official to lead NASA, something that had bogged down his nomination last year by President Donald Trump. The Senate approved his nomination last week by a narrow vote of 50-49. Monday’s swearing-in ceremony took place at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Pence noted that the space agency, under Bridenstine’s direction, will work to get astronauts back to the moon and then, with help from commercial space and international partners, on to Mars.

“NASA will lead the way,” said Pence, who heads the newly resurrected National Space Council.

Charles Bolden Jr., a former space shuttle commander and major general in the Marines, was NASA’s last official administrator. The space agency was led by Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot in the interim. Lightfoot retires from NASA at the end of this month.
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Vice President Mike Pence has chosen retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top official with the National Security Council, to serve as his national security adviser.

Pence selected Kellogg, a national security aide to President Donald Trump, to fill the role after his top choice, Jon Lerner, withdrew his name from consideration.

Lerner, an adviser to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, pulled out of a proposed dual role after Trump learned of his planned hiring. Lerner is a longtime Republican strategist and pollster who previously worked with the Club for Growth, which aired ads critical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Pence said in a statement that Kellogg “brings a wealth of experience in national security and foreign policy matters to this role and has already been an integral part of the President’s national security team.”

Kellogg has served as chief of staff at the National Security Council and is the latest NSC official to depart after the arrival of Trump national security adviser John Bolton. Also gone are spokesman Michael Anton, homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, and deputy national security advisers Ricky Waddell and Nadia Schadlow.

Kellogg served as acting national security adviser after Michael Flynn resigned in February 2017 as Trump’s first national security adviser. Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, was recently replaced by Bolton.

Kellogg, who served in the U.S. Army for more than three decades, previously served as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and as a top aide to Paul Bremer, who led the Coalition Provisional Authority during the reconstruction of Iraq.
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Mitt Romney was forced into a Republican primary in his bid for U.S. Senate in Utah after losing a nomination battle Saturday at the state’s far-right-leaning GOP convention.

Romney remains the heavy favorite overall to replace long-serving Sen. Orrin Hatch in November and said he was ready to keep campaigning hard.

If he had won the party delegate vote at the convention, he would have bypassed a primary altogether. Instead, he was edged out by state lawmaker Mike Kennedy, who got 51 percent of the vote to Romney’s 49 percent.

GOP voters will decide between the two in a June 26 primary.

Romney secured his spot on the primary ballot by gathering 28,000 voter signatures but said Saturday that choice was partly to blame for his loss.

Romney, 71, went up against 11 other candidates at the convention, including one dressed as Abraham Lincoln, complete with vest and bow tie. Some candidates questioned Romney’s past criticism of President Donald Trump.

Romney pushed back against critics who said he’s an interloper in Utah politics by referring to his role in staging the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.

“Some people I’ve spoken with have said this is a David vs. Goliath race, but they’re wrong,” Romney said in his speech. “I’m not Goliath. Washington, D.C., is Goliath.”

Kennedy, a doctor and lawyer, framed himself as an underdog taking on the “Romney machine.” At one point, he pitched in to sweep up tiny paper American flags that had been shot from a confetti cannon hours before.

Delegate Matt Murdoch, 28, said he voted for Kennedy because he’s a family doctor serving many of his neighbors in Alpine, south of Salt Lake City.

Stay-at-home mother Michelle Cluff said she liked Romney’s experience and believes he is ready to get to work as a senator.

Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. While in office he signed legislation that greatly expanded access to health care through state-level subsidies and individual mandates to purchase insurance, much like Obamacare.

Romney asked for delegates’ votes after spending two months on the campaign trail visiting dairy farms, taking selfies with college students and making stump speeches in small towns.

After his failed 2012 presidential campaign, he moved to Utah, where he gained popularity after running as the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party.

He’s worked to keep the focus on state issues rather than his history of well-documented feuds with Trump.

The two men have shown signs of making peace, and Romney has accepted Trump’s endorsement for Senate. But Romney said Saturday he hasn’t decided whether he’ll endorse the president’s 2020 re-election bid.
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President Donald Trump said Saturday that he didn’t expect Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer and fixer, to “flip” as the government investigates Cohen’s business dealings.

Trump, in a series of tweets fired off from Florida on the morning of former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral, accused The New York Times and one of its reporters of “going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip’ ” — a term that can mean cooperating with the government in exchange for leniency.

“Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble,” even if “it means lying or making up stories,” Trump said, before adding: “Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”

The FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room this month, looking for evidence of fraud amid a criminal investigation. That included records related to payments Cohen made in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom allege having had sexual encounters with Trump, people familiar with the raid have told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors have said they’re investigating Cohen’s personal business dealings but haven’t said what crime they believe he may have committed. Cohen’s lawyers have called the raid an assault on attorney-client privilege, and Trump has said it was “an attack on our country.”

In the tweets, sent shortly after he arrived at one of his Florida golf courses, Trump accused the newspaper of using “non-existent ‘sources’ ” in a Friday story about the relationship between Trump and Cohen, who has said he would “take a bullet” for his boss. The story quoted several people on the record.

Trump also lashed out personally at one of the story’s writers, calling reporter Maggie Haberman “third rate” and claiming he has “nothing to do with” her. Trump later deleted and reposted the tweets, correcting the spelling of Haberman’s name.

Haberman is widely seen as one of the most diligent reporters covering the president and is known to speak with him often. The Times responded on Twitter, saying it stood by the story and praising Haberman, who was part of the team that just won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Trump.

The tweets came as the rest of the country was preparing for the funeral of Mrs. Bush. The president chose not to go to the Houston service, but first lady Melania Trump attended. Trump tweeted that he would watch from Florida.
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A nonprofit citizens group “United We Dream,” launched a new smartphone app that gives undocumented immigrants a virtual “panic button” if they are ever swept up in a raid or detained. The app provides legal advice and allows undocumented immigrants to notify their relatives quickly, when and if they fear that an interaction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or local police, might lead to their arrest. Veronica Balderas Iglesias has more.
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Students across the United States marked the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting by walking out of their classrooms. This protest against gun violence comes on the heels of a previous national school walkout and the March for Our Lives rallies. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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A internal CIA review in 2011 cleared U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice to head the agency, Gina Haspel, of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes depicting the harsh interrogation of an al Qaeda suspect, according to a memorandum that the CIA declassified and released on Friday.

The spy agency released the memo in response to demands by U.S. lawmakers for more details on Haspel’s career and as part of its effort to bolster her nomination. Haspel’s bid to be the first woman CIA director faces scrutiny on Capitol Hill due to her involvement in a discontinued interrogation program that many regarded as using torture.

“I have found no fault with the performance of Ms. Haspel,” Michael Morell, then the CIA’s deputy director, wrote in the December 2011 memo

“I have concluded that she acted appropriately in her role” as chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, the head of CIA spy operations, Morell wrote.

At issue was a decision Rodriguez has said he made in November 2005 to destroy videotapes showing the waterboarding of CIA detainee Abu Zubaydeh who U.S. officials believed at the time — incorrectly — was a top-level al Qaeda operative.

Waterboarding is a form of simulated drowning. Zubaydeh’s role in al Qaeda was later found to have been overstated.

CIA officials have long said that Haspel drafted a cable from Rodriguez ordering agency officers in the field to destroy the tapes, and that she believed Rodriguez was going to clear it first with the agency’s director at the time, Porter Goss.

At the time the cable was sent, Haspel worked in CIA headquarters outside Washington, D.C. Published accounts have said she was chief in 2002 of a base in Thailand where detainees were interrogated but arrived there after Zubaydah’s waterboarding.

The memo appears to support the CIA version of events.

Haspel “drafted the cable on the direct orders of Mr. Rodriguez; she did not release that cable. It was not her decision to destroy the tapes; it was Mr. Rodriguez’s,” Morell wrote.

Rodriguez has said he ordered the tapes destroyed out of fear that, if leaked, they could put CIA officers at risk.

Haspel, who is now the agency’s No. 2 official, is due to appear at a May 9 hearing on her confirmation before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Haspel has the backing of the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr. At least two committee Democrats have expressed concern about her nomination.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement on Friday that he remained troubled by Haspel’s nomination and called on the Trump administration to release “much more information about this episode.”
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Students across the United States will march Friday to honor the memory of the victims of 1999’s Columbine shooting. Energized by the momentum for stricter gun control since February’s mass shooting at a Florida high school, young people have led the charge for change. Friday will mark the latest salvo in their nationwide calls for change. Arash Arabasadi and Jill Craig contributed to this report.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he has encouraging news from Pyongyang about planned summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. U.S. lawmakers and experts are also weighing in on the flurry of diplomatic initiatives, as VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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It may seem like just another week at the Trump White House. Word of a potentially historic breakthrough on North Korea is forced to compete with a scathing assessment of the president by his former FBI director and court appearances by his personal lawyer and an adult film actress who claims she had an affair with the president. Is this the new normal? Or is it the political phenomenon of Donald Trump breaking the mold again? VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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To some, it may seem like just another week at the Trump White House.

Word of a potentially historic breakthrough on North Korea is forced to compete with a scathing assessment of the president by his former FBI director. Add into the mix, court appearances earlier in the week by his personal lawyer and an adult film actress who claims she had an affair with the president. Who can blame those in Washington who ask: Is this the new normal? Or is it simply the political phenomenon of Donald Trump breaking the mold once again?

For most presidential administrations, the movement toward a summit with North Korea would be enough for a week of headlines.

“It will be a great day for them. It will be a great day for the world,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday on the possibility of a successful meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump spoke at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the president’s Florida resort.

Bad for the country

Just minutes later, Trump made a quick pivot away from the North Korea situation to blasting the Russia probe that continues to cast a shadow over his administration.

“It is a bad thing for our country,” he said. “A very, very bad thing for our country. But there has been no collusion. They won’t find any collusion. It doesn’t exist.”

Throughout the week, the president has also been engaged in a war of words with James Comey, the man whose dismissal from the job of FBI director set in motion the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the Russia investigation.

Comey has held a series of interviews for his new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership.” Comey told the ABC News network he believes Trump is “morally unfit” to be president.

Mueller’s fate

And speaking to the USA Today newspaper, Comey mused about the possibility that the president could move to fire Mueller and the man he reports to, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“That is a fundamental attack on the rule of law, so that is the most important thing. All of us should care about that,” Comey said. “Again, this is above politics, above party affiliation because it is all we are as a country.”

During his news conference on Wednesday, Trump was asked about the fate of Mueller and Rosenstein.

“They have been saying I’m going to be getting rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and they are still here,” said Trump. “So we want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us.”

Others with the president’s ear are urging him to take action, according to Associated Press White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire.

“There is, though, a team of outside advisers, sort of Trump’s informal kitchen cabinet,” he said. “A number of those people have suggested to him, ‘Hey, you need to be tougher, Mueller is imperiling your presidency and you should fire him.'”

Some Democrats and a few Republicans are pushing congressional leaders to pass legislation that would protect Mueller and Rosenstein. But House Speaker Paul Ryan sees no need for it at present.

“We do not believe that he should be fired. We do not believe that he will be fired and we therefore don’t think that that is necessary,” Ryan told reporters this week.

Stormy weather

Adding to the turmoil this week was the Monday media circus outside a federal court in Manhattan where Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made an appearance along with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Cohen was the target of FBI raids recently on his office, home and hotel and is under scrutiny for a payment to Daniels.

Daniels claims she had a brief affair with Trump back in 2006, which he has denied, and that Cohen facilitated a payment intended to silence her about the affair.

The ongoing Russia probe combined with Cohen’s legal troubles suggests more uncertainty ahead for the Trump White House.

“We are coming to some sort of a head,” said American University political expert Chris Edelson. “I mean, certainly this Cohen news is a really big deal and maybe we will find out more about that in the not too distant future. But it is hard to say with certainty what does that mean? Does that mean weeks or months? I don’t know for sure.”

Recent polls suggest Trump has bolstered his support among Republicans, now in the 80 percent approval or better range in several recent surveys. The president’s overall average approval rating has inched up in recent weeks from about 39 percent to 41 percent.

But some recent polls, including Gallup and NBC News/Wall Street Journal, show his approval slipping back to under 40 percent, still historically low for a first-term president.
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The confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency will begin next month.

The current deputy CIA director Gina Haspel will testify before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence starting on May 9, the committee announced Thursday.

If confirmed, Haspel would replace Mike Pompeo, who was nominated be Secretary of State after Trump fired Rex Tillerson.

Haspel is the first woman tapped to head the CIA.

Michael Bowman contributed to this report.
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California reached an agreement with the federal government that the state’s National Guard troops will deploy to the border to focus on fighting transnational gangs as well as drug and gun smugglers, Gov. Jerry Brown said. The announcement comes after a week of uncertainty in which President Donald Trump bashed the governor’s insistence that troops avoid immigration-related work.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen wrote on Twitter that final details were being worked out “but we are looking forward to the support.”

Brown said Wednesday he secured federal funding for terms similar to those outlined in last week’s proposed contract: The Guard cannot handle custody duties for anyone accused of immigration violations, build border barriers or have anything to do with immigration enforcement.

Federal officials refused to sign the proposal because they said it was outside established protocol for the Guard.

Brown’s office said Wednesday that the previous contract was unnecessary after he secured federal funding for his goals. Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said the exact cost hasn’t been determined.

Some troops may be deployed this month and are expected to stay until at least Sept. 30, Brown said. They will be assigned to all parts of the state, not just the border.

Brown elicited rare and effusive praise from Trump last week when he pledged 400 troops, which helped put the president above the lower end of his threshold of marshaling 2,000 to 4,000 troops for his border mission.

Federal officials said Monday that Brown refused to commit California Guard troops to some initial jobs that were similar to assignments in the three other border states, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, all governed by Republicans. Trump bashed Brown’s position two days in a row, even as the governor said a deal was near.

“There’s been a little bit of back and forth, as you always get with bureaucrats but I think we can find common understanding here,” Brown said Tuesday in Washington. “There’s enough problems at the border and the interface between our countries that California will have plenty to do, and we’re willing to do it.”

Nielsen, appearing alongside Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to thank him for contributing 440 troops, said Wednesday there were 1,000 troops deployed on the border mission and that number is growing. She said they were performing aerial surveillance and vehicle repairs.
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New York’s attorney general says an unintended loophole in state law could allow criminal defendants pardoned by President Donald Trump to argue that they can’t be charged at the state level.

Democrat Eric Schneiderman wrote to state legislators Wednesday urging them to clarify the law to eliminate the possibility. He says a well-intentioned state double jeopardy law could prevent state charges when a defendant already has received a president pardon for similar federal charges. He says the loophole is clearly unintended.

Schneiderman says he was “disturbed” by reports that Trump, a Republican, may be considering pardons that could impede criminal investigations, potentially including those into the Trump Organization, the administration or Russian meddling.

Democratic state Sen. Todd Kaminsky responded, saying he’ll introduce legislation to close the loophole.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday that her relationship with President Donald Trump was “perfect” and that he did not need to be worried about Haley and Vice President Mike Pence running against him in 2020.

Her comments come amid unusual public friction between Haley, a former South Carolina governor who is known for her blunt diplomacy at the United Nations, and the White House.

Haley, a member of Trump’s Cabinet, said Sunday that Washington was preparing new sanctions on Russia over its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, Trump delayed further action, a senior administration official said.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Haley might have been confused about Washington’s plans, but Haley fired back Tuesday: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

Kudlow said he had apologized to Haley.

Not publicity shy

When asked Wednesday about her relationship with Trump, Haley said: “It’s perfect.”

While former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shied away from the spotlight, Haley has carved out a high-profile role for herself in the Trump administration while at the same time ensuring that she publicly praises the president.

Her direct approach at the United Nations initially raised eyebrows among diplomats, but many acknowledge her political skills and speculate that she has ambitions for higher office.

2020 bid?

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Republicans close to the White House whisper about a possible joint campaign by Haley and Pence in 2020. Trump, who is known to place a high premium on loyalty, has said he will run again in 2020.

When asked Wednesday if Trump should be worried about a Pence/Haley campaign, Haley smiled, shook her head and said: “No.”

Pence’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adding to the friction was Pence’s brief appointment of Haley’s senior aide Jon Lerner as his top adviser on foreign policy issues. Lerner withdrew Sunday after a behind-the-scenes White House argument hit the headlines. He will continue working for Haley.

A senior administration official said that Haley had not been “freelancing” when she spoke about new Russian sanctions Sunday. 

“The president just wanted to slow down the process after she spoke,” the official said.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he had not spoken with Haley about her remarks on sanctions. When asked if he believe Haley or the White House, Nebenzia said: “I believe in God. Let them sort it out themselves. It’s not our game.”
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A former Playboy model who said she had a 10-month affair with President Donald Trump settled her lawsuit Wednesday with a supermarket tabloid over an agreement that prohibited her from discussing the relationship publicly.

Karen McDougal’s settlement with the company that owns the National Enquirer “restores to me the rights to my life story and frees me from this contract that I was misled into signing nearly two years ago,” she said in a statement Wednesday. 

In August 2016, the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship, but the story never ran. 

Last month, McDougal filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles asking to invalidate the contract. The suit alleged Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in her discussions with AMI executives.

Federal agents raided Cohen’ office and residence last week seeking any information on payments made in 2016 to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, according to people familiar with the investigation but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. The search warrants also sought bank records, records on Cohen’s dealings in the taxi industry and his communications with the Trump campaign, the people said. 

Under the settlement agreement, McDougal can keep the $150,000 she was paid and AMI has the rights to up to $75,000 for any future profits from her story about the relationship. The company also retains the rights to photographs of McDougal that it already has, the settlement said. 

AMI had argued McDougal had been allowed to speak about her relationship since 2016 and the contract gave the company discretion over whether to publish the story.

In an interview with CNN that aired last month, McDougal said Trump tried to pay her after their first sexual tryst at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006. McDougal said she continued the relationship with Trump for about 10 months and broke it off in April 2007 because she felt guilty. 

The White House has said Trump denies having an affair with McDougal. Trump married his current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005, and their son, Barron, was born in 2006.

“My goal from the beginning was to restore my rights and not to achieve any financial gain, and this settlement does exactly that,” McDougal said. “I am relieved to be able to tell the truth about my story when asked, and I look forward to being able to return to my private life and focus on what matters to me.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States has begun direct high level talks with North Korea. The statement comes weeks before a proposed summit between Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visiting Trump for bilateral talks, expressed a desire for Japan’s interests to also be on the table during the talks. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
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San Diego County leaders voted Tuesday to join the Trump administration’s court challenge to a California law limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, amid a conservative backlash to the so-called sanctuary movement.

The Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors voted to direct the county attorney to file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the administration’s lawsuit at the first available opportunity, which is likely to be on appeal, board Chair Kristin Gaspar said.

The 3-1 vote during a closed-door session, with one of the five supervisors absent, followed an hourlong packed public hearing on the matter.

Outside, pro-sanctuary protesters peacefully picketed the meeting, carrying signs with slogans such as “Sanctuary Cities Make Us Safer,” and “We Are All Immigrants.”

Orange County

The action by leaders of California’s second-largest county followed a similar move last month by the all-Republican board of supervisors for neighboring Orange County, the state’s third-most-populous county.

The city council of the tiny Orange County municipality of Los Alamitos went even further on Monday night, approving an ordinance to “exempt” the town of about 12,000 people from the state’s sanctuary law. 

The city of San Diego ranks as California’s second-biggest by population, and with the adjacent Mexican city of Tijuana, comprises the largest cross-border metropolitan area shared between the United States and Mexico. 

California moved to the forefront of political opposition to Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration with enactment last year of the first statewide law aimed at restricting local law enforcement participation in federal deportation activity. 

The measure bars state and local authorities from keeping undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated locked up any longer than otherwise necessary for the purpose of allowing U.S. immigration agents to take them into custody. It also prohibits police from routinely inquiring about the immigration status of people detained in an investigation or in traffic stops.

But the law, known as SB-54, allows local police to notify the federal government if they have arrested an undocumented immigrant with a felony record and permits immigration agents access to local jails.

Trump administration

The Trump administration has harshly criticized California’s law and similar sanctuary ordinances adopted by local governments across the country, saying they threaten public safety by protecting criminals who should to be deported. 

Sanctuary supporters counter that enlisting police cooperation in deportation actions undermines community trust in local law enforcement, particularly among Latinos, and that Trump’s crackdown has targeted some immigrants over minor infractions. 

The U.S. Justice Department sued California over SB-54 in February, claiming federal law pre-empts the statute, in a move Democratic Governor Jerry Brown denounced as a declaration of war on his state. 

Since then, however, local politicians in a number of California’s more conservative cities and counties have pushed back against the sanctuary movement, approving resolutions in support of the Trump administration lawsuit.
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A former FBI agent accused of leaking government secrets to a reporter pleaded guilty Tuesday to two criminal counts related to retaining and disclosing defense information, the Justice Department said.

Terry Albury, 39, a former special agent in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, could face up to 10 years in prison for each of the two counts against him, the Justice Department said in a statement.

“As this prosecution demonstrates, we will not waiver in our commitment to pursue and hold accountable government officials who violate their obligations to protect our nation’s secrets,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a statement.

Albury’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘FBI secret rules’

At the time Albury was charged in March, his attorneys said his actions were “driven by a conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI.”

A source familiar with the case has told Reuters that the online news organization The Intercept was the recipient of the information Albury was charged with leaking.

The Intercept could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

In January 2017, The Intercept published a series titled “The FBI’s Secret Rules” based on Albury’s leaked documents, which showed the depth and broad powers of the FBI expansion since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and its recruitment efforts, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

The Intercept reported the initial charges against Albury and published a statement from its editor-in-chief, Betsy Reed, saying the news outlet did not discuss anonymous sources.

But she said the use of the Espionage Act “to prosecute whistleblowers seeking to shed light on matters of vital public concern is an outrage” and defended the right of journalists to report such stories.

Second leak to The Intercept

It was the second time someone suspected of leaking information to The Intercept had been prosecuted. Last year, a U.S. intelligence contractor pleaded not guilty to an espionage count after being accused of leaking a classified report on Russian interference in the U.S. elections to the news outlet.

The Justice Department did not identify the news organization that received the information Albury leaked. It said he worked at the time as a liaison with Customs and Border Protection at the Minneapolis airport and had a top-secret clearance that gave him access to some secret material.

The Justice Department said that between 2016 and continuing through August 2017, Albury disclosed national defense information classified as secret to a reporter.
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