Trump says he didn’t record Comey talks

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump declared Thursday he never made and doesn’t have recordings of his private conversations with ousted former FBI Director James Comey, ending a monthlong guessing game he started with a cryptic tweet.

“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information,” Trump said in his latest tweets, he has “no idea” whether there are “tapes” or recordings of the two men’s conversations. But he proclaimed he “did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”

It was Trump who first suggested more than a month ago that he might have recordings. As he feuded publicly with Comey in the days after firing him May 9, Trump warned in a tweet: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.”

Trump has disputed Comey’s version of a January dinner during which the director said the president had asked for a pledge of loyalty.

Airstrike kills al-Qaida leader: The U.S. military said Thursday an American airstrike in Yemen has killed a top commander for the al-Qaida affiliate there and two of his associates. The strike in Shabwa province killed Abu Khattab al Awlaqi, the emir of alQaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. said he was leading efforts to plan attacks on civilians.

Yellowstone grizzlies: Protections that have been in place for more than 40 years for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area will be lifted this summer after U.S. government officials ruled Thursday the population is no longer threatened. Grizzlies in all continental U.S. states except Alaska have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when just 136 bears roamed in and around Yellowstone. There are now an estimated 700 grizzlies in the area that includes northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho.