JEFF SESSIONS MULLS SPECIAL COUNSEL
WASHINGTON» Attorney General Jeff Sessions is leaving open the possibility that a special counsel could be appointed to look into Clinton Foundation dealings and an Obama-era uranium deal, the Justice Department said Monday in responding to concerns from Republican lawmakers.
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, which is holding an oversight hearing Tuesday, the Justice Department said Sessions had directed senior federal prosecutors to “evaluate certain issues” raised by Republican lawmakers. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly called for investigations of Democrats. The prosecutors will report to Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and recommend whether any new investigations should be opened, whether any matters currently under investigation require additional resources and whether it might be necessary to appoint a special counsel to oversee a probe, according to a letter sent to Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, the Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman.
U.N. agency report shows Iran meeting nuclear pledges.
The United Nations agency monitoring Iran’s compliance with a landmark nuclear treaty issued a report Monday certifying that the country is keeping its end of the deal that U.S. President Donald Trump claims Tehran has violated repeatedly. The International Atomic Energy Agency report stopped short of declaring that Iran is honoring its obligations, in keeping with its official role as an impartial monitor of the restrictions the treaty placed on Tehran’s nuclear programs.
But in reporting no violations, the quarterly review’s takeaway was that Iran was honoring its commitments to crimp uranium enrichment and other activities that can serve both civilian and military nuclear programs.
Harvey’s ‘Biblical’ rainfall more likely.
The chances of a hurricane flooding parts of Texas, like Harvey did, have soared sixfold in just 25 years because of global warming and will likely triple once again before the end of the century, a new study says. Study author Kerry Emanuel, a meteorology professor and hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that what was once an extremely rare event — 20 inches of rain over a large area of Texas — could soon be almost common.
From 1981 to 2000, the probability of 20 inches of rain happening somewhere over a large chunk of Texas was 1 in 100 or even less, Emanuel said. Now it’s 6 in 100 and by 2081, those odds will be 18 in 100, he said.
Russian TV network registers as foreign agent in U.S.
MOSCOW» The chief editor of the Russian statefunded TV channel RT says the company has met the U.S. demand to register as a foreign agent.
Margarita Simonyan said Monday on RT’s Russianlanguage website that “between a criminal case and the registration we have chosen the latter,” adding on a sarcastic note that “we congratulate the American freedom of speech and those who still believe in it on that.”
U.S. calls Venezuela a global threat.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley is calling Venezuela “an increasingly violent narco-state” that threatens the world.
She made the comment Monday at an informal U.N. Security Council meeting boycotted by Russia, China, Egypt and Bolivia. She accused Venezuela of using pressure to keep council members from attending, saying the fact that its government would go so far “is guilt — and that’s unfortunate.”
Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez denounced the meeting, telling reporters that “this is a hostile act from the United States and an interference that violates the sovereignty” of a U.N. member state.
Appeals court allows partial enforcement of Trump travel ban.
A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed President Donald Trump’s newest version of the travel ban to partially take effect.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling will bar people from six Muslim-majority countries included in the travel ban who do not have a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in the U.S. from entering the country. The ban can’t be enforced against people who have those relationships. Hawaii sued to stop the latest ban. Hours before it was set to take full effect last month, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii issued a ruling blocking the ban.
Bill Gates gives $50 million to combat Alzheimer’s.
Bill Gates says he’s giving $50 million to help fight Alzheimer’s disease. The Microsoft cofounder announced Monday that the donation to the Dementia Discovery Fund is personal and not through his charitable foundation.
The London-based private fund is backed by government, charities and pharmaceutical firms and seeks new treatments for the progressive, irreversible neurological disease.