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FBI: Trump mixed top secret docs with magazines, other items

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fourteen of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate early this year contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday.

No space at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was authorized for the storage of classified material, according to the court papers, which laid out the FBI's rationale for searching the property this month, including “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found.”

The 32-page affidavit — heavily redacted to protect the safety of witnesses and law enforcement officials and “the integrity of the ongoing investigation” — offers the most detailed description to date of the government records being stored at Mar-a-Lago long after Trump left the White House. It also reveals the gravity of the government’s concerns that the documents were there illegally.

The document makes clear how the haphazard retention of top secret government records, and the apparent failure to safeguard them despite months of entreaties from U.S. officials, has exposed Trump to fresh legal peril just as he lays the groundwork for another potential presidential run in 2024.

“The government is conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” an FBI agent wrote on the first page of the affidavit.

Powell: Fed's inflation fight could bring 'pain,' job losses

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered a stark warning Friday about the Fed’s determination to fight inflation with more sharp interest rate hikes: It will likely cause pain for Americans in the form of a weaker economy and job losses.

The message landed with a thud on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1,000 points for the day.

“These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation,” Powell said in a high-profile speech at the Fed's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole. “But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”

Investors had been hoping for a signal from Powell that the Fed might soon moderate its rate increases later this year if inflation were to show further signs of easing. But the Fed chair indicated that that time may not be near, and stocks tumbled in response.

Runaway price increases have soured most Americans on the economy, even as the unemployment rate has fallen to a half-century low of 3.5%. It has also created political risks for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats in this fall’s elections, with Republicans denouncing Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial support package, approved last year, as having fueled inflation.

GOP, Dems seek political boost from student loan debt plan

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — To Democrats championing the White House’s student loan forgiveness plan, it was the long-awaited delivery of one of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises.

To Republicans — and even some in the president’s own party — it was an ill-advised move that was unfair to those who had diligently paid back their loans or decided not to go to college.

In the student debt relief plan, both parties see an opportunity to boost their own political message ahead of the critical November midterm elections. While Democrats contended that the loan forgiveness would provide a lifeline for struggling working-class families, Republicans charged that it's a giveaway to the “elites.”

For the midterms, the elitist rhetoric tactic “plays right in line with the GOP’s current brand of grievance and victimization politics,” conservative strategist Chip Felkel said, “giving them another rallying point to fire up their base and maybe attract some like-minded independents who see this action as ‘unfair.’”

Both the White House and some of Biden’s top allies argued that it was instead Republicans who were focused on the elite and that the potential beneficiaries of the student loan debt relief include more than just the wealthy.

Britain to see 80% spike in energy bills as crisis deepens

LONDON (AP) — Jennifer Jones keeps feeding money into her energy meter, but it never seems to be enough. And when she can’t pay, she feels the impact immediately.

The power in her London home has gone off suddenly three times recently, once when her partner was cooking an egg.

Like millions of people, Jones, 54, is struggling to cope as energy and food prices skyrocket during Britain's worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. The former school supervisor has health problems and relies on government benefits to get by, but her welfare payments are nowhere near enough to cover her sharply rising bills.

“I’ve always struggled, but not as much,” she said. “Everything is going up. I can’t even pay my rent, my council tax, I can’t afford to do anything. … I keep asking myself, what am I supposed to do?”

And things are getting worse. U.K. residents will see an 80% increase in their annual household energy bills, the country’s energy regulator announced Friday, following a record 54% spike in April. That will bring costs for the average customer from 1,971 pounds ($2,332) a year to 3,549 pounds.

Fears of a radiation leak mount near Ukrainian nuclear plant

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities began distributing iodine tablets to residents near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Friday in case of a radiation leak, amid mounting fears that the fighting around the complex could trigger a catastrophe.

The move came a day after the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission line. The incident heightened dread of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

Continued shelling was reported in the area overnight, and satellite images from Planet Labs showed fires burning around the complex — Europe's biggest nuclear plant — over the last several days.

Iodine tablets, which help block the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland in a nuclear accident, were issued in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 45 kilometers (27 miles) from the plant. A woman and her small daughter were among those receiving the pills.

The U.N.'s atomic energy agency has been trying to send a team in to inspect and help secure the plant. Officials said preparations for the trip were underway, but it remained unclear when it might take place.

Herschel Walker skips details in bid to oust Raphael Warnock

KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — Republican Herschel Walker has plenty to say about how his Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, does his job in Washington. But Walker is considerably less revealing about what he’d do with the role himself.

A former football star and friend of former President Donald Trump, Walker tells voters he supports agriculture, veterans and law enforcement. He sells cultural conservatism and his mental health advocacy. He tags Warnock as a yes-man for President Joe Biden. Yet when asked for concrete alternatives to what he calls “the Biden-Warnock agenda,” Walker defaults mostly to generalities and stem-winding tangents — or he turns the question around.

“Have you asked my opponent? Don’t play games. You’re playing games,” Walker told reporters recently when pressed to clarify his stance on exceptions to abortion bans.

The broader approach tracks the way many political challengers — including Warnock two years ago — try to put incumbents on the defensive. That method is especially salient for Republican candidates in a midterm election year when Democrats must run alongside sustained inflation. But Walker’s rendition, as much as any GOP candidacy nationwide, is testing the bounds of that strategy as Democrats hammer the political novice as unfit for high office.

“There is a stark difference between me and my opponent,” Warnock said at a recent campaign stop, theatrically stretching the word “stark” as he smiled. “This race,” the senator continued, “is about who’s ready to represent Georgia.”

Secret Service recovers $286M in stolen pandemic loans

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Secret Service said Friday that it has recovered $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic loans and is returning the money to the Small Business Administration.

The Secret Service said an investigation initiated by its Orlando office found that alleged conspirators submitted Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications by using fake or stolen employment and personal information and used an online bank, Green Dot, to conceal and move their criminal proceeds.

The agency worked with Green Dot to identify roughly 15,000 accounts and seize $286 million connected to the accounts.

“This forfeiture effort and those to come are a direct and necessary response to the unprecedented size and scope of pandemic relief fraud," said Kevin Chambers, director for COVID-19 fraud enforcement at the Justice Department.

Billions have been fraudulently claimed through various pandemic relief programs — including Paycheck Protection Program loans, unemployment insurance and others that were rolled out in the midst of the worldwide pandemic that shutdown global economies for months.

Nuclear treaty conference near end with Ukraine in spotlight

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — As Friday’s end to a four-week conference to review the landmark U.N. treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons neared, delegates scrambled to reach agreement on a final document with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear power a key obstacle.

Argentine Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, president of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament, circulated a revised 36-page draft final document that aimed to address some of China’s concerns. But it still made the same four references to Russia’s occupation of Europe’s biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine — though without naming Russia.

Any document must be approved by all 191 countries that are parties to the treaty, and the closing plenary meeting to consider the revised draft was delayed while delegates met behind closed doors to try to get all countries on board.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that the Biden administration is seeking a consensus final document that strengthens the nuclear treaty and acknowledges “the manner in which Russia’s war and irresponsible actions in Ukraine seriously undermine the NPT’s main purpose.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States and its allies at that council meeting of “politicizing the work on the final document, putting their geopolitical interests in punishing Russia above their collective needs in strengthening global security.”

Louisiana woman denied abortion wants 'vague' ban clarified

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A pregnant Louisiana woman who was denied an abortion — even though her fetus has a rare and fatal condition — demanded on Friday that Gov. John Bel Edwards and the legislature call a special session to clarify the state's restrictions on the procedure.

Nancy Davis, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said she will travel out of state next week for a “medically necessary” abortion. A state law currently in effect bans all abortions except if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman if she continues her pregnancy and in the case of “medically futile” pregnancies. Davis, 36, and abortion-rights advocates for months have criticized the legislation as vague and confusing.

Their concerns are being echoed in numerous other states that, like Louisiana, passed so-called trigger laws when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion. Roughly a dozen states currently ban abortions at all stages of pregnancy, with some allowing for narrow exceptions such as in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger.

"Ms. Davis was among the first women to be caught in the crosshairs of confusion due to Louisiana’s rush to restrict abortion, but she will hardly be the last," Ben Crump, an attorney for Davis, said during a news conference held on the state's Capitol steps Friday.

Ten weeks into Davis' pregnancy, doctors at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge diagnosed the fetus she is carrying with acrania, a rare and fatal condition in which the baby’s skull fails to form in the womb. Davis was told that if she brought the pregnancy to full term and gave birth, the baby would likely survive for a very short amount of time — anywhere from several minutes to a week. The physicians advised Davis to get an abortion, but said they could not perform the procedure.

Missouri school district reinstates spanking if parents OK

A school district in southwest Missouri decided to bring back spanking as a form of discipline for students — if their parents agree — despite warnings from many public health experts that the practice is detrimental to students.

Classes resumed Tuesday in the Cassville School District district for the first time since the school board in June approved bringing corporal punishment back to the 1,900-student district about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Springfield. The district had dropped the practice in 2001.

The policy states that corporal punishment will be used only when other forms of discipline, such as suspensions, have failed and then only with the superintendent's permission.

Superintendent Merlyn Johnson told The Springfield News-Leader the decision came after an anonymous survey found that parents, students and school employees were concerned about student behavior and discipline.

“We’ve had people actually thank us for it,” he said. “Surprisingly, those on social media would probably be appalled to hear us say these things, but the majority of people that I’ve run into have been supportive.”

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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