Trump gives answers to Mueller

Trump gives answers to Mueller

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has provided the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyers said Tuesday, avoiding at least for now a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors. It’s the first time he has directly cooperated with the long investigation.

The step is a milestone in the negotiations between Trump’s attorneys and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team over whether and when the president might sit for an interview.

The compromise outcome, nearly a year in the making, offers some benefit to both sides. Trump at least temporarily averts the threat of an in-person interview, which his lawyers have long resisted, while Mueller secures on-the-record statements whose accuracy the president will be expected to stand by for the duration of the investigation.

The responses may also help stave off a potential subpoena fight over Trump’s testimony if Mueller deems them satisfactory. They represent the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by prosecutors.

Seoul will dissolve Japan-funded foundation

SEOUL, South Korea

South Korea says it will dissolve a foundation funded by Japan to compensate South Korean women who were forced to work in Japan’s World War II military brothels.

The widely expected decision effectively kills a controversial 2015 agreement to settle a decades-long impasse over the sexual slavery issue and threatens to aggravate a bitter diplomatic feud between the Asian U.S. allies over history.

Seoul’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said today it will take legal steps to dissolve the foundation. Tokyo had provided $8.8 million to the foundation that was formally launched in July 2016.

Monsanto appeals $78M verdict in weed killer lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO

Agribusiness giant Monsanto is appealing a $78 million verdict in favor of a dying California man who said the company’s widely used Roundup weed killer was a major factor in his cancer.

The company filed a notice of appeal Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the August jury verdict in favor of DeWayne Johnson.

Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in June, said in a statement that none of the science presented at trial supports the conclusion that Roundup was a substantial cause of Johnson’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

An email to a spokeswoman for Johnson’s attorneys was not immediately returned.

Bayer says numerous studies have shown glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer, is safe when used properly.

Democrats flip Utah House seat

SALT LAKE CITY

Democrat Ben McAdams has flipped a U.S. House seat in deep-red Utah, defeating incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mia Love by less than 700 votes in a race that took two weeks to settle.

Final results posted Tuesday showed McAdams defeated Love by a margin barely over what would have been needed to require a recount.

The back and forth race had been too close to call for The Associated Press until the final votes were tallied. State election officials will certify the results Monday.

McAdams adds to the Democratic majority in a year when they’ve flipped more than three dozen Republican-held seats across the country.

He declared victory Monday night after a release of ballots gave him a margin his campaign believed was insurmountable.

Associated Press