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HARI SREENIVASAN: Good evening. I’m Hari Sreenivasan. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are away.

On the “NewsHour” tonight: California becomes a battleground for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, while Donald Trump gets hit hard with heightened scrutiny over Trump University.

Also ahead: A new report shows music legend Prince died from an opioid overdose. How his death highlights America’s worsening opioid epidemic.

Plus: In the most expensive renters market in the nation, those tired of living in cramped San Francisco are pushing for more housing at all levels.

SONJA TRAUSS, Bay Area Renters’ Federation: Getting into the Bay Area is like getting into a country club. You either have to have a lot of money right off the bat or you have got to know someone.

HARI SREENIVASAN: All that and more on tonight’s “PBS NewsHour.”

(BREAK)

HARI SREENIVASAN: The Obama administration called today for curbs on payday loans, used by an estimated 12 million Americans each year. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says they turn into debt traps with triple-digit interest rates.

Proposed regulations would include payment tests to ensure borrowers can repay loans without having to renew them, and limits on the number of times lenders can debit a borrower’s account. Trade groups warn the restrictions will kill the industry.

In the presidential race, Democrat Hillary Clinton hammered Republican Donald Trump on foreign policy, and Trump answered with a major endorsement. In a San Diego speech, Clinton emphasized her own experience, and said Trump’s behavior, by contrast, shows he is temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), Democratic Presidential Candidate: This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes, because it’s not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

HARI SREENIVASAN: Even as Clinton was speaking, Trump won a critical endorsement from House Speaker Paul Ryan. Up to now, the Wisconsin Republican had declined to take that step.

Today, he did, writing in The Janesville Gazette: “It’s no secret that he and I have our differences, but the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more in common — more common ground than disagreement,” he said.

President Obama today urged graduates at the U.S. Air Force Academy to engage with the world, not pull back. The commencement address in Colorado Springs was the last of his presidency. He argued the U.S. has the strongest military in the world and must not shirk its role as a global leader.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In these uncertain times, it’s tempting sometimes to pull back, to try to wash our hands of conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend for themselves.

But history teaches, from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, that oceans alone cannot protect us. Hateful ideologies can spark terror from Boston to San Bernardino.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Afterward, Mr. Obama saluted and shook hands with each of the 812 graduates. About one-quarter of the class was female 40 years since women were first admitted to the academy. The Air Force Thunderbirds flew over the graduation, but a short time later, one of them crashed just south of Colorado Springs. The pilot ejected safely, and the president met briefly with him before leaving Colorado.

The Navy’s precision air team also suffered a crash. One of the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 fighter jets went down near Nashville, Tennessee, as they practiced for an air show. A local TV station showed still images of a fireball after the crash. Black plumes of smoke rose over the scene as the other members of the team flew overhead. The fate of the pilot was unclear.

In Texas, a new round of storms dumped even more rain today, and made record flooding even worse. A flash flood warning went up across Central Texas, with disasters now declared in 31 counties. Swollen rivers threatened to force additional evacuations from low-lying areas. The flooding has reached levels not seen in more than 100 years.

Parts of Europe are underwater from some of the worst flooding in a century there. Rivers are out of their banks in France, Germany and Belgium, killing six people and forcing evacuations. The waters are rising so fast on the Seine in Paris that the famed Louvre museum announced it will close tomorrow, so workers can move art works to upper floors.

And in Germany, floods are sweeping through towns in Bavaria. Disaster relief crews have started clearing the wreckage, but more storms are looming.

German lawmakers declared today that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was genocide. The vote came amid tensions with modern-day Turkey over migrants and political repression.

Alex Thomson of Independent Television News has our report.

ALEX THOMSON: Armenians dancing in the streets outside. Meanwhile: “All those in favor? All those against? Abstentions?”

At that point, applause and polite thank-you signs from Armenians in the public gallery of Germany’s Parliament. Turkey’s reaction immediate, angry and not that polite, the prime minister accusing Germany of an historic mistake and saying Turkey will never, ever accept it.

MAN (through interpreter): In Germany, an important ally for Turkey, the German Parliament accepted a motion by the racist Armenian lobby. There is no event in our past that would cause us to bow down our heads in embarrassment.

ALEX THOMSON: A million-and-a-half Armenians were killed by Turkish Ottoman forces during the First World War, an event widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century and officially so now by many countries.

Yet, a century on, Turkey remains enraged by the very idea. Speaking on a visit to Kenya, Turkey’s president said they’d recalled their ambassador from Berlin and the vote could cause serious damage to relations between the two countries, major NATO allies and countries who need each other perhaps as never before in the grip of Europe’s migrant crisis.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Political leaders in Armenia praised the German Parliament’s vote.

OPEC failed again today to reach agreement on controlling output to push up prices. Cartel ministers met in Vienna, but Saudi Arabia and Iran remained divided over freezing or curbing production. Iran is pumping more oil, now that Western sanctions have been lifted.

Wall Street closed out the week with modest gains. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 49 points to close at 17838. The Nasdaq rose 19 points, and the S&P 500 added nearly six.

And organizers of the Summer Olympics in Brazil sought to play down a host of worries today. They said Rio de Janeiro will be ready, despite an economic crisis, the impeachment of Brazil’s president, construction delays, and the Zika virus.

But American cyclist Tejay van Garderen became the first athlete to withdraw from Olympic consideration, citing Zika. He said he won’t chance catching the virus and passing it to his pregnant wife.

Still to come on the “NewsHour”: the tightening Democratic primary in California; Trump University’s controversial business model; amid confirmations of Prince’s overdose, a look at the country’s growing opioid epidemic; and much more.

The post News Wrap: Obama cracks down on predatory payday loans appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

In world news this week, a battle started in an Iraqi city, thousands evacuated flood waters and U.S. tourists were warned of risky spots. Take our quiz about these news events and more.

The post How well do you know the world: Travel warnings and century floods appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Drugs that are flushed can taint our rivers, lakes and water supplies. Photo by Carl Milner/via Flickr

Opioids like Vicodin and Percocet are commonly prescribed to dull pain after medical procedures and to treat chronic pain. They also commonly languish in medicine cabinets, sometimes for years, making easy pickings for someone with an addiction.

The consequences can be deadly: More than 165,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids between 1999 and 2014, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What are consumers to do the rest of the year if they want a safe alternative to flushing unwanted drugs down the toilet or tossing them into the garbage? Drugs that are flushed can taint our rivers, lakes and water supplies. Drugs in the trash also may harm the environment, and can be found by children, pets — and even adults looking for a high.

There are a growing number of year-round disposal sites in California, but your options depend largely on where you live and what kind of drugs you’re trying to unload.

For instance, it might be difficult to find a place that will accept “controlled” drugs, which include legal drugs that are closely regulated by the government, such as addictive opiates.

In reality, it might be hard for you to find a convenient place at all.

“It’s very time-consuming and you may get the runaround,” warns Heidi Sanborn, executive director of the California Product Stewardship Council, a nonprofit that created the website DontRushToFlush.org. (The group also calls on pharmaceutical companies to share in the cost of drug disposal.)

The safest and most environmentally responsible option is to take unwanted medications to a drug take-back site.

OxyContin tablets, morphine-like painkillers, are widely abused as a recreational drug. Photo by Leonard Lessin/via Getty Images

But there’s no consistent, statewide collection system because there’s no consistent source of funding, Sanborn says. “It’s whoever can afford to offer it and whoever wants to do it,” she says.

Some communities, mostly in Northern California, have adopted ordinances to operate drug collection programs funded by drug makers. They include Alameda, Marin and Santa Cruz Counties. One is pending before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

But most of these programs are not yet up and running, Sanborn says.

Pay attention to the search results, which explain whether controlled drugs are accepted. (Some other medications — such as chemotherapy drugs — also come with specific disposal instructions and locations. Same with sharps, such as hypodermic needles.)

For more options, try the state’s CalRecycle website at www.calrecycle.ca.gov. Click on the “Consumers” tab and then on the “Medication Waste” link, where you’ll be directed to a not-very-user-friendly search page.

When I asked CalRecycle for more information, I was advised to contact the state Department of Public Health, which I was told supplies the data for the search function. I did on May 17 and several times thereafter, but as of May 26, the department had not answered my questions, opting only to send me a link to a spreadsheet on its website, which is even less user-friendly than the CalRecycle search function.

To find take-back sites that definitely accept controlled drugs, check the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s website at www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/ or call 800-882-9539.

It turns out the most convenient option may be a new one. The drugstore chain Walgreens announced plans to install medication disposal bins at 500 stores nationwide.

The effort began last month in California with 50 stores, says Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso.

The bins are available during pharmacy hours — usually 24-hours — and accept prescription medications, including controlled drugs, and over-the-counter medications. They don’t accept sharps.

“Our goal is to get at the misuse of medications as well as to help curb the rise in overdose deaths,” Caruso says.

Don’t Rush To Flush has integrated participating Walgreens stores into its search results, or find a list of stores here: http://bit.ly/246LNQ4.

If your search is still coming up short, try checking with your garbage hauler, local household hazardous waste program, pharmacy or hospital, or local law-enforcement agency.

Finally, if you can’t find a convenient disposal site, most government agencies — including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — suggest you throw unwanted drugs into the trash following these rules:

• Remove the drugs from their containers and mix them with dirt, kitty litter or used coffee grounds to make them unappealing to kids and pets, and to dissuade anyone who might be hunting for drugs.
• Before tossing in the trash, place the mixture in a sealable plastic bag or other container to prevent it from leaking.
• Scratch out any personal information on prescription labels to protect your privacy before disposing of medicine containers.

And though Sanborn and some others disagree, the FDA says some drugs should be flushed if you can’t find a take-back site because they “may be especially harmful and, in some cases, fatal with just one dose,” says spokesman Christopher Kelly. The list of drugs, which you can find at http://1.usa.gov/1YWB4q7, includes Fentanyl, Oxycodone and other opioids.

“We believe that this risk far outweighs any potential risk to human health or the environment that may come from disposal by flushing,” the FDA says.

Ask Emily is a series of Q&A columns answering consumers’ questions about California’s new medical world. Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. You can view the original report on its website.

The post How and where to dump your leftover opioid medications — responsibly appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

A 15-year study shows the life expectancy of white Americans seems to have plateaued, while for blacks and Hispanics it keeps rising. Photo by Alan Bloom/via Flickr

Drug and alcohol poisoning, suicide, and liver disease are depressing the life expectancy of white Americans, according to a new government study, explaining why the longevity gains experienced by other ethnic groups in recent years haven’t been realized universally.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified those three causes — along with Alzheimer’s disease and hypertension — as the main culprits of the slow growth in white Americans’ life spans when compared to black and Hispanics over the last 15 years. The study did not include data for other ethnic groups.

But for whites, their life expectancy increased only 1.4 years over that time. And in fact, between 2013 and 2014 the measure actually declined slightly for white Americans for the first time in over two decades.

The study, published Friday as a NCHS Data Brief, follows recent research that showed more white Americans are dying young from specific causes like drug overdoses and suicide. The question was: “What effect is that having on life expectancy?” said Kenneth Kochanek, one of the NCHS researchers.

Combined, unintentional poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver disease drove a staggering 28 percent increase in the death rate of white Americans aged 25 to 34. Photo by Ovi Gherman/via Flickr

Combined, unintentional poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver disease drove a staggering 28 percent increase in the death rate of white Americans aged 25 to 34, as well as more modest increases in mortality for whites aged 35 to 54 over the 15-year study period.

Unintentional poisonings — the majority of which are caused by drugs or alcohol — had the biggest effect, knocking off around 4 months from the life expectancy of white Americans.

That led to a plateau in life expectancy for non-Hispanic white Americans. In 2013, the expected life span for this group was 81.2 years. In 2014, the number went down to 81.1.

“We’ve been looking at this upward trend for 20 years, and now all of a sudden we’re flatlining,” Kochanek said. “It’s like: ‘Okay, something’s going on.’”

The trend defies history. “It’s supposed to keep going up,” Kochanek said.

The study results echo those from two Princeton economists, who showed last September that mortality rates went up among middle-aged white Americans from 1999 to 2013. Those researchers also identified drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver disease as the primary culprits for the trend, while noting a particular uptick in the death rates of less educated white Americans.

“This change reversed decades of progress in mortality and was unique to the United States,” the authors wrote. “No other rich country saw a similar turnaround.”

This article is reproduced with permission from STAT. It was first published on May 27, 2016. Find the original story here.

The post Why are so many white Americans dying young? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

U.S. Marine patrol in the Iraqi western war-torn city of Fallujah. Picture released via Reuters on Nov. 27, 2004.

Watching TV images of Iraqi forces advancing on the ISIS-controlled city of Fallujah and U.S. airstrikes raining down from the sky is a bitter pill to swallow for many veterans of the Iraq war.

In 2004, some 125 American troops, mostly Marines, lost their lives in two brutal U.S. offensives to clear the city of Sunni insurgents. They were the bloodiest engagements of the entire eight-year Iraq war. Now a much smaller number of U.S. forces are back for what promises to be another ugly battle.

“When ISIS took over Fallujah two years ago, there was an existential debate among us: Had our fight been in vain?” said Elliot Ackerman, a novelist and writer who led a Marine platoon in the second 2004 battle in November and December. He said today’s fighting has reignited the same anguish Marines felt when ISIS hoisted its black flag over Fallujah’s city hall in January 2014.

“For me, to say our battles there were in vain is to dishonor what we did and how well we fought,” Ackerman said. “But symbolically, what’s happening is disturbing. The renewal of this fight — it’s like watching helicopters taking off from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam.”

Marines used to feel pride, not humiliation or anger, over the two Battles of Fallujah in April and November/December 2004. In Marine lore, those offensives are often called “iconic” because of their tactical success. There, Marines prevailed in the first American house-to-house urban fighting since the 1968 Battle of Hue in Vietnam.

Dr. Meghan O’Sullivan, senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, is briefed by U.S. Marines with Personal Security Detachment, I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF), at the Rotunda aboard Camp Fallujah in Iraq in 2008. Photo by Lance Cpl. Lindsay L. Sayres/U.S. Marine Corps

But it also marked another more ominous “first”: For the first time, U.S. forces were fighting not just remnants of Saddam Hassein’s forces, but Sunni insurgents. Under the Americans’ eyes, those fighters were merging with a new outfit calling itself al-Qaida in Iraq, led by a violent leader who specialized in bombings and beheadings, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This group would eventually morph into what is now America’s arch-target: ISIS.

“Fallujah was a disaster of historic proportions only now being appreciated,” said former Marine captain and historian Bing West, a Vietnam veteran who accompanied the Marines in both 2004 battles.

President Bush ordered the first April offensive after four Blackwater contractors were burned and hung from a bridge. He did so over the objections of Gen. James Mattis, the No. 2 Marine commander in Iraq. Their assignment: to root all extremists from the city. Yet five days after the assault began, the top civilian in Baghdad, Coaliton Provisional Authority chief Paul Bremer, announced a cease-fire, and Marine forces soon withdrew.

“You don’t order Marines to take a city of 300,000, and when they’re on the verge of taking it, order them to stop,” West said. “It sent a fatal signal. General Mattis had Zarqawi trapped, and President Bush lost his nerve.” West argues that gave Zarqawi six months of sanctuary in Fallujah as a base to foment sectarian attacks like the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Karbala, “laying the ground for the Sunni-Shia civil war that tore Iraq apart.”

Not so fast, said Meghan O’Sullivan, who was a top aide to Bremer in Baghdad. “Then, our No. 1 priority was to keep the political process going. Political progress was to be the driver of security success, not the other way around.” The Fallujah assault suddenly threatened the fragile negotiations underway to bring about elections. “Sunni leaders and even [U.N. special envoy] Lakhdar Brahami were threatening to resign if the Fallujah offensive didn’t stop.” The president had no choice but to suspend the fighting, she said.

Whatever the wisdom of President Bush’s calls, former Army lieutenant colonel and counter-insurgency expert John Nagl — who was commanding U.S. forces in a nearby town — said Fallujah was an eye opener to determination of a new breed of extremist forces, foreshadowing what the U.S. is fighting today.

Elliot Ackerman (left) calls in an airstrike during the battle of Fallujah in April 2004. Photo courtesy of Elliot Ackerman

“It showed us their ferocity. In Fallujah, for the first time, radical Islamic extremists took ground, held ground and were willing to die for it,” Nagl said. “It was a precursor to ISIS. Fallujah was an inspiration to ISIS to have a caliphate and a capital from which to run it.”

That November, the president ordered U.S. forces to return for a deadly battle that cleared the city at a cost of 95 American lives.

Asked about how he feels today watching the U.S. returning to Fallujah, Nagl snapped: “Livid … livid at the policy mistakes that forced us to fight there again.”

“This wasn’t a careless effort,” O’Sullivan said. “But I can understand the feeling among those who fought that, ‘Hey, if you’re going to risk our lives, you should have been more sure you had political support from our Iraqi allies, or more willing to stick with the operation if you lost it.’”

Some, though not all Iraqi veterans, also blame the need to return on President Obama’s decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. Nagl called it “a gross unforced error, leaving the fuel rods in the nuclear reactor that is Iraq.”

This year’s offensive is different, of course. The Iraqis army and Shia militias, not American troops, are leading the ground assault. There are just an estimated 5,000 U.S. special forces and trainers in all of Iraq.

But Jessica Lewis McFate of the Institute for the Study of War — a former Army Intelligence officer who arrived in Iraq in 2007 — said, “Fallujah 2004 resonates with soldiers who came later, as a classic mission that was greater than the forces assigned to it. It’s hard to swallow that as much force as we applied — and succeeded then — that now we have to go back.”

Her gut reaction? “Sad, because when we lose comrades, we want that to be associated with victory. Mad because our tactical victory didn’t become a strategic one, because it wasn’t sustained.”

My informal survey found no one with high hopes that this new Fallujah offensive, even if Iraqi forces win, will translate into lasting stability, especially with the Shia militias taking part in assaulting a primarily Sunni town, a factor not at work in 2004.

“It’s hard to think we’re destined for success,” said O’Sullivan. “There are going to be major sectarian tensions with the Shia militias. And I don’t see any political incentive to make it work in the Baghdad leadership. (Shiite prime minister Haider) al-Abadi is too weak to include the Sunnis in governing. And the U.S. has no leverage at all.”

Bing West’s summation: “Just going in to kill ISIS without knowing who’s going to replace them, it’s pointless.”

So what should U.S. leaders and the public take as a lesson from the return to Fallujah?

For McFate it is: “We have to be frank with the American public from the outset about what it takes to transition out of the theater of war.”

For Nagl: “It should remind us that when you roll the iron dice of war, you trigger a chain of events you cannot control.”

For the families of those who were killed or maimed in Fallujah 2004, there are no useful lessons at all.

The post Column: Marines say new fight for Fallujah sparks anguish over Iraq war appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Head of the Independent Police Review Authority Sharon Fairley speaks at a December news conference with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

Chicago officials publicly released hundreds of videos, audio recordings and other evidence on Friday from 101 incidents involving the city’s police department. This marks another step by city officials in a continuing bid toward transparency and rebuilding Chicago’s splintered relationship with the African-American community.

The Independent Police Review Authority, an agency responsible for investigating police misconduct, uploaded nearly 300 videos on Friday from years-old cases onto an online portal available to the public.

“These past few months, as the city has struggled with so many questions about policing and about police accountability, it has been clear that we all agree that there’s a lack of trust, and that increased transparency is essential to rebuilding that trust,” IPRA chief administrator Sharon Fairley said.

In one video, an officer appears to punch a man while in police custody. In another, an officer drags a man across a hallway by the handcuffs. In one video, an officer shoots an unarmed Ismael Jamison, 28, who was accused of hitting a bus driver.

Friday’s announcement stems from a new policy, enacted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in February, that required the police department to post video recordings and other evidence from critical cases online within 60 days of the incident.

Police responded to a disturbance on a bus, wherein Ismaaeel Jamison, 28, allegedly struck the driver. The unarmed Jamison resisted arrest and was shot in the chest and right foot by police. He was transported to a hospital where his wounds were listed as serious.

In November, a judge’s order forced the police department to release the dashcam video of the October 2014 fatal shooting of a black 17-year-old. As seen in the video, officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, shot Laquan McDonald 16 times.

Critics of the police department questioned why the city delayed the release of the video, while city officials maintained that ongoing investigations around the case kept the video from going public.

Since then, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder, and Garry McCarthy, Chicago’s longtime police superintendent, stepped down in December.

On April 30, 2012, alleged burglars plowed through a garage door on the southside of Chicago, whereupon police officers discharged their firearms. Incident begins approximately 20 minutes into this video. WARNING: Video contains graphic footage. Viewer discretion is advised.

Fairley stressed that the release of Friday’s video had no bearings on the pending investigations involved, nor did it mean a determination has been made about the conduct of the officers seen or referenced in the reports. Fairley also warned that the videos don’t always capture the full context of an incident.

Some of the IPRA videos were recorded by police dashcams or bodycams, some by bystanders’ cell phones.

Officers observed Lisa Simmons, 43, publicly drinking alcohol out of a plastic cup in North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. Three others were arrested. Incidents occur at approximately (a) 30 seconds and (b) 1 minute and 10 seconds into this video. WARNING: Video contains graphic footage. Viewer discretion is advised.

In May, Emanuel announced that the IPRA will be replaced by a civilian group with “more independence and more resources to do its work.”

Craig Futterman, who filed the FOIA request to release the footage of the McDonald shooting, said it was too early to tell if the Chicago Police Department’s move is a true step toward transparency.

“Decades of secrecy and institutional denial should give us reason for skepticism about this, but I look forward to seeing whether this will really be a significant step in the direction of transparency,” Futterman told AP. “This really has the potential to mark a new day in Chicago.”

Officers drag handcuffed Phillip Coleman, 38, following his arrest for alleged domestic battery and aggressive battery against officers. While in lock-up, Coleman became aggressive, according to police reports. He was tased and transported to a local hospital, where officers had to restrain him. One witness at the hospital said Coleman charged at officers. Incident begins 10 seconds into the video.

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Members of the Communications Workers of America picket in front of Verizon Communications Inc. corporate offices during a strike in New York City. The strike affected May’s jobs report and led to the reported decline of 34,000 jobs in information services. Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Well, if you thought that the Fed might raise interest rates in June, think again.

The U.S. economy added a mere 38,000 jobs in May (and no, that is not a typo).  And March and April’s jobs numbers were both revised downward a combined 59,000. The unemployment rate, on the other hand, dropped to 4.7 percent. But our Solman Scale U7, a more comprehensive measure of un- and underemployment, actually rose slightly to 12 percent.

There's nothing good to say about this employment report.

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) June 3, 2016

For those of you who regularly tune in, that 38,000 jobs added number is “unambiguously weak,” as economist Mohamed El-Erian of Allianz called it.

“Nobody was expecting that,” said economist Justin Wolfers of University of Michigan. In the three months prior to May, the economy was adding 200,000 jobs per month on average.

READ MORE: How long will the Fed have to ‘fiddle’ with interest rates?

And that 4.7 percent unemployment rate might look good — until you understand the reason it dropped: the labor force participation rate, which was already near historic lows, decreased by .2 percent. For El-Erian, that number is more worrisome than the headline number. “That means that people aren’t coming back into the labor force” — i.e., aren’t looking for work, said El-Erian.

And just to show you that noisy data try to confound you, unemployment fell from 4.9% to 4.7%. But it's mostly a slip in participation.

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) June 3, 2016

But as we always say here, don’t put too much stock in one month’s numbers. And it’s worth noting today, especially, that the margin of error in the payroll survey is plus or minus 100,000.

An unusual factor impacted May’s jobs report and led to the decline of 34,000 jobs in information services. Beginning on April 13, Verizon workers went on strike for six-and-a-half weeks. While the survey was conducted for May, about 35,000 telecommunications workers were striking and not on company payrolls.

Economist Diane Swonk, founder of DS Economics, points out that such losses are not permanent.

Some job losses in May will come back: information and construction workers both look poised for a big snapback in June. #NFP #FED

— Diane Swonk (@DianeSwonk) June 3, 2016

Even so, it looks like employment growth might not be what it used to be.

Taking the last three months together nonfarm payrolls suggests that employment growth is slowing.

— Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) June 3, 2016

The job gains have averaged 116,000 jobs per month over the past three months, down from 207,000 jobs for the same period a year ago.

If you look at job growth over the past six months, things appear to be a little better: an average of 150,000 jobs gained per month. The White House noted as much, trying to put a positive spin on today’s numbers.

“The longer term trends continue to indicate that the United States economy is the strongest, most durable economy in the world,” the White House’s Josh Earnest told CNBC, reminding us of Republican economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s great line last year about the U.S. economy in a global context as “the best-looking horse in the glue factory,”

Today’s numbers, however, don’t seem strong enough for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and try to slow an overheated U.S. economy. Most commentators think May’s jobs report effectively wipes out any chance of the Fed raising interest rates during their June 14-15 meeting.

It's rare that there's a jobs report that is as likely to shift Fed policy as this one. Domestic slowdown + Brexit uncertainty = wait.

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) June 3, 2016

It doesn’t, however, take an interest rate hike off the table for July, said both Wolfers and El-Erian. The Fed is data dependent, said Wolfers, and if presented with better data in July, its stance may shift.

There is at least one number today that can be interpreted positively: wage growth. Following a 9-cent gain in April, average hourly earnings increased by 5 cents last month. That means wages have increased by 2.5 percent over the year, while inflation has been negligible.

So one way to interpret the data is that the disappointing job growth in May was partly due to the Verizon strike, due to measurement error and partly due to slowing job growth, said Wolfers. How much is due to economic growth? Not clear. “Any of them could be the dominant force,” he said.

El-Erian sees three interpretations: 1) low demand for labor, which would mean the economy is weakening; 2) May’s jobs report is an outlier; 3) we have a problem with the supply side of the market. The last is worrisome, because it suggests that there are people out there who want to work but simply don’t have the skillset to get full-time jobs.

The bottom line?

“It’s bad news, but don’t freak out,” said Wolfers. “Employment is still growing at a rate to reduce unemployment.”

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In an unprecedented move, 10 refugees from four countries — Syria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — will compete on a team of their own in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The International Olympic Committee on Friday revealed the names of the athletes who will join the first ever multinational refugee team. They include two swimmers, two judo fighters, one marathoner and five short-distant runners.

“When it comes to sport, there is no difference between a refugee or a Syrian,” Rami Anis, a 24-year-old Syrian swimmer on Team Refugee, said in an IOC statement. “When it comes to sport, you just have to compete to be at the top.”

The IOC said its main priority is assisting the athletes that need it most, and to place them on equal footing with their competitors in more developed regions of the world. As of June 2015, there are 59.5 million displaced people around the world, 19.5 million refugees, and 10 million stateless people, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“These refugees have no home, no team, no flag, no national anthem,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “These refugee athletes will show the world that despite the unimaginable tragedies that they have faced, anyone can contribute to society through their talent, skills and strength of the human spirit.”

Among those competing is 17-year-old Yusra Mardini, who fled from Syria to Turkey and then to Lesbos. When the boat she was traveling on with 20 other people started taking on water, Mardini and her sister got into the water and swam the vessel to safety. Mardini is currently training in Berlin.

Popole Misenga, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a judo athlete, trains during a session at the Reacao Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1, 2016. Photo by Pilar Olivares/REUTERS

Popole Misenga and Yolande Mabika both fled from Democratic Republic of the Congo three years ago and found asylum in Brazil. The duo will compete in judo in the Olympic Games. Both told the Guardian that judo helped them forget the horror of war and the sadness of leaving families and loved ones behind.

“I have to fight well to take this opportunity that the Olympics gave me,” Misenga said in the Guardian. “I’m going to fight for my home.”

Yonas Kinde is the team’s only long-distance runner. The 36-year-old marathoner from Ethiopia, who now lives in Luxembourg, qualified for the Rio Olympics in October 2015 during the Frankfurt Marathon.

But half of the athletes on Team Refugee will be short-distance runners from South Sudan who are now training in Kenya. Yiech Pur Biel, 21, James Nyang Chiengjiek, 28, Anjelina Nada Lohalith, 21, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, 23, and Paulo Amotun Lokoro, 24, were all refugees at Kakuma Camp that houses approximately 300,000 refugees in northwest Kenya.

For all the struggles these refugees have faced, Chiengjiek said he hopes to give back in honor of those who helped him get to the Olympics.

“My dream is to help people,” Chiengjiek said. “Without support I cannot be so because I’ve been supported by someone, I want to be able to support someone.”

At the games, the team will enter the stadium carrying the Olympic flag as their symbol, and the Olympic Anthem will be played at medal ceremonies.

The IOC said it will pay for the team’s expenses for travel and uniforms. The coaches will be provided as part of its pledge to aid potential elites athletes affected by the worldwide refugee crisis.

The post Team Refugee to debut at Rio Olympics appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the media regarding donations to veterans foundations at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 31, 2016. Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Six months before he entered the presidential race, Donald Trump announced a new real estate project in Baku, Azerbaijan. His partner was the son of a government minister suspected by U.S. diplomats of laundering money for Iran’s military and described as “notoriously corrupt.”

Trump often talks of hiring the best people and surrounding himself with people he can trust. In practice, however, he and his executives have at times appeared to overlook details about the background of people he has chosen as business partners, such as whether they had dubious associations, had been convicted of crimes, faced extradition or inflated their resumes.

The Trump camp’s screening skills are important as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee turns to selecting a running mate. They would only become more crucial if he won the White House. Then, Trump would have to name more than 3,600 political appointees to senior government positions, including critical jobs overseeing national security and the economy.

In the Azerbaijani case, Garten said the Trump Organization had performed meticulous due diligence on the company’s partners, but hadn’t researched the allegations against the Baku partner’s father because he wasn’t a party to the deal.

“I’ve never heard that before,” Garten said, when first asked about allegations of Iranian money laundering by the partner’s father, which appeared in U.S. diplomatic cables widely available since they were leaked in 2010.

Garten subsequently said he was confident the minister alleged to be laundering Iranian funds, Ziya Mammadov, had no involvement in his son’s holding company, even though some of the son’s major businesses regularly partnered with the transportation ministry and were founded while the son was in college overseas. Ziya Mammadov did not respond to a telephone message the AP left with his ministry in Baku or to emails to the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington.

Garten told the AP that Trump’s company uses a third-party investigative firm, which he did not identify, that specializes in background intelligence gathering and searches global watch lists, warrant lists and sanctions lists maintained by the United Nations, Interpol and others.

Trump has described his background research as presidential in quality. Asked in a 2013 deposition why he had not performed formal records of due diligence on a business partner — a man Trump later deemed “a dud” — Trump said he considered word-of-mouth inquiries to be adequate.

“We heard good things about him from a couple of different people,” he said of his partner in the deposition. “That’s true with the president of the United States. You get references and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not so good.”

Trump’s lawyer, Garten, who was in the room at the time of Trump’s statement, told the AP that it was unreasonable to expect Trump to know the full range of the company’s diligence efforts.

Any American contemplating a business venture in Azerbaijan faces a risk: “endemic public corruption,” as the State Department puts it. Much of that money flows from the oil and gas industries, but the State Department also considers the country to be a waypoint for terrorist financiers, Iranian sanctions-busters and Afghan drug lords.

The environment is a risky one for any business venture seeking to avoid violating U.S. penalties imposed against Iran or anti-bribery laws under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Trump’s choice of partners in Baku was Anar Mammadov, the son of the country’s transportation minister. Anar Mammadov did not respond to AP’s emails or messages sent to his social media accounts or messages left with his company.

Garten said the Trump Organization had performed background screening on all those involved in the deal and was confident Mammadov’s father played no role in the project.

Experts on Azerbaijan were mystified that Trump or anyone else could reach that conclusion.

Anar Mammadov is widely viewed by diplomats and nongovernmental organizations as a transparent stand-in for the business interests of his father. Anar’s business has boomed with regular help from his father’s ministry, receiving exclusive government contracts, a near monopoly on Baku’s taxi business and even a free fleet of autobuses.

“These are not business people acting on their own — you’re dealing with daddy,” said Richard Kauzlarich, a U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s who went on to work under the Director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration.

“Whatever the Trump people thought they were doing, that wasn’t reality,” Kauzlarich said.

Anar Mammadov, who is believed to be 35, has said in a series of interviews that he founded Garant Holdings’ predecessor — which has arms in transportation, construction, banking, telecommunications and manufacturing — in 2000, when he would have been 19. Anar received his bachelor’s degree in 2003 and a master’s in business administration in 2005 — both from a university in London.

Mammadov’s statement that he founded the business in 2000 appeared in a magazine produced by a research firm in partnership with the Azerbaijani government. In other forums, he has said he started the business in 2005, though several of its key subsidiaries predate that period.

Garten declined to discuss specific background research on Anar but said such checks were “comprehensive.” The file for the Baku project would not have included anything on Ziya Mammadov, Garten said, because the Trump Organization concluded that he would play no role in the project.

“The younger Mammadov did not build his business empire simply by delivering newspapers,” said Matt Bryza, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. He served on the National Security Council in George W. Bush’s administration and was appointed ambassador from 2010 to 2012 under President Barack Obama.

Ziya Mammadov was described in March 2009 in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables as “notoriously corrupt, even for Azerbaijan” and accused of working closely on government highway construction contracts awarded to a former senior Iranian military official in the Republican Guard, Kamal Darvishi. “We assume Mammadov is a silent partner in these contracts,” the State Department cable said.

Though the Baku hotel project has not been completed, it has earned Trump a significant payday. He earned between $2.5 million and $2.8 million in hotel management fees from a hotel that has never opened, according to the financial disclosures filed by his campaign. Trump licensing details generally involve the receipt of a significant minority stake in the property, too.

The Azerbaijani case is not the only one involving partners with unusual pasts.

At least twice, Trump has been involved in development deals with convicted criminals. In 2001, Trump announced he was partnering with developer Leib Waldman to build a massive condo and hotel tower in Toronto.

Two months later, Canadian newspapers revealed that Waldman had fled the United States after pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud in the mid-1990s. His extradition sent the project into a tailspin. Another developer eventually stepped in: Alex Shnaider, a former Ukrainian metals trader who survived the often violent privatization of the post-Soviet steel industry in the 1990s.

“We heard fantastic things about (Shnaider),” Trump told Forbes in 2005. “But sometimes people say wonderful things whether they mean them or not.”

Trump and Shnaider’s development company are now in litigation. Trump alleges that Shnaider was an incompetent developer and bilking condo owners; Shnaider wants to remove Trump’s name from the building.

In the early years of the last decade, Trump also struck an alliance with Bayrock Group LLC, an upstart property development firm that had recently moved into the Trump Tower.

As a partner, Bayrock didn’t have much of a track record. The firm was created in July 2001. Its two top officials were Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet hospitality minister whose previous development experience had been in Turkey, and Felix Satter.

Digging into the background of Satter wouldn’t have turned up much because Satter did not actually exist. But a man with a similarly spelled name, Felix Sater, had been sentenced to prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass and barred for life from selling securities. A subsequent complaint by federal prosecutors named Sater as an unindicted co-conspirator, and prosecutors also disclosed that he had been convicted in a mafia-linked stock fraud scheme.

The New York Times revealed in 2007 that Satter was Sater and had historical ties to the Mafia. Trump pleaded ignorance.

“We do as much of a background check as we can on the principals,” Trump said.

Garten said Sater was merely an employee at Bayrock, not an owner. “There would have been no reason to perform any diligence on Mr. Sater,” Garten said, though Sater has described himself variously as Bayrock’s founder and a top executive.

Sater publicly separated from Bayrock in 2008, but Trump named him a senior adviser and gave him an office in Trump Tower in 2010.

“I don’t see Felix as being a member of the Mafia,” Trump said in a 2013 deposition in a case over a failed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, condo deal in which Sater had been involved. “I don’t think he was connected to the Mafia.”

“Do you have any evidence or documentation to back that up?” the lawyer taking the deposition asked.

“I have none,” Trump responded. Trump said he did not recall having asked Sater about it.

In addition to possible oversights related to his real estate partners’ background, Trump has sometimes brought people with shaky pasts into Trump-branded business ventures. In 2006, Trump helped launch Trump Mortgage, an ill-fated attempt to sell subprime loans. Trump appeared on stage alongside E.J. Ridings, billed by Trump Mortgage as formerly “a top executive at one of Wall Street’s most prestigious investment banks.”

Ridings’ actual resume was more modest. He had been an entry-level broker at Morgan Stanley, for a total of six days, as Money Magazine first reported. Ridings resigned. He did not return a message from AP that was left on his cellphone or respond to contacts on active social media accounts.

Similar problems affected hires for Trump University, a defunct real estate investing seminar company. Though the instructors were supposedly “hand-picked” by Trump, he left the selection to others, who didn’t successfully vet all of them, either.

Some of the instructors had filed for bankruptcy protection. Others were unqualified.

“He defrauded us, OK?” Trump said of one former instructor’s declaration that he knew little about real estate.

Garten said Trump’s organization performed background checks on every instructor, mentor and employee it hired for Trump University, and said some instructors were affiliated with a third-party licensee.

In the deposition, Trump was sanguine about his hiring process.

“In every business, people slip through the cracks,” he said. “No matter how well-run a business, people come in and they’re not good, and you wonder, you know, how did they get there, et cetera.”

Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.

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Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali poses with a Wheaties cereal box at a press conference in New York on Feb. 4, 1999. Photo by Peter Morgan/Reuters

STUART, Fla. — President Barack Obama, who keeps a pair of boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali in his private study off the Oval Office, said Saturday that Ali “shook up the world and the world is better for it.”

Obama likened Ali, who died Friday, to other civil rights leaders of his era, and said the boxer stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela in fighting for what was right. Ali defied the military draft at the height of the Vietnam War and lost 3½ years from the prime of his career. He also joined the Black Muslims and changed his name from Cassius Clay. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing, but he stood his ground, Obama noted.

“He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved,” Obama said in a statement with first lady Michelle Obama. “But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves.”

The president keeps Ali’s gloves underneath a photograph of the young heavyweight champion standing over defeated Sonny Liston in 1964. Obama said he was too young to understand the brash fighter when that picture was taken. He said over time that he came to understand that Ali was more than a skilled fighter or “poet on the mic.” Rather, Ali was a man who “who fought for us,” Obama said.

“Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it,” Obama said.

Obama said that after Ali’s boxing career ended, he became an even more “powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world.” He said Ali visited sick children and those with disabilities and told them that they, too, could become the greatest.

And while Ali battled Parkinson’s disease later in life, it “couldn’t take the spark from his eyes,” Obama said.

The post Obama says Ali ‘shook up the world’ and left it a better place appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Pope Francis arrives to lead the weekly audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 6, 2016. Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

A papal decree issued on Saturday says bishops who are negligent in sexual abuse cases may be removed from their office.

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Pope Francis wrote in the decree.

The move is meant to address a long-running issue of sexual abuse committed by priests, which has been the focus of heightened scrutiny over the last fifteen years.

A UN investigation in February 2014 called for the immediate dismissal of all priests accused of sexual abuse and said “that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators.”

Bishops have faced accusations of failing to report alleged abuse by priests to police, instead choosing to move them between parishes.

Since taking office, Pope Francis has met with survivors of sexual assault and established that under Vatican law, sexual violence against children is a crime.

But critics say that his actions, including this new measure, do not go far enough to address the issue.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the new law was insufficient in holding abusers accountable.

“Instead of just sacking bad bishops, or turning over abuse records to law enforcement, the Vatican is setting up yet another untested, internal church ‘process’ to purportedly deal with bishops who ignore or conceal child sex crimes,” he said in a statement. “A ‘process’ is helpful only if it’s used often enough to deter wrongdoing. We doubt this one will be.”

The post Bishops who mishandle sex abuse cases can be removed, Pope says appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to a large crowd of supporters in Carson, California, on May 17, 2016. Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

LOS ANGELES — Bernie Sanders’ political revolution — and how far he’s willing to take his presidential campaign — may hinge on the outcome of the California primary Tuesday, with Hillary Clinton poised to clinch the Democratic nomination in the coming days.

A Sanders victory in California’s primary would be an embarrassment for Clinton and embolden the Vermont senator to aggressively lobby superdelegates — elected and party officials — to switch their support to him. Clinton has begun forcefully defining Trump on national security and temperament for the White House, but Sanders refuses to yield as California polls narrow.

“If you tell Hillary, she’s going to get very nervous. She looks nervous already,” Sanders said Friday night in Cloverdale, noting that Clinton had planned to campaign in New Jersey but flew to California. “It sounds like the campaign is not quite over.”

In fact, Sanders seemed an afterthought to a confident Clinton as she campaigned this week in California, hitting hard at her likely general election rival, Donald Trump, instead, and telling supporters Friday that “if all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president.”

Still, Sanders is expected to return to his Vermont home on Wednesday and advisers say he intends to ramp up his courtship of the party’s superdelegates, a process that is already underway, pointing to polls that show him faring better than Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Trump.

Sanders will compete in the District of Columbia primary on June 14, the final contest. Beyond that, Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said they are considering whether Sanders might appear at more rallies around the country after the primaries and speak in Chicago at a gathering of Sanders’ activists on June 17-19.

But a loss in California, the nation’s most populous state, would undercut his case against Clinton, who holds a commanding lead among the elected leaders and party officials who formally cast their support at the convention and is expected to clinch the nomination after contests in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend and California, New Jersey and four other states on Tuesday.

Superdelegates have historically backed the candidate who wins the most delegates from primaries and caucuses.

“Once the numbers come in, I think we can begin a serious discussion among ourselves about what the right path for us is,” said Tad Devine, Sanders’ senior adviser. He added: “If he wins California and a lot of states, he’ll want to make a closing argument to the superdelegates.”

Sanders plans to push for his policy views to be included in the party’s platform, including steps to rein in Wall Street and overhaul the campaign finance system. He also wants the party to become more inclusive of independent and working-class voters and make it easier for independents to vote in future primaries.

Recalling her own campaign in 2008, Clinton’s team has avoided urging Sanders to leave the race. But if Sanders loses California, he’s likely to face pressure to drop out.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week that “sometimes you just have to give up,” a sign of what could come next.

“The numbers aren’t going to lie and I think Senator Sanders will recognize the value in seeing his ideas and principles march forward when it’s a one-on-one race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., a top Clinton surrogate.

Sanders has said he will work “day and night” to defeat Trump, whom he repeatedly assails as a divisive figure. Yet few expect Sanders to quickly follow the example set by Clinton, who suspended the roll call vote at the 2008 Democratic convention and urged that then-Sen. Barack Obama be nominated by acclamation. She later campaigned extensively for him and became his secretary of state.

Said Weaver: “Given what he has said I suspect there will certainly be a roll call vote at the convention.”

Democrats have several ways to exert leverage over Sanders. Neither Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden have endorsed Clinton but their nod of approval would send a strong signal to Democrats and could marginalize Sanders’ quest to push forward into the convention.

The AFL-CIO, the labor federation representing 12.5 million workers, has also withheld an endorsement but could send a powerful message to union members by backing Clinton. And progressive icons like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has stayed neutral in the primaries, could help bridge the gap between Sanders and Clinton loyalists.

Going forward, Sanders could turn his movement into a fundraising powerhouse for like-minded Democrats. He has raised more than $212 million, mostly online, and begun sending out fundraising emails on behalf candidates like former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold and a host of congressional and legislative hopefuls.

For Joe Salazar, who represents a state legislative district north of Denver, a Sanders fundraising email meant $66,000 for his re-election campaign, more than double what he raised in his entire 2014 campaign. “It’s a game-changer,” said Salazar, whose average donation from Sanders’ email was $5.

Sanders’ faithful predict healing will come in due time. “I would like to see unity at the end of the cycle and I think we’ll get there,” said Lupita Maurer, a Sanders’ superdelegate in Oregon. “I’ve talked to him and I hear nothing bellicose or belligerent about him. I think he will keep his promises.”

The post Beyond California, Sanders signaling post-primary future appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Crates with pieces of artworks from the collections of the Louvre Museum are seen near statues after it was closed to the public due to the rising Seine River in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country, June 3, 2016. Photo by John Schults/Reuters

The famed Louvre in Paris has been temporarily shut down as employees on Friday rushed to relocate thousands of pieces of art from the museum’s basement vaults after a week of rain caused flooding across Europe.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said the Louvre, along with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, would both be closed as the Seine River rose above the “preliminary alert” level of 5 meters, or approximately 16 feet. The waterway peaked at about 20 feet early Saturday before it began receding.

Officials at the Louvre announced on Twitter that the museum would be closed to the public until Tuesday due to the rising waters of the nearby Seine, which breached its banks in recent days to levels not seen in decades. Musée d’Orsay will remain closed until Monday.

With the Seine’s waters spilling over to nearby walkways, employees at the Louvre worked to move some of the museum’s 250,000 works stored in the basement. Both the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay are located next to the river.

Tourists read information notices that indicate that the Louvre Museum is closed due to the rising Seine River in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country, June 3, 2016. Photo by John Schults/Reuters

Among the Louvre’s vast collection is Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and other priceless works of art dating as far back as the Middle Ages. One section of the museum, the Louvre Palace, was built as a fortress in the 12th century.

Musée d’Orsay was built in a former railway station and is known for its collection of impressionist art from the period between 1848 and 1914.

Officials at the Musée d’Orsay posted on Twitter that they were moving some of their pieces with a photo of works wrapped in plastic.

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Images and videos from France this week show residents walking, biking, driving and, in some instances, boating through the deluged streets of Paris, where much of the flooding has hit.

Those in the suburbs outside of the city were inundated as well, with some drivers trapped in their vehicles along a highway transported to safety and others carried from their homes by emergency workers in motorized boats. Thousands of people have been evacuated in total.

The week of rain follows France’s wettest May since record-keepers began tracking precipitation in the country in the late 1800s.

Residents who refused to be evacuated sit on makeshift boats during evacuation operations of the Villeneuve-Trillage flooded suburb in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, outside Paris, France, June 3, 2016 after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. Photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Germany, Belgium, Romania and other areas of Europe also saw significant flooding.

At least four people were killed by the flooding in France, 10 in Germany, two in Romania and one in Belgium, officials said.

Before the Seine began receding, flooding reached large sections of France and raised fears that the swelling river could surpass catastrophic levels not seen in more than 100 years, when torrential rains over 45 days caused waterways overflow and submerge about 1600 square miles of the city during the “Great Flood” of 1910.

A man scoops water from his house in the flooded suburb of Villeneuve-Trillage in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, outside Paris, France, June 3, 2016 after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. Photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters

A map released by the French emergency service Vigicrues showed this the threat this week was largely centered in the country’s capital, though many of Paris’s suburban towns and villages also were immersed in high waters.

“It will take at least a week for the Seine to return to its normal level,” Bruno Jamet, a hydrologist at Vigicrues, told Reuters.

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U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, right, and House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy attend a news conference following a closed Republican party conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 2016. Photo by Yuri Gripa/Reuters

WASHINGTON — In two House Republican strongholds — a Georgia district sprawling from Atlanta’s exurbs to the Alabama line and another in California’s Central Valley — upcoming elections illustrate the sharp elbows and vigilance that this anti-establishment moment demands of GOP candidates.

Dentist and former local mayor Drew Ferguson is vying for the Republican nomination in a July runoff for the open Georgia seat, calling himself “a conservative outsider” and boasting of spurring economic development. He sometimes sounds like presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying that border fences are “not mean-spirited” and supporting halting refugees from nations “whose populations mean us harm.”

Yet many religious conservatives and Washington-based conservative groups such as the Club for Growth prefer state Sen. Mike Crane. His opposition to narrow tax breaks led him to vote against lowered state levies for filmmakers — even though television’s “The Walking Dead” films in the area — and he’s taken hard-line views against gay marriage and for making English Georgia’s official language.

In California, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy should easily dominate Tuesday’s primary, in which candidates of all parties compete for two spots on November’s ballot. The $6.4 million McCarthy amassed for his own campaign — he’s also provided plenty more for GOP colleagues — crushes the $31,000 raised by his best-financed opponent, conservative Republican Ken Mettler.

McCarthy aides say he travels home most weekends anyway and scheduled a half-dozen Memorial Day events. Unforgotten is 2014, when the congressional career of the previous majority leader, GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, ended after a primary ambush by an unknown, underfunded college professor, Dave Brat, who’s now in the House.

Republicans are virtually assured of keeping the Georgia and California seats in November’s general elections, but these preliminary battles underscore the stakes for the party. Races like Georgia’s will help determine whether a fresh influx of ideological rebels will make the already rambunctious House GOP even harder for its leaders to steer, while McCarthy’s contest shows a lingering unease from Cantor’s fall.

“When you’re head of an organization that has a 15 percent approval rating, you worry,” said Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman and head of the House GOP campaign committee.

Not one House GOP incumbent has been ousted this year in primaries, even as the public seems intensely unhappy with Washington. Their survival has surprised some, just eight months after conservatives drove House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, into retirement, and as Trump vanquishes political professional rivals.

At least one Republican incumbent will lose Tuesday: Redrawn lines pit Reps. Renee Ellmers and George Holding against each other for the nomination in one North Carolina district. With congressional primaries remaining in more than half the states, other incumbents in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma could tumble too, and groups from competing ends of the party’s ideological spectrum are engaging.

The American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, aligned with party leaders, helped House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas survive primary scares.

According to figures from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $1.8 million helping Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., defeat a tea party challenger in a March primary and helped an ally win the nomination for an open Kentucky seat.

On the other side, the Club for Growth spent $1.1 million to help conservative businessman Warren Davidson capture the GOP nomination for Boehner’s vacated seat, a symbolic triumph, and disbursed $800,000 against Ellmers, according to the center. The House Freedom Fund — run by conservatives in the rebellious House Freedom Caucus — spent more than $100,000 to help businessman Jim Banks win a Republican primary in Indiana.

Potentially vulnerable GOP incumbents have survived primaries in Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Alabama and Georgia. Party operatives credit lawmakers’ heightened attention to home-town concerns since Cantor’s defeat.

“Our members are doing their job and talking to their people,” said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a leader of the House GOP political organization.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has his own long-shot conservative challenger in an August primary. Businessman Paul Nehlen’s shoestring effort is far outgunned by Ryan’s well-funded campaign and his popularity, but Nehlen is backed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Ryan has become a fundraising behemoth for his party, raising more than $30 million since becoming speaker last fall, according to Spencer Zwick, his national finance chairman.

Ryan has appeared at 53 fundraisers in 36 cities this year and attended dozens of others in Washington, campaign aides say. These have included helping raise money and writing checks for colleagues facing primary challenges, including Georgia Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Doug Collins and California’s Doug LaMalfa and Paul Cook.

“That’s part of protecting the working majority” Republicans have in the House, a key Ryan goal, Zwick said.

Republicans control 247 of the House’s 435 seats, including a vacancy sure to go Republican, and it’s the party’s high-water mark since 1931. But the presidential election should draw added Democratic voters, perhaps costing GOP seats in moderate districts in Florida, Virginia, Nevada and Illinois.

While Democrats nurse hopes of capturing the chamber, the likelier outcome is a smaller Republican majority with a greater proportion of hard-edged conservatives reluctant to compromise. Top Republicans and conservative leaders say that is not a worry.

“We’re consistent with Republican positions,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. “Why is that a concern?”

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As news broke of boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s death Friday night, civil rights leaders, athletes, friends and President Barack Obama shared how they were moved by him.

Though Ali may have been one of the most recognized athletes on the planet, winning an Olympic gold medal and three heavyweight titles, it was his charisma and penchant for self-promotion that captivated the world.

Ali, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease later in life, died in Phoenix, Arizona of respiratory problems at age 74.

Professional boxer Mike Tyson and former boxer George Foreman were among the first to react online with tweets.

God came for his champion. So long great one. @MuhammadAli #TheGreatest #RIP pic.twitter.com/jhXyqOuabi

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) June 4, 2016

Ralph Ali, Frazier & Foreman we were 1 guy. A part of me slipped away, “The greatest piece” https://t.co/xVKOc9qtub

— George Foreman (@GeorgeForeman) June 4, 2016

Then one came from former boxer Oscar De La Hoya, followed by an Instagram post from boxer Floyd Mayweather.

Today my heart goes out to a pioneer, a true legend, and a hero by all means! Not a day went by entering the gym that I didn’t think of you. Your charisma, your charm and above all, your class are all of the elements that will be greatly missed by myself and the world. You are someone that inspired me greatly throughout my boxing journey and words cannot express how great you were as a person! Thank you for everything you’ve done for Black America, in the the world of sports & entertainment and for the legacy you leave behind! My sincerest condolences to the Ali family!

A photo posted by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Jun 4, 2016 at 12:00am PDT

Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star LeBron James told ESPN that Ali’s achievements as an athlete came second.

“When I was a kid, I was amazed by what Ali did in the ring,” LeBron told ESPN. “As I got older and started to read about him and watch things about him, I started to realize what he did in the ring was secondary to what he meant outside of the ring — just his influence, what he stood for.”

Civil rights activists such as Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote in a tweet that “when champions win, they ride on people’s shoulders,” but that when Ali won, “WE rode on HIS shoulders.”

When champions win, they ride on the people’s shoulders.When @MuhammadAli won, WE rode on HIS shoulders. #HERO #RIP pic.twitter.com/isKnAgewYK

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) June 4, 2016

Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted, “You were a champion in so many ways. You ‘fought’ well. Rest well.”

Thank you, #MuhammadAli. You were a champion in so many ways. You 'fought' well. Rest well. pic.twitter.com/TSrzdQg1y4

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) June 4, 2016

Other celebrities posted pictures they had taken with him, including Oprah Winfrey and Madonna.

What is going on??!! We are losing all of our National Treasures. Our Pillars of Humanity. He was the Greatest! 💘 pic.twitter.com/tk6MfTcN2N

— Madonna (@Madonna) June 4, 2016

President Barack Obama, who keeps a pair of Ali’s boxing gloves under a photograph of the champion in his private study of the Oval Office, likened Ali to the civil rights leaders of his era.

“He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved,” Obama said in a statement with first lady Michelle Obama. “But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves.”

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Maj. Gen. John Uberti, deputy commanding general III Corps and Fort Hood, speaks to the media outside the Marvin Leath Visitors Center at Fort Hood, Texas June 3, 2016. Fort Hood Public Affairs Office via Reuters

The bodies of four U.S. Army soldiers missing since Thursday morning during a Texas training exercise gone awry have been found, raising the death toll from the incident to nine military members.

The soldiers stationed at Fort Hood were swept away by the rising waters after a military vehicle that had been skirting a creek located on the base tipped over, sending the vehicle and some of the men into turbulent waters.

The area had been closed due to steady rains and the risk of flooding, the Associated Press reported.

Five soldiers were declared dead on Thursday, while search teams scoured the bloated creek and beyond using advanced sonar equipment.

The four soldiers missing for more than a day were found at about 7 p.m. on Friday, Army officials said. Several other soldiers were rescued soon after the accident took place. Those who died were members of the 16th Field Artillery Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division.

A spokesperson for the fort, Chris Haug, said the incident was “an unfortunate accident.”

“This was a tactical vehicle and at the time they were in a proper place for what they were training,” Haug said. ”

Army Maj. Gen. John Uberti, deputy commanding general at Fort Hood, said Friday that several other soldiers were saved following the incident by members of their unit.

“Due to the quick action of some other soldiers that were training, we were able to rescue three soldiers who are in stable condition at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center,” he said.

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Louis Arevalo holds his Truvada pills. The drug Truvada, used to halt HIV infection, has been shown to be over 90 percent effective when used correctly. Photo by Heidi de Marco/KHN

Although they account for half of all new sexually transmitted infections, most young people between the ages of 15 and 25 have never been tested for those infections, according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Overall, young people between 15 and 25 make up a quarter of the population who are sexually experienced. But the survey found that nearly half — 42 percent — of those who had sex and had not been tested for disease thought they were not at risk.

Researchers didn’t ask the young people why they believed they weren’t at risk. But “misunderstanding of risk and lack of access to care” are recognized barriers to testing, said Kendra Cuffe, a health scientist in the Division of STD Prevention at the CDC and the study’s lead author. (STD, which stands for “sexually transmitted disease,” is often used interchangeably with sexually transmitted infection.) Young people also cited worries about the confidentiality of testing and the cost.

Young people may be concerned about who has access to their private health information. Under the health law, young adults can generally stay on their parents’ health plan until they reach age 26. But insurers may send notices informing policyholders, in this case their parents, about services that have been provided.

If they’re older than 18, young adults “have the same privacy rights as other adults, but their situation is complicated because they’re on a plan with someone else who is the policyholder,” said Abigail English, director of the Center for Adolescent Health & the Law.

The health law also requires insurers to cover preventive services without requiring people to pay for them if they’re recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a nonpartisan group of medical experts that makes determinations based on scientific evidence of benefits and harms. But men are at a disadvantage in some instances.

For example, the task force recommends that people of both sexes be tested for HIV, but testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea, the most common sexually transmitted infections, is recommended only for sexually active women, not sexually active men.

The task force concluded that there wasn’t enough information available to assess testing in men.

“We know that both women and men can get and transmit [the infections], but if it hasn’t been studied, the task force doesn’t recommend it,” said English.

Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. You can view the original report on its website.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: Fight night – Miami Beach – February 1964

ANNOUNCER: Clay’s jab is stronger than it has been at any point in the fight

HARI SREENIVASAN: Clay is a decided underdog, but he pounds the champ into submission in just six rounds.

ANNOUNCER: At the end of this round, Liston’s corner will call the doctor to the ring and – over the champion’s protest – stop the fight.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Now, Clay is boxing’s new heavyweight champion.

ANNOUNCER: Clay is proclaiming ‘I am the greatest … I am the king.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Just that quickly, a unique figure emerges in American sport, and will go on to become a global icon.

MUHAMMAD ALI: I am just like oxygen – all over the world.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Born January 17, 1942, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Junior, grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He learned to fight at an early age, seeking vengeance for a stolen bicycle. And he piled up awards as a young boxer.

In the 1960 Rome Olympics, Clay stopped a Polish fighter to take the light-heavyweight gold. But returning home to segregated Louisville, he was denied service at a whites-only restaurant and threw his Olympic medal into the Ohio River.

Despite that frustration, Clay landed a sponsorship deal the same year and won 19 straight professional bouts. The perfect mark earned him the shot at Liston for the heavyweight title, at just 22 years old.

MUHAMMAD ALI: I whooped him so bad he had to go to the hospital. And I’m still pretty. Whatcha gonna say about that? Huh?!”

HARI SREENIVASAN: Clay was already known as “The Louisville Lip” for his outlandish self-promotion, even writing lyrics about himself. As Rock Newman recalled…

ROCK NEWMAN: This is the legend of Cassius Clay, the most beautiful fighter in the world today. He talks a great deal, and brags indeed-y, of a muscular punch that’s incredibly speed-y. This kid fights great; he’s got speed and endurance, but if you sign to fight him, increase your insurance. Ah, rumble, young man, rumble.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Newman is an ex-boxing promoter who went on to host a public TV talk show in Washington.

ROCK NEWMAN: He was so physically gifted, with blinding, lightning-like speed for a heavyweight fighter. He did most things wrong technically in the ring, but he could get away with it because of his blinding speed and his superior reflexes.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Clay basked in the boxing spotlight. But he was also undergoing momentous changes outside the ring. Earlier, he had met Malcolm X, the black nationalist leader, and at the time, spokesman for the nation of Islam.

After the Liston fight, Clay officially joined “the nation and changed his name to Cassius “X.” Soon,  the group’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, renamed him again as “Muhammad Ali.”

REPORTERS: Cassius? Cassius?

MUHAMMAD ALI: You know my new name, why do you keep calling me that?

REPORTER: Will your next fight be billed as Cassius Clay or as Muhammad Ali?

MUHAMMAD ALI: Muhammad Ali!

REPORTER: On all the fights?

MUHAMMAD ALI: Yes sir!”

HARI SREENIVASAN: Ali’s religious conversion and outspoken views made him a lightning rod in the turmoil of 1960’s America. But his boxing dominance continued. In 1965, he faced off against Liston again, in Lewiston, Maine. This time, the fight lasted less than two minutes. As Liston lay on the mat, Ali stood over him, taunting him, in what became an iconic image. Questions swirled about whether Liston threw the fight, but Ali waved aside all  doubts, with what became his signature phrase.

MUHAMMAD ALI: Look at that beautiful face, fella. You’ve never seen a man in history move like this. Ain’t that beautiful? Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, that’s what I’m saying.”

HARI SREENIVASAN: Then, as Ali entered his prime, the escalating war in Vietnam confronted him with an entirely different opponent – the United States government. He was drafted in 1967, but claimed conscientious objector status.

MUHAMMAD ALI: Why should me and other so-called negroes go 10,000 miles away from here in America to drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people who’ve never bothered us? I will say directly, no I will not go.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The Justice Department ruled the objection was political, not religious and Ali was stripped of his title, and did not fight again for three and a-half years. He also faced a potential prison term, but remained free on appeal…

MUHAMMAD ALI: I don’t worry about jail. I believe in Allah. I believe in Elijah Muhammad as the Messenger of God and many great men have to go to jail and so I don’t pay no attention to it. If the time comes, I’ll just have to go.

HARI SREENIVASAN: By 1970, with the anti-war movement at a crescendo, boxing authorities  allowed Ali to return to the ring. That set up a match with the man who’d claimed the heavyweight title in his absence – Joe Frazier. Their bout at Madison Square Garden in march 1971 was billed as “the fight of the century.” But the long layoff had robbed ali of his speed…

ANNOUNCER: Muhammad Ali has never taken such a battering.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Frazier kept the title after 15 grueling rounds. Within months, though, Ali scored a major legal victory when the u-s supreme court upheld his conscientious objector claim, and wiped away his prison sentence. Freed of all obstacles, he launched a rise back to boxing prominence.

ANNOUNCER: Rumble in the jungle.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Culminating in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1974, and the fight dubbed “the rumble in the jungle.” Ali faced the younger, hard-hitting George Foreman, who had beaten Frazier.

ANNOUNCER: Round 1 – the heavyweight championship of the world at stake.

HARI SREENIVASAN: This time, he used a strategy he named “rope-a-dope” to wear out Foreman.

ANNOUNCER: The punches aren’t doing any damage, though.

HARI SREENIVASAN: It worked. Late in the 8th round, Ali landed a combination that sent foreman to the mat, and once again, he was champion.

MUHAMMAD ALI: I told you, all of my critics, I told you all that I was the greatest of all time when I beat Sonny Liston. I told you today I’m still the greatest of all time.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Less than  a year later in the Philippines Ali was back in the ring with Frazier for the rematch called the “Thrilla in Manila.” This time, the champion took a beating, but finally won on a technical knockout in 14 rounds. After that, Ali lost the heavyweight championship to Leon Spinks in February 1978, then reclaimed it one more time, before losing his final fight in 1981. He retired from boxing at the age of 39 with a record of 56-and-5. Poet and author Nikki Giovanni knew Ali well.

NIKKI GIOVANNI: Ali was not a politician, he had no ambition in that way. he was an athlete and he shown all the athletes – he was an athlete, who said, ‘no, it doesn’t matter what you all think about me or what you say. It doesn’t matter your praise. I need to stand for something.’ and he’s done that.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Three years into retirement, Ali revealed he had Parkinson’s disease. But he stayed active, despite his symptoms.

MUHAMMAD ALI: Thank all of you for your support and following me over the years in boxing.

HARI SREENIVASAN: In 1990, he visited Iraq to help win the release of 14 u-s hostages from Saddam Hussein. Six years later, he took center stage once again, lighting the Olympic flame at the summer games in Atlanta, amid a sea of flashbulbs. And in 2005, President George W. Bush awarded him the medal of freedom. Even in old age, Muhammad Ali remained a larger-than-life figure As the subject of movies and documentaries, commercials and posters. These days, his legacy lives on, in gyms around the country, among young fighters and their trainers.

LAMONT PETERSON, FORMER WORLD JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION: First thing your coaches tell you about him and start looking at his skill and to try to pick up things in the ring, but there was more to Ali more than just boxing – people love him and make movies of him it’s for a reason

BARRY HUNTER, FORMER TRAINER FOR LAMONT PETERSON: The name itself is synonymous with boxing. Ali – boxing. Boxing – Ali. And I doubt very seriously in our lifetime that we will ever see another one like him.

The post The life and legacy of boxing titan Muhammad Ali appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a town hall event in Appleton, Wisconsin, on March 30, 2016. Photo by Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, meet public accountability.

Probes into Trump University and Trump’s promise to raise money for veterans’ groups and calls for him to release his tax records are mere whiffs of the prodding he’d receive as president making decisions that involve taxpayer money. And presidents face no shortage of second-guessers, many empowered by open government laws — and the Constitution. The courts and Congress, for example. Watchdog groups. And yes, journalists.

A look at Trump’s testy relationship with scrutiny:

“Nobody’s business”

Trump says he has no objection to scrutiny. He gives interviews almost daily, as well as long, rambling news conferences, opening himself to questions in ways Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton does not. But on some matters — which other public figures know come with the territory — “nobody’s business” is his approach toward disclosure. He’s deployed that concept against efforts to find out if he really raised the $6 million he’d claimed in January for veterans groups. (He raised nearly that amount, but distributed much of the money only after reporters pressed — and said reporters should be “ashamed” for asking). He also declared his tax returns were no one’s business, in response to calls from public interest groups to release them as others running for high office do. (He says won’t release them until an audit is finished.)

Cash for military veterans

Trump’s veterans’ fundraiser grew from his feud with Fox News, which led to him boycotting one of the network’s debates and throwing a splashy rally to benefit veterans before the leadoff Iowa caucuses. Under pressure from The Washington Post and other outlets to disclose recipients of the money, Trump’s campaign refused for months to say which charities had received the money, leading to questions about whether the money raised was less than he had said. In the last week of May, Trump sent more than a dozen big checks to veterans’ charities. On Tuesday, he announced he had made good on his pledge and raised $5.6 million for veterans groups — including $1 million of his own. But he spent much of the time griping about “sleazy” and “dishonest” reporters — while yielding to the pressure and telling the public the names of all 41 groups that received money.

Trump University

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate. Trump insists that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings, and he’s not happy about the judicial scrutiny.

From the campaign stage, Trump has gone after U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who last week ordered documents from the case unsealed. Curiel, according to Trump, is “a Donald Trump hater” and “hostile” to the mogul. He also raised questions about Curiel’s ethnicity. “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine,” Trump said of Curiel, who was born in the U.S.

It was the second time Trump has brought up the judge’s ethnicity as he complained about his treatment.

The press

Trump’s 40-minute harangue against reporters probably cost him nothing in terms of support from his fans — they boo journalists at his rallies. What was significant was Trump’s apparent point: The veterans groups that received money from his effort have millions more dollars than they did without his help, but that became clear only when he finally told Americans where the money actually went and when.

Trump made clear that he sees little value in the press’ oversight role — but lots of value in the public praise he felt was due.

“Instead of being like, ‘Thank you very much, Mr. Trump,’ or ‘Trump did a good job,’ everyone’s saying: ‘Who got (the money)? Who got it? Who got it?’ And you make me look very bad,” he complained. “I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job.”

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Smoke billows from a derailed oil train near Mosier, Oregon., where residents were evacuated on Friday. June 3, 2016. Courtesy of Columbia Riverkeeper/Handout via Reuters.

An oil train that derailed and burst into flames along Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge on Friday sent toxic smoke high into the air, prompting officials to evacuate the nearby town of Mosier.

No one was injured when 16 of the train’s 96 cars left the tracks along a scenic stretch of the recreational area, though the accident caused oil carried inside the haul to reach a section of the Columbia River, which serves as a border between Oregon and Washington.

During a press conference on Saturday, an Oregon state environmental official said a “small amount of oil” entered the river and was captured by containment booms. Mosier Fire Chief Jim Appleton said HazMat crews from Union Pacific were able to extinguish the train’s flames at about 2 a.m. local time.

The train was traveling from Tacoma, Washington, to Idaho, a route that Union Pacific trains use to transport an estimated 3 million gallons of Bakken crude oil each month — a point environmentalists have criticized, in part due to the flammability of the oil and the Columbia River Gorge’s designation as a National Scenic Area.

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Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director for the environmental advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper, told the Los Angeles Times on Friday the organization is opposed to oil trains using the route because many of the local fire companies positioned along it are ill-prepared for hazardous material accidents.

“We’ve been saying, ‘It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,’” he said. “Now they’re scrambling to get foam from different places.”

Witnesses from some of the small towns dotting the train’s route described a loud series of booms that shook the ground shortly after the derailment. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

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