COLU @ CONCEPTS

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says it’s probably time to “just let Obamacare fail” after the latest humiliating heath bill collapse in the Senate. Still, he’s making a last-ditch effort to find some way to revive his party’s seemingly failed efforts on the bill. Trump stayed largely on the sidelines as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struggled unsuccessfully to round up support to make good on the GOP’s years of promises to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law. But with McConnell’s third and final effort — on a repeal-only bill — looking like it, too, had collapsed, Trump urged McConnell to delay a make-or-break vote until early next week. President Donald Trump says he is deeply “disappointed” by the collapse of the GOP health care bill. He said Tuesday that it’s time to “let Obamacare fail.” (July 17) And the president invited all GOP senators to the White House for lunch Wednesday to discuss a path forward. Trump pulled a s...

NEW YORK (AP) — An impending auction of pop star Madonna’s personal items, including a love letter from her ex-boyfriend the late rapper Tupac Shakur, a pair of previously worn panties and a hairbrush containing her hair, was halted by a judge on Tuesday. Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Gerald Leibovitz ordered Gotta Have It! Collectibles to pull 22 items from its rock-and-roll-themed auction scheduled for Wednesday. The Material Girl had earlier sought an emergency court order saying she was “shocked to learn” of the planned online auction of the Tupac letter and had no idea it was no longer in her possession. “The fact that I have attained celebrity status as a result of success in my career does not obviate my right to maintain my privacy, including with regard to highly personal items,” Madonna said in court papers. “I understand that my DNA could be extracted from a piece of my hair. It is outrageous and grossly offensive that my DNA could be auctioned for sale to t...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The leader of the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group says Islamic State-linked militants wanted his group to broker their possible withdrawal from Marawi city during the major military offensive against them but he refused to intervene. Al Haj Murad Ebrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front told The Associated Press in an interview late Tuesday that intervening would have been difficult because President Rodrigo Duterte has declared his government would not negotiate with terrorists. The nearly two months of insurrection in Marawi is the worst he has seen in his more than four decades as a rebel in the country’s south, Murad said, adding the attackers are now wracked by infighting and have expressed through religious emissaries they are ready to fight to the death. The violence underscores the urgency for the government and the Moro rebel group to implement a 2014 Muslim autonomy deal to help stop the rising tide of extremism, he said. Mo...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are pressing ahead with a budget plan designed to help the party to deliver on a GOP-only effort to overhaul the tax code. The plan before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday also features promises to cut more than $5 trillion from the budget over the coming decade, though Republicans only appear serious about actually enacting a relatively modest $203 billion deficit cut over the same period The importance of the effort has been magnified by the cratering in the Senate of the Trump-backed effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, leaving a rewrite of the tax code as the best chance for Trump to score a major legislative win this year. The budget plan unveiled Tuesday is crucial because its passage would pave the way to pass a tax overhaul this fall without the fear of a filibuster by Senate Democrats. But it also proposes trillions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net and other domestic programs and puts congressio...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Does it really take an expensive brain scan to diagnose Alzheimer’s? Not everybody needs one but new research suggests that for a surprising number of patients whose memory problems are hard to pin down, PET scans may lead to changes in treatment. The findings, reported Wednesday, mark a first peek at a huge study under way to help determine if Medicare should start paying for specialized PET scans that find a hallmark of Alzheimer’s — a sticky plaque called amyloid. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and classic symptoms plus memory tests often are enough for a reliable diagnosis. But unusual symptoms could mark another form of dementia that, while there are no cures, could require different symptom care. And on the other end of the spectrum, it’s hard to tell if mild memory loss might be an early Alzheimer’s signal, a more treatable condition such as depression, or even age-related decline. “We’re not accurate enough,” said Dr. Gil Rabinovic...

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — For one Iraqi lieutenant, the fight against the Islamic State group in Mosul has been a slow, methodical quest for revenge. For three years, he has hunted for two IS militants from his village who he believes killed his father. Along the way, he has shot to death detained militants after interrogating them, he acknowledges unapologetically. And if he catches either of the men he is searching for, the lieutenant vows he will inflict on him “a slow death” and hang his body from a post in the village after forcing him to reveal where his father’s body is buried. That sort of thirst for vengeance in the wake of military victories is fueling extrajudicial killings of suspected IS members at the hands of Iraqi security forces in and around Mosul. Videos that emerged last week showed troops in Mosul taking captured IS suspects and throwing them one by one off a high wall next to the Tigris River, then shooting their bodies below. Speaking to The Associated Press,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on investigations into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia (all times local): 4:20 a.m. A senior Russian lawmaker is dismissing media reports of an undisclosed conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump as sensationalist. The White House spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed on Wednesday that Trump and Putin spoke at a dinner for world leaders and their spouses at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Trump defended the dinner in a pair of angry tweets late Tuesday, saying it had been on his public schedule. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information policy at the upper house of Russian parliament, on Wednesday lashed out at U.S. media for seeking details of “a secret conversation that didn’t happen.” “They’re sick,” Pushkov said. ___ 3:50 a.m. President Donald Trump had another, previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Germany this month....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had another, previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Germany this month. White House spokesman Sean Spicer and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton confirmed that Trump and Putin spoke at a dinner for world leaders and their spouses at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. The conversation came hours after Trump and Putin’s first official face-to-face meeting on July 7, which was originally scheduled to last just half an hour but stretched on for more than two. The two world leaders were also captured on video shaking hands and exchanging a few words after they arrived at the G-20 summit of industrialized and developing nations earlier that day. Anton would not specify the duration of the conversation. But he said the discussion was casual and should not be characterized as a “meeting” or even a less formal, but official, “pull-aside.” “A conversation over dessert s...

DENVER (AP) — One American was able to afford her toddler’s latest heart operation. Another had the means to go back to college to pursue her dreams. They and thousands of others were able to do so as beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And while Republicans in Congress failed this week to craft a new health care plan, they did succeed in shaking the confidence of those who rely on the act the most. President Donald Trump’s “Let Obamacare fail” remark Tuesday did nothing to assuage their fears. Here’s a snapshot of their concerns from around the country: ___ ‘THE WIND KNOCKED OUT OF ME’ Alison Chandra sobbed with relief Monday night when she heard that the Republican health care plan appeared doomed. It meant she could still afford medical bills for her 3-year-old son, Ethan, who suffers from heterotaxy syndrome — a rare genetic disorder that causes organs to form incorrectly or in the wrong place. But Chandra’s anxiety swept back when she ...