COLU @ CONCEPTS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional investigators probing Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election will have their first opportunity this week to hear from someone in President Donald Trump’s innermost circle: son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kushner, who is a senior adviser to the president and is married to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, will talk to staff on the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday behind closed doors. On Tuesday, he’ll talk privately to members of the House Intelligence Committee. Both panels are investigating Russian interference and possible connections to Trump’s campaign. Kushner has attracted attention for a December meeting with a leading Russian diplomat. He oversaw digital strategy for the campaign, and some lawmakers have said they want more answers about whether Russian social media “trolls” were connected to Trump’s election efforts. Kushner also attended a June 2016 meeting with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and...

SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — The start was not what anyone expected out of Jordan Spieth. All that mattered to him was how he finished the British Open. And that might have been the biggest surprise of all. The record will show that Spieth took a three-shot lead into the final round at Royal Birkdale, closed with a 1-under 69 and won by three shots over Matt Kuchar, giving him the third leg of the career Grand Slam. “Seventeen pars and a birdie would have been fine, too,” Spieth said, the silver claret jug at his side. “But there’s a lot of roads to get there.” The road less traveled? This was more like blazing a new trail. Seve Ballesteros won the 1979 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes by making birdie from the parking lot. Spieth was spared at Royal Birkdale by making a bogey from the driving range when he was expecting no better than a double bogey. Henrik Stenson finished with four birdies over the last five holes at Royal Troon last year to pull away from ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Politically ambitious pups and kittens: Put your resumes aside. The job of first pet — an enviable White House gig with luxurious live-in privileges, after-hours access to the president and guaranteed positive press coverage — is not currently available. That’s because President Donald Trump is not looking for a fluffy sidekick at the moment. Asked about plans for a four-legged addition to the White House, Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Melania Trump, said in a statement: “The first family is still getting settled so there are no plans at this time.” The job of First Pet is not currently available. That’s because President Donald Trump is not in the market for a fluffy sidekick for now. That may cost him some easy goodwill from the press and public. (July 24) If Trump stays pet-free, he will be breaking with a long held tradition of presidential pet ownership. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s had his beloved terrier Fala. President Geor...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Sitting in a classroom above a gun range, a woman hesitantly says she isn’t sure she could ever shoot and kill someone, even to protect herself. Couldn’t she just aim for their leg and try to maim them? Her instructor says self-defense is not about killing someone, but is instead about eliminating a threat. If the gun gets taken away by a bad guy, the instructor says, “I promise you they’re not going to be having any sympathy or going through the thought process you are.” Gently she adds that if the student isn’t comfortable with the lethal potential of the gun, buying one might not be for her. Marchelle Tigner, known to her students and others as “Tig,” is on a mission: to train at least 1 million women how to shoot a firearm. She had spent no time around guns before joining the National Guard. Now, as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, she wants to give other women of color the training she hadn’t had. “It’s important, especia...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A year ago Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte promised to cleanse his Southeast Asian nation of illegal drugs in three to six months. He said he would tame corruption and began a profanity-spiked tongue lashing of America — which he called “lousy” last week. Those “shock and awe” declarations of a year ago have collided with reality. Drugs and corruption have persisted and he grudgingly thanked the United States recently for helping to quell a disastrous siege in the south by pro-Islamic State group militants. Thousands of protesters marched with Duterte’s effigy Monday to demand that he deliver on promises he made in his first state of the nation speech last year, from pressing peace talks with Marxist guerrillas, which is currently on hold, to upholding human rights and the rule of law. A look at the major issues confronting Duterte as he enters his second year in power. ___ ISLAMIC STATE-LINKED SIEGE Two months after more than 600 pro-Isla...

A construction site on the outskirts of Hamhung. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) HAMHUNG, North Korea (AP) — In the 10 years he has been digging up ordnance from the Korean War, Maj. Jong Il Hyon has lost five colleagues to explosions. He carries a lighter one gave him before he died. He also bears a scar on his left cheek from a bomb disposal mission gone wrong. Sixty-four years after it ended, the war is still giving up thousands of bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition. Virtually all of it is American, but Jong noted that more than a dozen other countries fought on the U.S. side, and every now and then their bombs will turn up as well. (AP Video) “The experts say it will take 100 years to clean up all of the unexploded ordnance, but I think it will take much longer,” Jong said in an interview with The Associated Press at a construction site on the outskirts of Hamhung, North Korea’s second-largest city, where workers unearthed a rusted but still potentially dead...

SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — When Andre Oliveira answered the call to leave his Word of Faith Fellowship congregation in Brazil to move to the mother church in North Carolina at the age of 18, his passport and money were confiscated by church leaders — for safekeeping, he said he was told. Trapped in a foreign land, he said he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay, first cleaning warehouses for the secretive evangelical church and later toiling at businesses owned by senior ministers. Any deviation from the rules risked the wrath of church leaders, he said, ranging from beatings to shaming from the pulpit. An exclusive Associated Press investigation found the Word of Faith Fellowship used its two church branches in Brazil to siphon a steady flow of young laborers to the United States. (July 24) “They trafficked us up here. They knew what they were doing. They needed labor and we were cheap labor — hell, free labor,” Oliveira said. An Associated Press investi...

JERUSALEM (AP) — A deadly shooting at Israel’s Embassy in Jordan further complicated Israeli government efforts on Monday to find a way out of an escalating crisis over Jerusalem’s most contested holy site, including mass Muslim prayer protests and Israeli-Palestinian violence. The shooting, in which an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanians after being attacked by one of them with a screwdriver, came as a U.S. envoy headed to the region to try to defuse the crisis over the shrine. The trip by Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt was the first sign of a high-level, on-the-ground involvement by the Trump administration to end the standoff between Israel and the Muslim world. The escalation began earlier this month when Arab gunmen fired from the holy site, killing two Israeli policemen. In response, Israel installed metal detectors at the site, a move that incensed the Muslim world. Jordan is the Muslim custodian of the Jerusalem site, which is also revered by Jews and ...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber rammed his car packed with explosives into a bus carrying government employees in the Afghan capital early on Monday, killing 24 people and wounding 42 others, Kabul’s police chief spokesman said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault. The attack took place in a western Kabul neighborhood where several prominent politicians reside and at rush hour, as residents were heading to work and students were on their way to a nearby private high school, said Basir Mujahed, the spokesman. “The bomber attacked at one of the busiest times of the day,” the spokesman said. “There were traffic jams with people going to work and to the university and schools. Many of the shops had just opened.” The bus was completely destroyed, along with three other cars and several shops in the area, he said, adding children were among the wounded. In a statement the Interior Ministry called the attack “a criminal act against humanity.” The polic...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Nine people are dead and the death toll could rise after emergency crews pulled dozens of people from a sweltering tractor-trailer found parked outside a Walmart in the midsummer Texas heat, victims of what officials said was an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong. The driver was arrested, and nearly 20 others taken from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many with extreme dehydration and heatstroke, officials said Sunday. “We’re looking at a human-trafficking crime,” said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, calling it “a horrific tragedy.” About 100 people held a vigil in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday for the victims of an alleged immigrant smuggling operation. At least nine people found in a sweltering tractor-trailer died. Nearly 20 were rescued. The driver was arrested. (July 24) One U.S. official said Sunday evening that 17 of those rescued were being treated for injuries that were considered life-threatening. The official sp...