COLU @ CONCEPTS

WASHINGTON (AP) — In today’s economy, speed is everything. Amazon’s plans to add 50,000 jobs at a dozen warehouses across the United States and Foxconn’s decision to build a $10 billion plant and hire up to 13,000 workers in Wisconsin aren’t just feel-good stories of job creation. They reflect the pressures companies now feel to be as close to their customers as possible — a trend that’s helping restore some American factories and jobs. Computer advances increasingly let manufacturers customize orders and ship goods faster. In the new world, making products in faraway low-wage countries like China can be a disadvantage: It can take too long — weeks, months — to ship finished products to the United States. “This is about customer proximity,” said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute. “You develop a sustainable and durable advantage against overseas competition.” Mandel said the growing trend would have emerged regardless of who occup...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender service in the armed forces drove a wedge through military veterans in Congress, with one camp standing squarely behind the commander in chief and the other decrying his order as an ugly attack on dedicated troops. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs and partial use of her right arm during the Iraq war, called Trump’s announcement discriminatory. “When my Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq, I didn’t care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else,” she said. “All that mattered was they didn’t leave me behind.” Duckworth said if a person’s willing to risk their life as a member of the armed forces “and you can do the job, you should be able to serve — no matter your gender identity, sexual orientation or race.” Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., said Trump’s decision is understandable given the ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — They couldn’t pass a repeal of “Obamacare,” or find the votes for a White House-backed replacement. So now Senate Republicans are lowering their sights and trying to unite behind a so-called “skinny repeal” that would merely undo just a few of the most unpopular elements of Barack Obama’s law. The “skinny bill” is an admittedly lowest-common-denominator approach, and it may not even have the votes to pass, either. But as Republicans search for how to keep their years-long effort to repeal and replace “Obamacare” alive, they’re coming to believe that the “skinny bill” may be the only option left. The Republican-run Senate has rejected a GOP proposal to scuttle President Barack Obama’s health care law and give Congress two years to devise a replacement. (July 26) “It still keeps it in play,” said Sen. Steve Daines of Montana. “It’s threading a needle at the moment, trying to get 51 in the United States Senate.” The strategy emerged after Republicans b...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites in a bid to test the strength of the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump desperately wants to cancel, senior U.S. officials said. The inspections are one element of what is designed to be a more aggressive approach to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. While the Trump administration seeks to police the existing deal more strictly, it is also working to fix what Trump’s aides have called “serious flaws” in the landmark deal that — if not resolved quickly — will likely lead Trump to pull out. That effort also includes discussions with European countries to negotiate a follow-up agreement to prevent Iran from resuming nuclear development after the deal’s restrictions expire in about a decade, the officials said. The officials weren’t authorized to discuss the efforts publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The inspections requests, which Iran would...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to pray inside a major Jerusalem holy site on Thursday after Israel removed security devices it installed outside entrances to the shrine following a deadly Palestinian attack at the compound. Thousands of Palestinians had been praying in the streets outside the shrine to protest the security measures since the crisis began. “After extensive discussion and after achieving this victory in this round we call on our people in Jerusalem and inside (Israel) and anyone who can access the Al-Aqsa Mosque to enter ... en masse,” the Islamic leaders declared in a statement. The head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, Ikrema Sabri, said the first prayers would be held there Thursday afternoon. Abdel Azim Salhab, of the Waqf, Jordan’s religious body that administers the site, said “We call on Imams to close all mosques in Jerusalem Friday in order for all worshippers to pray Friday prayer in Al-Aqsa mosque only.” Friday pray...

Are you a friend or foe? That seems to be uppermost in President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy in the first six months of office. The probe at home into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election continues to be a thorn in his side, bedeviling Trump’s apparent desire to have warm relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the initial “bromance” with China’s Xi Jinping also buckled under geopolitical and economic disagreements. But there are others who have been lavished with the president’s favor. Trump with Putin and Xi. (AP Photos/Evan Vucci, Alex Brandon) Who is in the friend camp is clear from the president’s foreign travels, actions and statements. To varying degrees, his support has emboldened favored countries to carry out contentious regional or domestic policies. Some traditional U.S foes, though, could find themselves in a more precarious position than they did under President Barack Obama, who generally avoided direct confrontation and even ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In today’s economy, speed is everything. Amazon’s plans to add 50,000 jobs at a dozen warehouses across the United States and Foxconn’s decision to build a $10 billion plant and hire up to 13,000 workers in Wisconsin aren’t just feel-good stories of job creation. They reflect the pressures companies now feel to be as close to their customers as possible — a trend that’s helping restore some American factories and jobs. Computer advances increasingly let manufacturers customize orders and ship goods faster. In the new world, making products in faraway low-wage countries like China can be a disadvantage: It can take too long — weeks, months — to ship finished products to the United States. “This is about customer proximity,” said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute. “You develop a sustainable and durable advantage against overseas competition.” Mandel said the growing trend would have emerged regardless of who occup...

BARTLETT, Tenn. (AP) — Millions of eyes will be fixed on the sky when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. in August, and it’s likely many of them will be safely behind the special glasses churned out by a Tennessee company. American Paper Optics ramped up production for this year’s eclipse and expects to make 50 million paper and plastic eclipse glasses. John Jerit, the company’s CEO and president, said they began preparing about two years ago. During his almost 27 years making safety glasses, he’s only seen one total solar eclipse, in France in 1999, but will be going to Nashville for this one. Millions of eyes will be fixed on the sky when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. in August. It’s likely many of those eyes will be safely behind eclipse glasses made by a Tennessee company, one of many businesses cashing in on the eclipse. (July 27) “It’s a life experience,” Jerit said during an interview at his company’s office in the Memphis suburb of Bartlett. “When ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say Justin Bieber has accidentally struck a photographer with his pickup truck in Beverly Hills. The Los Angeles Times reports that police Sgt. Matthew Stout said the 57-year-old photographer was hospitalized Wednesday night with injuries that were not life-threatening. The newspaper said Bieber “fully cooperated” with officers at the scene. Video posted on social media shows Bieber getting into his truck with a crowd of photographers around him. As he pulls away, one of them steps toward the truck and is hit. Another clip shows Bieber kneeling beside the injured man asking him what he needs. Bieber had announced earlier this week he was canceling the last several weeks of his Purpose world tour “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Source: www.apnews.com 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler in a bizarre airport assassination are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show. AP Video: Two women accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam in airport assassination are expected to plead innocent. (July 27) They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea’s spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say. The women’s lawyers...

Are you a friend or foe? That seems to be uppermost in President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy in the first six months of office. The probe at home into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election continues to be a thorn in his side, bedeviling Trump’s apparent desire to have warm relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the initial “bromance” with China’s Xi Jinping also buckled under geopolitical and economic disagreements. But there are others who have been lavished with the president’s favor. Trump with Putin and Xi. (AP Photos/Evan Vucci, Alex Brandon) Who is in the friend camp is clear from the president’s foreign travels, actions and statements. To varying degrees, his support has emboldened favored countries to carry out contentious regional or domestic policies. Some traditional U.S foes, though, could find themselves in a more precarious position than they did under President Barack Obama, who generally avoided direct confrontation and even ...