COLU @ CONCEPTS

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana senator railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even as he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press. Joe Donnelly, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, has long blasted free-trade policies for killing American jobs. He accused Carrier, an air conditioner and furnace maker, of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans to wind down operations in Indiana and move to Mexico. However, an arts and crafts business Donnelly’s family has owned for generations is capitalizing on some of the very trade policies — and low-paid foreign labor — the senator has denounced. For more than a year, Stewart Superior Corp. and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ...

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The former president who brought Brazil to prominence on the world stage has been found guilty of corruption and money laundering — a historic judgment underscoring that no one is out of reach of this Latin American country’s sprawling graft investigation. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s conviction Wednesday was the highest profile victory yet for the probe, which has already brought charges against dozens of political and business elite and recovered more than $3 billion in ill-gotten gains. While Judge Sergio Moro defended the decision as one based purely in the law, Silva derided the trial as a political witch hunt and is expected to rally his supporters to his cause with a news conference he called for Thursday. Brazil’s first working class president, sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison, will remain free while an appeal is heard, but he is now the country’s first former president to be convicted in a criminal proceeding at least sinc...

NEW HOPE, Pa. (AP) — The body of one of four missing young men was found along with other human remains inside a 12-foot-deep common grave on a Pennsylvania farm linked to a 20-year-old man taken into custody Wednesday. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub pledged at a midnight news conference to “bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families.” Cadaver dogs had led them to the spot on the 90-acre farm where the FBI has spent days digging up the grave and sifting through the dirt for evidence. The other remains still need to be identified. The cause of deaths of those found in the grave has not yet been announced. Authorities say they’ve found multiple human remains in their search for four missing young Pennsylvania men. One victim has been identified as 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo is being held on charges he tried to sell one of the missing men’s cars. (July 13) “I don’t understand the science behind it, but...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ruthless dictator? Economic reformer? Shrewd master of nuclear brinksmanship? When Kim Jong Un took the helm of North Korea in late 2011, speculation swirled around the young, Swiss-educated leader. What would he do for an economically backward authoritarian nation that had been in a high-stakes nuclear standoff with its neighbors and Washington for years? Almost six years later, there are still unanswered questions, but some things about Kim have come into focus. His rule has actually seen the economy improve, and when it comes to the nuclear drive, it’s obvious that Kim, who rattled nerves last week by test-firing his country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, has a more uncompromising stance than his late father, Kim Jong Il, who occasionally sat down for talks with Washington meant to gain concessions. Kim Jong Un seems uninterested in negotiations until he perfects a nuclear missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leaders are trotting out their new, but reeling, health care bill and angling toward a showdown vote next week amid signs that they have lots of work ahead to win over GOP lawmakers or face a resounding failure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., planned to present the revamped measure rolling back much of President Barack Obama’s health care law to GOP senators Thursday. He’s aiming at a do-or-die vote next week on whether to begin debating the bill — a roll call for which he’s got no margin for error. Since Democrats uniformly oppose the effort, McConnell needs the votes of 50 of the 52 GOP senators to prevail. But conservative Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky says he’s a “no,” Maine moderate Susan Collins seems all but certain to be opposed and other Republicans are threatening to vote against it if their demands are not met, leaving party leaders struggling to preserve one of their highest-profile priorities. “It’s going to be ...

PARIS (AP) — President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet Thursday ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Trump arrived in the French capital after an overnight flight from Washington and hours before his meeting with Macron to tackle potential solutions to the crisis in Syria and broader counterterrorism strategies. U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Paris on Thursday morning, ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in the French capital. (July 13) Trump’s decision last month to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord sparked outrage across Europe and anti-Trump protests are planned while he is in Paris. Macron, a staunch advocate of research to combat global warming, has beckoned “all responsible citizens,” including American scientists and researchers, to bring their fight against climate change to France. The leaders plan to h...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Wednesday that the central bank expects to keep raising a key interest rate at a gradual pace and also plans to start trimming its massive bond holdings this year. In her semiannual testimony on the economy, Yellen took note of a number of encouraging factors, including strong job gains and rising household wealth that she said should fuel economic growth over the next two years. She blamed a recent slowdown in inflation on temporary factors. But she says Fed officials are watching developments closely to make sure that annual price gains move back toward the Fed’s 2 percent target. Many economists believe the Fed, which has raised rates three times since December, will hike rates one more time this year. In her prepared testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Yellen repeated the message she has been sending all year: the economy has improved enough that it no longer needs the extraordin...