NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
U.S., allies band together to
expel Russians over spy case
By JOSH LEDERMAN
and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — From
Washington to Warsaw,
Western nations banded
together Monday to expel
more than 100 Russian diplo-
mats they accused of being
spies, punishing Moscow
for its alleged poisoning of
an ex-intelligence officer in
Britain.
President Donald Trump,
under constant political heat
for his reluctance to challenge
Russia, ordered 60 of its
diplomats out of the U.S. —
all of them spies, the White
House said. The United States
called it the largest expulsion
of Russian spies in American
history, and also shuttered
Russia’s consulate in Seattle,
deeming it a counterintelli-
gence threat.
All told, at least 21 coun-
tries have ousted more than
135 Russians, including 23
kicked out earlier by the U.K.
“Together we have sent
a message that we will not
tolerate Russia’s continued
attempts to flout interna-
tional law and undermine
our values,” British Prime
Minister Theresa May told
Parliament.
The American moves
illustrated an increased will-
ingness by Trump’s admin-
istration to push back on the
Kremlin, even as the president
himself steadfastly avoids
challenging Russian President
Vladimir Putin personally
or directly. Less than a week
ago, Trump congratulated
Putin for his re-election but
didn’t raise the March 4 spy
poisoning, Russia’s alleged
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
A metal fence surrounds the residence of Russia’s consul general Monday in Seat-
tle. The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian
diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russia’s consulate in
Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscow’s alleged role in
poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.
election-meddling in the
U.S. or its own tainted voting
process, prompting dismayed
critiques even from Trump’s
fellow Republicans.
In a choreographed show
of trans-Atlantic unity, the
U.S. and European allies care-
fully timed their announce-
ments for maximum effect.
Within a few hours, at
least 16 European Union
nations expelled Russians,
with more likely to follow.
Germany, Poland and France
each said it planned to boot
four Russian diplomats, the
Czech Republic and Lithu-
ania ousted three and Italy,
two. Canada also took action,
kicking out four Russians
and denying three who have
applied to enter the country.
The list included nations in
Russia’s backyard that have
perhaps the most at stake.
Ukraine, a non-EU country
with its own conflicts with
Moscow, was expelling 13
Russians. All three Baltic
states said they would make
diplomats leave.
Almost all of the coun-
tries said publicly that
those being expelled were
actually Russian intelligence
operatives working under
diplomatic cover.
Moscow
threatened
retaliation of the tit-for-tat
variety, suggesting it would
kick out an equal number of
foreign diplomats. Russia’s
Embassy in Washington
responded to the Seattle
consulate closure by asking
its Twitter followers to “vote”
which U.S. consulate should
be shuttered in turn: St.
Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or
Vladivostok.
“This is an attempt on the
lives of Russian citizens on
the territory of Great Britain,”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry
said. “It goes without saying
that this unfriendly move by
this group of countries will
not go unnoticed.”
Yet it was unclear whether
the expulsions, which may be
inconvenient for Moscow but
don’t take aim at its economy,
would be enough to alter
Putin’s behavior.
“There is no actual deter-
rence and squeeze,” said
James Nixey, head of the
Russia program at think-tank
Chatham House. “There is,
so far, no cyber-response, no
financial response.”
East Oregonian
Page 7A
BRIEFLY
‘60 Minutes,” Stormy Daniels
get big ratings, some pushback
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An interview with Stormy
Daniels delivered for “60 Minutes,” giving the long-
running CBS news magazine its highest ratings in a
decade. But the story wasn’t a slam dunk, either in the
reaction it produced or getting on the air in the first place.
An estimated 22 million viewers tuned in Sunday to
see the adult film star tell “60 Minutes” correspondent
Anderson Cooper about her alleged 2006 sexual
encounter with Donald Trump and the aftermath, which
she said included efforts to silence her.
Daniels also said she swatted Trump’s behind with a
magazine bearing his photo to take his boasting down a
peg.
“I think people thought there was going to be a
smoking gun here. Did we miss something?” Whoopi
Goldberg asked Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti,
Monday on ABC’s “The View.”
Avenatti responded that Daniels’ account of being
threatened to keep quiet about the affair represents a
“big, big accusation” and a “critical” fact. In other TV
interviews, Avenatti said he was holding back certain
details of the alleged affair, including the contents of a CD
or DVD he tweeted a picture of last week, for strategic
reasons.
Jeff Fager, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” said
the report included meaningful aspects of Daniels’ story,
including what the $130,000 payment to her by Trump
attorney Michael Cohen might mean in the context of
federal campaign rules.
Report: Level of fentanyl in
Prince was exceedingly high
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A toxicology report from
Prince’s autopsy, obtained Monday by The Associated
Press, shows he had what multiple experts called an
“exceedingly high” concentration of fentanyl in his body
when he died.
Prince was 57 when he was found alone and
unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate
on April 21, 2016. Public data released six weeks after
his death showed he died of an accidental overdose of
fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than
heroin.
A confidential toxicology report obtained by the AP
provides some insight into just how much fentanyl was
in his system. Experts who are not connected to the
Prince investigation said the numbers leave no doubt that
fentanyl killed him.
“The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even
for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl
patches,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency
medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He
called the fentanyl concentrations “a pretty clear smoking
gun.”
Frontier gun maker Remington
US stocks rally; Dow surges
669, clawing back lost ground seeks bankruptcy protection
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN
AP Business Writer
By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
News that the U.S. and
China are open to negotiating
to avert a trade war put
investors in a buying mood
Monday, giving the market
its best day in more than two
years and erasing about half of
its huge losses last week.
Technology
companies
accounted for much of the
broad rally, which powered
the Dow Jones industrial
average to a gain of nearly
670 points. Microsoft was
the biggest gainer in the
30-company Dow and the
Standard & Poor’s 500 index,
climbing nearly 8 percent.
Banks also notched solid
gains, benefiting from a pickup
in bond yields. Retailers,
consumer goods companies
and health care stocks were
among the big gainers.
The market rebound
followed the worst week for
U.S. stocks in two years as
investors traded last week’s
jitters for a more optimistic
outlook on trade, and an
opportunity to buy.
“Certainly
nothing’s
settled,” said Rob Haworth,
senior investment strategist at
U.S. Bank Wealth Manage-
AP Photo/Richard Drew
Trader Tommy Kalikas works on the floor of the New
York Stock Exchange on Monday.
ment. “Investors are still
viewing this as a glass half-
full market and a constructive
economy, so it’s not surprising
to see them buy on value here,
buy on dips to try to rebuild
their positions.”
The Standard & Poor’s
500 index rose 70.29 points,
or 2.7 percent, to 2,658.55.
The Dow Jones industrial
average gained 669.40 points,
or 2.8 percent, to 24,202.60.
The Dow lost more than 1,400
points last week and is still
down slightly for the year.
The Nasdaq added 227.88
points, or 3.3 percent, to
7,220.54. The Russell 2000
index of smaller-company
stocks picked up 33.63 points,
or 2.2 percent, to 1,543.72.
All told, the Dow, S&P
500 and Nasdaq posted their
best one-day gains since
August 2015, making up
slightly more than half of the
market’s losses on Thursday
and Friday.
Global stock markets fell
sharply last week amid fears
of a trade war after President
Donald Trump announced
duties on $60 billion worth
of Chinese goods in a dispute
over technology policy.
Remington, the storied gun
maker that began turning out
flintlock rifles when there were
only 19 states in the Union, has
filed for bankruptcy reorgani-
zation amid years of slumping
sales and legal and financial
pressure over the Sandy Hook
school massacre.
In papers filed Sunday
in federal bankruptcy court
in Delaware, Remington
outlined a plan to turn over
control to its creditors and
continue operating with up
to $100 million from lenders.
It remains unclear what will
happen to its 3,500 or so
employees as it tries to put its
finances in order.
Remington, whose roots
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go back to 1816, when the
Western frontier beckoned,
saw its debts mount with the
election of President Donald
Trump, who has called himself
a “true friend” of the National
Rifle Association but whose
victory ended years of panic-
buying by people afraid a
Democrat in the White House
would crack down on guns.
In 2017, firearm back-
ground checks, a good barom-
eter of sales, declined faster
than in any year since 1998,
when the FBI first began
compiling such data.
The Madison, North Caro-
lina, company’s production
of one of the best-known
weapons in the world, the
Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, has
also proved problematic. The
young man who killed 20
first-graders and six educators
in the Sandy Hook shooting
in Connecticut in 2012 used a
Bushmaster.
An AR-15-style weapon
made by a different manu-
facturer, Smith & Wesson,
was used last month in the
rampage at a Parkland,
Florida, high school that left
17 people dead. That attack
has led to huge protests
around the country and a
new student-led movement to
tighten gun laws.
Remington was sued
by victims’ families after
the Sandy Hook tragedy.
That lawsuit was dismissed
because of broad immunity
granted to the gun industry,
but the Connecticut Supreme
Court is weighing whether to
reinstate it.