NATION/WORLD
Thursday, November 21, 2019
BRIEFLY
Prince Andrew
to step back from
public duties
LONDON — Britain’s
Prince Andrew said Wednes-
day he is stepping back from
public duties with the queen’s
permission.
Andrew said it has become
clear to him in recent days that
his association with the late
convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein has become a “major
distraction” to the royal fam-
ily’s work.
He said he regrets his asso-
ciation with the former U.S.
businessman and that he
“deeply sympathizes” with his
victims.
The prince said his mother
Queen Elizabeth II had given
him permission to step back
from royal duties.
Andrew has been heavily
criticized for his performance
in a TV interview Saturday
in which he failed to express
concern for Epstein’s victims.
He seemed to show no
remorse for his close asso-
ciation with a convicted sex
offender who had abused
many underage girls.
Some charities that he has
worked with as a patron have
said they were reviewing their
association with the prince
because of his actions.
Epstein was awaiting trial
on sex traffi cking charges
when he was found dead in his
cell, robbing his alleged vic-
tims of a chance for their day
in court. His death on Aug. 10
in a New York prison has been
ruled a suicide by the city’s
medical examiner.
Israel heads
toward 3rd election
in 12 months
JERUSALEM — Israeli
kingmaker Avigdor Lieber-
man on Wednesday refused
to endorse a candidate for
prime minister, virtually
guaranteeing the country will
be forced into a new election,
the third in less than a year.
Lieberman’s comments
came ahead of a midnight
deadline for Prime Minis-
ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s
rival, Benny Gantz, to form a
coalition.
A September election left
both Netanyahu and Gantz
short of securing a required
parliamentary majority to
form a government, with
Lieberman holding the deci-
sive votes.
But after weeks of nego-
tiations, Lieberman said he
could not endorse either side.
“I made every effort. I
turned over every stone,” he
said.
Lieberman had called for
a national unity government
between Netanyahu’s Likud
party and Gantz’s Blue and
White. But the two leaders
could not agree on a pow-
er-sharing agreement.
Gantz has until midnight
to try to seek other partners,
but without Lieberman, that
appears impossible.
Gantz was given the
opportunity to form a gov-
ernment last month after Net-
anyahu failed in the task.
North Carolina
county removes
Confederate statue
PITTSBORO, N.C. — A
Confederate statue has been
removed overnight from
a historic North Carolina
courthouse.
Chatham County offi cials
issued a news release late
Tuesday night saying work
had begun to take down the
soldier that stood in front of
the courthouse in Pittsboro
since 1907.
News outlets report that
a subdued crowd of several
dozen watched the work. Even
the base of the statue was gone
before dawn.
It has been rare for public
offi cials to take down Confed-
erate statues in North Carolina
since the enactment of a 2015
state historic monuments law
restricting the removal of pub-
lic monuments.
But county offi cials argued
in court that the monument
was private property, owned
by the United Daughters of
the Confederacy, and a judge
hearing the group’s challenge
declined to block the removal.
— Associated Press
East Oregonian
A7
PG&E begins power shutoff over fi re danger
public safety.”
Meanwhile,
Califor-
nia’s utility regulators are
demanding answers from
wireless, internet and land-
line providers whose equip-
ment failed during previous
outages, leaving hundreds
of thousands of people with-
out a way to get emergency
alerts or make 911 calls.
Statewide, about 3% of
cell towers failed at one
point in late October, but the
numbers were much higher
in northern counties, such
as Marin, which had 57% of
its towers out and Sonoma,
which had 27% out.
In some cases, public
safety workers had to drive
for an hour to see if they
needed to check in, said
John Kennedy of the Rural
County
Representatives
of California. Fire depart-
ments lost contact with fi re
trucks and some had to rely
on radios because download
speeds were so slow or out of
service, he said.
More than 450,000 peo-
ple were left without com-
munications, according to
the group.
By JANIE HAR
Associated Press
SAN
FRANCISCO
— Pacifi c Gas & Elec-
tric Co. turned off electric-
ity Wednesday for about
120,000 people in North-
ern California to prevent
power lines from sparking
wildfi res as the region faced
a new bout of windy and
warm weather.
The utility originally said
that about 150,000 custom-
ers, or about 375,000 people,
would be affected by the out-
ages but signifi cantly low-
ered that number after some
areas got rain or increased
humidity that lowered the
fi re threat.
PG&E spokeswoman Ari
Vanrenen said about 35,000
more people were told
they could lose power later
Wednesday if weather condi-
tions do not improve in their
communities. People who
lost power were expected to
get it back Thursday.
A virtually rainless fall
has left brush bone-dry
and forecasts called for low
humidity and winds gusting
AP Photo/Elias Funez
Grass Valley’s Dionicio Torres looks at the gas can selection
before taking the last 5-gallon gas can on the shelves at
B&C Ace Home & Garden Center in Grass Valley, Calif., on
Tuesday in preparation of Wednesday’s planned public
safety power shutdown.
at times to 55 mph, which
could fl ing tree branches
or other debris into power
lines, causing sparks that
could set catastrophic fi res
in the region, PG&E offi -
cials said.
The blackout is the latest
in a series of massive out-
ages by the country’s larg-
est utility, including one last
month that affected nearly
2.5 million people and out-
raged local offi cials and
customers who accused the
utility of overkill. Offi cials
have accused the company
of using the blackouts as a
crutch after years of failing
to harden its infrastructure
to withstand fi re weather.
PG&E CEO Andy Vesey
acknowledged the outages
have been “terribly disrup-
tive” and said the company
is taking steps to avoid them
in the future, but for now,
“we won’t roll the dice on
Sondland: Trump directed Ukraine ‘quid pro quo’
By LISA MASCARO,
MARY CLARE
JALONICK AND ERIC
TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Ambassador Gordon Sond-
land declared to impeachment
investigators Wednesday that
President Donald Trump and
his lawyer Rudy Giuliani
explicitly sought a “quid pro
quo” with Ukraine, lever-
aging an Oval Offi ce visit
for political investigations of
Democrats. But he also came
to believe the trade involved
much more.
Besides the U.S. offer
of a coveted meeting at the
White House, Sondland tes-
tifi ed it was his understand-
ing the president was hold-
ing up nearly $400 million in
military aid, which Ukraine
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badly need with an aggres-
sive Russia on its border,
in exchange for the coun-
try’s announcement of the
investigations.
Sondland conceded that
Trump never told him directly
the security assistance was
blocked for the probes, a gap
in his account that Republi-
cans and the White House
seized on as evidence the
president did nothing wrong.
But the ambassador said his
dealings with Giuliani, as
well as administration offi -
cials, left him with the clear
understanding of what was at
stake.
“Was there a ‘quid pro
quo?’” Sondland testifi ed
in opening remarks. “With
regard to the requested White
House call and White House
meeting, the answer is yes.”
The rest, he said, was
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Sondland’s account.
However, Sondland said,
“Everyone was in the loop. It
was no secret.”
The ambassador said that
he and Trump spoke directly
about desired investigations,
including a colorful cell-
phone call this summer over-
heard by others at a restau-
rant in Kyiv.
Trump himself insists
daily that he did nothing
wrong and the Democrats are
just trying to drum him out of
offi ce.
As the hearing proceeded,
he spoke to reporters out-
side the White House. Read-
ing from notes written with a
black marker, Trump quoted
Sondland quoting Trump
to say the president wanted
nothing from the Ukraini-
ans and did not seek a quid
pro quo.
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obvious: “Two plus two
equals four.”
Sondland, the ambassa-
dor to the European Union
and a major donor to Trump’s
inauguration, was the most
highly anticipated witness
in the House’s impeachment
inquiry into the 45th presi-
dent of the United States.
In often-stunning testi-
mony, he painted a picture
of a Ukraine pressure cam-
paign that was prompted
by Trump himself, orches-
trated by Giuliani and well-
known to other senior offi -
cials, including Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo. Sond-
land said he raised his con-
cerns about a quid pro quo for
military aid with Vice Presi-
dent Mike Pence — a conver-
sation a Pence adviser vigor-
ously denied.
Pompeo also dismissed
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